Anti-nuclear presence on London Climate Change March

Here are some images from the UK National Climate Change March, organised by Campaign Against Climate Change, which took place in London on Saturday 6 December 2008. This was part of a global day of action on climate change, with demonstrations taking place in cities all around the world.

Anti-nuclear activists went along to make the point that nuclear power is an utterly false, highly dangerous and toxic, and unaffordable response to the global climate crisis. We say NO to nuclear greenwash and NO to more nuclear white elephants!

If you too are passionately opposed to nuclear power, why not join the International Anti-Nuclear Network Meeting in Frankfurt / Main, Germany at the end of this month?

Stop this insanity!

An elephant never forgets...Chernobyl, Windscale, Three Mile Island...

Rising Tide's Greenwash Guerrillas in Parliament Square

If you'd like high resolution versions of any of these images, please e-mail dv2012 [at] yahoo.co.uk

Nuclear waste transport blockaded in Germany

Check out these links for details of the mass blockade that took place in Castor, Germany in November 2008:

http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21765
http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21748
http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/21723

See also:
http://www.greenkids.de/europas-atomerbe/index.php/Anti-nuclear_Movement_in_Germany

French nuclear criminals EDF (Energy) exposed by London Rising Tide

Earth First! report
London Rising Tide report
Greenwash Guerrillas report (E.ON action, June '08)

EDF exposed

by London Rising Tide

EDF greenwash guerillas 20 October 2008

London Rising Tide's Greenwash Guerillas Brigade, Detection Platoon #1, moved into action this morning at 08:00 hours – targeting dirty great energy corporation Électricité de France (EDF) at the central London headquarters (HQ) of their UK subsidiary EDF Energy.

London Rising Tide used to meet fortnightly, but the wild success of the massive Climate Camp 08 outside the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station [1] has boosted the veteran climate change campaign to even higher levels of participation and direct action. I attended a 'Film Night for Newcomers' on Thu 18 Sep 08, as did a whole bunch of folks new to Rising Tide, and such was the upswing of enthusiasm, energy and creativity, we've been meeting weekly ever since.

Inspired by our sisters and brothers in France demonstrating against new nuclear power, we chose to target EDF's attempts to muscle in their FALSE nuclear solution to the looming disaster of catastrophic climate chaos. Testing the mettle of seasoned campaigners, we newbies chose 08:00-09:00 on a Monday morning to kick up a stink about the dangers to the biosphere, humanity, and REAL renewable energy solutions posed by the nuclear fission industry rearing its ugly head.

And inspired by the response of our Argentinean sisters and brothers to having their life savings stolen by the banks, we made ours a Noize Demo [2] – pots and pans, whistles and samba bells echoed off the blank face of the bland corporate architecture at No.40 Grosvenor Place, drawing the attention of EDF bosses inside and thousands of pedestrians, cyclists, bus+coach passengers, van+truck drivers, and motorists outside to the greenwash bullshit leaking out of their stone-n-glass bastion. And in return, scores of vehicle horns saluted our protest, sounding a general public approval for protest against Nuclear Capital's dirty machinations for new nukes.

If you feel inspired to take action for a future free from the threat of catastrophic climate chaos, you'll be welcomed with open arms and a cup of something hot and refreshing at London Rising Tide's next meeting: Thu 23 Oct 08, 19:30 to 21:00, at the London Action Resource Centre (LARC), 62 Fieldgate Street, Whitechapel, London E1 1ES – and down t'pub after (optional ;-).

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For immediate release
Climate activists to target EDF

Photo opportunity: 20 October 2008 8.30am, 40 Grosvenor Place, London

On Monday 20 October climate activists calling themselves the Greenwash Guerrillas will be on hand to detect "dangerous levels of radioactivegreen hypocrisy"[1] eminating from the london offices of pro-nuclear lobbiests EDF.

Equipped with greenwash detectors and kitted out in toxic-waste suits, activists will be testing office workers for pro-nuclear PR contamination, and highlighting the unsustainability of the governments current energy policy.

The activists are outraged that given the recently announced target of an 80% reduction in Carbon dioxide emissions, Gordon Brown, and of course his brother Andrew (head of corporate communications for EDF), are arguing that new nuclear power should be central to our energy security.

