“THERE is an alternative!”
That’s the message sent out today from the People’s Climate Camp being held at the Bluff Eco Park in Durban, where an “Alternatives Fair” is demonstrating products and technologies that are kind to the climate.
“We do have solutions,” said groundWork director Bobby Peek. “But our government operates on the basis that big is beautiful.”
Community organisations and environmental NGOs from around the country converged on the Bluff on Thursday morning to set up the camp. This was followed by a march to Prospecton, where 16 small-scale farmers, known as the airport farmers, work 187 hectares of land to produce vegetable sold at outlets from Umhlanga to Clairwood.
“The camp is to show solidarity with the people of South Durban and the airport farmers who will lose their land to the Durban dig-out port,” said Peek. “We want to tell the world that energy choices we have made have a harmful effect on land and people; they are creating a future we do not want.”
Peek said the camp has been planned to coincide with the 19th Conference of the Parties (COP 19) taking place in Warsaw from November 11 to 22.
