bemoreeco

In the first-ever green think tank for children in the UK, manufacturers and retailers have been urged to do away with unnecessary packaging on games and toys.

The message came the youngsters attending the summit sponsored by British Gas, called Our Planet, Our Say. The event saw the launch of a new schoolchildren’s eco-group that represents more than 9,500 schools.

The think tank, made up of 20 of the schoolchildren chosen as the “greenest”, spent a day at Closed Loop Recycling plant in East London. Members discussed recycling issues and the part recycling plays in climate change and energy usage.

By the time the group concluded its discussions, it identified three policies to tackle energy wastage that it felt should be supported by the UK government.

All of the children involved agreed that new games and toys should be sold either with no packaging materials or have packaging significantly reduced. In addition, they urged soft drink companies to begin using only clear plastic bottles, which would reduce the energy required in bottle manufacturing and recycling.

The government was also advised to introduce more recycling bins and facilities in city centre, parks and other public spaces.

For more information on this article please visit www.clickgreen.org.uk.

If you love The Mupperts then you will love this advert they did in the 80’s. Kermit, Fozzie and even Miss Piggy lend a hand to help the earth in this NWF short film from the 1980s.

On Monday 8th June, the second Eco-Rally headed it started, driving from Brighton’s seafront to the waterfront at London’s City Hall. The finish was timed to coincide with the conclusion of the LowCVP conference, and before the start of the WhatCar? Green Awards ceremony.

All kinds of alternative technologies participated in this rally: from mild hybrids to EVs, diesels to hydrogen.

The eco-rally started from Madeira Drive in Brighton and there was a pit-stop at Sainsbury’s supermarket flagship eco store in Greenwich before arriving at City Hall in London. There, the crew was met by London’s mayor, Boris Johnson.

Drivers included the following;

• Lord Bassam of Brighton (Chief Whip)
• Zac Goldsmith
• Oliver Heath
• Carl Honore
• Sean Hughes
• Jenny Jones AM (Green Party)
• Robert Llewellyn
• Penney Poyzer
• Tracey Smith
• Lucy Siegle
• John Surtees
• Iwan Tukalo (ex international rugby player)
• Quentin Willson
• Paul Zenon

Forty eco vehicles are on display at City Hall, half of which took part in this year’s Eco-Rally. 90% are from the world’s major car brands and many of the cars and/or components are designed and built in Britain. The remainder are British innovation firms.

Pictures from Revolve

Check the photos on flickr by James Mcdonald

Revolve Eco Rally promo video

Consumers will come to expect “labelling” to indicate the environmental and social impact of holidays, TUI Travel head of sustainable development Jane Ashton has predicted.  Other industries, such as food, are already putting information on their products about CO2 as well as about fairtrade, she said.

Speaking at the WTM Vision Conference, she said: “Other industries are addressing these issues in product labelling; so our customers are going to expect carbon and social impact and other tourism labelling.”

In TUI’s own research, only about half of 25 airlines surveyed currently report their carbon footprint. Carbon labelling would highlight efficiencies of individual airlines, she added. She predicted a change in the next decade. “Carbon labelling on flights might well be something we see on flights in the next ten years,” she said.

Ashton admitted holidaymakers were not currently demanding that travel companies take a sustainable approach, but she said: “I think they are increasingly expecting it and they do value it.”

Research by the Concerned Consumer Index in January showed 62% of people wanted to take a more ecologically-friendly holiday. The expectation is that travel companies will address sustainabiltity issues, she added. “People feel that when they go on holiday they do not want to deprive themselves of the enjoyment of the holiday. They expect the company to address the issues on their behalf.”

It is “highly dubious” whether holidaymakers will pay for companies to take a sustainable approach, she said. Only around one in three are currently paying a small contribution on bookings towards carbon offsetting through schemes such as the Travel Foundation.

Meanwhile, she warned that travel companies will be forced to take a more responsible view on their carbon footprint under the UK Carbon Reduction Committment legislation next year.

“We will have to become more carbon savvy and large corporates will be under a lot of pressure to reveal carbon data,” she said.

The End of the Line film will premier tomorrow (8th June) at cinemas across the UK and US.

The End of the Line is a powerful film about one of the world’s most disturbing problems - over-fishing. Advances in fishing technology mean whole species of wild fish are under threat and the most important stocks we eat are predicted to be in a state of collapse by 2050. 

The film points the finger at those most to blame, including celebrity chefs, and shows what we can do about it. This is not just a film, it is also a campaign - for sustainable consumption of fish, for marine protected areas to allow the sea to recover, and for a new ethic of responsible fishing.

www.endoftheline.com

Louise Gray from the Telegraph writing that Ten Danson predicts that a new film about the overfishing of the oceans will turn ordinary consumers into activists against eating endangered species of fish.

