[News] from [guardian.co.uk]
[Environment > Copenhagen climate change congerence 2009]
Nick Griffin stands alone over 'dodgy' climate change science
James Meikle
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 29 November 2009 22.40 GMT Article history
The British National party says its leader Nick Griffin, who denies the existence of global warming, will "be the only politician prepared to say that the science is somewhat dodgy" when joins a European parliament delegation to the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. The BNP said: "It is a global Marxist mantra that is going to be used to beat people around the head, tax us to the hilt, smash nations and impose a one-world government." Griffin would show the BNP was not "a one-trick ponyonly interested in race and immigration", the party said. Political opponents dismissed the power of Griffin, the MEP for north-west England, who sits on the parliament's environment, public health and food safety committee.
Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, said Griffin's views were "irresponsible and wrong." He would not be part of the formal negotiations "and rightly he will not be listened to by anyone with any credibility who is part of the negotiations."
Green party leader and MEP Caroline Lucas told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "He is one of a number of members of the European parliament who will go on a delegation. He won't get the right to speak. The parliament sadly doesn't even get the right to really influence the decisions at all. This idea that somehow Nick Griffin is going to have any real influence on what happens at Copenhagen is a myth."
Former MEP Chris Huhne, now the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "Nick Griffin was always going to get some role in the parliament because jobs are divvied up fairly. The crying shame is that he is representing Europe at a key summit for the future of humanity, when he does not even concede that man-made climate change exists."
[Environment > Copenhagen climate change congerence 2009]
The activists' circus comes to Copenhagen
Peaceful protest and theatrical stunts are welcome, say police. But 500 activists in panda masks would stop the party
Bibi van der Zee and Patrick Barkham
The Guardian, Monday 30 November 2009 Article history
In two weeks' time, seven-year-old Gabriel Anderson will be in the centre of Copenhagen, climbing on to a step to address the crowds at the end of another Performance Family Picnic. Gabriel, his brothers Sid (the family's two-year-old "head of research") and Neal, nine, plus his parents, artists and lecturers Gary Anderson and Lena Simic, make up the Institute of the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home, a one-family protest unit from Liverpool who take their picnic rugs and perform at galleries and protest gatherings.
Like countless thousands of other activists from across the globe, the Andersons will converge on the lavish DGI-byen conference centre, next to Copenhagen's Central Station. Replete with banquet rooms, a swim centre, spa, bowling alley, climbing wall and state-of-the art restaurant, this is the HQ for Copenhagen's "other" climate conference, KlimaForum 09. Funded by the Danish government at an estimated cost of 1 million kroner (£122,000) it will offer an official welcome to the thousands of environmentalists, NGOs and grassroots activists from around the world who eager to voice their opposition to the global political failure to tackle climate change.
KlimaForum's slick HQ emphasises the sophistication and scale of the protests pitched against the official United Nations climate change summit, which takes place outside the city at the Bella Centre — Copenhagen's largest conference complex, conveniently located next to the international airport for anxious world leaders keen to make a quick, carbon-laden getaway.
While the world leaders will dine on only the finest fare, soup kitchens are now opening across the city for activists. Many are expected to sleep or find refuge in Christiania, the anarchist commune in the heart of Copenhagen that has been squatted since the 1960s.
While the UN has specifically requested that protesters be allowed near the Bella Centre, demonstrations will, according to the Danish police, be halted on the main street at least 300m from the complex. Denmark has a police force of only 10,500 officers, and while most will be drafted into the capital for summit duties, they are not seeking reinforcements. They will, however, borrow helicopters from Sweden, police vehicles from Germany and police dogs from other countries.
Activists fear a police crackdown on peaceful protests after the right wing Danish government last week rushed through tough new anti-demonstration laws. But a police spokesman, Flemming Steen Munch, maintains they are forging good relationships with the protest groups. "We are spending a lot of time trying to inform them of what their rights and duties are. Masks are banned, but if they are doing something funny — dressing as panda bears has been mentioned — we will try and allow that. If 500 hardcore activists put on panda masks, though, then the party ends."
Munch says Danish police are using intelligence from forces across Europe. "Most of the demonstrators are peaceful, ordinary people but we have to concentrate on the hardcore activists who could cause trouble. We are not concerned but we are prepared."
