International Call to Action on Root Causes of Climate Change

On Final Day of G8 Summit 8th July 2005



Tony Blair set the agenda for the G8 summit July 2005 when he claimed that leaders will "tackle climate change". We reject any market-led techno-fixes to this current climate of crisis by an unelected global elite. We believe that oil fuels capitalism and that there can not be an end to global warming without an end to the system that causes it. Any claim to tackle climate change whilst fighting wars for control of the planet's dwindling carbon-based energy reserves is as hypocritical as it is ridiculous. Nuclear power is not an alternative, as it too depends on a finite natural resource, is massively oil intensive, is wasteful and inextricably linked to the most destructive weapons on the face of the earth. Nuclear energy is a by product of nuclear arms, not the other way around.

Just as the oil industry exploits people and the planet for financial gain, so could it exploit alternative power if it is controlled by big companies and not owned by communities. (Large-scale wind energy farms and hydro-dams that destroy estuaries and river habitats are good examples of this unwelcome green capitalism.) We must recognise that our current ways of life are completely unsustainable and reliant on the burning of fossil fuels and exploitation of the planet. The natural world can provide us with the resouces we need to sustain our communities. We need a radical rethink of our societies to drastically cut our energy consumption.

The dodgy connections between state policy and maintaining control over access to natural and energy resources have been clear throughout history and can also be seen in their plans for our future. We have a unique opportunity and a global responsibility to take action. for the millions of repressed people, ecosystems and future generations around the planet. (Im not keen on this line)

We believe that anti-capitalist and anti-state activists, environmentalists, anti-war (three antis in a row sounds a bit negative to me...) groups and all those committed to a sustainable, socially just world, can work together over the linked issues of oil, war, climate change and use the moment of the G8 summit in the UK to expose the hypocrisy of the government's green rhetoric. We can demand a stop to their plans for new roads, wars over oil, airport expansions and support of the oil, gas and nuclear industries with loans and grants that perpetuate north-south, north-east exploitation and neo-colonialism.

We are building a network of groups and individuals around the country and hopefully worldwide who can share their inspiration and ideas for concrete plans for action around energy, climate change and oil. Existing ideas for action include a Critical Mass to Scotland, a mass "call in sick" day for those working in the oil industry and calling for synchronised mass and decentralised actions on energy profiteers in Scotland and around the globe.

We see the G8 2005 mobilisation as an opportunity to move beyond symbolic protests against a symbolic summit. We want to take action in the only way that really makes politicians and corporations listen: economically. And we need to take action on this issue before it is too late

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more info here:

http://www.dissent.org.uk/content/blogsection/19/

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There's also a general call by The Peoples' Global Action Conference in Europe, calling for a global day of action on Wednesday 6th July 2005 - the opening day of the G8 Summit to be held at Gleneagles in Perthshire, Scotland. This is a call for people to converge in Scotland to disrupt the conference, and for action to be taken simultaneously in villages, towns and cities world-wide. Info here:

http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/resistg8/index.htm