Fight Foster Island

Looks like Boris Isalnd is being reborn as Foster Island.

Posted the following to the KM comments:

There will be falling demand for flights in the future, fuel prices are rising and will continue to rise keeping demand at bay.

Plus, not sure if people have heard of climate change but flying is a significant contributor. Do people want a planet for their children?

If people are concerned about jobs, then camapign for jobs in renewable energy such as tidal which the Medway and Thames Estuaries are perfectly shaped for.

I will fight any proposal for airport expansion.

Rebels against VW

Turn VW away from the Dark Side:



New campaign from Greenpeace and it's not even May 4th

Fracking Dover

According to the BBC: "Coastal Oil and Gas Ltd, based in Mid Glamorgan, wants permission to drill an exploratory borehole at Woodnesborough to test coal and shale for gas. The company said it mainly wanted to extract methane from coal, but did not rule out shale extraction in future."

Kent News have covered the story as well: "Plans for a firm to explore the possibility of mining gas from a site near Dover has been slammed by the Green Party amid claims it could lead to the use of a highly controversial method blamed for sparking earthquakes."


Appalling news. Let's hope that KCC turn down their application, but they don't have a very good reputation for protecting the land against mineral extraction. Given the concerns about earthquakes, let alone the fact that extracting more fossil fuels is simply wrong, East Kent really doesn't need this.

Highest ever carbon emissions

Obama visited Joplin yesterday, the American town that was hit by the worst tornado the US has seen in 60 years and while individual events can't be directly linked to climate change I am sick of stating that the general pattern of climate change predicts increasingly extreme events. The International Energy Agency have been shocked by the rise in carbon emissions in 2010, a six per cent rise from 2009, and they say the goal of keeping temperature rises below 2C is all but lost. That is utterly disastrous for the planet and the people.

Do our politicians care? Last week the Energy and Climate Change Committee decided not to call a moritorium on shale gas, despite it having potentially more carbon emissions than coal. Caroline Lucas remains a voice of reason in parliament: "Given the serious concerns outlined in this report, it is astonishing that the Energy and Climate Change Committee fails to reach the logical conclusion of recommending a moratorium on shale gas. Dismissing concerns, for example, on the grounds that UK regulations are stronger than in the States, while taking a ‘wait and see' approach here is highly irresponsible."

So much for Cameron's greenest government ever. Let's have 400 more Carolines elected to parliament.

Greenest gov't - I doubt it

The papers are full of the deal that Chris Huhne has done with Osbourn and Cable to agree carbon reductions and he should be congratulated for that. The Campaign against Climate Change have been quick to point out:

1. The Committee on Climate Change recommends an increase in the use of biofuels which will do more harm than good.
2. The Committee’s recommendations do not take into account the effective outsourcing of a large proportion of UK emissions to countries like China to feed our increased demand for consumer goods.
3. In the light of the latest science, the targets enshrined in the Climate Act are inadequate. This is what those at the sharp end of scientific research into climate change are saying, like Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre who says we need something more like 10% cuts a year, or James Hansen who heads the climate research effort at NASA who says that 2 degrees of warming is too dangerous.

In addition to CCC's issues, my concerns are firstly that the coalition are not going to be around long enough to accept responsibility for not achieving this (after this parliament they will be out of power for a generation), therefore they can make the type of hollow promises that we have come to expect of them, secondly, they don't really understand the nature of the threat and thirdly, even if Huhne wanted to deliver on the promises the whole Tory principle is geared towards growth without regard.

I do hope they can make the quick and sustained reductions that are essential for long term survival but I just don't believe they get it.

Round up

Had a day off campaigning - almost. Quick round up of recent stuff:

• Sweeps Festival started today. Folk, morris and ale to celebrate May Day / Beltaine - had a great time. Will be at the 'Awakening Jack in the Green' ceremony at 5:30am tomorrow, not a bad festival for a council to put on - shame Maidstone have nothing similar.
• Gave out some leaflets with Medway Greens at Sweeps and had a row with Medway Labour who refused to remove their stall even though they had not booked a place and were asked to do so by the council.
• Christiania is under threat. Went there is 1992 - superb place, don't want to see it turned into modern apartments but that's what you get with a Liberal / Conservative government.
• Tornados in the US have killed hundreds while in the UK the lack of rain in Kent is making my garden suffer.

