Money saved and choices gained through energy thrift

In times of rising prices its always nice to save some money, so I was very pleased to be able to contact my electricity and gas supplier (RSPB Energy) this morning and arrange for/confirm: a reduction in my monthly gas and electricity payments; a refund into my bank account of the balance of the two accounts. This is all basically down to being very heavily insulated and highly energy conscious (helped a little in recent months by being part of the Knowle West Carbon Makeover project). Far from affecting what I'm able to do its given me additional choices due to a little more money being available. For me its never acceptable to waste resources where avoidable, whether they cost a little or a lot, though no doubt many more people are now looking for savings due to the additional motivation from rising prices.

The reality of violent crime

I'm for putting a lot more resources into crime prevention and restorative justice processes, whatever the crime but in particular violent crime.

Government is due to announce new measures to tackle knife crime next week. Use of restorative justice processes has increased in recent yrs though they very often still not available as an option in many situations. They are pretty popular with victims of crime and they work (see http://www.restorativejustice.org.uk/for more).

We need to get people who commit knife/gun crime to confront reality, realise what they have done to all those who've suffered due to their actions. Where appropriate get them meeting face to face with victims, their families and others in communities who've suffered.

Get them to take compensatory action as far as is possible, as part of their sentence. It might sometimes be appropriate to get them working with teachers and pupils in schools or talking with key groups in communities. Its the beginning to positive change in the criminal and it can help victims and communities .



Its wrong-doing on a different level of course, but whilst teaching I've seen a lot of success with this kind of approach applied to bullying in schools.

A kind of local community level restorative justice project was being initiated in Knowle West this yr but with the loss of Neighbourhood Renewal Funding, money for it may be in short supply now.

Less than 200 days and he wont be President...unless...

' Goodbye from the worlds biggest polluter' said George W Bush. But is it?

For the good of all earth this evil thing must be cast into the fires of Mount Doom….oh, and throw the ring in as well.
(Several other great captions on this site).

By the way, isnt there only one person who could wear the ring and remain visible??

Motoring: cheaper now than in 1988 ! Sure helps to explain ongoing climate change, road deaths, air pollution, congestion, parking chaos...doesn't it.

The RAC's annual report on motoring shows that '...it now costs 18% less in real terms to buy and run a car, including fuel costs (and 28% cheaper excluding fuel costs), than in 1988.' (see reports here and here). This is despite the large and rapid recent rise in fuel prices, though figures I dug up on the history of petrol prices show that even these aren't that unprecedented. I've long been pointing out that motoring has become cheaper not more expensive and made the point again in the recent debate online about residents parking (in fact seeing the RAC figures reported today sent me hunting through my archive of old news clippings - thus the two scanned illustrations in this post). Contrary to the facts most car owners (60% according to the RAC) think motoring costs have risen, though their view has probably been skewed a lot by sudden fuel cost increases.

Cheaper motoring is why we have more people than ever owning a car and more two car and three car households. One report on the RAC pronouncements says '...the number of households with a car has grown 39% over the past two decades from 14 million to 19.5 million. The number of households with two or more cars has almost doubled from 4.3 million to 8.4 million, and the number of drivers has increased to 33.7 million from 26.1 million.'

Not only has motoring become cheaper but at the same time travelling by bus and train has become very much more expensive (by around 50% in real terms has been reported - see here for an example). The fall in the cost of motoring is not news to me. The rise in the cost of public transport isn't either (I remember quoting a 50-70% rise in bus/train travel costs from the Dept of the Environment graph, scanned in here, when campaigning in the 1990's for instance).

It should be no surprise to anyone, given this key incentive to own and run a car (along with key factors such as cheap flights...) and disincentive to take the bus or train, that we are continuing to fail to address: climate change; air pollution; noise pollution; land take for roads; congestion; parking chaos; deaths on the road...and more. Carbon dioxide emissions are 1-2% higher now than when the current Labour Govt came to power, they plan to build hundreds of miles of new roads, plan to widen motorways and are seeking a delay in meeting the latest EU air quality requirements.

People are still highly attached to their cars. The govt see this of course and are wary of upsetting voters (Gordon Brown may abandon or delay the planned 2p rise in fuel duty just before the Glasgow East by-election for instance). Few issues stir people up, as recent debates and demos show, more than the cost of fuel or the cost of parking...Seems to me that far too many people (politicians and the public) are not facing the truth either about the reality and urgency of issues like climate change or about what the cost of their motoring is or what it should be. The incentives are upside down - we need much cheaper public transport and much more expensive motoring.

No leadership on climate change, food and fuel prices...from G8 summit

The story goes that Nero fiddled whilst Rome burned in the great fire of AD 64. Its not a story however that our leaders at the G8 summit are neglecting priorities whilst the Earth hots up due to climate change (see clip above). It was sickening to see them all planting trees in their suits at today's photo opportunity for the media.

The so-called leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States at the G8 summit aren't in fact leading at all: their proposed 50% cut in greenhouse gas emissions is conditional on action from developing countries like China, India and Brazil and so nothing at all may happen in practice; the % is in any case too low compared to what the scientists at the IPCC say is needed; the cut apparently would be from emissions levels in year 2000 and not from lower 1990 levels which would be tougher (IPCC called for cuts from 1990 levels); no targets for reductions between now and 2050 were agreed and so there is nothing by which to measure if we are on track even if actual reductions were seriously attempted (little sign of this anyway).

They dont seem to have connected climate change with food and fuel prices and short/medium/long term economic stability either, saying that they remained positive about the long term resilience of their economies. They have not to date explained what is causing high food and fuel prices, have offered no plan for solving problems and achieving a stable, secure and affordable future and are highly suspect on aid/development committments, especially on Africa. The summit goes on...but what is it achieving??

Why is thrift far less common these days? Why is there so much waste?

So, Gordon Brown has finally woken up to the fact that we waste massive amounts of food. Speaking as someone who, unless ill, never leaves food and hates waste of all sorts (its part my nature and part the way I was brought up I think), I agree that the situation is indeed atrocious.

I've read what he has said today (see here, here, and here) but have yet to see a list of actions he will now take to ensure that his Government are taking all the appropriate action they can on this. Is he just lecturing? Wanting to appear to be doing something? Or is there more?

Its bizarre isn't it that there is so much concern about rising petrol and diesel prices and yet there is so much speeding, erratic driving and poor car maintenance, which raises fuel consumption, costing the driver more. Gas and electricity prices are rising but many of us still waste energy, dont switch off and have not adequately insulated. Likewise there is concern about rising food prices but 33% of the food we buy is thrown away (equivalent to one bag in every three).

