Action:Confronting the fossil fuel economy

The Oil-ympics saw activists from London Rising Tide and the London Tar Sands Network divided into three teams: BP, Shell and RBS, all ready to ‘Race to the Tar Sands’. Traditional winter sports were subverted to illustrate the irony of Canada portraying the Vancouver Winter Olympics as an event which celebrates Canadian indigenous culture and environmental sustainability, while in the neighbouring province of Alberta, Canadian First Nations are finding that their lands, communities and health are being devastated by the Tar Sands.

To mark Buy Nothing Day, activists from Norwich Rising Tide held a Rat Race in the Norwich city centre.

The busiest high street in Norwich was today full of rats. The rats were equipped with placards reading Work Harder, Earn More Money, Buy More Things, Keep Going, and leaflets telling people to join the consumption Rat Race. The reverse of the leaflet, revealed the spoof and informed people that today was buy nothing day and perhaps they should consider the environmental and social consequences of excessive consumption.

29 people were arrested after a climate change protest by Rising Tide Australia at Bayswater power station in New South Wales on 1 November. Four people locked themselves to machinery (the conveyer belt and its motor), stopping the conveyor belts that carry coal to Bayswater’s furnaces while about 25 others occupied the coal piles.

Leamington Rising Tide took aim at a town centre Barclays over the weekend in protest at the bank's heavy investment in dirty coal. Banners, leaflets and balloons let people know that 'Barclays are fuelling global warming'. One of the banners used an image of scales to demolish the myth that Barclays cares about climate change: they invest a whopping 3,300 million invested in coal against 15 million inrenewable tech on the other. Over the last two years, Barclays has been involved in 17 separate loans to the coal industry, and together with RBS and HSBC, has loaned $70 billion to E.ON alone. A clown played a special Barclays song he wrote for the event, and several chats were had with interested people. At the end of the demo the helium balloons were let off inside the bank. They were still up there an hour later!

On the Friday of the Camp for Climate Action, four intrepid Rising Tiders left the site to bring the battle over a new power station at Kingsnorth to the doorstep of the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is one of E.ON's biggest financial backers, and to highlight the links between the financial sector, the fossil fuel industry, and disastrous climate change.

On Saturday 21st June, twenty cyclists and a toddler in a child-seat from Mid-Wales Climate Action, the Welsh Youth Forum on Sustainable Development and Gwerin Y Coed (Woodcraft Folk) completed the 157 miles from Machynlleth to Cardiff to publicise the need for cycle-lanes and provision for bikes on public transport. At the Senedd, where ‘the Carbon Cycle’ delivered a petition, cyclists were welcomed by Leanne Wood AM and Gordon James of FoE Cymru. The ride was part of Bike Week and raised money for Oxfam’s work with people worst affected by climate change. Although cyclists endured some hostile motorists and dangerous driving along the way, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. ‘Every day was an achievement’, said Ailish, 'moving slower is so much nicer!'

What a day! UK actions by the numbers:
35 actions
20 cities
44 arrests

Check out the Fossil Fools Day page for all the amazing actions in other countries, including the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Australia; as well as media coverage from around the world. And read on for the scoop on all the UK actions.

The recently formed Kernow and Plymouth Rising Tide groups banded together to occupy Newquay Airport last Saturday. The protest put a spotlight on the airport's focus on climate-wrecking short-haul flights, and drew attention to a recent report on the airport which shows that the economic case for expansion is unsound. (CLICK 'read more' TO SEE VIDEO)