FFS!

Quote of the week has to go to Monbiot: "The government also plans to introduce what it calls a Fair Fuel Stabiliser. This policy might be blessed with the best abbreviation since the proposed City University of Newcastle-on-Tyne was rechristened, but it’s likely to ensure that demand remains strong."

My colleague Steve was arguing on the Politics Show why fuel duty should not be reduced and I think the events in the Middle East are just the latest in a long line of reasons stretching from climate change to sustainability to health.

I fully accept that the impact of high prices are felt on the less well off but this can be dealt with fairly simply by personal tradeable carbon quotas. A cap on carbon use across the country with fair share access to oil/gas/coal would mean that people who use less than their equal share could sell their excess quota to others, offsetting the cost of lower amounts of carbon that they have used, FFS!

Pete Postlethwaite RIP

A sad day. A massively inspiring figure who stood in front of Ed Milliband and threatened to give his OBE back to the Queen if Labour agreed for dirty coal at Kingsnorth to go ahead. That is a moment I'll never forget.

Go 4 mins in for the speech:

December 2010 weather and climate

We all know that weather and climate are different with climate informing patterns of weather rather than causing specific events. The denier trolls have pounded their drums for many years about the weather disproving climate change and therefore there is no reason to curb emissions. Well those of us with half a brain know that just because it snows doesn't mean that climate change is a myth.

So spare a thought for those caught in the freak weather so far this winter. Kent managed to get snowed under at the start of December costing the local economy £millions apparently. Of course we had it easy compared to the Australians who are experiencing the worst flooding for 50 years. In the Eastern Mediterranean the long drought gave was to a huge storm.  Russia failed to cope with the freezing rain and the US has thundersnow last week.

Thanks to the inaction of governments, the power of the corporations and the idiot trolls we can expect more and more freak weather events, more deaths through climate change (already at 300,000 per year). Thanks to these people, the poor will suffer the most.

Population Offsets vs Childcatching

I remember Derek Wall suggesting that carbon offsets were as ludicrous as nicotine offsets which would be paying someone in the developing world not to smoke so that you can smoke yourself.

So where does this leave population offsets? Akin to childcatching? The Optimum Population Trust is running a Population Offset scheme to clear the consciences of people who want to fly by allowing them to contribute to population reduction in developing countries.

The theory is that reducing the population will reduce the impact of people on the planet - a fairly straightforward statement so far, if a little unpalletable. The concept then goes on to suggest that this can be acheived by promoting reproductive health programmes where women don't currently have access to them - again, fairly straightforward and this part is worthwhile:

"We use all donated funds less minimal/unavoidable costs for directly supporting family planning and wider reproductive health programs, and sex and relationships education to help to meet, in particualr, the needs of over 200 million women worldwide who do not have access to family planning."

The problem comes when you add 2 and 2 and end up with 6. The population that is causing the real damage to the ecosystem is right here, not in the poorer areas of Africa or Asia. Providing condoms to those areas is must do but it won't help the planet. The climate is being destroyed now by us, not by the poor in a couple of generations time.

Having a scheme that lets us get away with keeping the status quo is as bizarre as it is dangerous, but this scheme is even more dangerous as it will have an even bigger impact if it fails. Giving people a conscience easing solution will let them keep their heads in the sand. Of course if you really want to reduce the population globally, focussing reductions on poorer nations then the thing to do is to keep flying, buy the Hummer, get a couple more patio heaters, open the doors and windows in winter and emit as much CO2 as you can.

It is the poorer people that are suffering the most. Forget the recent anoyance of the snow in the UK, forget the current disruption in the US and Russia - drought, storms and rising sea levels will reduce the population much more quickly than a family planning programme ever could.