Of course not all those who complain of or worry about rising prices will also be wasteful but levels of fuel, energy and food waste are so high that there must be a good deal of hypocrisy out there. My view is that this is a problem of plenty and of affluence - where shortage and poverty are greatest waste is highly likely to be smallest, but shortage/poverty is generally not the case now and so wasteful habits and cultures have grown.

I have to say that, though I'm not a fan of big supermarkets, I dont fully buy the argument, common in the media today, that supermarkets are largely to blame for food waste. They are a part of the problem certainly but for me there are waste and efficiency issues all the way along the food chain from soil to plate to soil again and each of us must take some responsibility. Now I'm lecturing...so feel free to put me straight if my attitude is not justified !!

Great tips and advice on cutting food waste, saving money and enjoying food from here:
http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

Message from Spiderman

Received this message (below) today from Spiderman. Please do all you can to call for tough, urgent action on climate change.

My Friend,

Our climb for the climate continues.

Today the G8 meet in Japan for days of more talk on global warming. Sadly, the chances of them agreeing to any kind of target is very low.

That's why I am climbing in Germany, where the G8 met last year.Since then, Germany have become one of the world leaders, by setting a 40% emissions reduction target by 2020. It's brave,ambitious and essential.

We need world leaders, not world losers. My climb today is to remind the rest of the G8 of Germany's brave target and to remind them that global warming kills more people than a 9/11 everyweek. And of course to remind them that The Solution Is Simple:

1 - Stop Cutting Down Trees. Plant More Trees.

2 - Make Everything Energy Efficient.

3 - Only Make Clean Energy.

My heartfelt thanks go to the thousands of you who have already sent messages via our website

-http://www.thesolutionissimple.org/

...Together our message is stronger and by the time the critical global warming summit takes place in Copenhagen 2009, our number and our message will be undeniable.

You are world leaders and we climb on.

My deepest thanks.

Alain Robert

Spiderman

Save Grove Woods protest tomorrow

As you will know if you've read previous posts relating to trees and/or the city council, I have little faith in a lot of what they do and decide on, particularly with respect to trees. I've signed the petition to save Grove woods and sent in an objection to plans. Thought I'd also pass on details about this protest against the council decision to allow 27 trees to be cut down (albeit a bit last minute!).

"Mourn for decision to destroy 27 trees" tomorrow.

Event: Mourn for decision to destroy 27 trees"show of strength"

What: Protest

Host: Save Grove woods, Snuff Mills, Bristol

When: Tomorrow, July 7 at 5:30pm

Where: Snuff Mills Car park (no 4 and 5 buses have stops nearby))

Further information: http://snuffmills.blogspot.com/

Petition: http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/petition.php?id=194

Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35773226840&ref=mf

The working class are more environmentalist than the middle class...

As someone with very strong working class roots I get very cheesed off with the standard 'criticism' that environmentalism is just for the well-off, a middle-class luxury. This is rubbish. Just look at the environmental activity at the Knowle West Media Centre for instance, as well as my own 25 yr history of activity (see here), the rise in the green vote across Bristol South (including 15.6% of the vote in Knowle itself in 2007) as well as the latest poll data (below). The Bristol Blogger often trots out a class-based criticism of greens, so I sent him the message below this morning.

Blogger - sounds like that Mark Lynas is having a go at you and others who share your view when he says,

'Environmentalists are constantly accused of being middle-class lifestyle faddists, who don't understand the day-to-day financial pressures faced by "ordinary" working people. But the number of people who thought that environment should be the government's priority rather than the economy was substantially higher (56%) among the lower income, less well-educated DE demographic than among the better-off ABs (47%). Lower-income social groups also have a much lighter environmental footprint overall: only 42% of DEs took a foreign holiday over the last three years, whilst 77% of ABs did. Better-off people also own more cars, as you might expect – only 5% of DEs have three or more cars, whilst 15% of ABs do.

So perhaps anti-environmental class warriors like the editors of Spiked need to find a new cause to champion. The working-class people who they claim "can't afford to be concerned about climate change" actually care more about the future of the planet than the rich – and are doing a lot less damage to boot. So next time you hear someone defending motorway expansion or cheap flights on behalf of the British poor, ask yourself the question: whose side are they really on?'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/02/climatechange.scienceofclimatechange

As a very active environmentalist who was born, brought up and educated in Knowle West and who still lives in Knowle I think Mark Lynas has a strong point. The figures in the poll back him up.

Stop the scandal of MPs pay and expenses: find out what MPs needs are and meet them, no more and no less

I strongly object to the way MPs pay and expenses are handled. Its not independent and its not ethical by any acceptable standard (see 'MPs scrap plan to cut expenses', Bristol Evening Post, 4 July). We need to stop the scandal of MPs pay and expenses: find out what MPs needs are and meet them, no more and no less.

I recently posted about the work of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation who looked at what various categories of people need in order to live at an acceptable standard and participate in UK society. I propose that this sort of method should be applied to all MPs, including members of the Government - get a fair, independent body to examine what is needed for MPs to do their jobs well and also live decent, reasonably rounded lives and pay them and/or provide them with appropriate facilities as required.

If I was ever elected as an MP (I wish!!) I would certainly work on this basis, whether or not this kind of system was the official one. Are any local MPs willing to have an independent body go over what their actual needs are? Are they happy that the following will still be happening (as listed by The Guardian) after the recent House of Commons vote:

• MPs can continue to claim for furniture and household goods for their second homes, known as the "John Lewis list" as the Commons only authorises payments in line with the prices charged by that retailer;
• Additional costs allowance will remain, and not become an overnight expenses allowance with a £19,600 ceiling;
• No outside audit of MPs' expenses;
• No receipts for claims under £25;
• Claims for outer London MPs will not be cut.

Jamie Cooper, Campaign for Justice

If you are on Facebook please consider joining the Campaign for Justice group to get fair and just treatment for local teenager Jamie Cooper and all military service personnel. Whether its the way people are treated after getting injured or when disabled, or suffering a range of conditions as a result of service, or what they are paid, or how they are sometimes (mal)treated during training, or how they are housed or how they are equipped...they are getting a very raw deal.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51988570337

You could always join Facebook specifically to support this campaign. Find out more from this report in todays local paper ('Facebook support for Bristol soldier', Bristol Evening Post, 3 July). Jamie cant even get a council tax reduction from Bristol City Council at the moment.

Needs and luxuries: what are they??

