To celebrate World Environment Day 2009, the Swedish commuter organisation Planka.nu hosted a “Climate Crash” together with Friends of the Earth Sweden and Klimax, a network of groups that uses direct action to raise awareness of the threat that climate change poses. Over 150 people took to the streets of Stockholm on a chilly June evening and closed down Hornsgatan, one of the most polluted roads in Sweden (and in the EU). For more than one hour all car traffic was blocked by people listening to music, dressing up as polar bears, drinking coffee, bicycling and carrying banners with the main messages: “There are no green cars” and “Adapt the production – sink the car-industry”.

During the last years there have been Climate Crashes all over Sweden, with the biggest one taking place at the European Social Forum in Malmö with over a 1,000 participants. Even though every Climate Crash has its own theme, the overall goal is to reduce C02 emissions from the transport sector and to clean our city centres from cars.

Planka.nu is a network of Swedish groups working for free public transport and a climate-smart and just city planning. For instance, it organises fare-dodgers in the insurance fund “p-kassan” where members pay each others’ fines if they get caught fare-dodging on public transport. They also run an online forum www.freepublictransports.com which focuses on the international free public transport movement.

Alexander Berthelsen

www.planka.nu