For the peaceful majority of protesters, Copenhagen offers a unique opportunity to meet like-minded activists from across the globe — carbon footprint concerns having halted the "summit-hopping" from Seattle to Genoa to Geneva of the anti-globalisation era. "Amidst all the depression as we start to doubt whether politicians are really going to come up with anything," says Kevin Smith of Climate Camp, "it's really inspiring to look at what the activists are getting on with."
The most confrontational demonstrations look likely to kick off with two major actions by Climate Justice Action, a global network of activists and groups that aims to shut down Copenhagen Harbour on 13 December. Three days later, once the world leaders have finally arrived, it wants to take over the UN conference itself and turn it into a "people's summit".
"Because the talks are collapsing, people are thinking they might listen to us," says Ed Thompson, a British activist travelling to Copenhagen. "There will be thousands of activists there, and a lot will be willing to commit acts of civil disobedience — we've been pretty honest about it. Will there be any violence? I would be surprised if there wasn't some sort of disorder.
There will also, though, be hundreds of small-scale, peaceful protests such as the Anderson family's. Gary, Lena and the children will be there "to learn, to find out what's going on, and, I hope, to change," he says.
"We all play a part in climate injustice, and if it's really true what they say — if change really can come from the bottom to the top — then we need to be there, we need to look at ourselves."
The Wave – Ripple effect for climate
This Saturday promises the largest ever climate change mobilisation in the UK, known as The Wave. An extraordinarily broad coalition of organisations will march simultaneously through the streets of Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and London, where protesters plan to surround the Houses of Parliament with a human chain stretching across Westminster Bridge, down the east side of the Thames, and back across Lambeth Bridge.
At 3pm, the marchers will stop and wave (hence the name) blue hands at the Houses of Parliament, demanding politicians finally take serious action in Copenhagen.
Oxfam, Christian Aid, Unicef, WWF, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace are among the dozens of NGOs promising to get their supporters out (Surfers Against Sewage have been urging their members to wear wetsuits and paint their faces blue). Campaign Against Climate Change (CCC) is organising the march with Stop Climate Chaos, and predicts that more than 80,000 people may turn out nationwide, half of them in London.
"Politicians have said that they need to see people out on the streets," says Abi Edgar of CCC. "This isn't going to all just tail off after Copenhagen. Things are just going to get bigger from here on." Bibi van der Zee
[Environment > Copenhagen climate change congerence 2009]
Nick Griffin stands alone over 'dodgy' climate change science
James Meikle
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 29 November 2009 22.40 GMT Article history
The British National party says its leader Nick Griffin, who denies the existence of global warming, will "be the only politician prepared to say that the science is somewhat dodgy" when joins a European parliament delegation to the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. The BNP said: "It is a global Marxist mantra that is going to be used to beat people around the head, tax us to the hilt, smash nations and impose a one-world government." Griffin would show the BNP was not "a one-trick ponyonly interested in race and immigration", the party said. Political opponents dismissed the power of Griffin, the MEP for north-west England, who sits on the parliament's environment, public health and food safety committee.
Ed Miliband, the climate change secretary, said Griffin's views were "irresponsible and wrong." He would not be part of the formal negotiations "and rightly he will not be listened to by anyone with any credibility who is part of the negotiations."
Green party leader and MEP Caroline Lucas told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "He is one of a number of members of the European parliament who will go on a delegation. He won't get the right to speak. The parliament sadly doesn't even get the right to really influence the decisions at all. This idea that somehow Nick Griffin is going to have any real influence on what happens at Copenhagen is a myth."
Former MEP Chris Huhne, now the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "Nick Griffin was always going to get some role in the parliament because jobs are divvied up fairly. The crying shame is that he is representing Europe at a key summit for the future of humanity, when he does not even concede that man-made climate change exists."
[Environment > Copenhagen climate change congerence 2009]
The activists' circus comes to Copenhagen
Peaceful protest and theatrical stunts are welcome, say police. But 500 activists in panda masks would stop the party
Bibi van der Zee and Patrick Barkham
The Guardian, Monday 30 November 2009 Article history
In two weeks' time, seven-year-old Gabriel Anderson will be in the centre of Copenhagen, climbing on to a step to address the crowds at the end of another Performance Family Picnic. Gabriel, his brothers Sid (the family's two-year-old "head of research") and Neal, nine, plus his parents, artists and lecturers Gary Anderson and Lena Simic, make up the Institute of the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home, a one-family protest unit from Liverpool who take their picnic rugs and perform at galleries and protest gatherings.
