Positive Reaction (something for the weekend)

27 July 2007 by jaksoul

polarkong2-flat copy

A couple of weeks ago I got all hot and bothered about the utter rubbishness of Live Earth.
Thankfully calmer heads were on hand to provide a counterpoint to all my green-wash negativity. Kevvy-K from hl fav dilated choonz posted his response to my post and it was so good it seemed a shame that only people who obsessively read the hl comments section (that would be me and juliet!!) would get a chance to see it.

So here it is, a little inspiration to take us into the weekend.

Over to you Kev;

“Somewhere along the line we have lost our ability to engage with
any kind of radical action and replaced it with the misplaced sense
that it is enough to spectate.”

Who’s ‘we’ Kimosabi?

Later this Summer (14th to 21st of August), London is going to be
hosting the UK’s biggest ever, grassroots, self-organised response to
the threat of climate change, in the form of the second annual Climate
Camp, from the 14th to the 21st of August… Combining three strands of
workshops and popular education, a practical example of sustainable
living and low-carbon alternatives, and days of kick up the arse of
direct action to disrupt Heathrow as much as possible and draw
attention to the fastest growing source of emissions.. the aviation
industry.

All self-organised by people coming together because they are tired
of the corporate appropriation of the climate change discourse in the
form of bloated, irrelevant spectacles like Live Earth and the pseudo
solutions being feebly peddled by ineffective governments.

I can’t exhort people enough to get themselves down there.. it is
going to be incredibly inspiring, empowering, and effective… pretty
much everything that Live-Earth wasn’t. Don’t waste energy moaning
about the crappiness of Live Earth, come down and do something real and
meaningful about climate change instead.

Check out the website.. www.climatecamp.org.uk I especially recommend checking out the fanstastically designed flyers.. the first ones on the page:
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/resources.php
that are designed to look like air safety manuals…

Finally, in terms of Live-Earth bashing (a favourite hobby of mine)
and as a bit of a self-plug.. there’s a report put out by the
collective I’m part of, Carbon Trade Watch, called “The Carbon Neutral
Myth - Offset Indulgences for your Climate Sins” with a chapter on the
hazards of gormless celebrities high-jacking and sound-biting the issue
of climate change. You can download it for free from www.carbontradewatch.org.

Osiris-War on The Bullshit.mp3

2 comments to “Positive Reaction (something for the weekend)”

  1. Calvin Jones:

    I don’t agree with you on live earth being a bad thing. I don’t think it was as succesful as was hoped, but i was glad it happened.

    But i do agree that the climate camp is going to be cool!

    I`ll see you there, i`m going to film as much as possible and get in on YouTube.

  2. kevvy-k:

    aaw shucks. thanks for posting this and for spreading the word.

    There are a couple of other more recent nuggets of info.. a few weeks back I went to a packed open meeting at a community centre of the village being the most impacted by the proposed third runway at Heathrow and it was an activist wet-dream, with all these average age of 60/70 year olds standing up and taking really militant positions in support of the camp. I had goose bumps on a number of occasions, and there´s a really good write up of it here:

    http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/07/376601.html

    (scroll down to the “addition”)

    Secondly, BAA has taken out aa ludicrous injunction against a handful of named individuals and the organisations that they represent.

    See an article in the Guardian

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jul/27/climatechange

    and response from some of those people named in the injunction:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jul/27/activists.travelandtransport?gusrc=rss&feed=environment

    I’m in Spain on hols at the mo (before anyone asks, I took the ferry) but itching to get back and get cracking with the camp.