"We end this year and indeed this decade
with the worst deficit in our history,
the worst deficit in Europe,
simply as a result of measures taken by this government."
Gordon Brown
but no, he hasn't had an attack of honesty.
This is from 29 December 1989
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
The Computer Glitch Brought us to the Brink of Nuclear War
Newly released papers reveal how a computer glitch brought us to the brink of nuclear war. Today, under the 30-year rule, cabinet and other government papers from 1979 are released revealing astonishing insights into the goings on inside Whitehall.
It was a moment of madness, but the system was mad that allowed it to happen. Out of the blue in November 1979, computer systems in North America and Britain went haywire, showing a massive Soviet nuclear attack was in progress. Throughout the West’s top secret defence establishments alarm bells began screaming, fighter interceptors were scrambled, pilots went rushing to the cockpits of their nuclear-armed bombers.
The world was running full tilt to the brink of annihilation. Then, six minutes into the madness, the all-clear was sounded. It had been a colossal mess-up, begun by a junior officer who had been running a test simulating a Soviet attack. Incredibly, he had fed the tape into the wrong computer.
So the planes were recalled, the missile silos went back to a state of semi-slumber and government spin-doctors went into action to downplay the affair. Armageddon was postponed while the generals and senior civil servants breathed a collective sigh of relief.
The file PREM 19/17 and marked TOP SECRET UK EYES ONLY is covered in Thatchers blue felt-tip pen and contains a one-word demand scrawled in capital letters – HOW? So, over the following days, the details of the near-catastrophe were squeezed from the system.
If only CND had known, maybe the massive danger and waste would have been averted. But its not too late, take action now, ask your MP to sign EDM 144 in support of the Nuclear Weapons Convention.
It was a moment of madness, but the system was mad that allowed it to happen. Out of the blue in November 1979, computer systems in North America and Britain went haywire, showing a massive Soviet nuclear attack was in progress. Throughout the West’s top secret defence establishments alarm bells began screaming, fighter interceptors were scrambled, pilots went rushing to the cockpits of their nuclear-armed bombers.
The world was running full tilt to the brink of annihilation. Then, six minutes into the madness, the all-clear was sounded. It had been a colossal mess-up, begun by a junior officer who had been running a test simulating a Soviet attack. Incredibly, he had fed the tape into the wrong computer.
So the planes were recalled, the missile silos went back to a state of semi-slumber and government spin-doctors went into action to downplay the affair. Armageddon was postponed while the generals and senior civil servants breathed a collective sigh of relief.
The file PREM 19/17 and marked TOP SECRET UK EYES ONLY is covered in Thatchers blue felt-tip pen and contains a one-word demand scrawled in capital letters – HOW? So, over the following days, the details of the near-catastrophe were squeezed from the system.
If only CND had known, maybe the massive danger and waste would have been averted. But its not too late, take action now, ask your MP to sign EDM 144 in support of the Nuclear Weapons Convention.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
"It’s time to stand up for our small, local and family-owned businesses" says Caroline Lucas MEP
"It’s time to stand up for our small, local and family-owned businesses" says Caroline Lucas. Greens are passionate about defending small, independent and family-owned businesses, Caroline was talking about Brighton, but the threat to small businesses is the same across the country.
So what can you do? Join national campaigns to see stronger laws to block any new supermarket takeovers and of course, we can choose not to shop there. Our country is known for its wonderful independent local shops, and we need to keep it that way.
I’m not just talking economics in these difficult times but another, far longer term, threat: the growth of anti-competitive, exploitative and unethical global business.
Small, family-owned traders are the centre of our communities and yet, daily, they have to compete against the big corporations and chains that drive out competition by short term price cutting and offering unsatisfying, unethical and over-priced options. Meanwhile our family-run shops are lost forever.
Whether it’s the big supermarkets, the bland coffee chains or the publicly financed high street banks, they’re killing off our independent retail sector. Napoleon long ago famously described us as a “nation of shop keepers”. It seems today we are less a nation of shopkeepers, more a nation of chain shops. Tescos now controls almost one third of the grocery market in this country. With over 2000 stores in the UK, its profits last year were over £3 billion.
I’d like to ask Sir Terence Leahy, the Chief Executive, how many Tesco stores does he imagine one city needs? We’ve got about a dozen here already. It seems that on just about every street corner in this city, Sainsbury and Tesco are battling for land.
And it matters deeply because what these supermarkets destroy is the social glue that holds our neighbourhoods together. Research shows that local shops bring huge benefit to local communities. More than vicars and priests, more even than local councillors or the police, nearly three quarters of people identify local traders as the “heart and soul” of community. And when you talk to shopkeepers, they’ll tell the same story – which customers come into their shops for conversation and local news as much as to buy things. On average, a local shopkeeper will know seven out of every ten of their customers.
Just like postmen and women – who, as we know, are also under threat – local shopkeepers play a key role in keeping an eye out for people, for spotting if older people or the more vulnerable are in difficulties.
As the recent outcry over the Lewes Road community garden shows, which is threatened to be bought by Tescos, we need to get the planning laws changed. People have a right to a stronger voice over what happens on their doorsteps – the council should be obliged to take into account the cumulative impact of number of similar shops throughout the city, not just in certain areas.
So what can you do? Join national campaigns to see stronger laws to block any new supermarket takeovers and of course, we can choose not to shop there. Our country is known for its wonderful independent local shops, and we need to keep it that way.
Monday, 28 December 2009
“We are facing an extinction crisis”
With Christmas over and a few days to go before people gather to party and wish each other a happy 2010, the future looks less than bright for many of the world’s animal species and ecosystems.
Exotic frogs and toads are dying out in the jungles of Latin America, apparent victims of global warming in what might be a harbinger of one of the worst waves of extinction since the dinosaurs. Accelerating extinctions would derail a United Nations goal of "a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss" by 2010.
“We are facing an extinction crisis,” the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN warned this week. It said targets to reduce the loss of biodiversity had fallen far short of what had been hoped for, and the effects of this could prove devastating.
“At risk of extinction worldwide are 21 percent of the world’s mammals, one in three amphibians, one in eight birds and 27 percent of reef-building corals,” IUCN said in a statement issued ahead of the launch of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity on January 11.
The loss of complex natural diversity, which underpinned all life on the planet, was a serious threat to humankind, both now and in the future.
“Biodiversity is the basis of all life on earth. We need practical action and supportive policies to conserve species, manage and restore ecosystems, including protected areas and the wider landscape, and promote the sustainable use of natural resources,” it said.
Biologists have long warned an extinction crisis is looming. They list deforestation and other habitat destruction, hunting and poaching, the introduction of non-native species, and pollution and climate change as among the major reasons for the extinction of species. "We are facing an extinction crisis," said Anne Larigauderie, head of Paris-based Diversitas which promotes research into life on the planet.