Like countless thousands of other activists from across the globe, the Andersons will converge on the lavish DGI-byen conference centre, next to Copenhagen's Central Station. Replete with banquet rooms, a swim centre, spa, bowling alley, climbing wall and state-of-the art restaurant, this is the HQ for Copenhagen's "other" climate conference, KlimaForum 09. Funded by the Danish government at an estimated cost of 1 million kroner (£122,000) it will offer an official welcome to the thousands of environmentalists, NGOs and grassroots activists from around the world who eager to voice their opposition to the global political failure to tackle climate change.
KlimaForum's slick HQ emphasises the sophistication and scale of the protests pitched against the official United Nations climate change summit, which takes place outside the city at the Bella Centre — Copenhagen's largest conference complex, conveniently located next to the international airport for anxious world leaders keen to make a quick, carbon-laden getaway.
While the world leaders will dine on only the finest fare, soup kitchens are now opening across the city for activists. Many are expected to sleep or find refuge in Christiania, the anarchist commune in the heart of Copenhagen that has been squatted since the 1960s.
While the UN has specifically requested that protesters be allowed near the Bella Centre, demonstrations will, according to the Danish police, be halted on the main street at least 300m from the complex. Denmark has a police force of only 10,500 officers, and while most will be drafted into the capital for summit duties, they are not seeking reinforcements. They will, however, borrow helicopters from Sweden, police vehicles from Germany and police dogs from other countries.
Activists fear a police crackdown on peaceful protests after the right wing Danish government last week rushed through tough new anti-demonstration laws. But a police spokesman, Flemming Steen Munch, maintains they are forging good relationships with the protest groups. "We are spending a lot of time trying to inform them of what their rights and duties are. Masks are banned, but if they are doing something funny — dressing as panda bears has been mentioned — we will try and allow that. If 500 hardcore activists put on panda masks, though, then the party ends."
Munch says Danish police are using intelligence from forces across Europe. "Most of the demonstrators are peaceful, ordinary people but we have to concentrate on the hardcore activists who could cause trouble. We are not concerned but we are prepared."
For the peaceful majority of protesters, Copenhagen offers a unique opportunity to meet like-minded activists from across the globe — carbon footprint concerns having halted the "summit-hopping" from Seattle to Genoa to Geneva of the anti-globalisation era. "Amidst all the depression as we start to doubt whether politicians are really going to come up with anything," says Kevin Smith of Climate Camp, "it's really inspiring to look at what the activists are getting on with."
The most confrontational demonstrations look likely to kick off with two major actions by Climate Justice Action, a global network of activists and groups that aims to shut down Copenhagen Harbour on 13 December. Three days later, once the world leaders have finally arrived, it wants to take over the UN conference itself and turn it into a "people's summit".
"Because the talks are collapsing, people are thinking they might listen to us," says Ed Thompson, a British activist travelling to Copenhagen. "There will be thousands of activists there, and a lot will be willing to commit acts of civil disobedience — we've been pretty honest about it. Will there be any violence? I would be surprised if there wasn't some sort of disorder.
There will also, though, be hundreds of small-scale, peaceful protests such as the Anderson family's. Gary, Lena and the children will be there "to learn, to find out what's going on, and, I hope, to change," he says.
"We all play a part in climate injustice, and if it's really true what they say — if change really can come from the bottom to the top — then we need to be there, we need to look at ourselves."
The Wave – Ripple effect for climate
This Saturday promises the largest ever climate change mobilisation in the UK, known as The Wave. An extraordinarily broad coalition of organisations will march simultaneously through the streets of Belfast, Dublin, Glasgow and London, where protesters plan to surround the Houses of Parliament with a human chain stretching across Westminster Bridge, down the east side of the Thames, and back across Lambeth Bridge.
At 3pm, the marchers will stop and wave (hence the name) blue hands at the Houses of Parliament, demanding politicians finally take serious action in Copenhagen.
Oxfam, Christian Aid, Unicef, WWF, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace are among the dozens of NGOs promising to get their supporters out (Surfers Against Sewage have been urging their members to wear wetsuits and paint their faces blue). Campaign Against Climate Change (CCC) is organising the march with Stop Climate Chaos, and predicts that more than 80,000 people may turn out nationwide, half of them in London.
"Politicians have said that they need to see people out on the streets," says Abi Edgar of CCC. "This isn't going to all just tail off after Copenhagen. Things are just going to get bigger from here on." Bibi van der Zee
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