[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > Activism]
Minister met BAA chief executive before Climate Camp to discuss tactics
> Activists say memos point to culture of collusion
> Whitehall worked with 'key parties' on 2007 event
Rob Evans and Paul Lewis
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 August 2009 22.07 BST Article history
A government minister met the chief executive of the UK's largest airport owner in private to discuss how to "limit" the impact of climate change protests directed against the firm, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.
Jim Fitzpatrick, then a transport minister, met the head of BAA a week before Climate Camp protesters held peaceful demonstrations at Heathrow airport.
At the time Fitzpatrick was receiving regular "situation reports" about the protesters. In one, he was told: "It is thought that key members of the camp are getting more frustrated as things are not going as they would have liked. The landowner is against them. The police are frustrating the movement."
The memos and other Department for Transport (DfT) documents, released under freedom of information law, show the Metropolitan force discussed plans to police the camp with BAA and civil servants. When Fitzpatrick met BAA's chief executive at the time, Stephen Nelson, "the minister was assured that BAA and [the] Met had been working closely to limit any disruption to the airport".
Environmental campaigners said the disclosures were further evidence that the government, police and big business had conspired against their activities.
"These documents reveal that BAA and the transport department agreed a joint communications strategy before the Heathrow camp, begging the question – just what part did Whitehall play in the smear campaign that sought to undermine the protest? A picture is emerging of an extraordinary and unhealthy culture of collusion between a government department, private companies and the police," said Ben Stewart, of Greenpeace.
The Guardian revealed in April how, before last year's Climate Camp against the proposed coal-fired power station in Kingsnorth, Kent, civil servants from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform handed confidential police intelligence on activists to E.ON, the owner of the plant.
The latest disclosures include internal DfT documents on the Heathrow protest in 2007 – after which activists complained of "heavy-handed" policing – and reveal that meetings took place at the highest level of business and government before and during that Climate Camp.
The DfT drew up plans to deal with the event weeks before it began, on 14 August 2007. Senior officials were told in July that "regular communication was being maintained with key parties". Internal reports reveal, further, that the Met tried to use "the current terrorism threat" to persuade activists to cancel the event.
When it was realised the event would go ahead, corporate interests in the airline industry, including British Airways, Virgin and BMI, were invited to comment on the policing plan. The transport minister was assured that police and BAA executives had collaborated "closely" to contain the demonstrations; his department was "in regular contact … with BAA and police and discussed their operational plans for the duration of the camp".
A BAA spokesman has told the Guardian: "I think most observers would think it entirely right and sensible that we discussed [Heathrow's] … uninterrupted operation with government and others."
The DfT stated: "It is nonsense to suggest that the DfT influenced the policing of this demonstration."
[Business > Oil]
Native Americans to join London climate camp protest over tar sands
Canadian First Nations seek to highlight UK's 'criminal' role in CO2-heavy oil schemes
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 August 2009 16.14 BST Article history
Native Americans are to join the Climate Camp protests in the City of London this week in an attempt to draw attention to corporate Britain's "criminal" involvement in the tar sands of Canada.
Five representatives from the Cree First Nations are coming to co-ordinate their campaign against key players in the carbon-heavy energy sector with British environmentalists.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, from Fort Chipewyan, a centre of Alberta's tar sands schemes, said: "British companies such as BP and Royal Bank of Scotland in partnership with dozens of other companies are driving this project, which is having such devastating effects on our environment and communities.
"It is destroying the ancient boreal forest, spreading open-pit mining across our territories, contaminating our food and water with toxins, disrupting local wildlife and threatening our way of life," she said.
It showed British companies were complicit in "the biggest environmental crime on the planet" and yet very few people in Britain even knew it was happening, said Deranger. She was speaking ahead of an annual Climate Camp that will be held for one week somewhere in Greater London from this Thursday.
The exact site of the camp has not been revealed as green organisers are worried that the police might move to thwart their plans if they are notified in advance.
BP and Shell are two of the major oil companies extracting oil from the tar sands. The thick and sticky oil can only be removed from the sands by using a lot of water and power as well as producing far heavier CO2 emissions.
RBS, now partly owned by the British government after its financial rescue, is also a target of environmentalists and aboriginals because it is seen as a major funder of such schemes.
The Climate Camp concept started with a protest outside the Drax coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire and was followed up by similar protests at Heathrow – against the proposed third runway – and Kingsnorth in Kent, where E.ON wants to construct a new coal-fired power station.
There was also a Climate Camp in April at Bishopsgate inside the City of London, which became linked with bad policing after a bystander died following a clash with a constable.
The tar sands are seen by many as a particularly dangerous project providing enough carbon to be released in total to tip the world into unstoppable climate change. Shell was the first major European oil company to invest in the Canadian-based operations but BP followed under its chief executive, Tony Hayward.
The oil companies both dispute the amount of pollution caused by tar sands and insist they must be exploited if the world is not going to run out of oil.
But George Poitras, a former chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, said the so-called heavy oil schemes were violating treaty rights and putting the lives of locals at risk. He said: "We are seeing a terrifyingly high rate of cancer in Fort Chipewyan, where I live. We are convinced these cancers are linked to the tar sands development on our doorstep."
