Lights Out for Climate Change

Pinefox is local? I wonder what he makes of this uprising.

so should i go and watch the madness unfold y/n (it is just down the road, pretty much)

― They are known for contracting the ugliest players, like Kuyt (country matters), Wednesday, 26 August 2009 08:42 (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

say hi to anyone I know.

do you know Monbiot?

No but this is a nice time to be looking through the news media because I see photos of plenty of people I know.

Also now is the time for ignorant comedy vitriol in the comment boxes, as if it ever isn't.

They cause more damage to the climate with all the toxic gas and crap coming out of their mouths...trouble is we have to pay for their benefit handouts

- Derek, Oliva (Valencia) Spain

Both anthropogenic climate change and the idea that we live in a representative democracy are hoaxes. Most people fall for these hoaxes because they want to believe in benign government and are too jaded to look at the facts which speak otherwise.

- Neil, London, London UK

Derek in Spain has to pay for benefits for people in the UK? Seems a bit harsh, no wonder he's upset.

i think he's just on holiday and at a loose end

He'll be an ex-pat. Here's a recent pic.
http://content6.flixster.com/skin/profile/10/84/29/10842944_profile_mbox_background.jpg

Red with anger, lying there fuming about lazy layabouts laying about.

4.40pm: Three local Liberal Democrat councillors have issued a statement about the Climate Camp.

We are appalled at the disturbance caused to local residence and amenities.

We hope that both the Protesters and Police alike act with respect for the local community.

Appalled! As far as I can make out, they are currently occupying a small patch of grass in the middle of a v. large field Y/N

Am about to verify

I would imagine that's exactly what they are doing. The bit they're likely to be camped in isn't exactly full of housing either.

Oh actually pictures suggest they might be camping over more of the heath than I'd previously though.

I wonder if there'll be a CLASH with Zippo's Circus, which is also occupying the heath right now.

Oh wow, no-one has mentioned the possibility of a police vs. protestors vs. clowns three-way bundle yet.

Greenwich Council has issued a statement that the protest is happening 100m outside it's boundary in the borough of Lewisham. Top quality buck passing there.

haha you go along as an amused spectator, you meet a uni friend within 30 seconds, pretty soon you're helping set up a marquis XD

hey - free festival! wonder what tomorrow will bring.

god i am illiterate

marquEE

anyway yeah let's save some goddamn climate

L-Jagz in holding a fellow student's tentpole shocker.

Greenwich Council has issued a statement that the protest is happening 100m outside it's boundary in the borough of Lewisham. Top quality buck passing there.

They should've held it in Crystal Palace - five boroughs border each other down here and none of them take responsibility for anything.

hurrah for Zippo's Eco-Circus

disappointed that they weren't setting up a marquis

I went up there last night (probably actually saw LJ and friends erecting a marquee without realising). Seemed pretty quiet at the time - they're pitched up on the noisiest bit of the heath though, right between two very big main roads.

Also between the Hare & Billet pub and the Blackheath Tea Hut, the latter will probably have its best week ever.

Why don't those scrounging clowns get proper jobs anyway?

a lot of clowns coming out of college now can't get jobs

Well I don't think it's right that the public should have to subsidize their floppy shoes. This is almost like Nazi Germany.

Though to be fair the clowns have done pioneering pro-environment work in carpooling.

The Mayor of Lewsiham asks 'Hooligans and Climate Campers - what's the difference?'

I somehow doubt the climate campers are going to leave the heath swathed in rubbish when they leave.

Annoying thing is, as a vote-courting mayor he's perfectly entitled to go "you don't have permission to be camping here, fuck off" but the hooliganism thing is just a really really lame cheap shot.

Am I right in thinking that this is the same site that the London Marathon starts from each year? Wonder how the levels of disturbance compare.

if you saw a guy all dressed in red, that was me. i took some pictures, but none of myself. see facebook for more details.

Haven't you got any other clothes?

this is actually a really enjoyable and eye-opening event

just like an orgy

what is the event?

http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/

now i sleep

we gonna talk about this

The next day at 10:30am we were assembled at the main gates in ‘Stop Airport Expansion’ t-shirts, ready to make our way to the airport to make our voices heard. A bus and tube ride later and 60 campers and local activists took over the main entrance to the airport with banners reading ‘The rich fly, the poor fry’ and ‘Stop Airport Expansion’ singing songs and hearing from those involved in preparing the action.

I would have punched anyone who made me miss a fucking pricey air flight because of a fucking flashmob, imo.

Also, reading that Mayor's blog:

And who do you think is going to have to pay to take the rubbish away, provide water and repair the Heath when they’ve gone? That’s right you and me – the taxpayers of Lewisham who were never asked and never agreed to the camp being here.

Thinking that that the approach of the Climate Change Campers uis wrong doesn’t mean you don’t care about the issue – but for me they are a distraction from the real task of changing how we behave and persuading ever more of our fellow citizens to change the way they behave too.

He kind of has a point. A lot of people *wont* see this as anything more than hippies making a mess on the lawn for no good reason. Apart from garnering attention, what's the aim/point of this specific camp, in terms of gaining actual footholds in climate change action?