Really interesting work by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the minimum needed for a decent life in the UK, where the standard of living is acceptable and people are able to participate in society. It shows, not surprisingly, that we need to do much more to raise the income of those on the lowest levels, with the BBC website saying:

'According to the calculations, a single person working full-time would need to earn £6.88 an hour to reach the weekly minimum standard - which is more than the current statutory minimum wage of £5.52.

A single person on Income Support would get less than half this amount.

An out-of-work family would get in state benefits two-thirds of what the JRF regarded as the minimum requirement, but pensioners on Pension Credit reached an acceptable level of income, the charity said.'

All this at a time when the gap between lowest and highest incomes is high and growing - under a Labour Govt! There are more rich and super-rich people than ever. I'm certainly in favour of raising the minimum wage and I'd like to see wealth radically redistributed by taxing the wealthiest more. This is fair and just. I'm for meeting everyone's needs, a key pillar of sustainability, putting needs before wants and for narrowing the income gap and so the Joseph Rowntree Foundation work is of real interest. I'd also like to see us measuring poverty in a different way, not least because of the outcome of this research which seems to establish what a decent life is in a much more rounded way. Interesting that it concluded that a car was not a necessity unless living in a rural area.

Climate change denial

More climate change denial in my local paper, via the letters page this time...

Michael Maddock is wrong in his assessment of the evidence on climate change ('Exploding the myth on climate change', Bristol Evening Post Open Lines, 1 July). Climate change is not a myth as the headline suggests it is. In fact the (Nobel Prize winning) UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (http://www.ipcc.ch/) does exactly as he suggests scientists should. It continually looks at all the latest and most expert scientific research on climate change. It then periodically issues major assessment reports containing the best available evidence. There have been four assessment reports so far and its fair to say that each time a new report has come out the evidence has pointed out even more strongly the fact that human-caused climate change is real, serious, and requiring urgent action from everyone, lead by governments. What more could we all want than that??

Contrary to what Michael says, many scientists clearly do not state that climate change is not caused by carbon dioxide. If they did it would be in the IPCC reports. In fact what the scientists say is the complete opposite! Its not true to say that warming always happens first, followed by carbon dioxide rise. It has sometimes happened this way but it also, as now, happens the other way around, with carbon dioxide emissions rising, followed by warming. This is a natural feature of the tightly coupled systems that affect our climate. What it points to of course is that the warming we are causing now with our carbon dioxide emissions, will itself go on to cause even more warming on top of warming caused by further carbon dioxide emissions! There are several mechanisms by which it will do this eg warming melts ice/snow, which means the white area reflecting energy back into space is lower, which means more energy is absorbed, causing warming...This feedback effect amplifies human impact along with others.

Scientists will continue to question, investigate, and gather evidence as Michael suggests they should. What concerns me greatly is that Michael, and many others with him, are, despite the very strong evidence, in denial about climate change (see http://climatedenial.org/ ). The sooner we face up to the facts the better. Time is slipping away and it will get harder and harder to reduce the worst effects of climate change the longer we put off what we all know we have to do ie adopt efficient, renewable lifestyles that stay within environmental limits, something that will also make our lives more affordable as it means bigs cuts in our use of increasingly expensive oil.

Residents parking schemes: clear net benefits

I've been contributing to the local online debate about the Bristol residents parking scheme - arguing in favour. Its been pretty lively on both the Bristol Blogger's and on Councillor Charlie Bolton's site, though I'm not so sure that the range of people taking part has gone that far beyond the usual suspects. Circumstances within Bristol eg the poor state of public transport and the nature of the scheme itself are not ideal, but my view is that there are still clear net benefits for neighbourhoods (see the council information leaflet here).

I'm interested to see that Knowle Councillor Gary Hopkins has spoken out against residents parking on the Bristol Blogger site, despite the environmental and safety gains which result. There are many factors in favour of residents parking, not least putting off commuters who currently are encouraged by the availability of parking to drive into the city, causing a wide range of problems: congestion; air pollution; stress; road safety issues; climate change; police/ambulance/fire service access problems; disability access issues, and more. All of which will have a bigger impact on the poorer and more vulnerable people than on the rich.

Any feedback on what I've said on this issue is most welcome of course.

Are govt green energy plans bunkum??

Big renewables and big nuclear are incompatible; we aren't doing anything like enough to solve climate change; Stern needs to go much further; we have to solve the problem of climate change because the costs of failure are without limit - these are the messages in three excellent letters relating to govt green energy plans in Saturday's Guardian . Funnily enough I dont read the Guardian and would have missed them normally (my partner passed the letters on to me). I've reproduced them below in full because they are a powerful and practical criticism of govt plans. They are also powerful backing for what I've said about renewables, nuclear power, climate change, the Stern Report into the economics of climate change and govt leadership/direction/consistency...(Good to see the Open University connection too!)


It is good to see bold targets being set for renewable energy (Cost of tackling global climate change has doubled, warns Stern, June 26). But it appears that there could be a conflict with the government's parallel commitment to greatly expanded nuclear power. UK "baseload" is about 20 gigawatts (GW), nearly a quarter of total UK generating capacity - this is kept available at all times and supplies all the electricity required at periods of low demand, like at night.

It is currently proposed that we build perhaps 20GW of new nuclear plant. In addition it is proposed that by 2020 we should have up to 30GW of offshore wind capacity and perhaps an 8.6GW tidal barrage on the Severn Estuary. Nuclear plants can't easily vary their power output to follow changing consumer demand patterns and are, in any case, usually kept running at full power in order to pay for their significant capital costs. At periods of low demand it would seem therefore that, in the absence of major electricity storage facilities, if wind or tidal energy inputs to the grid are available, the electricity from these, or any other renewables sources, could not actually be used.

Put simply, for much of the time, big renewables and big nuclear would be incompatible.

Professor David Elliott
Energy and environment research unit, Open University, Milton Keynes



Nicholas Stern's doubling from 1% to 2% of GDP the amount he thinks needs spending on mitigating climate change is welcome, but why hasn't he gone the whole hog and trebled it to the 3% identified in his original report, which may give us an evens chance of keeping within a two degrees temperature increase?

The answer I suspect is that which has vexed many non-politicians, namely how to make their analysis acceptable to politicians. The fact is, we haven't even spent anything like 1%, or £14bn per annum, since Stern's report was published, and every pound we don't spend in one year is carried forward to the next. Like an unmanageable credit card bill, we will eventually be drowned in interest payments, except in this case the "interest" is the carbon budget which we're spending like there's no tomorrow. Well before 2050, that budget will be exhausted.