She estimated the rate of loss of all species was now 10-100 times faster than little-understood rates from fossil records. The task of gauging the exact rate is complicated by the fact that no one knows exactly how many species exist.
Many scientists say global warming -- widely blamed on burning fossil fuels in factories, power plants and vehicles -- is adding to other human threats including destruction of habitats from expanding cities, deforestation and pollution.
For now, amphibians such as frogs, toads, salamanders and newts are on the front-line -- they live both in water and on land and have a porous skin sensitive to changes in temperature and moisture. A skin fungus is also decimating amphibians.
In coming decades, threats could widen to creatures ranging from polar bears to tropical butterflies. A few species might benefit, such as forests expanding north to the Arctic.
"We're probably looking at one of the worst spasms of extinction in millions of years, even without climate change," said Lee Hannah, an expert at Conservation International. "But we have it in our ability to do something about it."
"Many species are already moving right to the brink," said Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the "Red List" publication of endangered species at the World Conservation Union.
Meanwhile in Britain Labour/Tories have ignored species loss and animal cruelty, but focused on a more minority issue, Fox hunting. The Hunting Act was launched in 2005 after hundreds of hours of valuable parliamentary time, but has only resulted in a handful of prosecutions, and it has not stopped any hunts. The new rules allow for the hunting of a fox's scent with dogs but not the killing of the animal. The ban made the use of dogs to kill prey illegal, basically, riders could still follow hounds on horseback as hounds chased the fox, but when the fox is found, all but two dogs must be restrained. Those two dogs aren't allowed to kill the fox, as before, but may flush it out so that the hunter kills it with a gun! There have been some "accidents" in the years after the ban; a pro-hunting group known as the Countryside Alliance warned that more foxes were killed post-ban than when hunting was legal [source: BBC]
Using the Freedom of Information Act, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire police were asked about the enforcement of the act since it was introduced. Unsurprisingly, none of the forces have prosecuted a hunt or individual under the act and nationwide there have been just nine prosecutions of traditional hunts since the act came into force in February 2005.
This would suggest that either the law is not being regularly broken or the police are not enforcing it.
A recently report from the Association of Chief Police Officers acknowledged that the act was regarded as “unenforceable” by many. Forces accept that there is an “intelligence gap” when it comes to fox hunting. There are a number of exemptions under the act, which allow hunts to take place and usually we find that hunts are perfectly legal. “This is widely recognised as a challenging piece of legislation in enforcement terms. Hunts mostly take place on private land, which we cannot proactively patrol. We can only respond if we receive a specific complaint, which means that we can only police this reactively based on intelligence. According to the Countryside Alliance, hunting is now more widespread than ever before, albeit in an adapted form. At a recent newcomers event, 3,000 people turned out nationwide to try hunting for the first time.
Its a bit of a dog whistle issue for traditional Lab/Tory voters, and is a way of igniting their core supporters. I am agaist hunting for sport, but to focus on this and ignore the far more serious species loss is shameful. Also in terms of animal cruelty, keeping chickens in tiny cages . Nonetheless, this decision will allow the factory farming of chickens to continue unchecked. Labour have introduced new regulation but it does not embrace the high welfare standards called for by campaigners. A recent Defra funded study shows that over a quarter of broiler chickens suffer from painful leg disorders, yet they have ignored their own findings. Over 40% of all UK MPs supported EDM 581, calling for clear and honest labelling on chicken meat and urging the UK Government to improve the welfare of chickens reared for meat. But this was not enough to get some decent legislation.
Exotic frogs and toads are dying out in the jungles of Latin America, apparent victims of global warming in what might be a harbinger of one of the worst waves of extinction since the dinosaurs. Accelerating extinctions would derail a United Nations goal of "a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss" by 2010.
“We are facing an extinction crisis,” the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN warned this week. It said targets to reduce the loss of biodiversity had fallen far short of what had been hoped for, and the effects of this could prove devastating.
“At risk of extinction worldwide are 21 percent of the world’s mammals, one in three amphibians, one in eight birds and 27 percent of reef-building corals,” IUCN said in a statement issued ahead of the launch of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity on January 11.
The loss of complex natural diversity, which underpinned all life on the planet, was a serious threat to humankind, both now and in the future.
“Biodiversity is the basis of all life on earth. We need practical action and supportive policies to conserve species, manage and restore ecosystems, including protected areas and the wider landscape, and promote the sustainable use of natural resources,” it said.
Biologists have long warned an extinction crisis is looming. They list deforestation and other habitat destruction, hunting and poaching, the introduction of non-native species, and pollution and climate change as among the major reasons for the extinction of species. "We are facing an extinction crisis," said Anne Larigauderie, head of Paris-based Diversitas which promotes research into life on the planet.
She estimated the rate of loss of all species was now 10-100 times faster than little-understood rates from fossil records. The task of gauging the exact rate is complicated by the fact that no one knows exactly how many species exist.
Many scientists say global warming -- widely blamed on burning fossil fuels in factories, power plants and vehicles -- is adding to other human threats including destruction of habitats from expanding cities, deforestation and pollution.
For now, amphibians such as frogs, toads, salamanders and newts are on the front-line -- they live both in water and on land and have a porous skin sensitive to changes in temperature and moisture. A skin fungus is also decimating amphibians.
In coming decades, threats could widen to creatures ranging from polar bears to tropical butterflies. A few species might benefit, such as forests expanding north to the Arctic.
"We're probably looking at one of the worst spasms of extinction in millions of years, even without climate change," said Lee Hannah, an expert at Conservation International. "But we have it in our ability to do something about it."
"Many species are already moving right to the brink," said Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the "Red List" publication of endangered species at the World Conservation Union.
Meanwhile in Britain Labour/Tories have ignored species loss and animal cruelty, but focused on a more minority issue, Fox hunting. The Hunting Act was launched in 2005 after hundreds of hours of valuable parliamentary time, but has only resulted in a handful of prosecutions, and it has not stopped any hunts. The new rules allow for the hunting of a fox's scent with dogs but not the killing of the animal. The ban made the use of dogs to kill prey illegal, basically, riders could still follow hounds on horseback as hounds chased the fox, but when the fox is found, all but two dogs must be restrained. Those two dogs aren't allowed to kill the fox, as before, but may flush it out so that the hunter kills it with a gun! There have been some "accidents" in the years after the ban; a pro-hunting group known as the Countryside Alliance warned that more foxes were killed post-ban than when hunting was legal [source: BBC]
Using the Freedom of Information Act, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire police were asked about the enforcement of the act since it was introduced. Unsurprisingly, none of the forces have prosecuted a hunt or individual under the act and nationwide there have been just nine prosecutions of traditional hunts since the act came into force in February 2005.
This would suggest that either the law is not being regularly broken or the police are not enforcing it.