Described as the “Inconvenient Truth of the Oceans”, the End of the Line warns that if overfishing continues, there will be no more seafood by 2048 – threatening many areas of the world with starvation. In the new film former Daily Telegraph journalist Charles Clover confronts the politicians who have failed to stop overfishing and the celebrity restaurateurs who continue to serve endangered species like bluefin tuna.

At one point it is revealed that restaurant chain Nobu, whose customers have included Brad Pitt and Kate Moss, has repeatedly refused to stop serving bluefin although it now advises diners the dish is “environmentally challenged”.

Ted Danson, the Cheers actor and founder of Oceana, the largest international group focused solely on ocean conservation, predicted the film will make ordinary people so angry they will be turned into activists against non sustainably-sourced fish.

The film, selected for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, features indigenous fishermen, top scientists and campaigners all around the world, from the coasts of Senegal to the Tokyo fish market and Senegal.

Mr Danson said more people need to be made aware of the threat of overfishing. “This is not the environmental alarmist. We, conceivably could fish out our oceans in the next 40 or 50 years,” he said. “This is science.”

The End of the Line will premiered at cinemas across the UK on World Ocean Day on the 8th June.

Using the monthly mean data for atmospheric CO2 (Mauna Loa Observatory), the editor of this report calculated the 10 year average rate of change for year-over-year March CO2 in parts per million (ppm):

April 10, 2009  

Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii  (USA)   Atmospheric CO2 reached 388.79 parts per million (ppm) in the month of March 2009, according to scientific data released a few hours ago by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States. At the same monitoring location, atmospheric CO2 was 385.96 ppm in March 2008. 

Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas that fuels global warming and climate change.  The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased year-over-year every March since the 1958 start of the first continuous, high-precision instrument measurements.  

Atmospheric CO2 data 

Rate of increase  

Using the March mean data for atmospheric CO2 (Mauna Loa Observatory), the editor of this report calculated the 10 year average rate of year-over-year change in parts per million (ppm):

The ultimate objective

The Ùnited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol were created with the ultimate objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.  

Governments, companies and people are working worldwide with an express objective of reducing carbon emissions.  These aims and steps are accomplished in different ways, but for the purpose of stabilizing CO2 at a safe level in the atmosphere.  Atmoshperhic levels are an essential reference point for any discussion of emissions reductions and emissions reductions commitments.  

What the data shows

The data in this report shows that atmospheric CO2 has been rising year after year.  It also shows that the rise of atmospheric CO2 is accelerating from decade to decade.  This means that the chief greenhouse gas is less stable than ever, and a future worsening of the consequences such as global warming, climate destabilization and ocean acidification.  When representatives of 192 countries meet in Copenhagen in December 2009 to agree on a replacement for the expiring Kyoto Protocol, a climate treaty is needed that can actually stabilize CO2 at a safe level.  

How CO2Now.org  is helping

In 2009, most public discussions and media reports focus is on emissions reductions.  It is rare for emissions reductions to be presented in the context of what level of reductions is needed to stabilize CO2 at a safe level in the atmosphere.  CO2Now.org helps to fill a societal gap by making atmospheric CO2 easy to find, watch and share with others.  It also helps by drawing atmospheric CO2 into the centre of the climate policy discourse.

Here are some ways that you can help bring atmospheric levels into plain view: 

Climate Time

“If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”

  Rajendra Pachauri

  Scientist, Economist and Chairman of the Nobel-winning International Panel on Climate Change  NY Times | November 2007 

At denialism blog we have identified five routine tactics that should set your pseudo-science alarm bells ringing. Spotting them doesn’t guarantee an argument is incorrect – you can argue for true things badly – but when these are the arguments you hear, be on your guard.

• First is the assertion of a conspiracy to suppress the truth. This conspiracy invariably fails to address or explain the data or observation but only generates more unexplained questions.
• The second tactic is selectivity, or cherry-picking the data. Creationists classically would quote scientists out of context to suggest they disagreed with evolution. Global warming denialists similarly engage in this tactic, harping on about long discredited theories and the medieval warming period ad nauseum. But these instances are too numerous and tedious to go into in depth.
• Instead, let’s talk about the third tactic, the use of fake experts, where both creationists and global warming denialists truly shine. Creationists have their Dissent from Darwin list of questionable provenance. Similarly, global warming denialist extraordinaire has his list of climate scientists who disagree with global warming.
• The fourth tactic – moving goalposts or impossible expectations – is the tendency to refuse to accept when denialists’ challenges to the science have been addressed. Instead, they just come up with new challenges for you to prove before they say they’ll believe the theory. Worse, they just repeat their challenges over and over again ad nauseum.
• Finally, the fifth tactic is the catch-all of logical fallacies. You know you’ve heard them. Al Gore is fat! His house uses lots of energy! Evolutionary biologists are mean! God of the gaps, reasoning by analogy, ad hominem, you name it, these arguments, while emotionally appealing, have no impact on the validity of the science.