The only rational response is to recognise that we cannot manage climate change with the old tools of government. We need a climate change cabinet, modelled on similar lines to Churchill's war cabinet; we need a climate change department which ends the absurd dichotomy in government between energy supply and demand; we need to emulate and surpass Germany's renewables energy investment strategy which recognises future global markets in green technologies and is somehow supporting R&D without breaking EU state aid rules; we need to stop believing that technologies like nuclear, which will not deliver a single extra watt of "green" electricity until around 2030, are part of the solution; and most urgently we need to recognise that early carbon reductions are the most important step, and that will only happen with rapid behavioural change, which means some form of carbon rationing.

In this last respect, for any minister or potential minister to say the time for personal carbon allowances has not yet come illustrates either deep cynicism, defeatism or complacency, or perhaps a combination of all three.

Colin Challen MP
Chair, all-party parliamentary climate change group



Stern joins UNDP's "emerging consensus" of halving global emissions by 2050, also stressing the "pragmatism" of the equalisation of per capita emissions globally by then. This is the global principle of contraction and convergence. It is now widely supported and with early day motion 1795, many of our MPs are urging the government to support the principle openly. They point out that contraction and convergence was clearly advocated to government in the royal commission on environmental pollution report on which the UK climate bill is based.

Doubling the spend of GDP to achieve this is neither here nor there. As the costs of failure are without limit, the only cost-benefit ratio relevant to this whole process results from understanding that we have to solve the problem of climate change faster than we are causing it.

Aubrey Meyer, London

Green car: a contradiction in terms

Apparently the Environmental Transport Association has just voted the Toyota Yaris as 'Green Car of the Year' ('Transport Group picks Yaris as 'Green Car of the Year'', Bristol Evening Post, 26 June). I'm obviously all in favour of any cars that are used being cleaner and more efficient and so on, as I guess the Toyota Yaris is, given the award, but to call any car green is for me a clear contradiction in terms. Technically advanced the Yaris may be but green it's not. It continues to add to problems but just more slowly than other cars. The (diesel fuelled) Yaris still uses non-renewable, finite fossil fuels (as even hybrid cars which combine electric motor with petrol engine do) and any car mass production means heavy impacts from several massive, global industries (mining, shipping etc...). This means they still generate the gases causing climate change in significant amounts, as well as adding to other social and environmental problems. In addition problems like congestion and parking are nothing to do with efficiency, fuel type or emissions level - they are just about numbers of vehicles and a fast increasing shortage of space. This is something which could get even worse if people feel its even more acceptable to own and drive a car because its cleaner, more fuel-efficient and 'greener'. Such cars might even be driven further or more often!

Use of technical means alone, such as using cleaner cars, will not solve our problems and cant be seen as green. History shows that massive growth in car use, encouraged by the technical advance and socio-economic/political context, has easily outstripped any efficiency gains. Technical advance has so far primarily brought cars with improved performance rather than maximising efficiency because people aren't yet prioritising it enough, though this may now begin to change with soaring oil prices. To solve our problems we need to combine technical advance with changes in culture, attitudes and behaviour, which means a whole range of social, economic and political changes, as I try to describe and explain throughout this site.

Local renewable energy, built before your eyes

Excellent timelapse film showing the construction of the wind turbines at the Port of Bristol:

Irrational, emotive vitriol against money for cycling

I remember being accused of basing my views on emotion not reason, science and fact when I first began green campaigning 25 years ago. I always thought the opposite was true. Its now more evident than ever that the emotional reaction is actually from those denying the problems we face and resisting change for the better. Just take a look at this extraordinary and extremely unreasonable letter in todays local paper about Bristol winning money for investing in cycling. I've reproduced it here in full (with further reaction to it from me below it) because I think it makes the case for cycling very well indeed. After all, irrational, emotive vitriol is not going to solve our transport problems is it - though that is what Jamie Caddick's letter is full of:

As if any further proof were needed that the Government and local council have well and truly lost the plot, the announcement that those evil-doing two-wheeled terrorists of the modern world - cyclists - are to get a big fat government grant finally seals the deal ("£11.4 million to create first Cycling City", Post, June 19.In a world where it's commonplace and de rigueur to shower the unworthy and pitiful with handouts, benefits, rewards and incentives in a vain and futile attempt to appease and silence the minorities, this barmy cycling scheme is a step too far.And it's one that will further create division, resentment and anger among those of us whose lives are already blighted by this wannabe- superior, duplicitous, irritating, dangerous, sanctimonious and arrogant crowd.£22 million is a lot of cash - cash that could be pumped into schools (already struggling for funds and under the threat of closure), hospitals (already struggling for funds and under the threat of closure), local post offices, community schemes and elderly care homes (already struggling for ... see the pattern here?).And yet a gaggle of self-serving, do-gooder politicians have the temerity, conceitedness and ignorance to pile cash on one of the greatest scourges of contemporary Britain like it's going out of fashion.What's becoming more and more clear is that the more bothersome, annoying and unsavoury you are (individual or group), the greater your rights and the more important and unquestionable your demand to fleece the taxpayer.So, we'll get more cycle lanes (read as more road works and disruption), more initiatives and more cycle training to get us out of our cars and on to our bikes.The council is even planning "Bikeability" schemes in schools - which sounds more like indoctrination to me, soiling children's innocent brains to cultivate its own cycling clone army.I can see the training itinerary now: day one - Lycra and helmet awareness; day two - rudeness and inconsiderateness made a fine art.(And how it could ever be considered a good idea to encourage these mealy-mouthed morons is another topic altogether.)The whole scheme is a farce - a naive, over-simplistic, ludicrously out of touch and inconceivably unrealistic gimmick.We'll have councillors waxing lyrical about how fantastic it all is and how it's another step towards becoming more eco-friendly, sustainable and green and how their long-dreamt, misty-eyed fantasy of every Bristolian donning fluorescent Lycra, wearing silly helmets, ringing stupid bells and knocking innocent pedestrians off their feet may now become a reality.And make no mistake, cyclists are criminals.Let me remind you, it's still illegal to cycle on pavements, run red lights, ride the wrong way down a one way street, whizz through pedestrian crossings (when pedestrians are actually crossing them) and hop from road to pavement with reckless abandon and the attention span of an amoeba.And yet they're not treated as criminals - rather, they're elevated as warriors fighting against an irresponsible and polluted world, two-wheeled titans of a healthy and eco-conscious crusade and martyrs of an ethical and planet- saving battle that will one day have us all reading The Guardian and recycling our potato peelings.Rubbish. They're law-breaking lunatics masking their own inconsiderate egos under the pretence of doing something right-on and commendable.And I only need witness the number of people hit, nearly hit, inconvenienced and harassed by these cycling psychopaths on my daily walk to work to know this as fact.That's no inconvenient truth.It won't ease congestion, it won't reduce pollution, it won't make the city a safer place to live ("cyclists" and "safety" being something of a mind-bending contradiction) and it certainly won't boost Bristol's profile on the global stage as a tough, robust and competitive city.We'll be seen as a bunch of wimps on two wheels and be laughed off the stage to the holler of boos and hisses.So cyclists will carry on being annoying ("don't tar us all with the same brush ???", "I'm not damaging the ozone layer ???", "I'm having lentils and tofu for tea ???"), councillors on the board of Fatuous and Phoney Statistics in the Cuckoo-land of Sustainable Stupidity will carry on being deluded and pedestrians and motorists will carry on hating their guts.I feel the disapproving public's full wrath has yet to hit its critical meltdown.In the meantime - and from a pedestrian's point of view - let me remind you there's nothing attractive (especially after a full English breakfast) about seeing an elephantine derriere zooming past you at 8.30 on a Monday morning.And that's more than enough to put me off ever becoming a cyclist.


