BONN WEEK OF ACTION

16.7.01 - 23.7.01

There was an unprecedented level of protest throughout Britain during and following the Bonn conference - evidence of a growing national movement against climate chaos!

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

Coinciding with first week of the climate conference in Bonn, there was a week of action around the UK. We are still collecting reports and photos (this page will be updated very soon). Here's a brief summary of what happened:

Cardiff, 14 July
Leatherhead, 19 July
London, 19 July
Edinburgh, 20 July
Oxford, 21 July
Leatherhead, 24 July
AND ONE RED HOT ACTION: London, 9 August

Cardiff Saturday 14^th July: MARCH

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. More info: Steve Bartley Wales Green Party - Cardiff
s.bartley@ntlworld.com Tel 029 2025 8361


Leatherhead- Thursday 19^th July: MARCH
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 companyßs national internal e-mail (according to our mole).
For more information write to emilygreg@zoom.co.uk

London- 19^th July: PROTEST
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 18^th July outside the US embassy and the US ambassador's residence. On the 19^th July hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside Buckingham Palace for Bushßs 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. Keep an eye on it.

Edinburgh Friday 20^th July: CYCLE PROTEST
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 14^th July there was a street party in central Edinburgh and climate workshops on the 21^st July. For more information contact: Tel: 0131 557 6242. Email: ccedinburgh@yahoo.co.uk

Oxford- Saturday 21^st July: WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE ç GAME SHOW OF DOOM

Photo: Adrian Arbib

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 ç 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 01865 241 097 or write to weathersave@netscapeonline.co.uk

Leatherhead Tuesday 24^th July: BLOCKADE

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.

AND ONE LATE ACTION....STOP PRESS!


London Thursday 9^th August: OCCUPATION
Four 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 5^th 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: