News
World Development Movement workshops at the Climate Camp
Submitted by admin on Mon, 04/08/2008 - 10:17The World Development Movement will be delivering a number of workshops at Climate camp, including:
Climate justice: Views from the global south
The poor countries of the world aren’t taking the climate crisis lying down. Through the UN climate negotiations and elsewhere, southern governments are demanding that the richest nations take responsibility for the disaster they have created. But increasingly social movements and grassroots organisations based in the south are also asserting that just any old action won’t do. This workshop will use video contributions from southern campaigners to critique the corporate agenda on climate change, and present alternatives which put global justice at their heart. Featuring video messages from campaigners.
4.30pm, Friday 9 August International Space G calendar link
Kingsnorth, Kent and the coal debate
If Kingsnorth gets consent from the government, it will be the first in a queue of seven new coal-fired power plants. If this happens, we will have missed our chance to lead the world in switching to a low carbon economy.
Find out more about Kingsnorth, and how it could effect Kent and the rest of the world.
12 noon Tuesday Space D calendar link
Trading our way into trouble
The UK Government seems fixed on market based solutions to get us out of the problem – like carbon trading. But we cannot buy our way out of the effects of climate change. To effectively tackle climate change we need our government to lead the way in reducing emissions, showing the rest of the world that it can be done
12 noon Tuesday / Space C calendar link
For a full list of all the climate camp workshops see the climate camp website
Camp for Climate Action march from Rochester to Kingsnorth
Submitted by World Developme... on Fri, 01/08/2008 - 11:02March from Rochester to Kingsnorth
Sunday August 3rd
Photo by Monaxle
On the opening day of the Camp for Climate Action (see www.climatecamp.org.uk ). We will march together with the Climate Camp "Caravan" on its last day before it reaches the Climate Camp. This will, though, be a march organised officially by Campaign against Climate Change and Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway and coordinated with the local police.
Assemble for Rally on Rochester High Street 12.00 noon.
Speakers (confirmed so far) will include Ashok Sinha, Executive Director of Stop Climate Chaos, Sean Furey, Deputy Director of the Kent Branch, Campaign to Protect Rural England, Benedict Southworth Executive Director of the World Development Movement, James Lloyd of People and Planet, Penny Eastwood from the Camp for Climate Action, Maureen Ruparel Lib Dem Medway councillor, Hazel Dawe from Kent Green Party, Steve Wilkins from Medway Trade Council, Simon Marchant from Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway and Phil Thornhill from the Campaign against Climate Change.
The actual assembly point and Rally will be adjacent to the Blue Boar Lane Car Park, which is about one third of the way down Rochester High Street coming from the railway station. This is about 5 minutes walk - there will be a steward directing people from the station, signs showing the way etc.. See map here.
Trains take about 40 to 70 minutes from Victoria or Charing Cross and there are several per hour - see http://nationalrail.co.uk
You can also join a cycle party that will link in with the march. Cyclists will be meeting up at the National Film Theatre on South Bank near Waterloo at 9am for 10am start, and will link into the 'caravan' and No New Coal march at the start in Rochester.
You can
(1) Just join the Rally in Rochester and march a mile or so through Rochester to Strood,
(2) Do the start and end of the march taking a bus from Strood to Hoo which is a couple of miles from Kingsnorth. Bus 191 leaves from Strood, near the Post Office, for Hoo, at 52 minutes past the hour, every hour. See map for location of Strood bus stop here (the march will go via Station Road). See map for location of Hoo bus stop - 5 Bells pub - here (the march will go via Stoke Road, Jacob's Lane, Eschol Road).
(3) Join us for the whole seven mile march to Kingsnorth !
Returning from Kingsnorth to Strood : buses leave Hoo (5 Bells pub) for Strood and Rochester at 15 minutes past the hour up until 6.15 pm. See bus timetables for Rochester and Strood to Hoo here
>>> We will also have a minibus to ferry people back to Strood station as rapidly as can be managed according to demand. This minibus will also be available at Rochester, at the start of the march to carry people's gear to the end of the march at Kingsnorth - so if you are on your way to the Camp you will not have to carry all your gear on the march - you will be able to pick it up from the mini-bus at the end.
Join the local anti-coal group: Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway (KCAM) in destroying a model power station at the Rally in Rochester !
Dress as a dinosaur, a power station chimney or anything you can think of to draw attention to the folly of the kingsnorth project !
Come and help build the movement that is forming against what would be a disastrous decision to build a new wave of coal-fired power stations. And check out the Climate Camp on its very first day !
Climate camp site revealed: please help set up the camp
Submitted by admin on Thu, 31/07/2008 - 22:59News from the Camp for Climate Action:
Activists take site for the Camp for Climate Action and reveal location
100 people entered and secured an uncultivated field at Deansgate Ridge at 3.00pm today, only 1 km from Kingsnorth Power Station. They erected and climbed tripods to prevent police from moving them and have erected a marquee alongside a banner which reads ‘No New Coal’.
Although the climate camp activists have been upfront and open about most aspects of their plans, the location of the camp had not been revealed until today in order to prevent E.ON and the police from attempting to stop it from happening. The uncultivated field is on a road that runs
between Hoo St Werburgh and High Halstow. The Camp for Climate Action intends to return the field in two weeks in as good, if not better, condition than it was found.
Around 20 sheep were in the field when it was occupied. They have been rounded up and are being taken care of with food and water.
The camp, which is due to officially start on Sunday, 3 August, is expected to attract thousands of people coming from all over the UK. The week long camp hosts hundreds of workshops on sustainable living and the politics of climate change. The camp will culminate on Saturday 9 August
in a mass direct action to shut down Kingsnorth power station on protest over E.ON’s plans to build the first new coal-fired power station in the UK for 33 years.
“We want to warmly invite people from the local community to come down and see for themselves what the camp is all about,” said Terry Graves, who has already pitched his tent up in the field.
“E.ON and the government believe that you can have endless fossil-fuelled economic growth in a world of finite resources,” said Christina Greensford, who helped to secure the camp. “People from all over the UK are here to create a democratic, low-carbon society in which our long term
future on this planet is prioritised over the short term profit margins of the fossil fuel industry.”
“We have a future to protect, and today, in setting up the climate camp, we’ve drawn a line in the sand at Kingsnorth.” said Hannah Abbots. “We will not allow companies like E.ON drag us over the edge of climate
catastrophe.”
Press can contact Conor O’Brian at 07530 306267 who is on site and arrange interviews, either over the phone or on the perimeter of the site.
Press can also contact the media team, who are not currently on site, at 07772 861 099
A press advisory will be shortly issued giving information as to when the first media tours of the camp will take place.
Visit www.climatecamp.org.uk for more information.