My first day at the camp

So the climate camp started earlier than expected with 150 advance campers starting the setting up process on Saturday night to ensure the police didn't try and stop it happening. The scheduled workshops started as planned today though, and I was first up at 10.30 with WDM's workshop on 'Climate change and global justice'. I wanted to cover not just general issues of injustice in responsibility for climate change, which is at the heart of our campaign, but also cater to what I expected to be a fairly knowledgeable audience with the links between climate change and corporate globalisation.

These can be seen most clearly in three of the 'solutions' to climate change currently being pushed by corporations - expansion of biofuels, carbon offsetting and carbon trading. This wider discussion went down well, with someone from Biofuelwatch contributing to the discussion.

The workshop took place in one of the tents in the centre of the camp, where various activities from discussions on aviation and climate change to practical bicycle workshops were and are happening. Around these are the 'barrios'. In order to organise the camp efficiently and ensure campers are fed and looked after, each area of the country has its own barrio. A large tent with cooking facilities fronts up an area behind where people from that barrio are camping. Everyone takes turns to cook collectively and barrio meetings take place every morning.

It all seems to work very well, and I had an excellent lunch in the London barrio. It was here that I got talking to a member of the media team who told me that they've been overwhelmed with media requests for interviews. So as the journalists don't make a nuisance of themselves, they're allowed into the camp only at certain times, and always accompanied my the media team. Of course they can do interviews outside the camp, and on Sipson Lane where the camp is, there appears to be more media vehicles than there are police. Some are more sympathetic than others, but London's notorious Evening Standard (owned by the Daily Mail group) appears to have resorted to simply making things up.

Its at times like these that Indymedia comes into its own, and true to form they've got a whole section devoted to coverage of the climate camp. You could do far worse if you want to follow events during the next few days. Of course, the other option is to come on down! Workshops and entertainment is planned through to Saturday and there's even a bar in the evenings. If camping isn't your thing, why not come down for the day? Check out the timetable of events on the Climate Camp website.