Climate scientists have been working for decades to understand our impact on this planet. Yet all the facts and evidence relating to this crisis are still rejected outright by some, dismissed as an irrelevance by others. As Trump pushes to slash the US climate research budget, we'll be joining the London March for Science on 22 April in solidarity. Just as importantly we're calling on the UK government to act in accordance with its own climate commitments, not wishful thinking and alternative facts.
The March for Science originated in the US as a celebration of passion for science and a call to support and safeguard the scientific community.
Trump's policy changes have caused heightened worry among scientists, and the incredible and immediate outpouring of support has made clear that these concerns are also shared by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. The mischaracterization of science as a partisan issue, which has given policymakers permission to reject overwhelming evidence, is a critical and urgent matter. Scientists in the US are calling for everyone who supports scientific research and evidence-based policies to take a public stand and be counted.
Many apologies that this event planned for this weekend has had to be rescheduled - new date to be announced soon.
This training session is a follow-up from the successful Conference on Climate Refugees on Saturday 11 February 2017 to continue its energy and committment. The session, run by Friends of the Earth, will help participants understand the rights of climate refugees through the UN's Paris Agreement and develop a campaigning strategy for 2017.
Venue: Saturday 11 March 2017, 12.30 - 16.30, Friends of the Earth, Stockwell.
Directions: The Printworks, 139 Clapham Rd, London SW9 OHP. By tube, exit at either Oval (on the Northern line) or Stockwell station (on the Northern and Victoria lines). FoE is half-way between the two on Clapham Road.
Draft Programme
12.30: Introductions and aims. From polar bears to the human face of climate change: creating a solidarity narrative around climate, refugees and migration. Suzanne Jeffrey, Campaign against Climate Change; Asad Rehman, FoE; Zak Cochrane, SUTR.
12.45-13.45: Campaigning for a legal Protocol for climate refugees and migrantsâ rights: Asad Rehman, FoE
13.45-14.30: What are trade unions, how do they work, and how do they make policy? Wilf Sullivan, and Rosa Crawford, TUC
14.30-15.15: Campaigning on climate in trade unions, Suzanne Jeffrey, CCC; Philip Pearson, Greener Jobs Alliance
15.15-16.00: Trade unions, migration and climate refugees, Wilf Sullivan, Rosa Crawford, TUC
16.00-16.30: Taking the campaign forward: Suzanne Jeffrey, Campaign Against Climate Change; Asad Rehman, FoE; Zak Cochrane, SUTR.
Organised by the Campaign against Climate Change and Friends of the Earth, supported by the TUC, FBU, TSSA, CWU, PCS, NUT, Unite, Unison, Stand Up to Racism & BARAC UK
Saturday 11th February 2017
Book tickets SOLD OUT - tickets may be available on the door
In the last six years over 140 million people were forced to move because of climate and weather related disasters: droughts, harvest failures and devastating storms. Our warming planet is driving long-term environmental damage and sudden catastrophes and exacerbating existing global inequalities. The UN believes that 300 million people could be displaced from their homes by the middle of this century. âExtreme weather eventsâ are an existential threat: Hurricane Sandy inundating New York City. Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, killing over 6,000 people and destroying millions of jobs. Drought, water scarcity and agricultural crises in Somalia, Darfur, Syria and sub-Saharan Africa. Wildfires raging through Fort McMurray, Canada. And flooded cities in the UK.
Organised by the Campaign against Climate Change and Friends of the Earth, supported by the TUC, FBU, TSSA, CWU, PCS, NUT, Unite, Unison, Stand Up to Racism & BARAC UK
Saturday 11th February 2017
Book tickets SOLD OUT - tickets may be available on the door
In the last six years over 140 million people were forced to move because of climate and weather related disasters: droughts, harvest failures and devastating storms. Our warming planet is driving long-term environmental damage and sudden catastrophes and exacerbating existing global inequalities. The UN believes that 300 million people could be displaced from their homes by the middle of this century. âExtreme weather eventsâ are an existential threat: Hurricane Sandy inundating New York City. Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, killing over 6,000 people and destroying millions of jobs. Drought, water scarcity and agricultural crises in Somalia, Darfur, Syria and sub-Saharan Africa. Wildfires raging through Fort McMurray, Canada. And flooded cities in the UK.
On 20 January, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as President of the USA. There is no question that this is a disaster for our climate. His political appointments have made this clear, with a cabinet stuffed with climate change deniers and fossil fuel cronies including the CEO of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.
There are huge links between Trump's climate denial and his racism. Climate failure will hit the poorest and most vulnerable around the world first and most dangerously. Even in the US, we've seen with Hurricane Katrina, at Standing Rock and in the Flint water crisis how people of colour and indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by climate change and are seen as 'sacrifice zones' for the fossil fuel industry and other environmental pollution.
Activists in the US have called protests for the day of his inauguration. Join us around the country to stand in solidarity with them. There will be traditional protests and also banner drops from bridges demonstrating solidarity and rejection both of Trump and fascism.
Click here to download our Trump: Climate Disaster poster, for use on placards.
Do check out banner drops on the Bridges Not Walls website as well as the events below - more are being added!
London
Campaign against Climate Change are organising a climate bloc at the mass rally outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London from 5pm.
Under Cameron and Osborne's government, damaging austerity policies were coupled with backtracking on climate action. One of Theresa May's first acts as PM was to announce a 'fracking bribe' to individual households. At her first Tory Party Conference as Prime Minister we will be joining the People's Assembly demonstration to say No to austerity, No to fracking and Yes to investment in clean energy and a sustainable future.
The Campaign on Climate Change has been raising the alarm about backtracking on climate change under first Cameron and Osborne and then Theresa May's government. The videos and images below are from protests in London in 2016 and there were others around the country.
Since May 2015 there have been alarming cuts to renewable energy and insulation funding. In December, our government signed a climate deal with apparently lofty ambitions, but there is no sign so far that any of this will translate into UK policies. Clean energy technology is being sidelined in favour of a dash for gas, with fracking, roads and runways pushed through despite strong local opposition.
Join our planning meeting and discuss how to raise wider awareness of what is going on - including our Going Backwards action on 8 May, marking one year since the election.
All welcome, we need your skills and ideas!
Venue: Institute of Education student bar, 20 Bedford Way, London. WC1H 0AL
On Wednesday 24th February the Heathrow 13 will return to court for sentencing, having all been found guilty of aggravated trespass and entering the security restricted area of London Heathrow Airportâs (LHR) north runway to protest against plans for a third runway.
These brave activists have been told they are likely to face prison sentences - which would be the first time that a prison sentence had ever been given for aggravated trespass.
Join the solidarity protest from 9am, Willesden Magistrates Court, 448 High Road, London NW10 2DZ, nearest tube Neasden
