Campaigns (Archived)

Previous content of the Campaigns page is now archived below.

It currently refers to activities in the year 2003, including general progress on Campaign for Climate Crisis Resolution as at October of that year.

18 November 2003, "Burning Planet" Protest march, on the eve of President Bush's visit, across London to the US Embassy, and culminating in speeches from Michael Meacher and the UK heads of Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. Organiser: Campaign Against Climate Change

Campaign against Climate Change rated it as a FANTASTIC DEMO * HUGE SUCCESS !!!! Phil Thornhill has written: "We were essentially the only protesters on the street as Bush arrived and as a result got loads of media attention. Reuters estimated numbers at 1,000; the Guardian newspaper at 600. In any case the turn out was good for us BUT the media coverage we got was massive ...out of all proportion to the numbers.....

"We had a superb line-up of speakers - headed by Michael Meacher, now free from government and able to speak his mind; followed by Tony Juniper, Director Friends of the Earth; Stephen Tindale, Director Greenpeace; Darren Johnson, Green Party; and George Marshall of RisingTide. We were able to give a really strong statement from the British environmental movement as a whole about why Bush is so BAD for the global environment. And it was down to us that the media had pictures of the demonstrators right from the start of the visit."

Coverage included: The Standard, The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, Reuters. Interviews were given for ITV, CNN, Channel 4, BBC Newsnight. Footage appeared on BBC24 and ABC TV in both the USA and Australia.

Save our World was represented by chairperson Jim Scott, who arranged Michael Meacher's attendance and spoke briefly after George Marshall, secretary Emily Myers, Nic Percy, Michelle Barber, Patrick Elliott, Vicky Morris-Marsham and friends who also helped carry our 'Get out of War over Oil' banner and our flags.

4 October 2003, Protest at the Russian Embassy London, at President Putin's inaction in ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on stabilising climate change. Organiser: Campaign Against Climate Change

28 September 2003, Challenges to the delegates attending the Labour Party Conference, Bournemouth. This was a combined operation with Campaign Against Climate Change at which we even shared a loud-hailer. While I was confronting the delegates as they arrived, to get them to demand a debate and policies at the Conference, Phil Thornhill was berating them over the loud-hailer with his walking missile and message conveying 'Global Warming is the True Weapon of Mass Destruction'. In the evening I attended a SERA meeting (Labour Environment Campaign) andmet the Energy Minister there. I impressed on him and the gathering generally, the value of the UK Government doing the same as the State of California: to set a date by which car manufactureres and others have to switch to non-polluting renewable energy - and caught his interest in this proposal.

27 September 2003; 'No more War! No more Lies' March, central London. This time we had the loud-hailer and proclaimed the message on our banner, which had to be modified (from the pre-war March last February) to read: 'Get out of War over Oil !!! It'll cost us All the Earth'. Don't be misled by the edge of the previous message peaking out from behind. Serena, just joined SoW, is holding the banner.

25 August 2003; Carshalton Environmental Fair, southern edge of London. An active day signing up over a hundred people to our petitions on averting climate change, for a sustainable Air Industry for the UK, and on an Organic Alternative to GM crops. It was also useful for finding new allies.

22-25 August 2003; Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Our Secretary, Emily Myers, stayed there throughout, while I went on to the Carshalton Fair. Apart from gathering signatures, we both joined in a lively debate at the end of a presentation on 23 August by Jonathon Porritt. It was entitled 'Can a secular society save our sacred earth?' - and resonated with many of the values we are pursuing in SoW.

26 May, Kingston Green Fair; 15 June, Camden Green Fair; 19 July, Lambeth Country Show; 20 July, Ambient Green Picnic in Guildford. These were all attended, with varying degrees of petition signing. At the last of these, a lecturer at Surrey University was particularly keen to see our then only proposed petition on organic food.

26 June, demonstration to persuade President Putin of Russia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, Whitehall in London, as he arrived for lunch with Tony Blair. Organiser: Campaign Against Climate Change

16 June, public debate on the planting of genetically modified crops, Basingstoke. This was organised by one of our most active members, Gary Foster, as part of the UK Government's consultation exercise. All the members of the public attending were opposed to such crops. Our petition was subsequently based on the formal submission from Save our World to the Government, as part of this process.

29 March 2003, Kyoto March - two years after Bush dumped it Organiser: Campaign Against Climate Change

We turned this march into an opportunity to raise money for our Climate Change educational Workshops project (see Local Projects page) - by seeking sponsorships for walking the last ten miles from Wimbledon to Grosvenor Square in the West End of London (the march started at the headquarters of Exxon in Leatherhead, Surrey). This also ensured our presence at the Campaign Against Climate Change event - which kept both organisations happy. Sponsorship money raised £220.

