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The Rising Tide UK Climate Action News Sheet with news, future events and ideas for taking action on Climate Change is a short (two pages max) email sent out only when there is something useful to say and never more than once a week. To sign up, click here... RISING TIDE UK CLIMATE ACTION NEWS SHEET 40 11 May 2004 CONTENTS
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. 1. ACTION - Tortured Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline Campaigner Considers Indefinite Hunger Strike The prominent human rights defender detained and allegedly tortured in Turkey following his work to mitigate the impacts of the controversial Baku-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline has indicated that he will commence a 'death fast' hunger strike on 12 May 2004 if his application for release is not accepted. Human rights and environmental groups are calling on the international community to intervene urgently to guarantee the safety of the campaigner. For further information and details of how you can help by writing to the UK Government and other official bodies, please see www.risingtide.org.uk/pages/news/baku_ferhat.htm 2. ACTION - Petition for Global Ban on GM Trees (Bogus Carbon Sink) Peoples' Forest Forum have launched a petition calling for a ban on GM Trees, including a damning statement on the effects on biodiversity of monoculture plantations - one of the bogus mechanisms for offsetting CO2 emission promoted by the Kyoto Protocol... "Trying to fight climate change by growing GM-trees would lead to the creation of vast plantations of cloned GM-trees on our planet." To view the full petition and sign it online visit http://elonmerkki.net/forestforum 3. NEWS - Baku-Ceyhan: BP Seemingly Beyond Paint Despite BP claiming that the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline would be made to the highest standards, BP withheld key safety information on the pipeline in Azerbaijan and Georgia. The coating specified by BP for the pipeline's joints is the wrong coating and would leak. As such the pipeline's main safety barrier is entirely experimental. According to the Sunday Times, the coating is already beginning to crack - and all the pipes laid to date in Georgia and Azerbaijan will need to be dug up. Parsons Engineering, the group commissioned to scrutinise the appropriateness of the coating, was never asked to examine whether it was suitable for plastic-coated pipes. Full Red Pepper article: http://www.redpepper.org.uk/May2004/x-May2004-BTC.html 4. NEWS - Environmentalists Cry Foul at Rock Stars’, Polluting Companies’ “Carbon-Neutral” Claims Environmentalists this week launched protests against two British firms who say they are able to make their clients’ products and services harmless to the climate through tree-planting and other activities. The environmentalists charge that Future Forests and Climate Care's claims to be able to render air travel, Coldplay CDs, the Glastonbury Festival and hundreds of other products and activities “carbon neutral” or “climate neutral” cannot be verified and distract public attention from attempts to address the causes of climate change. “These companies are indirectly blocking the real solution to global warming, which is reducing and finally halting fossil fuel burning,” said Heidi Bachram of Carbon Trade Watch, a group campaigning to curb global warming. Full press release: www.tni.org/ctw-docs/aspress.pdf 5. NEWS - Campaigners Demonstrate at BP AGM, BP Unlawfully Denies Entry to Shareholders Police used stop and search powers on almost anyone who moved around the 'Oil' Festival Hall on April 15th in an intimidatory operation to protect the BP AGM from protestors angry at the company's profiting from the Iraq war; increasing carbon dioxide emissions; construction of the very controversial Baku-Ceyhan pipeline; and oil and construction projects in countries with terrible human rights records like West Papua, Colombia, and Angola. In an unprecedented and unlawful move the BP security barred from entry three campaigners who had traveled from Azerbaijan and Georgia despite their status as proxy shareholders and their agreement to abide by all security arrangements. Full Report: www.risingtide.org.uk/pages/news/bpagm04.htm 6. COMING EVENT - Vigil: Climate Change to Cause Extinction of One Million Species (Oxford) Wednesday 12 May, 6pm, Clarendon Building, Broad Street, Oxford Rising Tide Oxford will be holding a vigil to mark the scientific report in Nature that climate change will cause one million species to be committed to extinction by 2050. Come along on Wednesday, or for more information contact 0118 962 1210 Guardian Report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1118244,00.html Saturday 15 May, London The Kyoto March is an annual event where people get together to sound the alarm about the accelerating deterioration of the global environment and in particular the huge threat posed by the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate. Three years ago George Bush and his backers in the US fossil fuel industry sabotaged the world's efforts to deal with climate change by dumping the Kyoto treaty. The Kyoto March marks the anniversary of that greatest of environmental crimes and includes:
Dress theme: dinosaurs, threatened or extinct species, oil / coal industry dinosaurs, Bush / Cheney Dinosaurs etc Full route details, timetable, and night before accommodation: www.campaigncc.org Organised by Campaign against Climate Change, info@campaigncc.org, 020 8855 3327 or 07903 316331 8. COMING EVENT - Oil War & Climate Change: Dismantling the Oil Economy Saturday May 29th 2004, 10.15am - 6pm Teviot Row House, Bristo Square, Edinburgh £5 / £3 (unwaged/student) Scottish Education and Action for Development in partnership with Rising Tide, People and Planet, and Friends of the Earth Scotland are holding a day of speakers and workshops exploring the links between oil addiction, environmental destruction and global power structures. Speakers include Nick Hildyard and Larry Lohmann (Cornerhouse), Jo Hamilton and George Marshall (Rising Tide UK) For more information: www.sead.org.uk, sead@gn.apc.org, 0131 622 2297 9. COMING EVENTS - Iraq Update: George Bush Senior Visit / AMEC AGM For latest newsletter, upcoming events, new anti-occupation postcards, report on the Iraq Procurement event (co-sponsored by Shell) new briefing on the current situation in Iraq, see www.voicesuk.org 18 May: Give George Bush Senior the reception he deserves. Protest outside fundraiser for his son's re-election campaign. Landmark Hotel, 222 Marylebone Road, London NW1, (nearest tube Marylebone Road) 4.30-6.30pm 19 May: Protest outside AMEC AGM. For more info: voices@voicesuk.org 10. COMING EVENT - Exhibition of Resistance to BP and Big Oil June 15th-21st 2004, London To celebrate the beginning of the end of BP's sponsorship of the National Portrait Award, come and help London Rising Tide put together an Exhibition of Resistance to BP and Big Oil. We are asking you to rub your eyes, wipe away the mirage of 'sustainable development' and 'beyond petroleum' to create a true portrait of an oil company. Events simmering in the pot for the week include:
*National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin's
Lane, W1 To get involved in the exhibition, contact London Rising Tide: london@risingtide.org.uk or 07969 786770 ...or come to the London Rising Tide benefit gig on May 13th with films, food etc, Tufnell Park occupied social centre, 156-158 Fortess Road, London NW5 11. FUN - A Light Hearted Look at the US Position on Climate Change http://www.markfiore.com/animation/climate.swf Please send anything you’d like put up
on our website or included in this news sheet to Matthew Carroll:
To view previous editions of the Rising Tide News Sheet, or if you have problems reading this html format on email, visit the News Sheet Archive at http://www.risingtide.org.uk/pages/news/newssheet/ This News Sheet was brought to you by
Rising Tide, a grassroots network of groups and individuals committed
to taking action and building a movement against climate change. PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO A FRIEND AND INVITE
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