RISING TIDE

UK CLIMATE ACTION NEWS SHEET

21st August, 2001

THIS ISSUE: JULY (and a bit) - A MONTH OF UK PROTEST

CARDIFF MARCH AGAINST GEORGE W BUSH‚S POSITION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

EDINBURGH- 'CRITICAL MASS', AND TOUR OF CLIMATE CHANGE LANDMARKS.- OXFORD- WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE

LEATHERHEAD-THURSDAY 19th MARCH ON ESSO

LONDON- BUSH UNWELCOMING PARTY

LEATHERHEAD-July 31st ˆ BLOCKADE OF ESSO

LONDON ˆ OCCUPATION OF BAA BOARD ROOM

UPCOMING EVENTS

A note for newcomers- These news sheets are short (2 ish pages) and we won't "flood" you (ho ho)- we will issue them only when we have something to say and even then no more than one update per week (and maybe even less often).

YOUR DETAILS WILL NEVER BE GIVEN TO ANYONE.

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WEEK OF CLIMATE ACTION- JULY 16th-23rd JULY

There were actions around the UK coinciding with the climate conference in Bonn. We are still collecting reports and photos. Here‚s a brief summary of what happened:

MARCH

Cardiff Saturday 14th July

There was a march through Cardiff protesting against George W Bush‚s position on climate change. The march started at the US Consulate and finished at the National Assembly Building for speeches and photos

A protester writes:

"We wanted the demonstration not only to highlight the threat posed by George W Bush (aka George W BRUSH or simply "SHRUB"), but also the inadequateapproach taken by Tony Blair to really get to grips with Climate change.

However, George W Bush has provided an identifiable figure to everyone,

regardless of the environmental leanings, and has proven to be a good icon

to use to rally support! It's perhaps the only good thing about his

Presidency and is enough for people to take some interest in what your

demonstration is about.

We had police permission to walk through the City Centre and we took

advantage of this with good weather and the Cardiff Festival bringing out

shoppers (with their corporate shopping bags). With us we had a

multi-coloured eight foot pole which had a sign along it saying "6 metres by 2050" - the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change figure for sea levels by 2050 if nothing is done to tackle global warming. If people didn't catch on straight away as they looked it at least gave them something to think about later!

There were the expected cynics and those who went out of their way to show a

lack of interest - "We're not part of that" mentioned one woman with two

children in tow. Yet these were balanced with a genuine interest in people

who may not know the details of it all but know enough to know that it will

effect everyone - from islands far away in the Pacific to the very people

living in their own street in Cardiff.

I personally felt some hope - one boy, decked out in the latest sports

fashion, baseball cap and sipping a drink from a well known multinational

burger meat distributor took a leaflet and walked away yelling "we're

learning this at school!". I don't know what shocked me more - that people

were learning something or that young people were interested!

More info: Steve Bartley Wales Green Party - Cardiff

s.bartley@ntlworld.com <s.bartley@ntlworld.com> Tel 029 2025 8361

CYCLE PROTEST

Edinburgh Friday 20th July

100 people joined a Climate Critical Mass cycle protest that wound its way through Edinburgh, with flags and lots of noise, pausing for loud spontaneous protests at the US consulate and the new Scottish Parliament. It ended up in a local park where a bar had been specially erected to satisfy parched throats!

STREET PARTY AND WORKSHOPS

On the 14th July there was a street party in central Edinburgh and climate workshops on the 21st July.

For more information contact: Tel: 0131 557 6242

Email: ccedinburgh@yahoo.co.uk

WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE ˆ GAME SHOW OF DOOM!

Oxford- Saturday 21st July

Throughout the day shoppers were invited to „Come on Down and play the Wheel of Misfortune‰- under the catchy slogan „Everyone‚s a Loser!‰. The wheel is two metres across and divided into segments for different temperature increases between 1°C and 6°C, with different climate scenarios (Floods, Disease, Drought, Storms, Pests). The wheel was designed using a statistical analysis by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the likelihood of each of the temperature scenarios. We added a further option- the Joker-representing the surprise events. Everyone was given a leaflet with a different temperature on- if they spun the wheel and their number came up they won a lightbulb, a sweatshirt, or a plastic cockroach. Everyone else „won‰ local council leaflets for money off new insulation.