Source & full article ; The Guardian

Founded in 2006, Sustained is a printed magazine and online community. It’s an independent, upbeat, fun, cool-but-not-trendy, light-hearted and non-pretentious group, covering all the topics that surround sustainability - and what’s more it’s FREE! 

The printed magazine is distributed via local networks of organic vegetable boxes and shops, farmers markets, libraries, venues and events across the UK.

The latest issue of Sustained is out now. In Issue 8 you will find features on sustainable design for the future, community food growing, how to make a quilt, ‘Lisa Loves’ a GM debate, how to manage without money, the water trade, things to do and places to go, Trevor Baylis, Satish Kumar, do-it-yourself fashion and more.

They’re always on the lookout for new stockists so if you know an independent vegetable box scheme, organic shop or market trader, they can send FREE copies of the publication for all of their customers!

All you need to do is ask your local wholefood shop to order copies of Sustained for you from their suppliers with their next food order (they are delivered free of charge and come in bundles of 50).  National wholefood suppliers that distribute Sustained are the Suma, Essential and the Rainbow Wholefood co-operatives. If your local shop chooses to order from Suma there’s a catalogue code they can use – BK820.

Then just return a few days later and collect you copies. And if you have an event where you’d like to give them out just get in touch.

To view the magazine online and have a quick read before you order go to http://issuu.com/sustained

Sustained: small change - big difference…

An environmental protester, named by activists as Leila Deen, has attacked Peter Mandelson, the Business Secretary, throwing green ‘custard’ in his face.

The attack came as Lord Mandelson arrived at the launch of the Government’s low carbon economy summit in London on Friday morning.  Leila Deen, an activist from the campaign group Plane Stupid, was behind the stunt, according to the group. The protest was part of an ongoing campaign against the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport.  After the incident, Lord Mandelson said: “She was so busy throwing what seemed like green soup or something in my face that she failed to tell me what the protest was about but, as you can see, thankfully is wasn’t paint and I’ve come through it intact”.

Miss Deen, originally from Brighton, said later that the substance she threw at the minister was custard, which had green colouring added to it.

“Peter Mandelson is trying to say he doesn’t know what it was about, but as I threw it I said ‘This is for the third runway’.

“He knows he is in bed with business, working against the interests of the climate and the people of this country.

“He was trying to make political capital out of this summit but we are just not prepared to let him get away with it.”

She told BBC News: “It is a lighthearted way of making a very serious point. All of our MPs have let us down.

“I don’t want to wake up early to throw green custard over Peter Mandelson. But something has to protect our children’s future”.

She added: “We know that Mandelson is best buddies with BAA’s top lobbyist Roland Rudd, and reports suggest it was him who bullied [Energy Secretary] Ed Miliband into accepting a third runway. We can’t let the Prince of Darkness cast his shadow over west London.”

Miss Deen has been an activist for several different campaigns since her days at Leeds University, where she read development studies and politics. Gordon Taylor, who lives next door to her family home in Valley Drive, Brighton, said: “I think her mother would be proud.

“Nothing surprises me these days. We rarely see Leila since she left home to attend university in her teens but I am aware that she has fought for a number of causes over the years.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman said no arrests had been made and an investigation would only be launched if a complaint was received. Miss Deen was one of three Plane Stupid protesters who sounded horns during a speech at an environmental conference in London by Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon earlier this week.

She and the other demonstrators left after being warned they would be thrown out if they interrupted the speech again. At one point they sounded horns when Mr Hoon reached the part of his speech when he said that proper debate rather than “stupid stunts” was the way to address the aviation-and-the-environment issue.

Earlier this week Scottish police arrested nine environmental activists who broke through a fence at Aberdeen airport to protest expansion plans, dozens of flights were cancelled. The demonstrators were dressed as golfers, a reference to real estate magnate Donald Trump’s plans to build a controversial golf resort in the area.

The group Plane Stupid also disrupted operations in December at Stansted airport in a protest against a possible second runway and escalating carbon emissions. Again, many flights were cancelled and police made arrests.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will tell the carbon summit that moving Britain to a low carbon economy will create 400,000 new “green” jobs over the next eight years. Mr Brown will call for an international “green new deal” to boost the environmental sector and help lift the global economy out of recession.

He is launching the Government’s industrial strategy to capitalise on the burgeoning low carbon economy at the summit in London attended by ministers and business leaders. He will release independent research which, the Government says, shows a total of 1.3 million people will be employed in the environmental sector by 2017 - representing an annual growth rate of 5%.

Before arriving at the event, Lord Mandelson said the announcement was “not simply a green job creation exercise or a way of greening the economic recovery from our current recession”.

Cutting carbon by implementing cost effective energy saving measures is expected to save business billions in reduced energy use, the Government has claimed. Lord Mandelson told BBC Breakfast it was a “really important low carbon technological and industrial revolution that is going to sweep across the global economy during this century.”

Source; The Telegraph

Photo; Sky