[Environment > Activism]
Minister met BAA chief executive before Climate Camp to discuss tactics
> Activists say memos point to culture of collusion
> Whitehall worked with 'key parties' on 2007 event
Rob Evans and Paul Lewis
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 August 2009 22.07 BST Article history
A government minister met the chief executive of the UK's largest airport owner in private to discuss how to "limit" the impact of climate change protests directed against the firm, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.
Jim Fitzpatrick, then a transport minister, met the head of BAA a week before Climate Camp protesters held peaceful demonstrations at Heathrow airport.
At the time Fitzpatrick was receiving regular "situation reports" about the protesters. In one, he was told: "It is thought that key members of the camp are getting more frustrated as things are not going as they would have liked. The landowner is against them. The police are frustrating the movement."
The memos and other Department for Transport (DfT) documents, released under freedom of information law, show the Metropolitan force discussed plans to police the camp with BAA and civil servants. When Fitzpatrick met BAA's chief executive at the time, Stephen Nelson, "the minister was assured that BAA and [the] Met had been working closely to limit any disruption to the airport".
Environmental campaigners said the disclosures were further evidence that the government, police and big business had conspired against their activities.
"These documents reveal that BAA and the transport department agreed a joint communications strategy before the Heathrow camp, begging the question – just what part did Whitehall play in the smear campaign that sought to undermine the protest? A picture is emerging of an extraordinary and unhealthy culture of collusion between a government department, private companies and the police," said Ben Stewart, of Greenpeace.
The Guardian revealed in April how, before last year's Climate Camp against the proposed coal-fired power station in Kingsnorth, Kent, civil servants from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform handed confidential police intelligence on activists to E.ON, the owner of the plant.
The latest disclosures include internal DfT documents on the Heathrow protest in 2007 – after which activists complained of "heavy-handed" policing – and reveal that meetings took place at the highest level of business and government before and during that Climate Camp.
The DfT drew up plans to deal with the event weeks before it began, on 14 August 2007. Senior officials were told in July that "regular communication was being maintained with key parties". Internal reports reveal, further, that the Met tried to use "the current terrorism threat" to persuade activists to cancel the event.
When it was realised the event would go ahead, corporate interests in the airline industry, including British Airways, Virgin and BMI, were invited to comment on the policing plan. The transport minister was assured that police and BAA executives had collaborated "closely" to contain the demonstrations; his department was "in regular contact … with BAA and police and discussed their operational plans for the duration of the camp".
A BAA spokesman has told the Guardian: "I think most observers would think it entirely right and sensible that we discussed [Heathrow's] … uninterrupted operation with government and others."
The DfT stated: "It is nonsense to suggest that the DfT influenced the policing of this demonstration."
[Business > Oil]
Native Americans to join London climate camp protest over tar sands
Canadian First Nations seek to highlight UK's 'criminal' role in CO2-heavy oil schemes
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 August 2009 16.14 BST Article history
Native Americans are to join the Climate Camp protests in the City of London this week in an attempt to draw attention to corporate Britain's "criminal" involvement in the tar sands of Canada.
Five representatives from the Cree First Nations are coming to co-ordinate their campaign against key players in the carbon-heavy energy sector with British environmentalists.
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, from Fort Chipewyan, a centre of Alberta's tar sands schemes, said: "British companies such as BP and Royal Bank of Scotland in partnership with dozens of other companies are driving this project, which is having such devastating effects on our environment and communities.
"It is destroying the ancient boreal forest, spreading open-pit mining across our territories, contaminating our food and water with toxins, disrupting local wildlife and threatening our way of life," she said.
It showed British companies were complicit in "the biggest environmental crime on the planet" and yet very few people in Britain even knew it was happening, said Deranger. She was speaking ahead of an annual Climate Camp that will be held for one week somewhere in Greater London from this Thursday.
The exact site of the camp has not been revealed as green organisers are worried that the police might move to thwart their plans if they are notified in advance.
BP and Shell are two of the major oil companies extracting oil from the tar sands. The thick and sticky oil can only be removed from the sands by using a lot of water and power as well as producing far heavier CO2 emissions.
RBS, now partly owned by the British government after its financial rescue, is also a target of environmentalists and aboriginals because it is seen as a major funder of such schemes.
The Climate Camp concept started with a protest outside the Drax coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire and was followed up by similar protests at Heathrow – against the proposed third runway – and Kingsnorth in Kent, where E.ON wants to construct a new coal-fired power station.
There was also a Climate Camp in April at Bishopsgate inside the City of London, which became linked with bad policing after a bystander died following a clash with a constable.
The tar sands are seen by many as a particularly dangerous project providing enough carbon to be released in total to tip the world into unstoppable climate change. Shell was the first major European oil company to invest in the Canadian-based operations but BP followed under its chief executive, Tony Hayward.
The oil companies both dispute the amount of pollution caused by tar sands and insist they must be exploited if the world is not going to run out of oil.
But George Poitras, a former chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, said the so-called heavy oil schemes were violating treaty rights and putting the lives of locals at risk. He said: "We are seeing a terrifyingly high rate of cancer in Fort Chipewyan, where I live. We are convinced these cancers are linked to the tar sands development on our doorstep."
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