Not quite childcatching then, but a whole lot worse.

November is the hottest month

Nasa have just updated their record of global temperatures and November 2010 was the hottest November globally, ever. The period Dec 09 to Nov 10 was the hottest Dec to Nov period ever and in about 30 days we will find out whether 2010 is the hottest year ever. Even hot and cold years globally aren't enough to show climate change, you need to look at decades and 2001 to 2010 is already the hottest by a country mile.

The higher than normal November temperatures seem to be focussed in the north across everywhere except Europe as can be seen on NASA's interactive map.

It's not just NASA, this is from the World Meterolical Organisation: "The year 2010 is almost certain to rank in the top three warmest years since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850. And 2001-2010 is the warmest ten-year period on record."

Sadly, Cancun / COP16 has just agreed a weak agreement that simply won't get anywhere near the level of action needed to counter climate change.

If you thought the ConDems weren't interested in climate change...

There have been rumblings over the past few months about the lack of emphasis that the Tories and Lib Dems are putting on climate change. For example:

• Support for coal
• DECC under threat of closure
• Deep water drilling in the UK
• Timber and renewables pledges dropped

While this is hardly suprising given that Lib Dems have only ever been interested in winning elections and saying anything that appears popular, and the Tories - well are Tories... Anyway they have been too busy slashing and burning government (despite the UK having a lower national debt than France and Germany) to worry about a burning world. Sadly, it seems that Labour are following in their footsteps.

Personally, I thought Ed Miliband was OK as climate change secretary, but now as leader of the Labour Party he has appointed Meg Hillier as his Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary. Jim @ The Daily (Maybe) has suggested that we take a look at her voting record which you can see at Public Whip which I've summarised this below.

Her record is pretty damning, you'll need to scroll down for her climate change record as I've left in other interesting records. If you want action on climate change, you won't find it in any of the big three.

65%	Abortion, Embryology and Euthanasia- Against
100%	American imperialist hegemony: welcome (provisional)
100%	Asylum seekers: no rights (provisional)
58%	Asylum System - More strict (provisional)
17%	Big Business - against (provisional)
0%	British Humanist (provisional)
83%	Cambridge Liberal Conservative (provisional)
0%	Civil aviation pollution - For limiting
47%	Common Sense Party (provisional)
97%	Control Orders
100%	Crossrail - In favour
0%	Current Attitudes towards Climate Change (provisional)
0%	Faith schools: abolish (provisional)
99%	Fast-track planning (provisional)
0%	Identity cards - Against introduction (provisional)
100%	Identity cards - For introduction
100%	Identity Cards - In favour (provisional)
3%	Iraq Investigation - Necessary
25%	Jury trials: sacrosanct (provisional)
50%	Legalise all adult consensual sex (provisional)
100%	Mental health- easier detention + forced treatment (provisional)
100%	Military expansion - Favour (provisional)
85%	Ministers Can Intervene in Coroners' Inquests
0%	No to ID Cards (provisional)
100%	Nuclear power - For
70%	Parliamentary scrutiny - Reduce
21%	Parliamentary scrutiny - Strengthen (provisional)
100%	Post office - in favour of Government policy
0%	Post office closures - against
100%	Prisons and probation services: Privatise (provisional)
100%	Pro American Pro War and Anti-Euro Party (provisional)
14%	Pro Science and technology (provisional)
9%	Pro-human rights, pro-democracy (provisional)
5%	Pro-Liberty (provisional)
25%	Proportional Representation (provisional)
1%	Referendum on Alternative Vote for MP Elections (provisional)
0%	Referendum on Equal Constituency Sizes (provisional)
0%	Referendum on Europe (provisional)
100%	Remove Hereditary Peers from the House of Lords
11%	Renationalisation of public services (provisional)
0%	Right to strike (provisional)
23%	Schools - Greater Autonomy
0%	Selective schools: abolish (provisional)
38%	Stop climate change
78%	Supports Government Budgets (provisional)
29%	Taxation - For Progressive Taxation (provisional)
33%	Taxes - Favour decreases (provisional)
25%	Taxes - Favour increases (provisional)
50%	Temporary and agency workers: Equal rights (provisional)
94%	Termination of pregnancy - against
0%	Terrorism laws - Against (provisional)
100%	Terrorism laws - For
0%	The UK should not ratify the Lisbon Treaty
50%	Transparency of Parliament
83%	Trident replacement - In favour
92%	Trust schools: For (provisional)
47%	Vote 'aye' on every division in October 2007 (provisional)
50%	Voting age - Reduce to 16
0%	War - Parliamentary authority not necessary

