On Saturday 12 May, the Climate Jobs Caravantour of Britain started, with two caravans setting off simultaneously from London and Edinburgh. Organised by the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group and based on the Million Climate Jobs report, produced with the assistance of the CWU, PCS, TSSA & UCU trade unions, the Caravan will highlight how creating climate jobs can help us tackle the twin crises of the economy and climate change. There is an inspiring 10 minute video that sets out what we can achieve.
The routes are summarised below and there is an action packed schedule of events.
Route 1 12 May – Edinburgh
13 May – Newcastle
14 May – Derby
15 May – Leeds
16 May – Stoke-on-Trent
18 May – Sheffield
19 May – Liverpool
20 May – Huddersfield
21 May – Bolton
22 May – Wigan
23 May – Blackpool
24 May – Lancaster
25 May – Manchester
Route 2 12 May – London
13 May – Coventry
14 May – Cardiff
15 May – Birmingham
16 May – Cambridge
17 May – Norwich
18 May – Oxford
21 May – Southampton
22 May – Portsmouth
23 May – Brighton
24 May – Redhill
25 May – London
Taking place at the central London Universities - SOAS, the Institute of Education (IOE) and University College London (UCL). Opening plenary in IOE, Thornhaugh Street off Russell Square, Russell Square Tube. Map here.
This is a free event but donations to help the campaign would be appreciated.
If you want to steward at the conference click here.
Rio to Rio: 20 wasted years?
Between 1992 and 2012: The global surface temperature has risen by 0.38C.
The Arctic sea ice has decreased by 2.94 million square kilometres.
The CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by 35.19 PPM. 30 661 900 hectares of Brazilian forest have been lost.
More than 431,215.08 million tonnes of CO2 have been emitted.
The amount of CO2 emitted per year has risen from 21,421.45 to 30,398.42 million tonnes.
A wide range of workshops and seminars - and an exciting main plenary - are planned.
Titles include :
“Food Security how can we stop a tragedy unfolding?”
“Green Energy versus ‘Extreme’ Energy”
“One Million Climate Jobs”
“Inequity is not only bad for society but a barrier to dealing effectively with the ecological crisis”
“Renewing Political Commitment to win the global battle against eco-calamity: a lost cause or is there a way forward?”
“We will not achieve environmental justice without a fundamental shift in values”
“New legal frameworks for a new era of environmental progress and justice”
“Can London lead the way in the fight against climate meltdown?”
and more workshops on: Green growth vs De-growth; bioenergy and land grabs; forests and biodiversity; aviation; geo-engineering; oceans; Zero Carbon Britain by 2030; arctic methane time bomb; generational justice; climate refugees;civil disobedience; “fracking”; population, gender and climate change; false solutions; TREC: energy from the deserts…and more.
Saturday
9.00 - 10.00 Registration, Coffee
10.00 Conference opens: intro at Institute of Education Students' Union
10.30 Session 1
12.00 Plenary in UCL 1.45 Lunch
2.45 Session 2
4.15 Session 3
5.30 End of sessions
Coffee, drinks, music in IOE SU bar
Sunday
11.00-12.00 Registration, coffee, stalls
12.30 Session 4
1.45 Lunch
2.30 Session 5
4.00 Session 6
5.30 People's Assembly
6.30 Ends.
Ongoing discussions, drinks, music in IOE bar.
Check back here for more details as they become available.
This is a free event but donations to help the campaign would be appreciated.
Join other people all around the country in finding fun, imaginitive ways to promote the goal of a Zero Carbon Britain by 2030 (see more about that here).
There are all sorts of things that you can do (preferably teaming together with as many other people in your area as possible) : a public meeting to discuss the solutions, a stall and/or display in a public place, a picnic, a cycle ride, a parade, street theatre.......
But the theme we are suggesting is a
RACE TO ZERO (CARBON by 2030!) Organise a “Race to Zero” – with the finishing line at 2030 (as it were). There are lots of different ways to do this – it could be a real race (running, hopping, three-legged, egg-in-spoon, whatever…) perhaps with sponsored participants, as long or short as you like
- or it could be more of a symbolic race (dress someone up as ‘Climate Apocalypse’ and race against them, or have ‘human wind turbines’ or ‘solar panels’ racing against coal-fired power stations, or oil industry bosses, or prominent skeptics or………the possibilities are endless).
Or a mixture of these: a real race with symbolic elements including people in fancy dress (a la London Marathon etc…), but fancy dress with a significance ……
And how about a medal ceremony at the end ? (this will be a week before the start of the London Olympics). This could be as much “in the spirit of” or “a satirical parody of” the Olympics as would suit your point of view – in any case the important thing would be to try and catch some media attention….. maybe you could get some local celeb to award the medals ??
And you could add to this whatever you want with a rally or meeting or picnic and/or press call at the beginning or end …..
We will be publicising some more specific ideas here (watch this space) soon - but it may be that your ideas are best ! Certainly you will know your own local area best ! .
For a really big success start planning now !
We need a bold ambitious target both for the UK to fulfill its responsibilities to the rest of the world - especially the poorest and most vulnerable - and to do our very best to jog the rest of the world - especially the rich and powerful - into getting serious about an effective international agreement to bring down greenhouse gas emissions globally. Zero Carbon by 2030 is just the bold ambitious target we need, for the UK. For more about Zero Carbon Britain see here.
