Protest march over climate tonight
Supporters of the Campaign against Climate Change are due to march in the capital tonight in protest at US President George Bush's visit.
They say the US, as the world's biggest polluter, is failing to curb its outpouring of harmful greenhouse gases - mainly from transport and industry - which are overheating the atmosphere and causing disastrous floods, droughts and other weather extremes.
Michael Meacher, who lost his job as Environment Minister in last summer's Cabinet reshuffle, and was a key negotiator with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at the Kyoto Protocol talks three years ago, is expected to speak at the Burning Planet march.
Friends of the Earth director Tony Juniper, Greenpeace director Steve Tyndall, and Darren Johnson, Green Party member on the Greater London Authority, will also be taking part in the protest.
The march will begin at Lincoln's Inn Fields at 6-7pm, pass through central London and end at the US Embassy at around 8.30pm.
Mr Juniper said that the row over climate change and the US's failure to recognise the Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding reductions for curbing harmful gases, were the greatest causes for concern.
"Our protest is not anti-American or against the American people, but against the policies of George Bush and the corporations who put him in power and keep him there," he said.
"There are many reasons why environmentalists are concerned, ranging from GM products to the way American corporations are putting their interests above people and the planet.
"It's about how the American Government is using the trade rules selectively to advance its own interests.
"But the most serious environmental question is about climate change. We have most cause for concern in respect of American policy and the global environment.
"It is grossly arrogant of the American Government to say the Kyoto Protocol is unfair because developing countries are not involved, yet US emissions (of
greenhouse gases) are 17 times higher per capita than India's."