A recently report from the Association of Chief Police Officers acknowledged that the act was regarded as “unenforceable” by many. Forces accept that there is an “intelligence gap” when it comes to fox hunting. There are a number of exemptions under the act, which allow hunts to take place and usually we find that hunts are perfectly legal. “This is widely recognised as a challenging piece of legislation in enforcement terms. Hunts mostly take place on private land, which we cannot proactively patrol. We can only respond if we receive a specific complaint, which means that we can only police this reactively based on intelligence. According to the Countryside Alliance, hunting is now more widespread than ever before, albeit in an adapted form. At a recent newcomers event, 3,000 people turned out nationwide to try hunting for the first time.
Its a bit of a dog whistle issue for traditional Lab/Tory voters, and is a way of igniting their core supporters. I am agaist hunting for sport, but to focus on this and ignore the far more serious species loss is shameful. Also in terms of animal cruelty, keeping chickens in tiny cages . Nonetheless, this decision will allow the factory farming of chickens to continue unchecked. Labour have introduced new regulation but it does not embrace the high welfare standards called for by campaigners. A recent Defra funded study shows that over a quarter of broiler chickens suffer from painful leg disorders, yet they have ignored their own findings. Over 40% of all UK MPs supported EDM 581, calling for clear and honest labelling on chicken meat and urging the UK Government to improve the welfare of chickens reared for meat. But this was not enough to get some decent legislation.
Sunday, 27 December 2009
'Education, education, education' Cut Cut Cut
"Education, education, education" was how Tony Blair claimed to campaign to put classrooms at the top of the political agenda. A few years later it seems a bit hollow, as funding is now to be cut to the bone.
After years of saying they want 50% of young people to go to college, whether they want to or not. I always thought some people would prefer to go straight to work or become an apprentice but this didnt seem to be an option. And now they are running out of money, they are planning to cut down a degree from 3 to 2 years, devaluing the whole of British education.
Mind you under Labour there has been a major financial investment. Whether the money has been wisely spent is another question - but the cash has certainly been made available, with the government spending almost £1.2bn on education every week.
Between 1997 and 2007, the core "per pupil" funding has risen by 48% in real terms - or £1,450 more per year per child. There are now about 35,000 more teachers than in 1997 - reducing pupil-teacher ratios and class sizes in primary and secondary. Teachers' pay has risen by 18% in real terms, and heads have had a pay hike of 27%.
Another factor has been the huge increase in support workers, such as teaching assistants - up by 172,000. That's like recruiting an additional workforce that is bigger than the army, navy and air force put together. This means that there are now almost three quarters of a million people working in schools - and that in secondary schools there is one adult for every 11 pupils.
Anyone who has walked into a school, particularly in the last couple of years, will have seen school buildings renovated or replaced and the upgrades in information technology. Capital investment has increased eightfold since 1997. But while it might sound as though the cash is being bulldozed into education, seen from an international perspective the spending suddenly seems more modest. By the end of the decade, education will be receiving 5.6% of GDP - which compares to the 5.5% that is the current average for education in industrialised countries. It means a huge amount of cash has been spent to push us all the way up to average.
But have standards improved? Has the investment brought the promised advances?
When Labour entered office, another mantra was that it was about "standards not structures".
Educational achievement is a slow supertanker to turn around, with initiatives taking many years to work through the system. The first wave of pupils to have received the literacy hour throughout their primary school years still have not taken their GCSEs. More than one in five children have spent six or seven years in primary school without learning to read and write properly!
The 50 per cent target is still a long way from being met — this year only 38 per cent will go to university. Yet ministers are now threatening universities with grant cuts if they take on extra students.
Labour’s expansion of university education promised disaster from the beginning. The 50 per cent target had all the signs of being plucked from the sky for the 2001 manifesto with no regard to whether half the population is ready or even want an academic education.
Baron Mandelson announced that he was cutting university budgets by £135 million, can this be the same Government that has spent a decade trying to drive 50 per cent of young people into higher education and that, as recently as March — long after the black hole in public finances became obvious — announced a £150 million programme to open 20 campuses over the next six years?
Examples of two-year degree courses already running include one for higher level teaching assistants at Stroud College in Gloucestershire and a fast-track nursing degree at King's College London for those with a degree already.
The announcement of the cuts, which will see £518m lopped off university funding next year, provoked an outcry from vice-chancellors, students, lecturers and opposition MPs.
After years of saying they want 50% of young people to go to college, whether they want to or not. I always thought some people would prefer to go straight to work or become an apprentice but this didnt seem to be an option. And now they are running out of money, they are planning to cut down a degree from 3 to 2 years, devaluing the whole of British education.
Mind you under Labour there has been a major financial investment. Whether the money has been wisely spent is another question - but the cash has certainly been made available, with the government spending almost £1.2bn on education every week.
Between 1997 and 2007, the core "per pupil" funding has risen by 48% in real terms - or £1,450 more per year per child. There are now about 35,000 more teachers than in 1997 - reducing pupil-teacher ratios and class sizes in primary and secondary. Teachers' pay has risen by 18% in real terms, and heads have had a pay hike of 27%.
Another factor has been the huge increase in support workers, such as teaching assistants - up by 172,000. That's like recruiting an additional workforce that is bigger than the army, navy and air force put together. This means that there are now almost three quarters of a million people working in schools - and that in secondary schools there is one adult for every 11 pupils.
Anyone who has walked into a school, particularly in the last couple of years, will have seen school buildings renovated or replaced and the upgrades in information technology. Capital investment has increased eightfold since 1997. But while it might sound as though the cash is being bulldozed into education, seen from an international perspective the spending suddenly seems more modest. By the end of the decade, education will be receiving 5.6% of GDP - which compares to the 5.5% that is the current average for education in industrialised countries. It means a huge amount of cash has been spent to push us all the way up to average.
But have standards improved? Has the investment brought the promised advances?
When Labour entered office, another mantra was that it was about "standards not structures".
Educational achievement is a slow supertanker to turn around, with initiatives taking many years to work through the system. The first wave of pupils to have received the literacy hour throughout their primary school years still have not taken their GCSEs. More than one in five children have spent six or seven years in primary school without learning to read and write properly!
The 50 per cent target is still a long way from being met — this year only 38 per cent will go to university. Yet ministers are now threatening universities with grant cuts if they take on extra students.
Labour’s expansion of university education promised disaster from the beginning. The 50 per cent target had all the signs of being plucked from the sky for the 2001 manifesto with no regard to whether half the population is ready or even want an academic education.
Baron Mandelson announced that he was cutting university budgets by £135 million, can this be the same Government that has spent a decade trying to drive 50 per cent of young people into higher education and that, as recently as March — long after the black hole in public finances became obvious — announced a £150 million programme to open 20 campuses over the next six years?
Examples of two-year degree courses already running include one for higher level teaching assistants at Stroud College in Gloucestershire and a fast-track nursing degree at King's College London for those with a degree already.
The announcement of the cuts, which will see £518m lopped off university funding next year, provoked an outcry from vice-chancellors, students, lecturers and opposition MPs.
