Climate change & climate action

Global warming is likely to be “at the top end of the IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] scenario”, according to professor Corinne Le Quéré of East Anglia university, leader of a Global Carbon Project study into the Earth’s (declining) capacity to absorb carbon dioxide.
“If the agreement [at Copenhagen] is too weak, or the commitments are not respected, it is not 2.5C or 3C we will get: it’s 5C or 6C – that is the path we’re on,” said Le Quéré on 17 November.
A rise of…

This inspiring book draws on the practical experience of Transition Initiatives and provides all the information and inspiration needed to start a local food project. “It’s all about devising abundant, beautiful, fun and delicious food projects.”

The main part of the book is made up of all the different categories of local food projects from shared allotment and garden projects through Community Supported Agriculture Schemes to food co-operatives and school projects. Each one is…

Power company E.ON announced on 7 October that it would not go ahead with its planned coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent (for at least two years). It became clear on 11 October that airports operator BAA will not submit a planning application for a third runway at Heathrow airport before the next general election, will not sign binding third runway-related contracts before then, and will not fight for the additional runway if the Tories form the next administration.
The…

Okay, so there were two of them rather than one, but with just a little cargo netting and rope borrowed from friends, campaigners closed Ffos-y-Frân, Wales’ largest opencast coal mine on 23 September.

“Coal is the biggest cause of climate change, which according to the UN is already killing four hundred thousand people a year,” said David Jones, when he came down from his day-long vigil suspended above the mine’s only access road.

“And the real crime is that all this is…

Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans hosted a visit of climate campaigners from Wales to Brussels in mid-October. Campaigners urged European politicians to act decisively ahead of the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen later this year.

The Welsh group visiting Brussels, many of whom participated in Climate Camp Cymru, included Vicky Moller, an Ecotour operator; Sue Hutchinson, a town councillor; Siobhan Ashe from Newport, Pembrokeshire; James Cass from the Centre for Alternative…

Saturday 17 October. 1.03pm. The first tweet comes in on my mobile phone: “The fences are breached. There’s people on top of the coal pile. The Swoop is go!”

Having driven from the west coast of Wales, we’re still half a mile down the road from Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, but we can see the helicopter circling. Moments later and the Bike Bloc stream past, bells ringing, clown faces grinning, beat-box booming – this is magic.

Passing the main gate, a throng of…

The Little Mermaid, Tivoli Gardens, Probably The Worst Beer In The World: these may be some of the tourist attractions, but what will draw people to Copenhagen this December is the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP15. Sponsored by, among others, BMW, DHL and SAS (Scandinavian Airlines), and revealing no discernible sense of either shame or irony because of that, COP15 runs from 7-18 December.

Sometimes referred to as Kyoto 2, COP15 is supposed to conclude a…

At the end of September, Richard Betts, head of climate impacts at the Met Office Hadley Centre, described a temperature rise of 4oC as “an extreme scenario”, but also “a plausible scenario” within people’s lifetimes. He added: “the most severe scenario is looking more plausible”.
According to scientists, a 4oC rise over pre-industrial levels could threaten the water supply of half the world’s population, wipe out up to half of animal and plant species, and swamp low coasts.

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Please ask your MP to sign Early Day Motion 2057 (from Colin Challen MP) on climate change. It asks for “substantial emissions reductions of 10% by the end of 2010”; domestic flights and unabated coal “to be phased out by the end of 2010”; “at least two hours of prime time TV per week” to be used to explain the gravity of the crisis to the public; and the creation of a million green jobs by the end of 2010.

With the Big Green Gathering cancelled at the last minute, a few Bicycology activists visited the Isle of Wight to support Vestas workers occupying their wind turbine factory to protest against its closure.

The workers were about 200 metres away with access to a large balcony. When we arrived, they were being effectively starved out by Vestas, surviving on one small evening meal. This was supplemented by whatever could be stuffed into tennis balls and thrown to them. About 1 in 20…

Members of the jury.
I’m going to try to summarise why we feel that we are not guilty, why we feel that what we did was right, despite the very proper laws against obstructing trains.

From what evidence we have been able to get across to you, with his honour’s indulgence, we hope that you can see that these facts [about coal and climate change] speak for themselves, and our actions, though harmful, were indeed necessary to try to stop a greater harm. And if you agree with that…

Between 3-10 August the first Camp for Climate Action was successfully held in Scotland. Climate Camp Scotland occupied Mainshill Wood, the site of a proposed new opencast coal mine. The location was chosen in solidarity with local residents who are outraged at the proposed development, and to support a tree-sit already set up in the area to resist the mine.

Why were we there?

Scottish Coal, the UK’s largest opencast producer, has been given permission to mine 1.7 million…

At the Drax Camp for Climate Action in 2006 a few Wales participants formed a neighbourhood with the West Country and West Midlands, the legendary - out West anyway – ‘Westside Hood’. By 2008 at Kingsnorth, Wales got together our own neighbourhood. This year Wales hosted Climate Camp Cymru (CCC) in Merthyr Tydfil, very near the notorious Ffos-y-Frân opencast coalmine. In tribute to the movement we are building, CCC was actively supported by the Westside Hood. In turn, CCC supported the hard…

Ed Miliband’s announcement that new coal power stations will only be permitted if 25% of their emissions are carbon-captured and stored hasn’t put a stop to the blossoming UK anti-coal movement – and rightly so, given the massive loopholes in the announcement.

Following the success of the Coal Caravan, which toured the north of England in April and May, five climate activists blockaded a coal conference at Chatham House on 1 June; the Surrey office of construction firm BAM Nuttall…

From 11 -14 June, Glasgow was host to an energised and growing movement for climate action. Around the country, people are talking about how climate change affects us and how the system we live in is doing nothing to slow the tide of climate chaos.

Despite government rhetoric, little has been done to address the problem and the time has come to take matters into our own hands.

“Boiling Over – Scotland’s Gathering for Climate Action” provided a space for thought, analysis,…