To see Zero Carbon Britain Day 2012 flier (and download or order hard copy) - click here.
Despite some rhetoric about low carbon energy the big six energy companies are still pushing for more fossil fuels instead of making the transformative leap into renewable energy that we desperately need, to have any chance of decarbonising our economy fast enough to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Picture above shows the CCC's banner-painting effort for the demo - on display !
British Isles - wide Anti Fracking Network formed !
The Gathering was a great success with more than 70 attending and more importantly representatives from anti-fracking groups all around the country ..... from REAF (Ribble Estuary, Lancashire), RAFF (Blackpool area, Lancashire), The Vale Says No (South Wales), No Fracking in Sussex (Balcombe and Lewis) and from Kent, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Also present were activists from Frack Off and The Campaign against climate Change, Tony Bosworth from Friends of the Earth and Justin Woolford speaking on behalf of the Co-operative Society, whilst the meeting opened with a presentation from John Broderick from the Tyndall Centre
The most significant outcome of the Gathering was the formation of the British Isles wide Anti-Fracking Network.
The Gathering also featured reports from 8 local areas around the country and Workshop Sessions that included: 'All you need to know about fracking: General Introduction' by Will Cottrell from 'Frack Off'; 'Stop the frackers in your area: Planning and legal issues' with Laura Gyte from the FOE legal team, Andy Chiba from The Vale Says No and Felicity from TOOKS Chambers; 'Frack Free Zones and other useful campaigning initiatives' with Justin Woolford and Tony Bosworth from FOE; 'Extreme Energy' by Frack Off; Direct Action workshop by Frack Off - and finally a Presentation on fracking, coal bed methane and the companies pushing these by Paul Mobbs.
Activists from the all around the country left the Gathering better linked up than ever before, with a new sense of the strength of the nation-wide movement and buoyed up by a sense of common purpose for the fight ahead....
The streets of London rang to the sound of chants for "Climate Justice" on the Global Day of Action for the climate on Saturday 3rd December. Marchers had gathered at the North end of Blackfriars Bridge where they were joined by a group from Christian Ecology Link coming from a Prayer meeting at St Mary le Bowe, a group of Buddhists coming from a meditation session at the tate Modern - and a substantial contingent coming via a 'Walk of Shame' through the City from a Climate 'teach in' at the Occupy camp at St Paul's. Placards demanding 'climate Justice' and dispaying '7%' as a way of expressing the inequity of business as usal on climate change (see below) peppered the crowd as it moved slowly down embankment before turning right down Horseguards Avenue into Whitehall.
The shouts for climate justice grew louder as the marchers passed Downing Street and approached Parliament before gathering for a rally at 'Old Castle Yard' opposite Parliament. Here the crowd split into two groups in a ratio of one to seven (or 7% to 50%). Phil Thornhill, campaign coordinator, then addressed the crowd on the theme of 'climate justice' stating that we were on track for a catastrophe from which only the richest half a billion (from a population that should hit 9 billion in 2050) might survive by the end of the century. There then followed a series of brief contributions giving an overview of climate campaigning in the UK. Peter Coville talked about the campaign against the Koch brothers - the biggest funders of climate denial and bankrollers of the Tea party in the US - as well as describing the work of the environmental group at the Occupy LSX camp. Steve Pulham reported on the campaign against the super-carbon-intensive Canadian Tar Sands, including a mention of the 1200 who got arrested in the US to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Peter Dean gave a passionate and informative speech against 'agrofuels' and John Stewart brought us up to date on the aviation campaign. Suzanne Jeffrey talked about fighting both the climate crisis and the economic crisis through a programme for a Million Climate Jobs and finally Fiona Brookes from the campaign office expounded on the goal of a Zero Carbon Britain by 2030.
Photo Credit: Adele Nistora
Throughout the crowd was engaged with chants and call and response including "amandla aweithu" ("power to the people") in solidarity with those marching at the UN talks in Durban, South Africa, "Cuadrilla, Mark Miller, toxic water spiller" against the company engaged in 'fracking' operations in Lancashire and a final shout for 'Climate Justice' before the rally broke up and demonstrators headed off for soup provided by the Brixton Tea party or gazed at a giant 8x4 metre banner - lambasting the Koch brothers and their 'dirty money' - that stewards were struggling to hold up against the wind.
At 5.00 pm Prayers for the Climate were said at evensong at St. Pauls Cathedral.
This year the floods in Pakistan have returned displacing 5 million and killing hundreds. Last year's floods were the worst in living memory with 20 million affected and 2,000 killed. Last year also saw record breaking temperatures in Russia with wildfires and crop failures while this year we have seen the latest in a series of exceptional droughts in East Africa causing famine in Somalia.
The frequency and severity of weather related disasters is on the increase and scientists tell us this is due to human-induced climate change caused overwhelmingly by the high emissions and high consuming lifestyles of richer countries like our own. Its the poorest and most vulnerable around the world - many of them in Africa where this year's climate talks are being held - who have done the least to cause the problem but who are suffering the most. And all this is set to get worse. Yet climate change and the conversion to a low carbon economy are routinely dismissed as minor concerns.
Download a Climate Justice information flyer (pdf) here.
Find out more about climate justice and the international negotiations here.
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rbon 2030 report,
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7% of the world's population produce 50% of the world's emissions
This is the blog of the National Coordinator, Phil Thornhill.