Dont see the point of his parallel with the football fights though, wtf.

we've actually said we're gonna leave the heath in better condition than when it was found...people have actually done litter-picking duty over the whole heath, not just our corner of it...as for the grass, well, this is a good time of year, is all i'll say, and some have mooted grass seed. a load of fuss over a barely-damaged 'lawn' which is scuffed up and ruined daily by footballers, walkers and kite-flyers is of absolutely no comparable scale to the issues we're discussing

the mayor of lewisham is making a fuss precisely because it is his duty as civic arm of power to make a fuss, plain and simple, he is making a fuss because he has to

the aim/point of this specific camp is to raise awareness of direct actions and informed communities; it is to coordinate and organise a body of highly intelligent, educated and diverse thinkers, activists and agitators into a fully democratic and equal mini-utopia, both to give us a taste of climate-conscious, fair society, and to politicise the climate change movement through debate, discussion and resolution

that's about as good as i can do for now, but trust me, having been there, it's a damn sight better behaved/more organised/friendly than i ever suspected it would be. it was deeply engaging and inclusive. and sure there were hippies, but more than not had a degree, were doing a degree, or were otherwise highly intelligent, aware and active individuals

if he was drawing parallels with football fights he is simply evading the entire purpose of the camp. due to the fact that everyone present was reasonable and cooperative, events within the fence were almost freakishly efficient, and deeply tranquil, even in protest

Louis, any time elected officials trot out the old 'look what it costs to clean up' canard it's your duty to tell them your (council) taxes already paid for it, as they are taken in advance, so ner. Every adult Londoner pays for the Met as well, as a component of council tax, so ner to them as well.

> your (council) taxes already paid for it, as they are taken in advance

not sure i get the logic of this.

if something has had £x budgeted for it but ended up costing £x + y then the £y has to come from somewhere, so it has cost money.

and b) i pay my council tax monthly which might qualify as 'in advance' but not by much.

the budget's set in advance for the whole year and must be balanced. they can't come back to you for £y later. and i seriously doubt they've hired extra staff for this rather than just shuffled their environmental services people around for a few days. worst case scenario: some streets didn't get swept for a bit. they'll get to them later.

it's particularly annoying that he pretends the people of lewisham are paying for this from outsiders, when most of councils' funds come from centralised taxes, so i'm paying for the clean-up as much as the mayor of lewisham is. and one of the reasons we pay our taxes is so that anyone who wants to can take part in lawful protests, so stfu mayor of lewisham.

*pretends the people of lewisham are paying for this damage caused by outsiders, i meant to say

What's not to understand? Joe nailed it. Mayor of Lewisham probably performs virtual fellatio on any corporate who wants to run an event in his end of the park, which makes more mess and requires plus de minions to clean up.

A smart rebuttal would also involve the extra revenue generated in the area by the presence of the campers and the big fat DUH that volunteer stewards from within the camp substantially cleaned up after themselves, for free.

There's a partial climbdown here, although it's a bit rich for him to claim people misunderstood him when his original argument was so poorly expressed and completely incoherent.

The Mayor's an old friend of my parents from way back and I sent my dad an email mocking him for all this. I'm pretty sure he jumped to a public position to ingratiate himself with the voters then realised he'd called it wrong and made himself look a tit in the process. Even the residents of Blackheath didn't seem unduly bothered by the camp, there was a noticeable lack of hysterically boarded up shop fronts in the village.

That said, when even Labour figures who are supposed to be relatively close to ground level are using that kind of sub-Daily Mail scare tactics is it any wonder no one wants to vote Labour?

^^^a lovely raft of OTM today

Am tempted to go along later and report on the 'mess'. Maybe with pictures. It is beautiful how Labour are showing their true colours without even trying.

LOL have been watching so much Big Bro that any mention of TRUE COLOURS now gives me a panic attack.

I haven't been following this series. I trust one of the housemates is a recidivist crap-meme-generator?

No, it's just if I had 10p for every time one of the housebears of little brain reached for the trusty 'we're seeing this person's true colours now' in this series I could probably buy Endemol.

Its an island in size but a country because of borders imo. Its people needed a deal and goodwill to migrate and have permission to attain citizenship elsewhere.

Minimising this -- which will be the first of many islands to be destroyed by climate change, and won't stop there in any case -- isn't it.

Much happens too, between writing and editing of crosswords. The clue “Greener energy source” wasn’t Lempel’s, and those politics aren’t hers, either. When Lempel submitted the puzzle, the original clue for CLEAN COAL read “Dubious term for a greener energy source.” Lempel had a back-and-forth with the editors, sending an e-mail explaining, “If you Google ‘clean coal,’ there seem to be alot of questions as to whether it’s actually clean. That’s why I used the qualifier and I wonder if it should stay in there.” The Times replied that Shortz “still finds the clue better as it is without any hedging.” After the puzzle ran, the response was so forceful that it led to that rarest of things, a crossword correction:

The clue for 47 Across in the Monday puzzle implied incorrectly that coal is a viable source of clean energy. While it is possible to capture and sequester some of the greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants from coal- fired power plants, the technology has never been used on a large scale because of its high cost.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/the-hidden-politics-of-the-crossword-puzzle/

A small slice of good news.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/11/economic-growth-no-longer-linked-to-carbon-emissions-in-most-of-the-world-study-finds

This is a p thoughtful piece.

"The reality is this: 1) We absolutely do have a choice because demand is politically, economically, and socially constructed, and 2) The choice between renewables and fossil fuels is a false binary, like telling a healthy person they must chose between losing an arm or a leg."

https://thelastfarm.substack.com/p/we-dont-need-any-more-renewables

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/11/point-of-no-return-hothouse-earth-global-heating-climate-tipping-points

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ecuador-tropical-rainforest-biodiversity-rebounds

https://phys.org/news/2026-04-ecuador-tropical-rainforest-biodiversity-rebounds.html#google_vignette

Rare bit of good news

https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-declining-cloudiness-is-accelerating-global-warming/

OTOH..

Thousand a day are dying now.

A new peer-reviewed article estimates that a single day of extreme heat causes 3,400 excess deaths across India. Extreme heat events are especially bad for UP, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, since these states have underlying socioeconomic vulnerabilities. https://t.co/cBHeHe6Rsd pic.twitter.com/ITeFvKiRxY

— Malini Ranganathan (@maliniranga) May 28, 2026