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Snow Chaos In Basingstoke "like a disaster film"
Even worse than Reading, Basingstoke have become well known for having a disaster this winter. Around 2000 cars were abandoned, many on the ring road.
Pic from here
Pressure on the roads began to ease in the early hours of the morning, but many of those in cars had already given up and walked home or sought refuge in specially opened churches or rest centres.
About 200 abandoned vehicles littered roadsides in the Basingstoke area and the A31 from Four Marks and Ropley north towards the Surrey border.
The Guardian described it as "like a disaster film", as the transport minister said he would be asking questions about events that led to up to 2,000 motorists being trapped in icy conditions.
An AA spokesman, Gavin Hill-Smith, said between 30 and 40 staff had to spent the night in the company's Basingstoke headquarters, and reiterated claims from its president, Edmund King, that roads had been inadequately gritted.
The transport minister, Sadiq Khan, said he would be speaking to local authorities responsible for Reading and Basingstoke today.
"What I do know is that there is no issue about not being enough grit, there is no issue about not enough snow ploughs," he told GMTV. "What the issue is, is why it wasn't applied."
Hill-Smith said a "perfect storm of events" led to chaos in the town. It was the sheer volume of snow," he said. "It started snowing heavily at around 12pm, and it fell very quickly. The snow coincided with lunchtime, when you have people going out doing Christmas shopping, and also people had been told to go home from businesses early, so everyone hit the road at the same time. "It looked like something from a disaster film, there were abandoned cars everywhere."
Hampshire Police deployed more than 40 4x4 vehicles and borrowed more from the fire and rescue service to patrol the roads and keep a lookout for people in trouble.
Superintendent Roy Bayntun, of Hampshire Constabulary, said: “We mobilised extra resources and officers with specialist vehicles and equipment to reach motorists as quickly as possible in the worst affected areas around Basingstoke and Alton. In Basingstoke we are taking a practical and reasonable approach. Our advice to people is to use common sense in deciding when to recover their vehicles. Some vehicles have been left in safe locations, others have not.”
But the chief emergency planning officer at Hampshire county council today dismissed suggestions the council could have handled the situation better as "absolute rubbish". "We gritted yesterday morning, then the next gritting run was due to take place but it started to rain, and you can't grit in the rain," Ian Holt said. "We waited for the rain to stop but as we waited the rain turned to thick snow, 10cm came down very quickly. That caused cars to skid, which caused gridlock, subsequently the gritting lorries just couldn't get through to the roads."
Hampshire County Council said its salting vehicles were out throughout the night to salt the worst affected roads.
Meanwhile, Buckinghamshire County Council urged owners to collect abandoned vehicles "as soon as possible". Thames Valley Police said they were causing an obstruction in the High Wycombe area.
However, all vehicles left on motorways overnight had been removed and owners must pay to get them back, the force said.
Power cuts are currently affecting about 14,000 people in West Berkshire and Hampshire and a further 900 people in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire.
Former banker Peter Baring, of Barings Bank, escaped unhurt after he fell through the ice on his private lake near Wantage. Let that be a warning to Bankers who own lakes, you really cant walk on water.
The advice to residents and drivers remains to only make strictly necessary journeys at this time, not to travel unless you have to and only embark on a journey if it is safe to do so.If you do have to drive, take extreme care, allow plenty of extra time, avoid heavy braking, and ensure you have a blanket, warm clothes, warm refreshments, and a fully charged and working mobile phone.Motorists are advised to keep tuned into their local radio stations for the latest updates in their area.
Two people died after their coach crashed on blak ice in Crornwall. The first police vehicle on the scene skidded on the same ice and crashed into the coach. 47 people were injured.
Pic from herePressure on the roads began to ease in the early hours of the morning, but many of those in cars had already given up and walked home or sought refuge in specially opened churches or rest centres.
About 200 abandoned vehicles littered roadsides in the Basingstoke area and the A31 from Four Marks and Ropley north towards the Surrey border.
The Guardian described it as "like a disaster film", as the transport minister said he would be asking questions about events that led to up to 2,000 motorists being trapped in icy conditions.
An AA spokesman, Gavin Hill-Smith, said between 30 and 40 staff had to spent the night in the company's Basingstoke headquarters, and reiterated claims from its president, Edmund King, that roads had been inadequately gritted.
The transport minister, Sadiq Khan, said he would be speaking to local authorities responsible for Reading and Basingstoke today.
"What I do know is that there is no issue about not being enough grit, there is no issue about not enough snow ploughs," he told GMTV. "What the issue is, is why it wasn't applied."
Hill-Smith said a "perfect storm of events" led to chaos in the town. It was the sheer volume of snow," he said. "It started snowing heavily at around 12pm, and it fell very quickly. The snow coincided with lunchtime, when you have people going out doing Christmas shopping, and also people had been told to go home from businesses early, so everyone hit the road at the same time. "It looked like something from a disaster film, there were abandoned cars everywhere."
Hampshire Police deployed more than 40 4x4 vehicles and borrowed more from the fire and rescue service to patrol the roads and keep a lookout for people in trouble.
Superintendent Roy Bayntun, of Hampshire Constabulary, said: “We mobilised extra resources and officers with specialist vehicles and equipment to reach motorists as quickly as possible in the worst affected areas around Basingstoke and Alton. In Basingstoke we are taking a practical and reasonable approach. Our advice to people is to use common sense in deciding when to recover their vehicles. Some vehicles have been left in safe locations, others have not.”
But the chief emergency planning officer at Hampshire county council today dismissed suggestions the council could have handled the situation better as "absolute rubbish". "We gritted yesterday morning, then the next gritting run was due to take place but it started to rain, and you can't grit in the rain," Ian Holt said. "We waited for the rain to stop but as we waited the rain turned to thick snow, 10cm came down very quickly. That caused cars to skid, which caused gridlock, subsequently the gritting lorries just couldn't get through to the roads."
Hampshire County Council said its salting vehicles were out throughout the night to salt the worst affected roads.
Meanwhile, Buckinghamshire County Council urged owners to collect abandoned vehicles "as soon as possible". Thames Valley Police said they were causing an obstruction in the High Wycombe area.
However, all vehicles left on motorways overnight had been removed and owners must pay to get them back, the force said.
Power cuts are currently affecting about 14,000 people in West Berkshire and Hampshire and a further 900 people in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire.
Former banker Peter Baring, of Barings Bank, escaped unhurt after he fell through the ice on his private lake near Wantage. Let that be a warning to Bankers who own lakes, you really cant walk on water.
The advice to residents and drivers remains to only make strictly necessary journeys at this time, not to travel unless you have to and only embark on a journey if it is safe to do so.If you do have to drive, take extreme care, allow plenty of extra time, avoid heavy braking, and ensure you have a blanket, warm clothes, warm refreshments, and a fully charged and working mobile phone.Motorists are advised to keep tuned into their local radio stations for the latest updates in their area.