The two top pics were taken on the way through Clapham, and the lower two at the rallying point beside the Imperial War Museum, near Waterloo.

Very lively presentations on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the European Commission, provided an opening for their acknowledgement that NGOs like ourselves bring valuable pressure on governments. For we are free of the political restrictions which bind them.

Jim Scott was also able to get one 'break-out group', unlike any of the other ones, to address the underlying issue of democratic accountability of the government, its motivations and conflicts of interest, rather than rely upon practical 'reasonable' actions that the government might take, if it is motivated to do so. This group became very animated in the course of developing new perspectives, and recommended the following course of action:

'Raise public awareness in order to bring pressure on the government to be more honest about its real intentions, and to enable individuals to live more sustainably themselves.'

Finally, Jim made a new challenge from the floor of the conference to Michael Meacher in person:

'Will you ask Tony Blair to explain in his speech on Sustainable Develpment next week, how it can be reconciled with continuing economic growth, given our average standard of living in the UK now requires the resources of three planets instead of one; and meet the government's 20% reduction target in greenhouse gases?'

Mr Meacher, in his reply, acknowledged the current level of consumption requires two planets rather than three - and still obviously too much; and addressed the need for greenjhouse gas reduction as extremely serious. But he neither dealt with the implications for contiuing economic growth, nor was convincing about meeting the 20% reduction target by 2010. For Jim had met a representative of the Sustainable Development Commission over the lunch break, who assured him the government was on a course to fail to meet it.

25 January 2003, Prevention of bush fires protest at the Australian Embassy. Organiser: Campaign Against Climate Change (Prime Minister Howard: Phil Thornhill; Kangaroo: Jim Scott)

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Campaign for Climate Crisis Resolution

At the last update in May 2003, we said that the C4CCR had largely stalled, for want of a new catalyst. One was suggested for opposing the expansion of the UK air industry, and indeed we have been lending our support to a group of organisations (which centres on Airportwatch) whenever the opportunity has arisen.

We submitted our own objections to this expansion during a government consultation about it, and these provide the background arguments for our new Petition for a Sustainable Air Industry (see Challenge page) . And then I waved one of our flags from an amphibious Duck as it toured the West End of London, prior to a press conference that HACAN Clearskies arranged at the House of Commons on 16 September. However, these appear to be quite isolated events so far.

Our relations with Campaign Against Climate Change and Rising Tide appear to be more integrated. By attending the CvCC marches we help to swell their numbers and get attention to both their causes and ours. And it was through marching with them that I was able to raise sponsorship money for our first Roadshows, as stated above. For the weekend of 27/28 September we shared a loud-hailer, as also mentioned above, and generally supported one another's activities.

With Rising Tide the pattern is a bit different but the two strands come together. I first met their director George Marshall, over him wanting to utilise our photo-montage of 'Brixton Road under water' (see the animated banner at the head of all our web-site pages) to use on their new web-site. Then they arranged a free training day in Oxford on public speaking about climate change, which Stuart Price (on our Committee) and I attended in June 2001. That day culminated in a presentation of their own Roadshow on Climate Change which they had been taking on tour around English towns over the previous months.

So it followed naturally that I spent a half-day last summer with George to pick his brains for organising our own workshops and, now, roadshows. George and I have also shared ideas on overcoming official and public denial about climate change, upon which he has written several times for the Ecologist magazine. George seems to like what we are currently trying to do, and requested that both CvCC and SoW publicise their 'No New Oil - Oil, War & Climate Change' conference at LSE on 11 October.

This was very successful and entirely consistent with the connections we have been trying to make on the Peace Marches this year, the aims of our workshops and roadshows, our issues of Boiling Point, letters for publication and our campaigning generally.

Building upon such collaborations appears to be the way we need to go, rather than trying to get potential Climate Coalition representatives together, as we attempted to do before, and then deciding what we can do. We still look for openings with other organisations, especially Christian Ecology Link (which created the Operation Noah campaign) and with the Global Commons Institute, whose one day workshop on Contraction & Convergence I also attended in July. And our potential involvement in both UK and global issues will hopefully increase with my election to the UNED-UK (United Nations Environment & Development - UK) Stakeholder Forum Executive Committee, at the end of September 2003.

(latest update: 14/06/06)


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