Bell's backing

Former BBC war reporter and independent MP for Tatton 1997-2001, Martin Bell - the first independent MP for 50 years and now a UNICEF Ambassador - has backed George Ferguson's campaign to be the first elected Mayor of Bristol.

Martin said of George and his campaign: “I don’t rush around the country supporting everyone running as an independent, but every now and then I come out of hiding when I feel there is a candidate really worthy of support.

“I have experienced how political parties work in Government, and the sheer power of the whips, and the extent with which they persuade people to go along with the party rhetoric.

“I knew there must be a better way to run our politics than this.

“When I heard that Bristol had decided it wanted a mayor and discovered that George Ferguson was running as an independent, I thought he was the perfect candidate.

“I am not denigrating any of the other candidates but here is a man who will simply represent the people, not just a political party.

“I hope he gets elected as mayor on Friday - I believe he will.”

Five a day

Very informative feature on the BBC website showing that on average from 1999 to 2010 five people were killed on the roads every day (see map of road deaths in the Bristol area for this period - click to enlarge). The time lapse maps are really striking.

Britain has one of the best records in the world for road casualties. However, hundreds [more like thousands] still die on the roads every year. In 2010, the police recorded 1,850 deaths, 22,660 people seriously injured and 184,138 who received light injuries.

About this data:

Using official data recorded by police in Great Britain between 1999 and 2010, we have plotted every road collision in which someone died. In all, 36,371 fatalities are marked on this interactive map [click link to BBC site bottom of this post]. You will also find partial data for Northern Ireland, for 2004-2009.

Detailed information about each crash is recorded by the police at the scene. It is subsequently transferred onto a computer database. This is available to researchers from the Economic and Social Data Service. As with any large collection of data, there will be errors and omissions that occur in this process and some of these will be found in this map. The BBC apologises for any distress or offence that may be caused by the inclusion of these errors.

If you find any errors, please use the feedback form below and let us know. We will endeavour to correct them where possible.

Feedback: Road casualties feature

Answers to some of your frequently asked questions are here.

BBC News - Every death on every road in Great Britain 1999-2010

BBC - BBC One Programmes - Human Planet

Human Planet is an awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, heart-stopping landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today.
Uniquely in the animal kingdom, humans have managed to adapt and thrive in every environment on Earth. Each episode takes you to the extremes of our planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle. Here you will meet people who survive by building complex, exciting and often mutually beneficial relationships with their animal neighbours and the hostile elements of the natural world...

BBC - BBC One Programmes - Human Planet

BBC - BBC Two Programmes - Horizon, 2010-2011, What is One Degree?

Comedian Ben Miller returns to his roots as a physicist to try to answer a deceptively simple question: what is one degree of temperature?
His quest takes him to the frontiers of current science as he meets researchers working on the hottest and coldest temperatures in the universe, and to a lab where he experiences some of the strangest effects of quantum physics - a place where super-cooled liquids simply pass through solid glass. Plus, Ben installs his very own Met office weather station at home.
Ben's investigations in this personal and passionate film highlight the importance of measurement and accuracy in the 21st century.

BBC - BBC Two Programmes - Horizon, 2010-2011, What is One Degree?

BBC - Nature UK - Get invovled in nature on the web

BBC - Nature UK - Get invovled in nature on the web

The web offers some great ways you can talk to other nature lovers, share experiences and find answers to questions, all from the comfort of your computer (or even mobile phone). A warning though – they can become very addictive!...

BBC News - Spending review

BBC News - Spending review

Very interesting part of the BBC website which I may well come back to from time to time. Has a lot of specific, up to date coverage of spending review matters and lots of links to further detail and debate. Has an interesting page here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11069101 asking people what they would cut and by how much - but it does not give people the option of raising additional money to lessen and/or slow down cuts, through eg tax rises, improving efficiency and effectiveness of tax collection and so on.

Protect the BBC from cuts

The BBC is a great organisation that we all learn so much from, as well as being informed and entertained. I'm a massive fan of the science, history and art documentaries in particular and I find the BBC website hugely valuable. I dont want to see it diminished as it will damage the social learning required to build a more stable, secure and sustainable society. As a result and having received a large number of the emails copied below, I have today signed the pledge to protect the BBC from massive cuts, including closing two radio stations and halving the size of its web site. 'Surrendering to pressure from commercial rivals, who are lobbying politicians hard to impose even deeper cuts' is in any case entirely the wrong motive to have for making changes.

__________________________________________________

Dear Candidate

I am writing to urge you to pledge to protect the BBC and its services, should you be elected as a member of parliament this year.

I am very concerned about the amount of criticism the BBC is currently being subject to, particularly from commercial rivals, who would like to see its operations shrink. Since the announcement of proposed cuts to BBC services, over 40,000 people have signed the petition or written to the BBC Trust, calling for the services to be saved.

The text of the pledge reads:

If elected as a member of parliament, I pledge to:

* Oppose the proposed closure of BBC 6Music, BBC Asian Network, the cuts to the BBC website, including the proposed redundancies and the disposal of the BBC’s magazine titles.

* Work to ensure that the future of public sector broadcasting, is properly resourced, maintaining and strengthening investment in quality programmes.

As a potential constituent, I call on you to sign up to this pledge and support the BBC.

Please sign the pledge here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/bbcppcpledge

BBC Radio interview: biofuels for Bristol??