Two people died after their coach crashed on blak ice in Crornwall. The first police vehicle on the scene skidded on the same ice and crashed into the coach. 47 people were injured.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Snow Chaos In Reading
Reading has become famous this week, for all the wrong reasons.
Abandoned cars scattered the town centre after drivers too stuck to move gave up getting home last night.
With car journeys taking up to nine hours, those who had a bed to sleep in within walking distance gave up and left their cars on the road. Hundreds of motorists were stranded for hours after the roads suddenly became gridlocked as shoppers and office workers tried to get home. With the major routes in and out of the town - M4, A4, IDR, A329M and A33 - also jammed, the traffic had nowhere to go. In nearly three hours, drivers moved no more than a few feet and the conditions on the roads became more treacherous.
A lack of grit made journeys dangerous with cars skidding on the ice. Two refuge centres set up at the Civic Centre and The Oracle were set up after an emergency meeting between Thames Valley Police and Reading Borough Council last night. In a police statement issued at 9.20pm, seven hours after the snow started, drivers were advised not to abandon their cars and to avoid travel where possible. Councils are expected to waive car parking fees this morning for motorists who were stranded in the weather conditions.
Two Reading Buses were in collision with a row of stationary cars in Russell Street, West Reading, shortly before 5.30pm and a car towing a boat is blocking the middle and inside lane on the M4 between junctions 10 and 11. A car skidded on the snow and slammed into a house in Thatcham, a car overturned in ice near Newbury and a lorry and another car were in collision on the M4 near Hungerford.
Reading Borough Council held an emergency meeting earlier this evening and Royal Berkshire Hospital is urging night staff who live within three miles of the hospital to walk into work.
Hospital spokesman Joe Wise said: "Our main priority is getting staff into work who are on duty tonight but who are stuck in the gridlock. We are also working on plans to get staff in from further afield." Accross town staff are bedding down in offices rather than risking driving home. For many it was the start of a long and slippery walk home. At the Ibis and the Novotel hotels in the town centre the queues were stretching around the corner by 5pm. And by 6pm the Premier Inn was fully booked and turning people away.
Many homes in and around Reading are also without power this afternoon, after the snow knocked out power lines. Scottish and Southern Energy say they are finding it difficult to get to the areas affected because of the icy conditions on the roads.
Police tips include: unless it is absolutely essential you are strongly advised not to travel, do not abandon your vehicles on the highway as this prevents emergency services and gritting vehicles getting through, and only call the emergency services in a real emergency.
Situations like this tend to bring out the bast in people, from council and hospital staff working long hours, to ordinary people helping those in need. BBC Radio Berkshire and other news services have been praised for their work keeping people informed.
Nicola Hodder said: "There are some really lovely people out there. "I was stuck in my car on Shepherd House Hill for three hours and there was a woman giving out hot sausages and homemade cookies and drinks. "She was just walking up the middle of the road, stopping at every single car. "She made it all a lot more bearable. There were other residents on the other side of the road trying to push people's cars up the hill. "Other people were jumping out of their cars and helping. Everyone was just wonderful, it was so nice to see."
There is an argument between the AA and Local Government over Gritting.
Tory Cllr Richard Willis says the Lib Dems are using this for political purposes. Shock.Lab Martin Salter MP blames staff for leaving early!
UPDATE
Rob White in Park Ward highlights an area in need of care.
Tory MP John Redwood makes political capital here about gritting. "The question to the government is a simple one. Why didn’t they keep the main road arteries open, by sufficient gritting and using snowploughs? If a Council could manage it, why couldn’t the Highways Agency? The weather forecasters were accurate and gave them plenty of warning. Amidst all those billions of dubious and wasteful spending, why couldn’t they find the odd million to hire a fleet of lorries and do the job properly?" He also refers to a '7 by 24 media' which sounds like a piece of wood. I suspect he means 24/7.
LD Cllr Pru Bray also makes the point that Wokingham was better prepared than Reading.
LD Cllrs in Redands have made a video that fails to show anything much. Nice song though.
Still it could be worse, have you seen Basingstoke?
Abandoned cars scattered the town centre after drivers too stuck to move gave up getting home last night.
With car journeys taking up to nine hours, those who had a bed to sleep in within walking distance gave up and left their cars on the road. Hundreds of motorists were stranded for hours after the roads suddenly became gridlocked as shoppers and office workers tried to get home. With the major routes in and out of the town - M4, A4, IDR, A329M and A33 - also jammed, the traffic had nowhere to go. In nearly three hours, drivers moved no more than a few feet and the conditions on the roads became more treacherous.
A lack of grit made journeys dangerous with cars skidding on the ice. Two refuge centres set up at the Civic Centre and The Oracle were set up after an emergency meeting between Thames Valley Police and Reading Borough Council last night. In a police statement issued at 9.20pm, seven hours after the snow started, drivers were advised not to abandon their cars and to avoid travel where possible. Councils are expected to waive car parking fees this morning for motorists who were stranded in the weather conditions.
Two Reading Buses were in collision with a row of stationary cars in Russell Street, West Reading, shortly before 5.30pm and a car towing a boat is blocking the middle and inside lane on the M4 between junctions 10 and 11. A car skidded on the snow and slammed into a house in Thatcham, a car overturned in ice near Newbury and a lorry and another car were in collision on the M4 near Hungerford.
Reading Borough Council held an emergency meeting earlier this evening and Royal Berkshire Hospital is urging night staff who live within three miles of the hospital to walk into work.
Hospital spokesman Joe Wise said: "Our main priority is getting staff into work who are on duty tonight but who are stuck in the gridlock. We are also working on plans to get staff in from further afield." Accross town staff are bedding down in offices rather than risking driving home. For many it was the start of a long and slippery walk home. At the Ibis and the Novotel hotels in the town centre the queues were stretching around the corner by 5pm. And by 6pm the Premier Inn was fully booked and turning people away.
Many homes in and around Reading are also without power this afternoon, after the snow knocked out power lines. Scottish and Southern Energy say they are finding it difficult to get to the areas affected because of the icy conditions on the roads.
Police tips include: unless it is absolutely essential you are strongly advised not to travel, do not abandon your vehicles on the highway as this prevents emergency services and gritting vehicles getting through, and only call the emergency services in a real emergency.
Situations like this tend to bring out the bast in people, from council and hospital staff working long hours, to ordinary people helping those in need. BBC Radio Berkshire and other news services have been praised for their work keeping people informed.
Nicola Hodder said: "There are some really lovely people out there. "I was stuck in my car on Shepherd House Hill for three hours and there was a woman giving out hot sausages and homemade cookies and drinks. "She was just walking up the middle of the road, stopping at every single car. "She made it all a lot more bearable. There were other residents on the other side of the road trying to push people's cars up the hill. "Other people were jumping out of their cars and helping. Everyone was just wonderful, it was so nice to see."