Your letter ('Not all Bristolians want to become a cycling city', Bristol Evening Post Soapbox, 24 June) is very far from a genuine argument Jamie Caddick, to say the least. There is extraordinary accusation, name-calling, stereotyping, vitriol, cynicism, insult, exaggeration and ignorance aplenty. I wonder if your letter is more likely to be persuade people that actually the money for cycling is pretty reasonable such is your ranting onslaught. Its surely hard to argue that investment in non-motorised transport is wasted in these times of soaring petrol/diesel prices, severely congested roads, massive parking problems and obesity-related ill-health? Dont the most vulnerable in our society, the very young, those with health problems and the elderly, suffer most from the air pollution caused by cars and lorries? OK, contrary to council claims this investment wont be a magic bullet that solves all our transport problems - they too are exaggerating about what this money can achieve (see here for further comments) and have yet to do the hard work of using the money in the most appropriate ways in practice. However, it is a step in the right direction and I think most people prepared to look at transport issues and budgeting in the round agree.

Neither Stalin nor Mr Bean is good for green plans!!

Apparently our government has big green energy plans (see here). This is great, provided they are in fact big, by which I mean sufficient to genuinely and promptly build energy security, cut oil dependence and tackle climate change. This is great, provided they are in fact green, by which I mean efficient, renewable, respectful of environmental limits, meeting needs by fair means, not passing problems to future generations. This is great if they are part of an overall strategy that is coherent and consistent, by which I mean that attention is paid to both what we should and should not be doing, such as building new coal-fired power stations, expanding airports, expanding nuclear power, building hundreds of miles of new roads, fuelling national and global consumerism.

At first sight the green energy headlines this weekend looked quite good. But there are many problems with the scale, pace, details, green credentials and perhaps most of all with the consistency of the plans within overall government policy. A key problem is that our PM, Gordon Brown sends out incompatible signals all the time: he wants his Saudi friends to raise oil production to try to lower prices but says he wants reduced oil consumption; he previously thought calling a general election was a good idea and then thought it wasn't; he introduced a ten pence tax band and praised it, then got rid of it, then said the consequences of getting rid of it were bad but only planned partial compensation; he was thought of as first Stalin and then Mr Bean (to borrow a phrase).

Ctrl.Alt.Shift

Great new campaign/site for young people who are concerned about justice and want to get take action. Have a look around http://www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk/#/Home/ , which is about co-creation, empowerment, outrage, passion, connecting, doing something...about the state of our world. I was very interested, having been aware of this new campaigning initiative for a few days, that my daughter came home yesterday with ctrl alt shift information which she read cover to cover and talked keenly about. My partner today read the same material and did the same thing.

Petitions submitted and followed up on today

Today submitted my e-petitions: on enhancing environmental education (to Bristol City Council Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member covering education Peter Hammond, and Heather Tomlinson, Director of Children's and Young People's Services); and on saving Bristol's green spaces from being flogged (to the next Bristol City Council Cabinet meeting, which I was told is 26 June). I asked for the statement below to accompany the green spaces petition submission:

_____________________________________________________

Council policy should be driven by what's best for Bristol - green spaces policy is driven instead by a shortage of cash, and an apparent need to provide for the development growth prescribed by Westminster. Continued growth according to this pattern deteriorates quality of life for Bristolians and should be resisted.

Selling off green space is selling off what the public say is one of the best aspects of Bristol. It's not sustainable - consider our climate, health and wildlife needs. It's bad policy and is inconsistent with council statements on fighting climate change, improving biodiversity and working for healthier lifestyles.

Can we all see the evidence that the land to be sold will be 'marginal, surplus, or of low recreational value'? No lists, no maps, no debate, has made this clear to the public. This land classification is highly subjective and so should be subject to open debate. Where are the 90 acres?

Small scale selling off land may well sometimes make sense - if it really is surplus, and could be put to better use. That should be considered on a case-by-case basis with full debate about what is surplus and what is better use. Change of land use should be that which makes the city more not less sustainable. We should not be trying to meet a sales target, whether 90 acres or some other figure, with respect to Bristols's land. I call on the council to abandon any figure for the number of acres to be sold off and adopt this case-by-case approach instead.

______________________________________________________

I've received no ackowledgement of receipt as yet but assume things are ok.

Also followed up on my petition on the PM's website about measuring wellbeing instead of money flow as our main indicator of progress. I've previously emailed the PMs office by got no reply and so today asked my MP to respond herself as well as forwarding the petition to a minister to respond. I dont expect to get agreement from either MP or government but feel they should respond, not least because an MEP and several councillors signed the petition as well as well over 100 other people.

Good green news for Bristol!!

Some good green news for Bristol today (3 pieces in fact)!! Bristol will be the first UK Cycling City, after winning £11.4 million of government cash with plans that intend to:

Create the UK's first on-street bike rental network
Establish a 're-cycling' scheme that repairs bikes and provides them free of charge to deprived communities
Build state-of-the-art facilities for cyclists commuting to the city centre
Create a dedicated cycleway to link the suburbs with the city centre
More than double the number of children receiving cycling training
Develop a Personalised Travel Plan programme, focusing on changing the way people conduct short journeys to work (see here and here for more)

Well done to all involved in winning this cash!! (Would have been even better if the pot of money had been bigger of course!).

Plus the local press reports that rail links to Portishead could feasibly be updated and up and running by 2014 ('Rail link 'could be running by 2014'', Bristol Evening Post, 19 June). Plus Bristol's compostable food waste will no longer be sent hundreds of miles by lorry to Dorset for processing after 2010 as a new composting facility just outside the city should be operating by then ('New 20 yr contract to compost food waste', Bristol Evening Post, 19 June).