Nuclear power is far from carbon neutral[2]

Nuclear power is unsafe[3]

Nuclear power is hugely expensive[4]

Real sustainable solutions exist[5]

The real solutions to the energy gap and climate change are available now!

1 - The Greenwash Guerrillas reveal PR tactics employed by corporations to deflect attention from their poor environmental standards for the greenwash it truly is.
www.greenwashguerrillas.org

2 - Generating a unit of electricity from nuclear power creates at least 33% of the CO2 emissions of a unit produced from gas when mining, disposal & decommissioning are also considered.
www.stormsmith.nl/report20050803/Chap_1.pdf
http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-climate_change_debate/2587.js...

3 - Over 100 staff at the EDF operated Tricastin plant were irradiated on 24 Jul 2008, the fourth such scare in a fortnight.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/26/britishenergygroupbusines...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/2454654/French-n...

France's independent radiation watchdog sounded the alarm Thursday after a nuclear leak – the fourth such scare in a fortnight.

French nuclear operator EDF comes in for a pasting, for saying that the latest nuclear blunders had no impact on "peoples health" or "the environment" because the doses emitted fell short of the maximum limits set by international standards.

Electricité de France workers were exposed to radioactive particles on Wednesday 23rd July, that escaped from a pipe at a nuclear reactor at the Tricastin complex. Experts said that the latest incident involved the highest number of workers to be collectively contaminated in French nuclear history.

4 - Nuclear power stations require huge initial investments, ongoing maintenance and the decommissioning costs*
* (at least £63 billion).

www.nda.gov.uk/documents/upload/news_release_national.pdf

Last week it emerged the cost estimate for cleaning up nuclear waste in the UK had risen by £10bn in one year. That increase is the same as the current cost of the 2012 Olympics - the finances of which have generated so much political heat.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jul/26/britishenergygroupbusines...

5 - New nuclear power stations are a distraction from the real solutions to climate change: decentralised energy as seen in Scandinavia, renewable technologies and energy efficiency.

Renewables would come online more quickly, require no fuel and won't have the danger or cost of the nuclear power. The generating cost of onshore wind power is already cheaper than nuclear power, with nowhere near the level of investment and no emissions.

London Rising Tide,
c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES; Tel: 07708 794665
www.londonrisingtide.org.uk
www.artnotoil.org.uk - (send us your art!)
Shell's now sponsoring 'Oedipus' at the National Theatre. Look out for the
gallery of images made in response, which we'll add to the 'Shell's Wild
Lie' counter-exhibition: www.artnotoil.org.uk/gallery/v/Shell
See also the Camp for Climate Action site: climatecamp.org.uk
as well as Climate Indymedia: climateimc.org

Nuclear-free footsteps..

