Oxfam campaigners tell Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband to ditch plans for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth.

After a bit of field trekking, sidling along a dainty country path and rambling through bushes, we reached Kingsnorth power station. It’s plonked bang in the middle of an idyllic coastal area of the Thames Medway in Kent. It’s here that the Government is allowing E-on to build the UK’s first new coal fired power station since 1974.

Standing with my arms in the air, clutching bright yellow ribbons that linked me to the next person, we formed a giant human band around the power station perimeter fence. I confidently predict that this human loop will forever be remembered as the world’s first ever, Mili-band.

The atmosphere was fantastic, with over 1,000 people including families, students, professionals and activists standing together. We chanted, sang and Mexican waved - all to send a message to the Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband - The UK public say “no to dirty coal”.

After our Mili-banding, we headed back to the village of Hoo for the summer fete. The smell of sun cream filled the air as people sat and relaxed. There were some excellent speeches as well as performances from Ugandan musician, Geoffrey Oryema, and Sam Duckworth from Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.

Despite the fun and chilled atmosphere, the seriousness of climate change, and the impact that it is already having on many people’s lives, was never far from the surface. This was painfully illustrated by Bangladeshi speaker, Shorbanu Khatun. Bangladesh is low lying and prone to flooding, making it severely at risk from global warming.

She experienced the terrible loss of her husband, as he had to seek work in dangerous places after their livelihood was destroyed. Witnessing her tears and raw emotion was sobering. For the first time that day, the crowd wasn’t noisy as everyone reflected on this woman’s awful loss.

Sam talked about how small movements can make a big difference to the world. This movement will keep growing, especially as we get closer to the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this December.

Millions of us will be calling on governments to agree to a fair and safe deal that helps the world’s poorest people. A deal that will slash emissions and help poor countries adapt to the effects of climate change. But that can’t wait till December; it has to start right here and right now. Ed Miliband - watch out!

Oxfam and climate change

Take action on climate change

Tags: climate change, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., Kingsnorth, Mili-Band, Miliband

This entry was posted by Ian Sullivan on July 9th, 2009 at 11:26 am and is filed under 'Here & Now' climate change campaign, Campaigns, Campaigns Blog, Climate change: have your say, News Blog, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.