Most of the work is still to be done, of course, in all three areas above, to make plans reality in an appropriate way. And then there are areas where there are no adequate plans for: efficiency; renewability; environmental limits; meeting needs; strengthening community; fairness...but more on these aspects of sustainability on other days.

Count carbon correctly councillor !!

This post is about the importance, in these days of beginning to count our carbon and measure our footprints, of being accurate and seeing the figures in their proper perspective (something I spend time talking to my environmental technology students about). This is vital if we are to properly assess progress, or lack of it, towards achieving vital emissions reduction targets.

Give Lib Dem Cllr Neil Harrison what is due to him. He has worked persistently on getting the 'Merton rule' on a minimum % of renewable energy in new housing developments, adopted by Bristol City Council and deserves congratulations ('New Bristol homes have to be eco-friendly', Bristol Evening Post, 18 June). Greens have already welcomed his work (see Green Cllr Charlie Bolton's blog).

I must take issue with his comments on the figures in the local press however. He correctly says that Bristol has a target of 60% carbon emissions cuts by 2050 and then says,

'Taking this step [ie 20% renewable energy in all new housing that Cllr Harrison has fought for] will make that achievable and take us closer to becoming a green capital'.

It may take us a bit closer to becoming a green capital as its a step in the right direction but there is no way that taking the step of having 20% renewable energy in all new housing can on its own achieve an overall 60% carbon emissions cut across Bristol by 2050 - anyone can see that the figures just dont add up.

I thought this considerable inaccuracy could be down to reporting quality. However, its seems more likely that Cllr Harrison is either not seeing the figures in their proper context or is blowing his own trumpet too loudly, or both (lets face it, it wouldn't be the first time a Lib Dem has talked up their environmental achievements in Bristol). He says,

'This approach will make a massive dent in the city's carbon footprint in years to come'.

Any effect on the city footprint is very unlikely to be massive since this approach only applies to new housing, a small proportion of total housing, and in any case housing is only one contributor to our total carbon footprint albeit a fairly significant one. [Authors note 22/6/08 - average footprint per household may well go down a bit but total footprint will rise because of the new housebuilding itself. Office for National Statistics projections show Bristol's population soaring by over 30% , from 410,500 in 2006 to 542,800 by 2031, which will affect all plans, targets and work of the council markedly if/when/as it comes about - See 'Huge rise in Bristol's population is looming', Bristol Evening Post, 14 June]

I'm also wondering how the government 'ambition' of all new homes being zero carbon by 2016 is to be achieved in practice. Building firms are already warning about the impact of this on the number of houses that can be built. I strongly agree with the ambition but in 2008 Cllr Harrison has had to work very hard over several months to get the council to agree to just 20% renewable energy in new build housing - there seems to be far too little drive here if the zero carbon ambition is to be achieved.

UK Govt seeks delay in meeting tougher air quality standards

I'm a sceptic on EU issues generally but the new EU Directive on Air Quality, which came into force on June 11, is to be very strongly welcomed. Air pollution kills tens of thousands of people every year in the UK (equating to over 100 Bristolians per yr) and seriously reduces quality of life (see here and here for more). Shame on our government for seeking a delay in meeting the new, tougher regulations. How green is that?? Green MEP Jean Lambert is applying pressure and doing good work on this issue.

Get real time information on air pollution in your area of Bristol here. Todays air pollution index for both Wells Rd in Knowle and Bath Rd in Brislington, between which my house is sandwiched, was low by current standards, though it obviously fluctuates and I note that the British Lung Foundation report that even low levels of air pollution increase death risk (see here) !!

Full council wont debate Bristol primary school closures and mergers: what sort of local democracy is that!!

Its outrageous that the issue of reorganising Bristol's primary schools, to create fewer and bigger institutions, is not going before the full council ('We will fight plan to merge Bristol schools', Bristol Evening Post, 17 June). There is plenty of concern (its a really big issue to close some schools and merge others...) and so more discussion and more democratic involvement is fully justified. The debate has for me always been about the council and government putting money before the quality of educational experience - its now an issue of local democracy too.

Sign the online petition to save St George's Primary from closure here:
http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/petition.php?id=192

Visit the St Georges Primary School website: http://www.stgeorgeprimary.ik.org/p_Home.ikml

Sign the online petition to save Stockwood Green Primary here:

http://epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/petition.php?id=195

Visit the Stockwood Green Primary School website: http://www.stockwoodgreen.ik.org/

Wildlife-rich Malago Greenway

Just one piece of evidence (below) showing just how rich in wildlife the Malago Greenway is (its biodiversity is threatened by a possible Bus Rapid Transit route - see 'Bristol Green Route Under Threat', Bristol Evening Post, 6 June). This was posted on malago@yahoogroups.co.uk by Kingfisher Group campaigner Nixie James-Scott (send an email to: malago-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk to join the group and get updates):

I have found and copied the information about the sightings of
the extremely rare Firecrests earlier this year down by the Malago
Greenway behind Cotswold Road. This was on the Rare Bird Alert
website. I myself sat with a pair of them in the garden not more than
a metre away from me watching them dart about in our grape vine.
Others from the Kingfisher group have seen them too. I am going to put
a message on the RBA website to see if any of the birdwatchers who
came to see the Firecrests could send us any of their 'photos. They
also spotted Lesser Redpolls. We have an amazing plethora of birdlife
here including blackcaps, goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, long
tailed tits, blue and great tits also coal tits. We have blackbirds,
wrens, occasional thrushes, house and hedge sparrows, wood pigeons,
collar doves, magpies and crows. Also Mallards and coots nesting on
the banks of the Malago. I'm sure to have missed some out. Then there
are the bats, pipistrelles I think, an amazing variety of moths and
butterflies. Holly Blues and a hawk moth a couple of years ago.
occasionally spotted Kingfishers too of course!
Just thought I'd mention the amazing range of wildlife which would be
made homeless if the area is paved over!
Please let us know of any other (animal!) wildlife you have seen in
the area, ah yes then the foxes...........

Lets hope any BRT route can avoid this rich green space. Previous post on this issue here. New campaign website is http://www.malagogreenway.org.uk/

History of petrol prices

I've been looking into how the real terms cost of petrol has changed over time. The figures in the extract below come from EK Williams, accountants and business advisors. They make interesting reading: £1.85/litre in 1916; £1.16/litre in 1957; £1.02/litre in both 1973 and 1979, (figures indexed to 2007's £...). Comments on the figures and EK Williams view/interpretation most welcome. These things spring out of their comments for me: fuel prices could go even higher; we've been desperate for affordable, high quality public transport for many decades, for transporting people and goods (not news for many people I know!); its vital to our future stability and security of life that we localise our development, supporting local jobs and services in local economies, to minimise the transport costs involved in supplying food and other essentials...