First published in Peace News, October 2008

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Daniel Viesnik This summer, I was one of nine walkers to complete a gruelling 84-day, 1000+ mile International Walk towards a Nuclear-Free Future from London to Geneva, through France. The other eight walkers were: co-organisers Kerrie-Ann Garlick and Marcus Atkinson, and June, from Australia; Jill Saunderson from Fife; Steve Gwynne from Birmingham; Lena Bladh from Sweden; and Albert Monti and Aristide from France. . The walk was jointly organized by the Australian-American group "Footprints for Peace” and the French anti-nuclear network “Sortir du Nucléaire”. We were joined along the way by many more French walkers, other Brits, another Australian and representatives from Austria, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Switzerland and the USA, all keen to build a strong global movement against the worldwide expansion of the nuclear industry. . This was my second outing with Footprints for Peace, following last year’s amble from Dublin to London which also took 12 weeks, covering a paltry 900 miles. . Some of us, myself included, got arrested then – more than once in some cases – engaging in civil disobedience against Trident nuclear weapons at Faslane and the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. . Battersea and beyond This year’s walk departed on 26 April, the 22nd anniversary of the world’s worst ever civil nuclear disaster, Chernobyl. At a well-attended opening ceremony at Battersea Park Peace Pagoda, we heard from Bruce Kent, CND vice-president; Siân Berry, then the Green London mayoral candidate; and Shuji Imamoto, chair of the Japanese Greens. . We arrived in Portsmouth after five days, took a ferry across to Cherbourg and began our arduous trek across France. . If the last walk was tough, I found this one even more challenging. We often covered 15-18 miles a day in oppressive heat. Inevitable tensions arose through tiredness and spending so much time in a group of strong-minded individuals. . Sometimes we were put up in relative comfort and fed very well, but often we made do with basic conditions, camping in farms and playing fields and cooking out-doors. . Walkers of all ages joined us, from young children and teenagers to pensioners. Travelling through France, the cultural and language barriers presented extra challenges, although my GCSE French helped. . The walk’s strict no-alcohol rule created problems in a country where (moderate) consumption of alcohol is deeply ingrained in the culture. However, the group accepted this rule, standing in solidarity with indigenous people in Australia and North America whose communities have been devastated by alcohol donated by uranium mining corporations. . Nuclear France The British government, committed to a nuclear power renaissance, is looking to the French to provide the technology, avoiding any debate about the health and environmental implications, safety concerns or the true financial costs of nuclear power and the management of waste that remains radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. . There is no discussion of the links between nuclear power and the proliferation of nuclear weapons; of the risk of rising sea levels flooding nuclear sites in low-lying coastal areas; of the legacy of Chernobyl, Windscale and Three Mile Island; and of the constant leaks, discharges and dumping of radioactive materials into the air, land and water. . There is little talk about the displacement of indigenous populations due to uranium mining in Australia, North America, Niger and elsewhere, or the radioactive contamination of their sacred lands and World Heritage sites. . What is more, our government conveniently ignores the astronomical rise in the incidence of birth defects, leukaemias and lymphomas seen in Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon as the West bombards them with its nuclear waste in the form of so-called “depleted” uranium (DU) munitions. We called at various civil nuclear sites on the Normandy coast and along the banks of the rivers Loire and Seine, some nuclear waste dumps and a couple of military bases. The 80%-state- owned company Electricité de France (EDF) operates every nuclear power station in France and wants to extend its nuclear empire to the UK. Prime minister Gordon Brown’s brother, Andrew is currently EDF’s head spin doctor in the UK. . Actions en route At each site, we staged a “die-in” or other peaceful action, displayed banners, distributed flyers and, on occasion, engaged workers, bosses, the gendarmes and the public in discussion about the wide-spread death, disease, human rights abuses and environmental devastation caused by the nuclear industry. . We visited Flamanville in Normandy, where the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) is under construction. It has been plagued by safety problems and spiralling costs, like the only other EPR in the world, being built at Olkiluoto in Finland. This is the technology French company AREVA and German firm Siemens want to bring to the UK. . At various public meetings along the way, we exchanged information and ideas with local activists, politicians and journalists. We spoke about local resistance to the nuclear industry and sustainable alternatives to nuclear power. . Arriving in Geneva in mid-July, we met with our national ambassadors to the UN on disarmament, as well as a high-level representative from the UN Conference on Disarmament who we presented with a thousand origami peace cranes we’d folded along the way. We shared with these diplomats our concerns about nuclear and uranium weapons and nuclear expansion. . Next year, Footprints for Peace plan to walk from Geneva to the European Parliament in Brussels, via Germany, starting again on Chernobyl Day, 26 April. In 2010, they will walk from the Y-12 plant in Tennessee to the United Nations in New York for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference. Footprints for Peace: http://footprintsforpeace.net Walk diary: http://tinyurl.com/peacenews016

Weekend of resistance to nuclear power in Finland

A weekend of resistance to nuclear power is currently underway in Finland, the country where the world's first "European Pressurised Reactor" , or EPR, is under construction.
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The EPR is the latest reactor design of French (virtually) state-owned corporation Areva and is the technology that 85% French state-owned EDF wants to bring to Britain, despite the fact that to date not a single one of these reactors has been successfully completed anywhere in the world. The EPR has been plagued by safety problems, delays and spiralling costs at both the existing construction sites, at Olkiluoto in Finland and Flamanville in Normandy, France.