There is an argument between the AA and Local Government over Gritting.
Tory Cllr Richard Willis says the Lib Dems are using this for political purposes. Shock.Lab Martin Salter MP blames staff for leaving early!
UPDATE
Rob White in Park Ward highlights an area in need of care.
Tory MP John Redwood makes political capital here about gritting. "The question to the government is a simple one. Why didn’t they keep the main road arteries open, by sufficient gritting and using snowploughs? If a Council could manage it, why couldn’t the Highways Agency? The weather forecasters were accurate and gave them plenty of warning. Amidst all those billions of dubious and wasteful spending, why couldn’t they find the odd million to hire a fleet of lorries and do the job properly?" He also refers to a '7 by 24 media' which sounds like a piece of wood. I suspect he means 24/7.
LD Cllr Pru Bray also makes the point that Wokingham was better prepared than Reading.
LD Cllrs in Redands have made a video that fails to show anything much. Nice song though.
Still it could be worse, have you seen Basingstoke?
Monday, 21 December 2009
No Deal In Copenhagen
There was plenty of disgrace to go around in Copenhagen.
The world's worst per capita warmer is the US, yet its president turned up offering a pathetic 4 per cent cut by 2020. He caved to the oil and gas lobbies who. It was a terrible betrayal of his own country's national security. In 2004, a leaked Pentagon report warned that unchecked global warming would ensure "disruption and conflict will be endemic ... [and] once again, warfare would define human life." Yes we can? No he didn't.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao behaved similarly, his country is the single largest overall emitter of gases. Yet he vetoed the 80 per cent target by 2050, and refused to allow other countries to carry out basic checks to ensure China was carrying out the smaller cuts they were committed to. Again, he is betraying his own people: most of China's population depend on rivers that flow down from the Himalayan glaciers, yet they are rapidly disappearing. His name will be cursed in the Chinese history books.
The European Union was hardly better. They sat, refusing to make any larger offer to get the ball rolling. Commenting on Obamas plan European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said "This accord is better than no accord, but clearly below our ambition." Brown fails to save the world, shock.
Johann Harri at the Huffingdon Post said
Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the Sudanese chairman of the G77 bloc of least developed nations, said there was no deal. "What has happened today confirms what we have been suspicious of that a deal will be imposed by United States, with the help of the Danish government, on all nations of the world," he said.
The IG77 bloc of developing countries heard about it watching Obama on TV. As they examine the text, they realise very quickly that it effectively condemns their continent to a century of devastating temperature rises.
This "deal" is beyond bad. It contains no legally binding targets and no indication of when or how they will come about. There is not even a declaration that the world will aim to keep global temperature rises below 2C°. Instead, leaders merely recognise the science behind that vital threshold, as if that were enough to prevent us crossing it.
The only part of this deal that anyone sane came close to welcoming was the $100bn global climate fund, but it's now apparent that even this is largely made up of existing budgets, with no indication of how new money will be raised and distributed so that poorer countries can go green and adapt to climate change.
"This is not a strong deal or a just one--it isn't even a real one," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth US. "The actions it suggests for the rich countries that caused the climate crisis are extraordinarily inadequate. This is a disastrous outcome for people around the world who face increasingly dire impacts from a destabilizing climate."
The world's worst per capita warmer is the US, yet its president turned up offering a pathetic 4 per cent cut by 2020. He caved to the oil and gas lobbies who. It was a terrible betrayal of his own country's national security. In 2004, a leaked Pentagon report warned that unchecked global warming would ensure "disruption and conflict will be endemic ... [and] once again, warfare would define human life." Yes we can? No he didn't.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao behaved similarly, his country is the single largest overall emitter of gases. Yet he vetoed the 80 per cent target by 2050, and refused to allow other countries to carry out basic checks to ensure China was carrying out the smaller cuts they were committed to. Again, he is betraying his own people: most of China's population depend on rivers that flow down from the Himalayan glaciers, yet they are rapidly disappearing. His name will be cursed in the Chinese history books.
The European Union was hardly better. They sat, refusing to make any larger offer to get the ball rolling. Commenting on Obamas plan European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said "This accord is better than no accord, but clearly below our ambition." Brown fails to save the world, shock.
Johann Harri at the Huffingdon Post said
The most they could agree was to officially "note" the scientific evidence about C -- with no roadmap to keep us this side of it. You get a sense of how valuable this "noting" is when you look at the things the conference also "noted": the hard work of the airport security staff, and the quality of the catering in the Bella Centre. It seems impossible, but our leaders really did give the stability of our climate the same status as their praise for Danish sandwiches.
The time for changing your light-bulbs and hoping for the best is over.
It is time to take collective action. For some people, that will mean joining Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth or the Campaign Against Climate Change and helping them pile on the pressure. But those who can go further -- by taking non-violent direct action -- should do so. Every coal train should be ringed with people refusing to let it pass. Every new runway should be blockaded. The cost of trashing the climate needs to be raised.
It works. Look at Britain. Three years ago, eight new coal power stations were being planned, and the third runway at Heathrow was all but inevitable. A few thousand heroic young people took direct action against them. Now all the new coal power stations have been canceled, and the third runway is dead in the water. Here in the fifth largest economy in the world, they have stopped coal and airport expansion. Politicians felt the heat. That was done by a few thousand people. Imagine what tens or hundreds of thousands could do. There need to be parallel movements to this in every country on earth (and a much bigger one in Britain). Copenhagen had one value, and one value alone. It has shown us that if we don't act in our own self-defence now, nobody else will.
Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the Sudanese chairman of the G77 bloc of least developed nations, said there was no deal. "What has happened today confirms what we have been suspicious of that a deal will be imposed by United States, with the help of the Danish government, on all nations of the world," he said.
The IG77 bloc of developing countries heard about it watching Obama on TV. As they examine the text, they realise very quickly that it effectively condemns their continent to a century of devastating temperature rises.
This "deal" is beyond bad. It contains no legally binding targets and no indication of when or how they will come about. There is not even a declaration that the world will aim to keep global temperature rises below 2C°. Instead, leaders merely recognise the science behind that vital threshold, as if that were enough to prevent us crossing it.
The only part of this deal that anyone sane came close to welcoming was the $100bn global climate fund, but it's now apparent that even this is largely made up of existing budgets, with no indication of how new money will be raised and distributed so that poorer countries can go green and adapt to climate change.
"This is not a strong deal or a just one--it isn't even a real one," said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth US. "The actions it suggests for the rich countries that caused the climate crisis are extraordinarily inadequate. This is a disastrous outcome for people around the world who face increasingly dire impacts from a destabilizing climate."
Please release them, let them go
Four activists face Christmas in jail over charges relating to a peaceful protest at the Heads of State dinner at the Copenhagen climate summit. We're calling for the immediate release of the activists - please help by writing to the Danish Embassy today.
