Photo by Hugo.
By now you’ve probably read about the insanity going on at the G8 summit right now between protesters and riot police, and that water cannons have been used, and there have been at least eight injured. There’s a Reuters UK snip below about the latest, but it’s also important to note that over on the Guardian UK, Bush has “made it clear yesterday that the US opposed plans for a specific climate change cut”. What’s really amazing is all the stunning G8 imagery on Flickr being uploaded right now by people at the protests. Also, check out the two *insane* videos I found on YouTube of the riot police at night. Snip from Reuters:
Around 10,000 anti-capitalist protesters clashed with police and blocked roads to a Baltic resort where world leaders gathered on Wednesday for a summit.
Police turned water cannons on some 2,500 protesters in order to clear one of the roads to the venue for the Group of Eight summit in the Baltic resort of Heiligendamm. Police detained some 160 protesters in the skirmishes.
Photo by randbild.
Delegates from several G8 countries, including host Germany, said the protests were limiting their ability to move around at the venue, a seaside resort on Germany’s Baltic coast.
Eight officers were injured during earlier clashes with protesters near the town of Bad Doberan, police spokesman Luedger Behrens said. Police “used water cannons twice after demonstrators bombarded police with stones,” he said.
The demonstrators were trying to block access to a luxury hotel on the coast in Heiligendamm where G8 leaders including U.S. President George W. Bush were gathering.
Link.
Photo by dkonstruckt.
Snip from Guardian UK:
George Bush was coming under strong pressure from the European Union and Japan last night to sign up to a G8 target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions after the White House’s pledge to work through the United Nations on climate change failed to satisfy its summit partners.
With officials from the G8 meeting late into the night in an attempt to secure a deal to check global warming, Mr Bush made it clear yesterday that the US opposed plans for a specific climate change cut to be agreed in Heiligendamm.
Article continues
The three biggest European nations at the talks – Germany, France and Britain – were presenting a united front on climate change last night, in the hope that Mr Bush could be persuaded to agree either to a 50% cut in greenhouse gas emissions from their 1990 level by 2050 or to limit the increase in global temperatures to two degrees centigrade above their pre-industrial level.
British sources said the US saw the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 50% but was reluctant to commit itself to a target at the summit unless it could be assured that the leading developing nations, particularly China and India, would be part of the deal. America’s criticism of the 1997 Kyoto agreement, which expires in 2011, was that it excluded the major developing nations.
Environmental groups attacked the US for its hardline approach last night. Greenpeace director John Sauven said: “It took George Bush precisely one week to prove his critics right by slipping back into his default position of blocking action on climate change.
Link.
These videos are from June 2, and they are consecutive.
This is what happened next:
Some great images. I hope nobody has been hurt to badly.