People, Food, Land and Power

The connections between people, food, land and power form the basis of good green philosophy. Climate change is having disasterous effects around the globe, with a phenomenally high number of extreme weather events, none of which in isolation could be blamed on climate change but taken as a whole and in the knowledge that 2010 is the hottest year ever so far, the blame for these events can be laid firmly at the door of climate change. Johann Hari's excellent expose of denialist thinking last month spells this out more clearly than I could possibly do.

Food is one area where climate change will hit. Common Dreams has a useful take on Mozambique and its food riots, from the perspetive of global commodity markets and their impact on hunger for the poorest people:

But to see how climate change will play out in the 21st century, you needn't look to the Met Office. Look, instead, to the deaths and burning tyres in Mozambique's "food riots" to see what happens when extreme natural phenomena interact with our unjust economic systems. The immediate causes of the protests in Mozambique's capital, Maputo, and Chimoio about 500 miles north, are a 30% price increase for bread, compounding a recent double-digit increase for water and energy. When nearly three-quarters of the household budget is spent on food, that's a hike few Mozambicans can afford. Deeper reasons for Mozambique's price hike can be found a continent away. Wheat prices have soared on global markets over the summer in large part because Russia, the world's third largest exporter, has suffered catastrophic fires in its main production areas.

Understanding the relationship between people and their environment is essential in green thinking, but we need to look beyond the immediate environment and consider the wider impacts of politics and economics. Global markets are driving the price of food beyond the reach of the poor while the rich get fatter.

Triple crunch starting to bite

The triple crunch of the economy, climate and resource depletion is starting to kick in.

While the Indy report that food price inflation is set to hit 4% by the end of the year in the UK, in Pakistan food prices have quadrupled in days. The impact of the devastating effect of climate change and commodity prices will be felt everywhere, but especially by the poor.

The only way to solve the triple crunch is through equality, reduced consumption and respect for our planet. Sadly, most political masters across the world can't see this or don't want this.

Climate change - 76 months

76 months to prevent catastrophic climate chaos: "Last month we reported new world record temperatures around the globe, including Pakistan at 53.7 degrees Celsius, 129 degrees fahrenheit.". Spring was the hottest on record, globally, by a mile.

Aside from the wildfires in Russia, the floods in Pakistan and China, a massive chunk of Greenland's ice has broken off: "The ice island has an area of 260sq km and a thickness up to half the height of the Empire State Building."

What are the world's governments doing? Bugger all. 


What are the ConDems doing? Bugger all.


From the Guardian: "It is a marker of how far the environment has slipped down the public agenda in this country that neither David Cameron nor Nick Clegg has said anything of note on the subject since forming a government, while not long ago they did fierce battle for the title of greenest party leader."

Growth, jobs and debt

A couple of years on, 23,000 job losses, 84% stake by taxpayers has provided a modest £1.1bn profit for RBS. Other banks are returning to their modest profits, Barclays: £4bn; Lloyds: £1.6bn; and so on.

Meanwhile unemplyement has soared by 3% (to 8%, i.e. risen by 60%) and the country's total debt is around £4 trillion. £1.5 trillion is in personal debt - money that you and I owe to the banks most mortagages (£1.2 trillion).

