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Eastside Climate Action blockade E-on workers as part of Fossil Fools Day

Fossil Fools Day | 01.04.2008 07:00 | Climate Chaos | Ecology

At 7:30 this morning 30 people blockaded the entrances to E-on's offices on Mount St, Nottingham City Centre. People covered in green paint to represent E-on's greenwash, locked onto the front entrance to E-on's office and stood in front of other entrances preventing E-on workers from getting to work.

Climate activists pull a prank that packs a punch on April Fools Day

1st April 2008 – For immediate release

Today climate activists from Eastside Climate Action blockaded E-on workers as part of International Fossil Fools Day.

At 7:30 this morning 30 people blockaded the entrances to E-on's offices on Mount St, Nottingham City Centre. People covered in green paint to represent E-on's greenwash, locked onto the front entrance to E-on's office and stood in front of other entrances preventing E-on workers from getting to work.

At E-on's offices today, Bob Castle said “We are here today because despite E-on publicly claiming green credentials, it is trying to build a new generation of coal fired power stations. It is trying to build the first new coal fired power station in the UK in 50 years, at Kingsnorth in Kent, and wishes to continue its expansion with a new power staion at High Marnham in Nottinghamshire. We are here to tell E-on that they will not suceed and the only real solution to climate change is to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Coal is the dirtiest Fossil Fool and to build new coal power stations in the face of climate change is collective suicide.”

Fossil Fools Day, called by the international Rising Tide network and its allies, has seen over one hundred actions take place around the world. Protests have focused on the companies responsible for runaway carbon dioxide emissions, as well as complicit governments and those promoting false solutions.

Groups who have taken action today in the UK include Eastside Climate Action, Rising Tide, the Camp for Climate Action, World Development Movement, People and Planet, the Network for Climate Action and Earth
First!

While Eastside Climate Action were visiting E-On in Nottingham, other groups around the UK were in Parliament Square (where People and Planet built a coal power station complete with 12ft cooling towers), Porsche HQ in London (where a public apology was issued on behalf of Porsche), the Department for Enterprise, Business and Regulatory Reform (where WDM held the world’s first laugh-in over plans for new coal at Kingsnorth) and Manchester City Centre (where a parade toured the city’s biggest fossil fools).

“We are taking action to prevent the fossil fuel industry from destroying our future,” said Bob Castle from Eastside Climate Action. “Vested interests in business and government are bent on pursuing economic growth at all costs. We need to shrink, not protect, the fossil fuel economy if we are to survive climate change.”

For interviews and more information about today’s action at E-on contact 07880 937511
** Updates will be available throughout the day at www.fossilfoolsday.org **


Notes to Editors:

1)E-on own Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station the site of protests by 11 people who locked themselves to machinery to prevent coal entering the power station. The judge in the trial agreed that the 11 defendants had acted to prevent death and serious injury from the release of CO2 from Ratcliffe into the atmosphere.
2)Ratcliffe is the largest CO2 emmitter in the East Midlands and 2nd largest in the UK
3)Despite E-on's green claims they only produce 9% of their energy from renewable sources.  http://www.eon.com/en/unternehmen/8559.jsp
4)E-on's infrastructure investment fund is 95% for non-renewable energy projects.  http://www.energyrisk.com/public/showPage.html?page=449443
5)E-on plan to build the UK's first new coal fired power station, plans that are opposed by groups from Greenpeace to World Devolpment Movement.
6)The Climate camp, (which previously held camps and did actions at Drax and Heathrow) plan to target Kingsnorth this year. www.climatecamp.org.uk
7)E-on also plan to build a new Coal Fired Power Station at High Marnham near Retford in Nottinghamshire.
 http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133965&command=displayContent&sourceNode=133948&contentPK=20117809&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

Fossil Fools Day
- e-mail: info@risingtide.org.uk
- Homepage: http://www.fossilfoolsday.org

Additions

Abuse from E-On Staff directed at protestors.

01.04.2008 09:51

As some e.on staff tried to enter the building past the painted protestors, one woman took it upon herself to abuse the painted ones. This is shocking behaviour and I would like to point out that most of the staff I encountered were pleasant and mostly indifferent or sympathetic.

Later on in the recording, you can hear a security guard, who was trying to push his way out of the building responding to an activist who claimed assault, saying: "Assault? I'll give you assault in a minute"

ALX


Comments

Hide the following 12 comments

Eon greenwash, they make UK the dirty man of europe&mass corporate manslaughter

01.04.2008 12:42


eon greenwash front on bbc, already this morning,
with EON saying they have loads of wind farms, which are literally a drop in the ocean at the moment as they also are on forefront of coal & nuclear industry in europe particularly making the UKs reputation as the dirty man of europe.
Call Radio Nottingham 01159343434 & other media outlets to comment asap,
email radio nottm presenters-editor easily & directly via their website, stories from here filter into TV coverage.

