Lotti prepares for her landmark orang-utan performance
Lotti Rutter, Greenpeace and Climate Rush activist, reflects on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, and the vital role the female of our species play in activism today.
It was a
great plan - take over an uninspiring section of grim corporate London and transform it into
a fully-fledged climate camp, complete with a kitchen, toilets, workshop spaces
and even a ceilidh.
As I made
my way back to London
on the train yesterday afternoon, I was getting messages from friends telling
me to "come down, it's lovely." Camped outside the European Climate Exchange,
the campers were there to point out that many of the problems that have caused
the credit crunch - lax regulation, too much power handed over to big
corporations, trust placed in unproven financial instruments - are just as
relevant to how we're messing up dealing with climate change.
Posted by christian -
16 February 2009 at 5:16pm -
0 Comments
Climate camp will be more urban this year, but it'll still be great.
Stuck for
something to do? Here's a few ideas: You could go give Gordon a piece of your
mind, attend a glamorous awards ceremony, or go camping in the glitziest part
of town. Who says it's boring being an activist? (Certainly not me.) If you're
spending too much time stuck indoors in need of some excitement, maybe it's
time to get out and enjoy some fresh air, courtesy of this lovely trio of
exciting upcoming events.
Posted by jamie -
21 August 2008 at 10:12am -
0 Comments
Slightly later than planned (blame summer holidays and technical snaffus) but in the latest edition of our podcast we take a trip to the recent Climate Camp. Somewhere in the region of two thousand people pitched up for ten days in the shadow of Kingsnorth power station in Kent, where plans to build a new coal-fired plant are afoot - with climate change in mind, this is probably not the wisest thing to do.
In between helping with activities like shifting hay bales and washing up, we talked to some of the other people from all over the country to find out what brought them to the camp. We also caught up with Dave Douglas of the National Union of Mineworkers who was there with Arthur Scargill to get involved in the debate, plus we hear from Jim Footner, one of our campaigners working on the issue, to find out why a coal-powered future is unrealistic.
Posted by saunvedan -
8 August 2008 at 5:01pm -
8 Comments
It was a beautiful morning, if a little muggy, as I passed through the Kent countryside to Strood yesterday on my way to Climate Camp. I had to find out for myself what it was really like at the farm opposite Kingsnorth coal fired power station, where E.On wants to build the first new coal plant in the UK for over 30 years.
Joined by fellow climate campaigners, we received friendly smiles from local people who pointed us in the direction of Kingsnorth, egging us on our journey. (After all, not everyone wants to live next to a coal fired power station.)
Not one, not two but at least three climate change-related happenings popped up around the country yesterday, many of them carried out by Climate Camp attendees. Although the camp is primarily focused on coal and the proposed new power station at Kingsnorth, today's activities also highlighted other climate threats such as aviation and biofuels. Here is just a taste of what's been happening:
While I've been stuck at my desk following the debates about Climate Camp police tactics, activists’
intentions and whether environmentalists are mostly ‘filthy
adulterers’ (Julie Burchill, bless), the Climate Campers have been busy
turning a quiet field into a living/working space powered by renewable energy,
and debating the future of coal, the climate change movement and the planet.
In
a pleasant grazing meadow outside Strood, the Climate Camp is open for business and
I'm here for a couple of days to see what's going on, cover it for the blog
and, more importantly, get involved.
It's
difficult to talk about the camp without touching on some of fractiousactions
of the police. Fortunately, nothing much happened and, after a frustrating period when we could all have been doing
something more constructive, the police withdrew.
Yesterday I joined the Climate Camp Caravan on
their East London leg - from Tower Bridge to Greenwich
Park. Unlike last year,
when activists simply descended upon Heathrow
to protest against airport expansion, this year protesters are walking from
Heathrow to Kingsnorth
coal plant in Kent.
So yesterday morning I walked under Tower Bridge and joined the
Caravan on the green opposite City Hall.
This summer's Camp for Climate Action takes place next week at Kingsnorth in Kent, where German utility company E.On aims to build the UK's first coal-fired power station for decades. If the government gives the go-ahead, which could happen in October, the CO2 emissions from this one new plant would equal that of the 30 lowest emitting countries in the world combined.
Coal is the most polluting of all fossil-fuels, and if Kingsnorth is built then plans for six similar plants are likely to be approved, emitting a colossal 50 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. So this decision is crucial, which is why activists from all over the country and around the world will be coming to make their voices heard.
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