The Camp is a place for anyone who wants to take action on climate change; for anyone who’s fed up with empty government rhetoric and corporate spin; for anyone who’s worried that the small steps they’re taking aren’t enough to match the scale of the problem; and for anyone who’s worried about our future and wants to do something about it.
The people putting on the Camp for Climate Action are all volunteers, lots of us learning how to do it as we go along. We’re a pretty diverse bunch – teachers, nurses, students, couriers, plumbers, graphic designers, doctors, youth workers, lawyers, carpenters, campaigners, artists, carers and many, many more.
We started in August 2006, when 600 people gathered at the UK’s biggest single source of carbon dioxide, Drax coal-fired power station in West Yorkshire for ten days of learning and sustainable living, which culminated in a day of mass action against the power station. Our aim was to kick-start a social movement to tackle climate change.
Next, with over double the numbers organising the Camp, we hit the big time in summer 2007; media hysteria greeted our decision to camp a few hundred metres from Heathrow airport. Over 2,000 people came to the weeklong camp. We chose Heathrow as we wanted to help local residents stop Heathrow’s owner BAA from building a third runway.
In 2008, an equally huge camp of activists old and new was set up in Kent, looking onto the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station, which the energy company E.ON is trying to expand, at a time when it is clear that building coal-power is the last thing the planet needs. Despite an extraordinary over-policing, we created a space for education and sustainable living, taking action on the final day by land, sea and air.
In April this year, Climate Camp hit the city, concentrating on the underlying cause of climate change, airport expansion and coal-fired power stations: our economic system. At the G20 in London on April 1st, the European Climate Exchange closed it's doors when we set up camp in Bishopsgate.
This year we have seen just how unsustainable our political and economic systems are, and at the end of August we'll be pitching our tents in London again,training up a new generation of activists. And come December we'll be making sure that the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen becomes the hottest topic in town.
Every Camp for Climate Action event weaves four key themes: education, direct action, sustainable living, and building a movement to effectively tackle climate change both resisting climate crimes and developing sustainable solutions. Because the future is not what it used to be.
Everybody is welcome, so hopefully see you there!
