Sunday 30 November 2008

National Climate March - Saturday 6th December

Come and join us in London next Saturday 6th December for the
NATIONAL CLIMATE MARCH!

Sunday 2 November 2008

Climate Safety...

On Thursday 27th November The Public Interest Research Centre will present the Climate Safety report at Friends Meeting House, Euston, London.

Arctic sea ice melting away faster than anyone had predicted is just one of the accelerating impacts of climate change. The quickening pace of change is telling us that the climate is more sensitive than almost anyone thought.

The ‘Climate Safety’ report gives a clear and simple summary of the latest science, and shows how our current handling of the problem has exposed us to serious and growing risks.

Modelled on the Australian ‘Climate Code Red’ report, ‘Climate Safety’ delivers a clear message that to have any chance of maintaining a safe climate, we must rapidly decarbonise our society, preserve global sinks, and address the problem with an unprecedented degree of seriousness.

Even with a commitment to 80% carbon cuts by 2050, “Climate Safety” warns that our current policy response does not match up to the scale of the challenge. Join us to discuss finding a way to get beyond “politics-as-usual” and achieve a full, emergency response.

Caroline Lucas
George Monbiot
Jeremy Leggett
Kevin Anderson
Tim Helweg-Larsen

To discuss finding a way to go beyond “politics-as-usual” and achieve a full, emergency response.

Sunday 11 May 2008

Earth May Day! Saturday 10th May


Earth May Day! Sat. 10th May
Saturday 10th May was the day Gloucester City went into Ecological Debt and started living on the resources of the rest of the world... the UK as a whole went into Ecological Debt on 15th April 2008. Community Leaders from all over Cheltenham gathered together at Francis Close Hall campus to form an Action Plan to tackle global issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and deforestation helped by representatives from the World Wildlife Fund, New Economics Foundation and the University of Bristol. The day was a great success with participants leaving feeling renewed and inspired to go out and effect change in their local communities. Watch this space for updates on Earth May Day!

Friday 2 May 2008

Cheltenham Green Party win 7% of local votes!

1st May local Council elections
Green Party win 7% of votes!
Green Party beat Labour in two wards!

Wednesday 19 March 2008

We are now in a state of Planetary Emergency

Glaciers melting faster:

The world’s glaciers are melting at rates faster than at any time since records began and at any time in the past 5,000 years, according to Professor Haeberli, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service. Arctic ice melting has now reached a level that the IPCC (Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change) and the Stern Report and other climate scientists didn’t predict would happen until the 2080s. The details are revealed in the latest report from the World Glacier Monitoring Service and will add to growing concern about the rise in sea levels and increased flooding, avalanches and droughts.

Experts have been monitoring 30 glaciers around the world since the 1980s and the most recent figures, for 2006, show the biggest ever 'net loss' of ice. Lester Brown, of the US-based Earth Policy Institute, said the problem would have global ramifications, as farmers in China and India struggled to irrigate their crops. “This is the biggest predictable effect on food security in history as far as I know,” said Lester Brown, which echoes what Vandana Shiva said at Cirencester Home Farm last Friday evening - that within 2 years we will be experiencing world-wide food shortages... time to start that allotment...

Monday 17 March 2008

Slo-Travel to Munich


Last week I returned from visiting my childhood friend in Munich on a coach - or rather two coaches: The first was from Cheltenham (see above photo of me on my return!) and the second was a Eurolines coach from London Victoria to Munich via Brussels. The two coaches together took 23 hours each way so included two nights on a coach. The two journeys themselves were more like an adventure than a journey and I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable they were.

George Monbiot recommends coach travel as having the lowest carbon footprint and this is the reason I chose to visit my friend by coach. Travelling this way meant I added an extra 200 kilograms of carbon (0.2 tonnes of carbon) to my annual carbon allowance of 1 tonne for personal carbon use, as opposed to the extra 600 kilograms of carbon (0.6 tonnes of carbon) I would have used had I flown - so I used a third of the carbon going by coach that I would have used if I had gone by plane.

I asked some of my fellow passengers their reasons for choosing slo-travel and all of them said it was because this option was cheapest. However, for me this was not the cheapest or most convenient option but the best option for the planet for those times when you really do have to travel to another country.

Saturday 2 February 2008

Week of Action against Agrofuels


Local campaigners staged a protest outside Tesco's petrol station last Saturday 26th January to highlight Tesco's use of biofuel in their petrol because Tesco are the biggest retailer of biofuels in the UK. Tesco also own a 25% stake in Greenergy, who claim to be the biggest supplier of biofuels in the UK. In case any of you have missed the latest Government and media reports on biofuel use, the basic facts are that biofuels are worse for the climate than fossil fuels because they are derived from monoculture crops of palm oil, soya and sugar cane - all grown in the tropics on land that used to be rainforests. Even in Europe, the most efficient crop for biofuels, which is rapeseed oil, has now been shown to have greenhouse gas emissions of up to 70% higher than fossil fuels. Biofuels not only create climate change, they require massive amounts of water, reduce soil quality and are linked to human rights abuses, biodiversity loss and issues over food security.

Biofuel is all about industry and business and making money out of climate change - it is NOT about reducing emissions, so is yet another wrong turn.
We need to rethink our addiction to economic growth before it's too late....

Saturday 12 January 2008

More flooding in Gloucestershire...


And so it goes on....
Increasingly I find myself not just at odds with the current economic and cultural philosophies of our time, but I am fast realising that all the solutions to the global environmental crisis facing us that are proposed from WITHIN those systems are completely INADEQUATE. We need REAL SOLUTIONS that come from OUTSIDE the current systems and economic philosophies...

Gloucestershire flooded again yesterday...