'To take one [admittedly extreme] date: indexed to 2007’s value of the £ sterling, in 1916 a gallon of petrol in the UK cost approximately £8.40 which works out at around £1.85 a litre, and that was before governments had really discovered how much duty and tax they could start putting on the stuff. If that’s too far back, take 1957; ‘only’ fifty years ago, just after the Suez crisis, the UK gallon retailed for £5.26 in today’s money – that’s £1.16 a litre. If that’s still too far back, let’s take a “Life on Mars” trip back to late 1973, around the time of the first modern ‘oil crisis’ following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war; at that point the UK gallon was selling at £4.65 in today’s money, which is equivalent to £1.02 per litre, with a similar figure in 1979 around the time of the US/Iranian Hostage Crisis.'


'Enough history. The fact that today’s fuel prices aren’t uniquely high in real terms doesn’t mean that they won’t bring their own problems. Firstly there’s the general economic impact of fuel pricing; transport costs are an unavoidable necessity for most people, not optional spending. Hence when transport costs go up, and before disposable income has had a chance to follow [i.e. wage inflation..] something has to give. Usually that’ll be retail sales. Some of the big High Street names had already announced their ‘Pre-Christmas Sales’ season in mid-November. A further impact of fuel pricing is due to the fact that virtually all of the goods we buy and sell are transported by road [not that rail or air transport will be immune to oil price rises anyway] and so the cost will go up. Look at that again: customers with less money to spend, suppliers with rising costs; there’s a squeeze somewhere in the middle there – looks like it’s the wholesaler and retailer who’ll be taking the pressure from both directions.'

UK Census 2011: Alert - a liberty issue for all (and one for David Davies??)

Received this today (thanks to Jean for this) and thought it well worth passing on. Wonder if the newly resigned former Shadow Home Secretary David Davies would take up this issue of liberty? Email sent to my MP and local councillors today.

The next UK Census (in 2011), in which participation is compulsory, might be run by an arms company with close links to the United States government, and which also focuses on intelligence and surveillance work. See below for more info.

The decision is now imminent. Sign the petition today: (Deadline to sign up by: 15 June 2008)
Petition on the Downing Street website -

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/census-alert/

What's the problem?
The process of running the 2011 Census will be contracted out by the Office of National Statistics to a private company.

One of the two contractors in the final round of selection is the arms company Lockheed Martin, 80% of whose business is with the US Department of Defence and other Federal Government agencies.

This might concern you because:
The Census rules mean that every household will be legally obliged to provide a wide range of personal information that will be handled by the chosen contractor.

Lockheed Martin produces missiles and land mines which are being used in Afghanistan and Iraq and which are illegal in many countries. They also focus on intelligence and surveillance work and boast of their ability to provide `integrated threat information´ that combines information from many different sources.

New questions in the 2011 Census will include information about income and place of birth, as well as existing questions about languages spoken in the household and many other personal details. This information would be very useful to Lockheed Martin´s intelligence work, and fears that the data might not be safe could lead to many people not filling in their Census forms.

Census Alert is therefore campaigning to stop Lockheed Martin from being given the contract.
The campaign is supported by the Green Party, politicians from Plaid Cymru, Labour and the Scottish National Party, and others opposed to the arms trade and concerned about personal privacy.

We are not opposed to the Census itself. Aggregated, the information collected is important in allocating resources to local authorities and public services. But personal privacy is important too, and we are concerned that Lockheed Martin's involvement could undermine public confidence in the process and lead to inaccurate data being collected. There is still time to stop this happening and we are not calling for a boycott of the Census at this stage.

Before the final decisions on the contract are made, we are asking you to do the following:
*Sign our petition opposing arms company involvement in the Census.Contact your MP and ask them to raise the issue in Parliament.
*Contact your local Councillor and ask them to highlight their concerns about the allocation of local authority resources.

So-called 'major shake-up' of senior Bristol City Council Officers appoints same people to three key posts - shake-up it ain't!

Well said Chris from Stoke Bishop, commenting online on the Bristol Evening Post story 'Senior Brsitol City Council Officers Weather Storm', 12 June. I have considerable sympathy for his general thrust.

The story that 'Three of Bristol City Council's most senior officers have held on to their own or new positions in a major shake-up.' (yes the local paper did say major shake-up!) prompted Chris to say:

'The whole history of this council over the last 40 yrs has been one of incompetence and wastefulness. To reappoint present post-holders who have had nil impact on the general shambles that represents local govnt. in this area is astounding. You only have to look at cities like Leeds and Manchester that have had integrated transport systems in place for years to realise just how porly we are served. They seem more concerned in apologising for our history (not that one is needed) rather than planning for our future. Lets have a publicly elected Chief executive whose ideas and plans would be up for public scrutiny first.'

My own view is that these people are overpaid underachievers who are not looked upon with confidence by Bristol's public (correct me if I'm wrong by commenting on this post). Council leader Helen Holland talks of 'further excellent appointments' which shows how out of touch she is - with regard to these three key appointments the so-called 'major shake-up' has resulted in the same people being employed, so its not a shake-up at all!! A shake-up is definitely needed but this ain't it!!

Severn barrage: not cost-effective (now there's a surprise - NOT!)

The Frontier Economics report into the Severn Barrage is damning ('Severn barrage is the costly option', Bristol Evening Post, 12 June). Statements like 'the barrage is one of the most expensive options for clean energy generation there is' and 'Considerable new evidence would be needed to make a large barrage in the Severn estuary an attractive option' mean that its simply not cost-effective when compared to the range of clean, green energy sources that can be used, including some that could be deployed to harness the tidal energy from the estuary. This should be no great surprise considering the massive, resource intensive and time consuming civil engineering exercise needed to get the barrage, in contrast with the rapidly developing field of new renewable energy technologies. Yes to renewable energy, including tidal energy, but lets have the most appropriate technologies deployed according to a properly planned, cost-effective energy strategy.

I've been plugging away with this message on the barrage for some time now! (see here for a whole string of postings with this very message about the dodgy economics of the barrage in them).

Sustainable living: an essential not a luxury add-on

‘Sustainable living is all very well, but people also have to get on with living their lives’ concluded Bristol Evening Post feature writer Suzanne Savill’s piece about alternatives to petrol and diesel (‘Think about it’, Bristol Evening Post's Seven Magazine p3, June 7 2008). This is an illogical, contradictory statement since if we don’t live our lives sustainably we will not be able to ‘get on with living’ them. The ‘alternative’ to sustainable living is one that by definition cannot be continued ie its unsustainable.