The activists joined Heads of State from over 120 countries en route to the banquet at the Danish Parliament. They held up banners reading: "Politicians Talk, Leaders Act", and demanded action, not just words from Presidents and Prime Ministers during their Friday session of the climate summit.
While the political leaders who are the perpetrators of real crime in Copenhagen have now fled the country on private jets, the Danish authorities decided to detain, without trial, four peaceful protesters over Christmas.
Their families will spend a bleak festive season knowing that their loved ones will be languishing in isolation for acting to save the climate. For standing up in defense of the hundreds of millions of people and countless species which will be severely affected by catastrophic climate change.
The four activists - Juantxo, Joris, Nora, and Christian - were willing to risk jail time to do something about climate change and look forward to presenting their arguments in court. But keeping them apart from their families and loved ones over Christmas and New Year is both inhumane and out of all proportion to what they did.
Now they need your help. Please take a few minutes to write to the Danish Ambassador requesting their immediate release. Thank you for your support.
You can read the wrap-up from the climate summit on the Greenpeace site. World leaders walked away without a treaty that protects the climate. They're not done yet, and neither are Greenpeace, or their supporters.
The activists joined Heads of State from over 120 countries en route to the banquet at the Danish Parliament. They held up banners reading: "Politicians Talk, Leaders Act", and demanded action, not just words from Presidents and Prime Ministers during their Friday session of the climate summit.
While the political leaders who are the perpetrators of real crime in Copenhagen have now fled the country on private jets, the Danish authorities decided to detain, without trial, four peaceful protesters over Christmas.
Their families will spend a bleak festive season knowing that their loved ones will be languishing in isolation for acting to save the climate. For standing up in defense of the hundreds of millions of people and countless species which will be severely affected by catastrophic climate change.
The four activists - Juantxo, Joris, Nora, and Christian - were willing to risk jail time to do something about climate change and look forward to presenting their arguments in court. But keeping them apart from their families and loved ones over Christmas and New Year is both inhumane and out of all proportion to what they did.
Now they need your help. Please take a few minutes to write to the Danish Ambassador requesting their immediate release. Thank you for your support.
You can read the wrap-up from the climate summit on the Greenpeace site. World leaders walked away without a treaty that protects the climate. They're not done yet, and neither are Greenpeace, or their supporters.
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Politicians Surveyed On Climate Change, 20% 'Skeptics'
'Skeptic' MEPs
23% of Britain's 72 MEPs are either explicit climate 'skeptics', or are members of 'skeptic' parties who remain silent on the subject.
Skeptic is actually a rather kind description for someone who either doesn't understand the science, or they are in denial. They are not very skeptical about other theories, credulously accepting anything as 'fact' that seems to support them.
So 12 MEPs (16.7%) are actually on record taking an stance on climate opposed to science.
They are UKIP: Stuart Agnew, Marta Andreasan, Gerrard Batten, Godfrey Bloom, David Bannerman, Derek Clark & BNP Nick Griffin, CONS Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer who deny that any warming is occuring. Meanwhile Andrew Brons BNP, UKIP Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttalo deny that any warming is man-made.
'Skeptic' MPs were surveyed last year. David Cameron has failed to convince many of his MPs that man-made global warming is a serious problem, according to a poll that finds widespread sceptisicm across parliament about the issue.
A third of Tory MPs who responded to the survey questioned the existence of climate change and its link to human activity. Two-thirds said tackling climate change should not be a priority for local councils.
Up to a fifth of the MPs who have been debating the UK's climate change bill do not understand, or choose to ignore, the science on which it is based. They were 18 Cons MPs (33%), 11 of the 91 Labour (12%) & 2 of the 19 LDs(11%). Overall thats 19%. I think we should get rid of the lot.
Tony Juniper said the survey results were "disturbing". He said: "That a fifth of MPs say they either don't know or reject the science of climate change is a serious cause for alarm and suggests that many of them are seriously out of touch, because the science is very clear.
"For them to be making policy without a proper grasp of the science is a major oversight."
Meanwhile Gordon Gordon Brown attacks 'flat-earth' climate change sceptics! Todays Daily Express headline is 'Climate Nut Brown Will Ruin Britain' I thought he already had!
23% of Britain's 72 MEPs are either explicit climate 'skeptics', or are members of 'skeptic' parties who remain silent on the subject.
Skeptic is actually a rather kind description for someone who either doesn't understand the science, or they are in denial. They are not very skeptical about other theories, credulously accepting anything as 'fact' that seems to support them.
So 12 MEPs (16.7%) are actually on record taking an stance on climate opposed to science.
They are UKIP: Stuart Agnew, Marta Andreasan, Gerrard Batten, Godfrey Bloom, David Bannerman, Derek Clark & BNP Nick Griffin, CONS Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer who deny that any warming is occuring. Meanwhile Andrew Brons BNP, UKIP Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttalo deny that any warming is man-made.
'Skeptic' MPs were surveyed last year. David Cameron has failed to convince many of his MPs that man-made global warming is a serious problem, according to a poll that finds widespread sceptisicm across parliament about the issue.
A third of Tory MPs who responded to the survey questioned the existence of climate change and its link to human activity. Two-thirds said tackling climate change should not be a priority for local councils.
Up to a fifth of the MPs who have been debating the UK's climate change bill do not understand, or choose to ignore, the science on which it is based. They were 18 Cons MPs (33%), 11 of the 91 Labour (12%) & 2 of the 19 LDs(11%). Overall thats 19%. I think we should get rid of the lot.
Tony Juniper said the survey results were "disturbing". He said: "That a fifth of MPs say they either don't know or reject the science of climate change is a serious cause for alarm and suggests that many of them are seriously out of touch, because the science is very clear.
"For them to be making policy without a proper grasp of the science is a major oversight."
Meanwhile Gordon Gordon Brown attacks 'flat-earth' climate change sceptics! Todays Daily Express headline is 'Climate Nut Brown Will Ruin Britain' I thought he already had!
Reading West Candidates
There is some news on the candidates selected to contest Reading West in the General Election.
The Lib Dems will choose between Reading Cllr Daisy Benson, West Berkshire councillor Tony Vickers and former Thatcham mayor and ex-West Berkshire councillor, Alex Payton. They are all more local than the previous candidate Patrick Murray who stepped down in August. Waiting this long must put them at a disadvantage, but they are upbeat about there chances. "we're expecting to do very well in the general election." They got 15.8% last time, a long way behind the winning 45%!
Mr Payton, could not be reached for comment yesterday, not a good start.
Cllr Benson said: "Housing, health and crime are my main concerns." She will be standing in the local elections for Redlands Ward in Reading East, so she will have to cover lots of ground.
Cllr Tony Vickers said: "The party hasn't made much of an effort for many years now in that area, I want to change that, and I want to see Reading run by Liberal Democrats as they run many other major towns and cities around the country." Does he know this isn't a council election?
