Climate change & climate action

1 August 2017Feature

With the ever-cumulative emissions growing, a climate activist envisions the world two years from now and the lessons that tomorrow can teach today

Montage of 2005 Hurricane Katrina damage in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, USA (showing the cargo ship M/V Caribbean Clipper and fishing boats pushed ashore near the bayou) and David Attenborough. Photos: NOAA, agency of US Federal Government; and Malcolm McCallum via wikimedia Commons

Sometimes Mother Nature gives climate change activists a boost. She tried in the summer of 1988. She tried again in August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina bullseyed New Orleans. She tried again in the long hot summer…

1 August 2017News

Rolling month of action comes to Lancashire

You never actually own a lock-on....

Local families, councillors and anti-nuclear power activists joined the first days of the ‘Rolling Resistance’ month of anti-fracking action in Lancashire organised by local groups and national climate activist network Reclaim the Power.

As PN went to press, we were half-way through the month of action, which aimed to disrupt work every single day in July at the Preston New Road site near Preston, owned by oil and gas company Cuadrilla.…

1 August 2017Review

Pluto Press, 2016; 192pp; £18.99

At the heart of this book lies the unresolvable dilemma between economic growth and ecological sustainability. Its key contribution is to combine a global study of the Anthropocene (the ‘proposed epoch dating from the commencement of significant human impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems’ – Wikipedia) with an anthropological analysis of how it is perceived locally. The result is an informative, multi-scaled account of our fast-paced times.

Over five chapters, Eriksen…

1 June 2017News

Over 280 events take place in 45 countries

On 8 May, a wedding was broken up on the steps of the London headquarters of the Church of England.

Christ’s bride (representing the church) was about to be given in marriage to the fossil fuel industry, when Jesus objected and persuaded the bride to break her engagement with fossil fuels and to seek forgiveness.

Christian Climate Action’s sketch was one of dozens of actions around the UK during the Global Divestment Mobilisation (5 – 13 May).

Thousands of people…

1 June 2017News

Court's decision favours corporate power over public interest - campaigners

Climate activists block the rail head terminal road at Ffos-y-frân on 21 April. PHOTO: COAL ACTION NETWORK.

On 8 May, five Welsh activists learned the price of nonviolent action they had taken in April to save lives and mitigate environmental harms. Sentencing them to 18 months’ conditional discharge, magistrates in Merthyr Tydfil also ordered them to pay compensation of £10,000 to the Miller Argent mining company plus court costs of £525.

On 21 April, environmental activists had ‘…

1 June 2017Review

Verso, 2017; 320pp; £10.99

The idea that we have entered a new geological era, the Anthropocene – an era characterised by humanity’s impact on the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and wildlife – involves a drastic re-evaluation of humankind’s relationship with the natural world.However, the authors of this book insist that we have not just woken up to this fact in the last few decades. Indeed, far from being ignorant of the human imprint on the earth’s ‘living tissue’ – including the other species that occupy it – we have…

1 April 2017News

Indigenous struggle over pipeline continues

On 7 March, a US district judge refused the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s attempt to stop oil flowing through a part of the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) near their reservation.

The Sioux thought they had won on 4 December when the US army corps of engineers stopped construction of DAPL for alternative routes to be considered. Then, on 24 January, US president Donald Trump signed an executive decree ordering the secretary of the army to expedite approval of the pipeline – without a…

1 April 2017News in Brief

On 26 January, the hands of the Doomsday Clock moved 30 seconds closer to catastrophe.

‘It is two and a half minutes to midnight’, announced the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board, warning that ‘world leaders were failing to act with the speed and on the scale required to protect citizens from the extreme danger posed by climate change and nuclear war’.

In 2016, according to the board, ‘the international community did not take the steps needed…

1 April 2017Review

Pluto Press, 2015; 288pp; £18.99

With its black and yellow cover, featuring silhouettes of security cameras and other paraphernalia, at first glance this book looks intent on scaring the reader. Even the word ‘dispossessed’ in the title has classic horror film connotations. And perhaps this was the intention of the contributors, academics and activists who, in dismay at the failure of climate talks in 2009, came together for a seminar to discuss what should be done. The resulting papers comprise this volume, with…

1 February 2017News in Brief

On 13 December, Southwark council became Britain’s second local authority to divest from fossil fuel investments.

The cabinet member for finance, modernisation and performance, Fiona Colley, made a ‘commitment’ to divest the £1.2bn pension fund from fossil fuels long-term, a decision based on ‘ethical practice’ and on ‘the financial risk of investing in traditional energy sources, which will ultimately become obsolete’.

Fossil Free announced that global commitments to…

1 December 2016News

Biofuels challenged in North Yorks

On 22 October, around 60 British climate campaigners assembled in the autumn sunshine at the vast cooling towers of Drax power station in North Yorkshire. We were there to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the first Climate Camp, held at Drax, and to once more call for Drax’s closure, and an end to both coal and large-scale biomass burning in the UK.

Climate protesters were at Drax 10 years ago because, in burning 13m tonnes of coal and emitting over 20m tonnes of CO2 every year…

1 December 2016Comment

Those threatened by Trump's regime - not the man himself - should be the focus for campaigners, argues Milan Rai

How should we respond here in the UK to the Trump presidency? For a number of reasons, we should not focus on Trump himself – on boycotts of outlets that carry Trump-branded goods, for example.

Following Erika Thorne’s wise words elsewhere in this issue, we can focus instead on those leadership can help us turn back the dangers that confront us, those who are most threatened by Trump’s rise.

There are some inspiring things happening in the US.

I was moved…

1 December 2016News

Global South takes lead on zero-carbon future as climate denier elected US president

A Reclaim the Power climate action Critical Mass bike ride around Heathrow on 1 October involved over 100 cyclists, slowing traffic in and out of the airport. Inside the airport, over 100 protesters staged a flash mob die-in, with testimonies from Global South communities affected by climate change. The bike block visited Harmondsworth detention centre to link climate change, drought and mass migration. The actions were part of an international day of action, with events in Turkey and…

1 December 2016Comment

What are Britain's corporate leader so worried about?

Lucas Aerospace workers proposed a bus that could run on rails as an product for their arms company. A model was built and tested, and toured the country to rally support for the Lucas Plan. PHOTO: Gillett’s Crossing [CC BY 2.0] via Wikimedia Commons

By the time this issue lands on your doorstep, it will probably have become clear just how much British prime minister Theresa May has been forced to back down from her signature policy of putting workers’ representatives on company…

1 December 2016News in Brief

As PN went to press, North Dakota police were reported to be using rubber bullets, tear gas, water hoses and percussion grenades against hundreds of ‘water protectors’ standing up to the Dakota Access oil pipeline which threatens sacred places, land and water belonging to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

On 17 November, representatives of indigenous peoples from Canada, the Marshall Islands, the Arctic and other regions held an action at the COP22 climate talks in Morocco…