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Reclaim Energy! Day
Workshop about the Arctic Oil Rush
Reclaim Energy! Day, hosted by OneWorld Society, People & Planet and supported by Friends of the Earth Scotland, brought together passionate campaigners from across the UK, some from as far as Oxford and Brighton, to share ideas and motivation about campaigning on climate change in St Andrews Students Association last Sunday. The issues of Arctic drilling, Tar Sands and Fracking may seem a bit of a random focus for an event – but it is clear these unconventional fossil fuels are the new challenge to environmentalists – releasing huge amounts of carbon and gases into the atmosphere, damaging the local environment and impacting communities – not just locally but globally.
The day began with a powerful plenary from Villo Lelkes on ‘Ecocide’ – large scale environmental destruction that campaigners hope to make the fifth crime against peace. Philippa de Boissiere and Louise Hazan from People & Planet support office, the largest student campaigning network in the UK, introduced the problem of unconventional fuels.
There were five workshops throughout the day – The Arctic Oil Rush & Scotland hosted by Paul Daly from Friends of the Earth Scotland and Greenpeace St Andrews; Taking on the Tar Sands by Ruthi Brandt from UK Tar Sands Network; Challenging Fracking in Scotland; Taking action against New Coal by Coal Action Scotland; Tar Sands Free Europe by People & Planet climate campaign coordinators.
“I decided to organise this event because I feel there needs to be more communication between the different campaigning groups working on unconventional fuels and climate change issues. There are lots of us, but we can sometimes get caught up in our own campaigns that we forget the bigger picture – we forget that damaging resource extraction is happening all over the world, and even more locally than we may imagine. It was also a chance for some people to engage with these issues for the first time, which is really promising. It was really great to see people engaging with new campaigns, learning from each other and meeting new people with similar passions.” said Lauren King, an organiser of the day’s event, who has been working on the Tar Sands-Free campaign nationally.
The day ended with an open space, in which anyone could bring ideas and set up a discussion group. People were able to move freely between different topics. Issues that were covered including: coal bed methane in Scotland, starting an unconventional fuels group in St Andrews, green economy and the ecocide campaign, among others. Organisers hope that these discussions will continue and evolve throughout the year, ready for the People and Planet unconventional fuels campaign to take off in 2013.
“It was inspiring to meet young activists from across Scotland” said Philippa de Boissiere, People & Planet tar sands campaign coordinator, “and to explore the potential for action in the face of increasingly extreme forms of energy extraction. From Canadian Tar Sands and the arctic to local coal bed methane projects, the event provided the space to engage with complex underlying issues and consequences. It was great to strategize with young people in this way”.
People & Planet is the largest student network in Britain campaigning to end world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment.
2012-10-12 02:25:03
Source: http://blog.peopleandplanet.org/2012/10/reclaim-energy-day/
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