Her statement sounds to me like a denial of problems that are real, serious, and urgent, like peak oil production and climate change, which are inseparable from soaring food and fuel prices. Best science and economics tells us we have to adjust and adapt our lives, which means fully embracing sustainability’s key concepts: efficiency; renewability; environmental limits; meeting needs; fairness here and around the globe, for both present and future generations.

Sustainability is not an add-on luxury, its an essential – though our government has failed to lead on this, get this message across and make it easier for people to make practical, sustainable choices.

Craziness of axing bus routes - how does this encourage bus use??

Axing bus routes seems a crazy idea (some have been 'saved' but others axed, 'Bristol bus routes saved from closure', Bristol Evening Post, 10 June). Aren't we supposed to be encouraging people to get out of their cars and on to buses etc ? Axing routes will make it less convenient for people to get on the bus. My goodness, all this comes at a time when its been proposed that new bus routes are built over or next to green spaces like the Malago Greenway (and before that the most popular cycle path in the UK!!). First are a million miles away from running the bus 'service' as a proper public service in the public interest. Lets take buses out of private company hands.

Make the green switch

Some useful green tips, tools and links here:

http://www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/

Price of diesel reaches £1.30/litre in Bristol....

I've been giving my reaction online to the news that the price of diesel in the Bristol area has reached £1.30 per litre ('Dismay as diesel rockets to £1.30', Bristol Evening Post, 9 June). We should have been weaning ourselves off all oil products for decades now via very large scale investment in: energy efficiency; public transport, walking, cycling; support for local economic development; renewable energy; research into alternative fuels... Given that previous Tory and Labour Governments have made green claims one would have thought this would have been done but it hasn't. Now the security, stability and affordability of our lives has not been assured as a result of this inaction. It does not look to me like fossil fuel (and food) prices can have anything but an upward trend over time as the scarcity of this finite resource can only grow.

Those who for example react to describe not living close to work and being poorly serviced by buses/trains correctly highlight two aspects of the issue that need to be addressed very urgently (and that we should have begun addressing at least two/three decades ago when greens were, as now, advocating localised development etc). Having said that, whilst I appreciate the individual circumstances some people are in, there are many who could choose a greener alternative (nearly half of all car journeys are less than 2 miles long).

Government has completely failed to make it easier and more convenient for people to make green choices however and so they need to take the lion's share of the blame here. Re-allocate just a quarter of the road budget and in ten years we could build light rail systems in eight cities, create 10,000 people-friendly home zones, put £4 billion into cutting train and bus fares, £1 billion into rural transport and another billion into transport for disabled people. Add to that safe routes to all our schools and colleges and tens of thousands of new jobs and it's money well spent (see here for more detail of green transport policies).

Another green route threatened by bus rapid transit proposals

Here we go again, its just like the nonsense and now dead proposal to run buses down the Bristol to Bath Cyclepath/Railway Path - green space, wildlife, cyclists, walkers, along the Malago Greenway ie all that's ecological, could lose out due to a proposed Bus Rapid Transit route ruining it ('Bristol green route under threat', Bristol Evening Post, 6 June). Find more rational routes, consider modes of tranport, like Ultra Light Rail, much more fully, consider turning existing road space over to public transport. Its irrational to diminish what is greenest in this way.

The fight to save Bristol primary schools...

Another campaign to save a Bristol primary school (in addition to the Stockwood Green campaign publicised recently), this time at St Georges C of E ('Campaign to save Bristol School is launched', Bristol Evening Post, 6 June, 2008). Very good luck to them. For the council to shut some primary schools and merge others to create fewer and bigger schools is shortsighted and driven primarily by financial considerations. It should be the quality of education that comes first - and its a case of small is beautiful on that score because each child gets more individualised attention and teacher-pupil-parent relationships are likely to be closer. Where is the council taking account of the ecology of the interrelationships ?

Biofuels, food prices, biodiversity, Spiderman, meat - or the connection between them all??

I've wondered, should I decide to post today, world environment day, just what I would write about.

Perhaps the latest warnings about biofuels causing higher world food prices as discussed at the UN food summit in Rome, featuring strongly on the BBC news this evening?

Or the recent report 'The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)', described as the first major report to outline the economic impact of cutting the variety of life (severe impacts on the worlds poorest and costs of up to £40 billion every year, 7% global GDP decline by 2050 if ecosystem damage is not tackled...) ?

How about saying that Alain Robert, the French Spiderman, has today been in New York City climbing a huge skyscraper to promote the message that we need real leadership on climate change from the G8 countries meeting next month (According to him "The Solution Is Simple":
1 – Stop Cutting Down Trees. Plant More Trees. 2 – Make Everything Energy Efficient. 3 – Only Make Clean Energy.).

I'm conscious that I've not posted much on the subject of diet and environmental impacts, in particular the amount and type of meat eaten, so perhaps something on this topic, reasonably well discussed on Newsnight a few days ago following comments from the head of the UN climate agency, Yvo de Boer, who is attending UN-led climate talks in Germany this week that we should all become vegetarians. After all in times of high food prices should we, at great environmental cost, be feeding grain to cows and pigs instead of people?? I really like meat but its a highly inefficient food to produce and consume and I acknowledge the very strong ethical, ecological, economic and health case for vegetarianism and veganism (I try to keep my meat consumption right down - I'm not a veggie).

Interesting how intimately intertwined issues of environment, energy, economics, food, climate and personal choices/behaviour are isn't it.

Knowle sustainability and quality of life group: success!

As you may have noticed in the right hand column my pledge to start a group called the Campaign for the Achievement of a Sustainable Knowle (CASK) has succeeded in reaching its target of 10 people, though of course more can still sign up! We will continue to spread the word (any locals interested in helping or finding out more please email me!), meet up as a group asap and make some initial plans. Many thanks to the people who have signed up in support, to work on areas like: lobbying for far better, cheaper public transport; much better cycling and pedestrian provision; protecting, enhancing and if possible increasing Knowle's open, green, natural spaces; pushing for the retention and improvement of locally available facilities, services, and jobs; education for sustainable living; promoting local energy saving and the micro-generation of energy; arguing for more local, ethical and organic food availability; encouraging home and allotment grown food; people taking personal responsibility to be more environmentally-friendly; and promoting broad based public participation in community life.

http://www.pledgebank.com/

http://www.pledgebank.com/yesCASK