I've been on Radio Bristol this morning, interviewed about the biofuel power station planned for Avonmouth by company W4B. You can listen to the broadcast on BBC iPlayer by clicking here - I'm on right at the start, in the 6am news clip, then in an extended interview for 5 mins or so if you jump to approx an hour and ten minutes in (I think they used a clip from that interview on the 8am news, two hours into the program, too). Council Leader Barbara Janke and the BBCs Dave Harvey are also on the program from about 2hrs in.

Basically I've said that there are huge competing pressures for land use around the globe and that its immoral to take up land in poor countries that could be used to grow food,conserve wildlife and fight climate change, to fuel power stations in rich countries. Biofuels are not green as total carbon footprinting shows that they are more damaging as a fuel than coal and oil because of the land use changes (including mass deforestation) plus consequent emissions and the energy and chemicals used for intensive growing and processing.

There is no such thing as sustainable palm oil - and we have yet to properly define what a renewable fuel from such plants is. Plant types vary widely, from potatoes, to palm plants, to mahogany trees which no-one suggests are a renewable fuel source just because they take in carbon!! Renewability in practice is about proper and widely respected certification, inspection of plantations and processes and independent verification - this is not effectively provided by any agency at present and cant be put in place independently by a relatively small company like W4B (giant companies like Unilever are struggling with this issue, so smaller ones have little chance).

Green leadership...

Always interesting to see key figures respond to questioning. Here's a couple of links to those offering leadership in (and to) the Green movement: 1.Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, recently interviewed on the BBC's Hardtalk. 2. Caroline Lucas MEP, Green Party Leader, answering readers questions in today's Independent newspaper.

Looking after ourselves and our relatives

I very much enjoyed the BBC's Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life program broadcast yesterday. David Attenborough's presentation was as full of enthusiasm, wonder and insight as ever. His concluding lines really struck me,

'...above all Darwin has shown us that we are not apart from the natural world. We do not have dominion over it. We are subject to its laws and processes as are all other animals on Earth, to which, indeed, we are related.'

Recognising this and wanting to act accordingly, in my late teens, over 25 yrs ago now, is certainly one of the main reasons I became an active green.

Loads of information/background on Darwin, natural selection and evolution here. Debate on evolution here. Events celebrating 200 yrs since Darwin's birth and 150 yrs since the publication of On the Origin of Species, here.

Petition: BBC should reverse its decision not to broadcast the Disasters Emergency Committee Gaza aid appeal

I wanted to draw your attention to this important petition that I recently signed:

"Reverse BBC decision re: DEC"

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/reverse_bbc_decision?e

I really think this is an important cause, and I'd like to encourage you to add your signature, too.

Further information on the work of the Disasters Emergency Committee and to donate to the Gaza and other appeals: http://www.dec.org.uk/

If I'd beaten Obama and Clinton and won the Democrat nomination for US President...

I’m finding the US electoral process really interesting. It seems to have some real life in it these days. I’m a fairly regular listener to Simon Mayo’s program on Radio Five Live. The show’s session today on religion and US politics was fascinating. It revealed of course that it plays a significant role.

Assuming I'd won the Democrat nomination for US President against the likes of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and others (!!) and was generally as well qualified as my Republican opponent, 5 in 10 voters, according to polls, would then not vote for me because I don’t believe in god. Many more US voters would desert me than would desert a candidate because they were a woman, or black, a Mormon, Catholic, Jew or homosexual. No real surprise to me but it says a great deal about US people and politics.

Saving Planet Earth/Jet around the world - two sides of our society illustrated

It was nearly one o'clock on Sunday 17 June and I'd just finished watching 'The Politics Show'. A trailer for the new BBC 'Saving Planet Earth' season, with great images of polar bears, wolves, elephants.... really got my attention as it dealt with how what's happening to endangered species is telling us loud and clear that things are going very badly wrong and that we need to make urgent changes accordingly.

I was floored by the trailer that, almost seamlessly, followed - one about the National Lottery: Jet Set 2012, centring on the 'fantastic' prize of jetting around the world on a luxury trip! No mention of the environmental costs of course.

How ironic is that! Two very different sides of the BBC, and of our society, in the space of seconds! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

'Any Questions?'; Brown...Green?; Factor 10 reductions?

I was in the audience of Radio 4's 'Any Questions?' broadcast live last night from Explore @Bristol, along with green friends and family. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/anyquestions.shtml?focuswin . I submitted a couple of questions (below) but many others were submitted, especially on climate change (according to presenter Jonathan Dimbleby) and neither of mine were selected to be put to the panel of public figures.

There was a great discussion following a question on George Bush's recent words on climate change, won hands down by panelist George Monbiot (who was generally very entertaining and crowd pleasing). Debate ranged widely, with questions also covering how to deal best with paedophiles; Catholic views on abortion; Conservative views on grammar schools; where panelists would go on a 'farewell tour' (a la Tony Blair)...

Q1
With carbon dioxide emissions now higher than in 1997, can we expect Brown to ever truly be Green?

I'm very sceptical about Gordon Brown's green credentials, as you might expect. There is a huge difference between the bigger parties warm words and their actions! I'd welcome others comments on this though.

Q2
With UN World Environment Day this Tues how would the panel assess the scale of progress made towards a sustainable society in the last 10 yrs?

In terms of practical action we have made little or no progress overall (UK carbon dioxide emissions are 1-2% higher now than in 1997 when our very concerned government came to power for instance). I find that most politicians lack a sense of scale when bandying the word sustainability around. The rough rule of thumb I use with my environmental science/technology students is 'factor 10' ie in resource use/pollution/waste production terms we need a tenfold reduction (90%) to approach sustainability in the UK. Of course you cant isolate the UK from the rest of the world but its still a useful rough guide.