The day went well, despite being moved from our original pitch and being hassled by drunks, and reach a lot of people. The challenge, which we didn‚t quite solve, was finding a way to avoid people ˆ especially kids- losing sight of the message in their greed for our lousy prizes. Next time we will rethink the message a bit, and definitely have amplification for the MC. If anyone wants to borrow the Wheel call Oxford Rising Tide on 01865 241 097

MARCH

Leatherhead- Thursday 19th July

A dozen local mothers and their children leafleted shoppers in town and then marched one a half miles to the Esso HQ to protest against Esso‚s destructive activities and obstruction of the intergovernmental talks. They handed in a petition and argued for an hour with the public relations officers. The protest got good media coverage including live coverage on Southern Counties Radio and news of the protest went all around the company‚s national internal e-mail (according to our mole).

For more information write to emilygreg@zoom.co.uk

PROTEST

London- 19th July

There were protests over two days during George W Bush‚s visit to London against his refusal to do anything about climate chaos. There were protests on the 18th July outside the US embassy and the US ambassador‚s residence. On the 19th July hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside Buckingham Palace for Bush‚s lunch with the Queen and two protesters managed to get in front of his motorcade.

This is part of the continuing London campaign against George Bush and the US climate policy which include a weekly vigil and regular larger protests. For more details on the protests and especially to help out, email philthornhill@yahoo.com phone 020 8533 7274, or look at the website on http://www.campaignagainstclimatechange.net.

BLOCKADE

Leatherhead Tuesday 24th July

Just when Esso thought things had calmed down, its headquarters was hit by another protest. At dawn, 25 protesters blockaded its head office, two of them suspended from tripods made from 10 metre lenghts of scaffolding which blocked the entrance. Although the blockade only managed to stop cars and couldn‚t stop people getting into work, none of the workers were left with any illusions about the cause of the action (nor was Esso after two hours of meetings). The blockade was maintained for 8 hours until the people up the tripods became too tired in the baking sun (and the police started to mass menacingly). There were live interviews with people up the tripods on local and national radio, coverage on London region tv evening news, and coverage by Reuters news agency.

The Esso protests, which were spontaneous and independent actions, networked with the wider StopEsso campaign, which has continued to build actions against Esso and its role in blocking international action. For more information go to http://www.stopesso.com

AND ONE LATE ACTION....STOP PRESS!

OFFICE OCCUPATION

London Thursday 9th August

4 protesters from „London Rising Tide‰ occupied the main boardroom of the British Airport Authority in protest against the massive expansion of BAA airports, including a controversial £2.5 billion 5th terminal at Heathrow. If that wasn't enough, in order to provide for the predicted growth of air traffic, the equivalent of 4 new Heathrows will need to be built by 2020. Aviation is the world's fastest growing source of CO2 emissions, while the oil industry that supplies the untaxed kerosene is guilty of untold human rights abuses from Alaska to Indonesia.

One of the protesters writes:

Despite a wee spot of bother getting into the lifts, the four got up and into the boardroom of the seventh floor, and asked the person in attendance if they would be so kind as to leave, before barricading the door with tables and chairs by 8.45 am. Police were not long on the scene, and negotiated with us throughout the morning, but we refused to open the doors until BAA had cancelled their plans for Terminal 5 at Heathrow. Unsuprisingly they didn‚t.... Inside the board room we tried to speak to the CEO, Mike Hodgkinson, but he was unavailable. We spoke with the press, as did the leafetters outside, and our banner was hung across the main door, which had been closed. At 1.30, we were surprised by BAA security who barged into the room, breaking a table in the process. As they were in no mood to negotiate, we were promptly dragged outside and released".

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COMING EVENTS

THIS WEEKEND

Green Up North! Northern Green Gathering, Yorkshire, 23rd - 27th August

Four days of workshops, campaigns, food and music. The focus is on climate change following the worst flooding in Yorkshire since records began (but there is plenty else besides).

For full details on events, location, directions etc, go to

http://www.vis.u-net.com/ngg

Risingtide Gathering-Manchester, 13th and 14th October

That's right- a national gathering of planning, plotting, scheming, and inspiration. More details in next issue - PUT IT IN YOUR DIARY NOW!

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NEXT ISSUE- CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS

Please send us anything you‚d like put up or anything for inclusion in this update to George at weathersave@netscapeonline.co.uk. The news sheet is a tight short format so if your info is too long we might put it up on the web page and just refer to it in the newsheet.

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