Great article & action,though are Eon committing collective suicide? isn't it mass corporate manslaughter-homicide-?, criminal charges & insurance claims need to be put in more place by government now as well as a proper transition town-shire plan for every town, city&shire & region.
What a waste of police resources in policing this event against brave protesters who have taken unpiad time off work to sometimes risk their livelehoods & jail to ensure climate change & other environmental manslaughter committed now stops!

Authorities seem worried, hundreds of police in town, with vans from as far as Merseyside up & down Mansfield road & Maid marian way.
Even Nottingham city castle was evacuated, a bit of a over reaction if it was to do with april fool actions, the people of nottingham have been known to regularly burn it down, but its owned by the "people" council now& some of the senior curators off the record say they think the old owner the Duke of Newcastle burnt it down as an insurance job.
The castle staff looked happy & most people know many activists are scientifically working professionally in small to largscale-industrial solar & wind power companies & cooperatives are more likely to put wind turbines & grass roofs on the place rather than burn anything down.
The security gaurd & "lady" being a jobsworth at Eon are a shame to their company, they also need to be charged & held accountable now or at a later date, unless they change & make sincere apologies.

Greensyndicalist with help from the libertarian reincarnation of Barbara Castle
mail e-mail: sparkeee1@hotmail.com


Eon making UK the dirty man of europe&mass corporate manslaughter

01.04.2008 13:04

1)E-on own Ratcliffe on Soar Power Station the site of protests by 11 people who locked themselves to machinery to prevent coal entering the power station. The judge in the trial agreed that the 11 defendants had acted to prevent death and serious injury from the release of CO2 from Ratcliffe into the atmosphere.

2)Ratcliffe is the largest CO2 emmitter in the East Midlands and 2nd largest in the UK

3)Despite E-on’s green claims they only produce 9% of their energy from renewable sources.  http://www.eon.com/en/unternehmen/8559.jsp

4)E-on’s infrastructure investment fund is 95% for non-renewable energy projects.  http://www.energyrisk.com/public/showPage.html?page=449443

5)E-on plan to build the UK’s first new coal fired power station, plans that are opposed by groups from Greenpeace to World Devolpment Movement.

6)The Climate camp, (which previously held camps and did actions at Drax and Heathrow) plan to target Kingsnorth this year. www.climatecamp.org.uk 7)E-on also plan to build a new Coal Fired Power Station at High Marnham near Retford in Nottinghamshire.  http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=133965&command=displayContent&

+ with Rothchild bank they have been recently spearheading unsustainable old nuclear technology instead of solar,wind,geothermal & appropriate hydroelectric power

Greensyndicalist
mail e-mail: sparkeee1@hotmail.com


Thanks

01.04.2008 18:23

Green,

Thanks for uploading your picture. If you can, in future try and resize images to 550-600 pixels across before uploading them so they fit on the page. (You can download a free open source image manipulation programme called GIMP which allows you to do this very easily.) Thanks again.

Notts Indy Volunteer


RE: Abuse from staff

01.04.2008 22:18

Maybe if you hadn't prevented staff from going about their LAWFUL buisness by going to work, and hadn't PREVENTED SOMEONE FROM USING THE TOILET you wouldn't have been abused.

Maybe if the 30 people who turned up worked themselves they'd appreciate how stressful life can be without a bunch of jobless morons turning up and making things worse.

Also, it's funny how you upload articles using electricity from the company you so despise. But then if you worked you could go out and buy a wind-turbine from B&Q.

Bob


The majority of the protestors do have jobs

01.04.2008 22:46

all these people found the time out of their Jobs and gave up their free time alotted by work to come and take action on an issue they care about.

Moreover, there is a hotel next door to the E.On offices with perfectly adequate toilet facilities. We did attempt to redirect the lady in question, but as you can hear she was obstinate.
Its unfortunate that she used the language she did but around 200 other E.On employees seemed to cope okay.

ALX


Turbines!

02.04.2008 10:29

Why go to B&Q and by a turbine when you can make one out of recycled materials yourself!

Nick
- Homepage: http://www.v3power.org


Bob

02.04.2008 10:47

Bob, writing things in capitals really helped to get your point across, well done.

