This summer’s essential accessory was canvas, as the climate camp movement became a truly global phenomenon. Described as ‘the UK’s best export’, camps with the common aims of education, direct action, sustainable living and movement building have sprung up all over the world. From Taiwan to Quebec, South Korea to Denmark, thousands of people have come together to take collective action in the face of climate change. The French camped against a new airport at Nantes; the Swiss against a proposed gas power station; the Scots occupied a wood threatened by an opencast mine and the Finnish pitched up at the construction site of a nuclear power plant. The Crimean camp galvanized resistance to a new coal shipping terminal at Sevastopol, and the Dutch and Belgians came together to also target coal shipping at Antwerp harbour. In the next few weeks, there will be camps in London, New South Wales, Quebec and the west coast of the US. A camp is also being planned in Ecuador with a focus on stopping mining.

For links to many of the 2009 camps, go to http://old.climatecamp.org.uk/?q=node/548
New site links here: http://climatecamp.org.uk/get-involved/working-groups/international

This article is from the September 2009 issue of New Internationalist.

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