This is from Credit Action: "Average household debt in the UK is ~ £8,650 (excluding mortgages). This figure increases to £18,021 if the average is based on the number of households who actually have some form of unsecured loan."

GDP has increased by around 50% in the past 10 years and our ConDemLab parties all want it to continue to rise for ever. For GDP to rise we need to consume more, spend more and borrow more. Our UK consumption levels already mean that if the whole world consumed the way we do, we would need a couple more planets to live on.


The solution will have to be radical.

Personal debt is crippling but driven by our perceived needs and the way that the economy is structured. Capitalism continues to drive the wealth to the few and provide bail outs when necessary. The austerity cuts are driving inequality upwards and moving us towards a double dip recession which will push unemployment higher. And of course consumption is slowly killing us all.

There are good groups of people with the right type of ideas. This is from the people at the climate camp who are outside RBS this month:

Russia's wildfires 'unlucky'

Last night on the BBC News 24 channel a Russian was interviewed and stated that Russia had been 'unlucky' with the weather this summer. As he spoke the scrolling headline at the bottom of the screen talked about BP's capping of the well - while individiual weather events can't be put down to digging up the carbon and pumping it into the air, I do wonder how many times people are going to be able to keep the two issues distinct.

Currently reading 'The Handbook of Sustainable Literacy' which mentioned the same effect. It talked of how a recent Sunday paper carried an advert for a 4x4 SUV driving through a flood proclaiming it to be a solution for adverse weather. The ad fails to mention the CO2 that is driving climate chaos. 

Finally, hats off to Clarkson and co for pointing out the fallacy of the scrappage scheme by talking about the embodied energy in the scrapped cars last night (n.b. I don't watch Top Gear, just caught a snippet).

UN report on climate change was 'one sided' says right wing press

UN report on climate change was 'one sided' was the front page headline in today's The Times (no longer available online without subscription) which struck me as strange as the equivalent Guardian headline reported: "Review of questioned IPCC report says conclusions 'well-founded'".

As the Guardian talks about the serious consequences of climate change that the review has suggested, The Times focussed on positive benefits that were ignored. The Guardian talks about these too :"ignored positive impacts such as the ability to grow new crops in some parts of the world, or opening of shorter Arctic sea routes" but I have to question whether a reduction in artic sea ice is really a benefit or whether it is a tipping point and feedback loop!

The difference in spin and emphasis between left and right wing press never fails to amaze me. Sadly the majority of our press is right wing. Sadly the public never get a balanced view of the world around us.

Cruel Britannia

More right wing imperialism killing people in India.

In the 19th Century it was the British bringing starvation to millions - despite what Niall Ferguson may claim. He has been appointed to rewrite history for the ConDems. Expect our children to have to learn how great the British Empire was, rather than the enslavement and death of fellow human beings that was the reality. Oh well, Orwell said that governments would rewrite history. Double speak anyone?

In the 21st century, it is the actions of the carbon emitters, i.e. the west again, that are killing people. India is suffering its worst heatwave on record. No wonder when global temperature averages are through the roof and last month was the highest April ever.

Meanwhile, Kent County Council continues to back road building and airport expansion. It's alright though, they are gonna give away £10k to some 'green' projects to make up for it. Gosh that's almost enough to employ someone for 6 months - that will really make a difference.

HT: Johann Hari

April 2010 was the hotest April

April is the cruelest month, well April 2010 was hotest April ever. Data on global temperature averages from Nasa is available here. You can never pick on one point and claim it proves anything, but as everyone who is following the climate problem knows, we must look at the trends. Never the less, it is always worrying when another record is broken.

Correlating the temperature evidence with the changing world around us also helps embed our understanding of the reality of climate change. News yesterday of the first pair of purple herons nesting in the UK (down un Dungeness in Kent), is exciting but worrying as this quote from the BBC explains:

"Experts believe purple herons, which have struggled in Europe in recent decades, are one of the species likely to set up home in southern Britain as climate change pushes wildlife further north."