Are you really suggesting that because people take an interest in social and environmental issues they don't have jobs? How very narrow minded and sterotypical.

Since when has law been equal to morality? I don't care how LAWFUL your business is; the action was directed at E.on, not you personally. These people were protesting about an important issue, surely your stressful life can bear that?

Glen
mail e-mail: llyagww@nottingham.ac.uk


Re: Bob / Accusations of joblessness

02.04.2008 11:53

Dear Bob,

Our protest directed entirely at a company caused a couple of hours of disruption for the people who work there. Our quarrel is not with the workers, but with the company itself.

The actions of this company (and others just like it) are already causing permanent disruption (that is, if it's fair to call death by starvation, or displacement from your homelands "disruption" on the scale of 150,000 people per year currently, according to the World Health Organisation) and will continue to do so for millennia if it is not stopped.

For what it's worth, I have two jobs as well as putting a fair bit of my time into community work. The vast majority of us there yesterday do have jobs, and it is up to us what we use our days off for. Your assumptions about us and our lifestyles are flat out incorrect - but never miss a chance to grab a useful stereotype, eh?

Equally, we use electricity just like you do, because surprise surprise, we're just normal people - normal people who care! (If caring about our one home planet and only known life support system is abnormal, then I guess that makes me a freak?)

While obviously it's not possible to account for individual electrons (so I'm sure there's a few coal and nuclear ones buzzing around the wires of my house), I pay my electricity bill to a company who invest nearly all of their profits into the creation of new wind farms. In the short term, this is just about the best I can do, but in the longer term I plan to generate as much of my own energy as possible, and to live within the constraints that may place on what I can use it for. I am already putting things in place to make this happen, as it is a priority for me over the next couple of years.

Yes, I know it's going to mean that I must use less energy, but that is an inescapable reality that is coming towards everyone - including you - so it would seem wise to prepare for it in advance, while there is still some time to act.

Our household already does quite a lot to minimise waste of everything (including water), though I know we can go further - it's a work in progress. However, ultimately, if you came round sometime, you probably wouldn't even notice any difference from any other house - and that's because much of the work that needs to be done is in changing habits from more consideration of our actions on a daily basis. Most human waste occurs in our mindset, and really doesn't take much effort to eliminate. Our house puts out a half-full smaller wheelie bin once every two or three weeks, for example, simply from changing our shopping habits to avoid creating waste in the first place.

If you haven't noticed that the law "conveniently" protects the lawless rich and powerful, then you simply haven't been paying attention to what is going on around you. Labour have averaged one new law for every day they've been in power, and many of these are designed to suppress and undermine protest. If politicians, business leaders and their ilk weren't such a bunch of untouchable criminals and the law was in any way related to real concepts of justice or protection of the public, then no doubt we might be able to get on and do the things we'd really like to do with our lives, free from worries about ours and our children's futures.

As it is, that's not the case. We do not live in country based on freedom or justice, so it is up to us to act in the only non-violent ways that we've been left with - even if those may result in our own intimidation, arrest and charge with spurious "offences" by a political police force.

Sorry if our caring about the planet and about other people (even you) offends you, but please take your incorrect assumptions about us elsewhere.

Regards,

One of the painted people

Painted Person


Don't learn, do you?

02.04.2008 12:54

Greeny et al,

You don't learn.

People read and take notice of punchy, well structured comment. You keep posting lengthy, wordy and frankly boring entries. You make us all sound like fanatical nutters not intelligent people with a point that others agree with.

I didn't think the employees necessarily were sympathetic - I think they were apathetic. And we did not get in the media (well not of note)...

Bob
mail e-mail: bobbybo@hotmail.com


Trolling

02.04.2008 14:03

I very much suspect that Bob is a troll (so let's not feed him!!!)

---


punchy comment

02.04.2008 14:24

Bob, quite simply Wake Up! I work, infact have my own sucesful business, have done for years, my electricity is supplied by a company solely using renewable energy, dont take it personaly mate, maybe you should make yourself known to those of us protesting next time Eon gets shut done, that way you can voice your oppinion to those of us trying to expose the green wash without hiding behing your computer.

lumsk


hey bob

02.04.2008 23:40

"PREVENTED SOMEONE FROM USING THE TOILET "


Ok, look i'll say it: I am sorry you didn't get to have a pee bob, why didn't you use the toilets on Market Square, or go behind a hedge?

- don't take it so personally mate, I was on a stuck on a virgin train with a bust toilet dying for a wee for 3 hours once, I was pissed off at the time, but I let go (boom boom).

fly posters


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