5 DAYS TO GO TILL SURFERS CONVERGE ON LONDON FOR ‘STOP CLIMATE CHAOS’ ACTIONS

Campaigners from ‘clean water’ action group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) will be converging on London this Saturday to join thousands of people in urging world leaders to take urgent action in preventing catastrophic climate change.

SAS campaigners will be going ‘all aboard’ the First Great Western train service from Truro to London to get there overnight in a low carbon way. Complete with green face paint, boards with ‘stop climate chaos slogans’ on and wetsuits we’ll be catching the 22:35 train on Friday 3rd November, arriving in London Paddington at 05:11 on the 4th November.

On the 4th November 2006 two actions will take place in London that SAS will be taking part in:

Actions

Action 1: SAS will be meeting at 12noon outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London to join the National Climate March (www.campaigncc.org) where we’ll join other marchers walking to Trafalgar Square to join Action 2.

Action 2: Count in the Square, Trafalgar Square, London 1-3pm (www.icount.org.uk).

SAS are part of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, who are co-ordinating the Trafalgar Square action in London on November 4th as part of the Icount campaign. The action takes place on the eve of critical international climate change talks in Nairobi and we need people in Trafalgar Square in their thousands to help send a message to the Prime Minister and other world leaders that they must stand up to stop climate chaos. This is the start of something big, as organizations and individuals make their voices heard in the fight against climate change.

In particular the coalition is calling on the Government to stop climate chaos, this is what the government has to do:

Action internationally: Take a lead – round the world the UK government has to work for agreement to cut carbon pollution. World-wide carbon pollution must be in decline by 2015.

Action in the UK: No nonsense – at least 3% year-on-year carbon reductions.

Action for justice: Help the poorest countries get access to clean energy, help them cut out poverty and deal with the climate disasters they are already facing.

SAS have been doing a lot of background work on climate change and its likely implications for recreational water users in the coming years. Much of this work is going into a report we hope to launch in the New Year.

The chief areas of concern and therefore our research relate to the impacts on water quality because of predicted rainfall increases, the likelihood of sewage treatment works not being able to cope with increased flows of wastewater, the impacts of rising sea levels on surf breaks, the effects of coastal erosion and an acidification of the oceans leading to coral reefs dying off.

All of these issues could have a serious impact on where and when we use water for recreation, and for SAS, warrant further examination and in many cases solutions to be found.

Over the last year our campaigns team have already been involved in a carbon-dating lobby of MP’s, actions supporting offshore renewable energy schemes and last year’s International Climate March that saw cities around the world challenge governments for urgent action on the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate.

However the biggest of all actions will soon be upon us and SAS wants you there! If you’re a recreational water user please try and join us in London. Also let us know if you’ll be coming: [email protected]