Latest Stories from ISTSDay 2012

COPENHAGEN'S STORY:

How do you build a movement?

What does one do when one keeps being disgusted over the lack of media coverage on the issue of Tar Sands exploration in ones home country of Denmark?

When looking back at it now, it could be seen as an insane idea to set up a Tar Sands campaign in a country you don’t presently live in, in a country where interest in the environment has drastically declined in the wake of the failed Cop 15 talks in Copenhagen and the global economic crisis. But that was nevertheless what I decided to do when I got so frustrated that the Danish media was not discussing Tar Sands and Danes did generally not seem to be aware of the biggest environmental destruction on our planet.

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LONDON'S STORY

The Occupy Energy, Equity and Environment (EEE) working group organised Saturday’s general assembly to tie in with 350.org’s action for climate justice. After a slow start due to rain, we drew in a crowd with our climate poets, interesting speakers, and tour of the climate criminals in central London. Following the general assembly we wanted to show a film, Taking on Tarmageddon, at the Tate Modern, which receives blood money from BP (BP, a climate criminal, responsible for the Deepwater Horizon tragedy which wiped out marine ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico and killed 11 workers, is also profiting from the tar sands). Tarmageddon is a film about the tar sands – aka the most environmentally devastating project on Earth. 

MELBOURNE'S STORY

Concerned citizens of Melbourne took to the streets today despite rainy conditions to participate in one of the largest international days of action for the planet in human history. Hundreds of events involving thousands of people will take place around the world today for Climate Impacts Day and International Stop the Tar Sands Day.

“The tar sands are the pin-up for unconventional fossil fuels,” says Melbourne co-organizer Cheree Mack. “If we can stop the tar sands in Canada maybe it will have a ripple effect on other places around the world that are using similar destructive technologies. In Australia, coal seam gas (unconventional gas) has become a major issue and we also have undeveloped oil shale deposits here.”

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MANCHESTER'S STORY

At 1 pm, around 20 people of a whole spectrum of ages and backgrounds met at Piccadilly Gardens for a shared reason: to raise awareness about the need to “connect the dots” between extreme weather and climate change, with a particular focus on the Albertan tar sands.

Complete with a huge grim reaper, passers-by were more than happy to stop and have a quick chat, have their picture taken and hear more about why we were there. After an hour at Piccadilly gardens, we headed down to the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters on Deansgate. There, we held up a banner sending out a clear message that RBS (which has invested £5.6 billion in tar sands extraction since being bailed out by UK taxpayers in 2008) should “get our money out of bloody oil”. Here, we handed out leaflets focusing particularly on the role of RBS in tar sands funding, and finished off the demonstration by delivering a dirty, tar-stained dot under the doors of the bank’s headquarters. It was a great day, and a great collaboration between 350.org and International Stop the Tar Sands Day.
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