UKIP have chosen Bruce Hay. There doesn't seem to be much information on him yet, even on the UKIP website.
Conservative Alok Sharma is the favourite to win, has been campaigning for 3 years but I cant find a blog or website of his own.
Labour's Naz Sarkar didn't have a great start. I think he will struggle to be heard alongside Martin Salter, who rather hogs the media.
I am the Green candidate, and there is lots of information on me here. This is my 677th post, after nearly 3 years of blogging. I have been campaigning in Reading for 5 years, have written many letters to the local papers, had a few radio and TV interviews.
The political climate has changed a lot since the last General Election, Green issues are high on the agenda now, last time they were barely mentioned. A few of our policies have been picked up by the other parties, but there is only one Green Party.
The Lib Dems will choose between Reading Cllr Daisy Benson, West Berkshire councillor Tony Vickers and former Thatcham mayor and ex-West Berkshire councillor, Alex Payton. They are all more local than the previous candidate Patrick Murray who stepped down in August. Waiting this long must put them at a disadvantage, but they are upbeat about there chances. "we're expecting to do very well in the general election." They got 15.8% last time, a long way behind the winning 45%!
Mr Payton, could not be reached for comment yesterday, not a good start.
Cllr Benson said: "Housing, health and crime are my main concerns." She will be standing in the local elections for Redlands Ward in Reading East, so she will have to cover lots of ground.
Cllr Tony Vickers said: "The party hasn't made much of an effort for many years now in that area, I want to change that, and I want to see Reading run by Liberal Democrats as they run many other major towns and cities around the country." Does he know this isn't a council election?
UKIP have chosen Bruce Hay. There doesn't seem to be much information on him yet, even on the UKIP website.
Conservative Alok Sharma is the favourite to win, has been campaigning for 3 years but I cant find a blog or website of his own.
Labour's Naz Sarkar didn't have a great start. I think he will struggle to be heard alongside Martin Salter, who rather hogs the media.
I am the Green candidate, and there is lots of information on me here. This is my 677th post, after nearly 3 years of blogging. I have been campaigning in Reading for 5 years, have written many letters to the local papers, had a few radio and TV interviews.
The political climate has changed a lot since the last General Election, Green issues are high on the agenda now, last time they were barely mentioned. A few of our policies have been picked up by the other parties, but there is only one Green Party.
Friday, 18 December 2009
Copenhagen End Nears, Obama underwhelms COP 15
Confusion has dominated the final scheduled day as several draft texts were circulated on Friday afternoon. The US, EU and China have not offered anything new in public, prompting fears that a meaningful deal to curb global emissions was slipping beyond reach. US President Barack Obama held a second meeting with China's premier in an effort to break the deadlock.
Patrick Harvie MSP says
Obama underwhelms 'When Barak Obama rose to speak from the Bella Center, the atmosphere at the Klimaforum was hushed. Many people were still hoping for a change of position from the US, but all we got was a restatement of the familiar lines - a 17% by 2020, a pledge of $10bn, and commitments on accountability. We’ve heard this all before, and it’s wildly inadequate.'
Keya Chatterjee, Acting Director, WWF Climate Change Program, reacts to President Obama's speech. “What we did not hear today was how – how is the United States going to stand behind these commitments?” She adds that “we really need to hear from the President that this is going to be a legislative priority for him.”
stopclimatechange say 'Meanwhile, China’s nose was put further out of joint after it was not invited to a heads of state meeting last night. While the Danish COP presidency have sought to play this down as a procedural issue (that it was simply a meeting of Kyoto parties), this seems to be a major error in judgement.
China's Premier Wen Jiabao told delegates: "To meet the climate change challenge, the international community must strengthen confidence, build consensus, make vigorous efforts and enhance co-operation."
The last draft, which is being called the "Copenhagen Accord", calls for global emissions to be cut by 50% from 1990 levels by 2050, with "Annex I Parties" (industrialised nations except the US) committing to cuts of 80% by the same time. Other nations would "implement mitigation actions", in the form of national action plans, that would be updated every two years.
The text also acknowledges the scientific view that nations need to keep emissions below a level that stops the global average temperature exceeding a 2C (3.8F) increase above pre-industrialised levels.
The draft proposals released may to large-scale destruction of ecosystems and unprecedented land grabs as spurious `offsets' will allow Northern countries to burn ever more fossil fuels say civil society groups who have been tracking negotiations. Camila Moreno from Global Forest Coalition says: "In Brazil we're seeing an obscene agribusiness lobby presenting themselves as the solution while they destroy Brazil 's unique rainforest and savannah habitats and contribute massively to climate change. Yet they continue too ply their trade in the highest political circles with impunity. Theses new CDM rules will further mandate this ransacking of the global South."
Naomi Klein says 'On the ninth day of the Copenhagen climate summit, Africa was sacrificed. The position of the G77 negotiating bloc, including African states, had been clear: a 2C increase in average global temperatures translates into a 3–3.5C increase in Africa. That means, according to the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, "an additional 55 million people could be at risk from hunger", and "water stress could affect between 350 and 600 million more people".
Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it like this: "We are facing impending disaster on a monstrous scale … A global goal of about 2C is to condemn Africa to incineration and no modern development." And it is "better to have no deal than to have a bad deal"
UPDATE
The last day of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen ended with a group of countries including the US and China agreeing a deal which the EU early Saturday some described as "not perfect" but "better than no deal". However, it was rejected by a few developing nations who felt it failed to deliver the actions needed to halt dangerous climate change. Many nations are urging the Danish hosts to adopt the deal. To be accepted as an official UN agreement, the deal needs to be endorsed by all 193 nations at the talks. Mr Obama said the deal would be a foundation for global action but admitted there was "much further to go".
The deal promised to deliver $30bn (£18.5bn) of aid for developing nations over the next three years, and outlined a goal of providing $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change. The agreement also included a method for verifying industrialised nations' reduction of emissions. The US had insisted that China dropped its resistance to this measure.
Small island nations and vulnerable coastal countries have been calling for far more. "Can I suggest that in biblical terms, it looks like we're being offered 30 pieces of silver to sell our future," Tuvalu's lead negotiator Ian Fry said during the main meeting. "Our future is not for sale
twitter #jobisnotdoneyet
some pictures here
Patrick Harvie MSP says
Obama underwhelms 'When Barak Obama rose to speak from the Bella Center, the atmosphere at the Klimaforum was hushed. Many people were still hoping for a change of position from the US, but all we got was a restatement of the familiar lines - a 17% by 2020, a pledge of $10bn, and commitments on accountability. We’ve heard this all before, and it’s wildly inadequate.'
Keya Chatterjee, Acting Director, WWF Climate Change Program, reacts to President Obama's speech. “What we did not hear today was how – how is the United States going to stand behind these commitments?” She adds that “we really need to hear from the President that this is going to be a legislative priority for him.”
stopclimatechange say 'Meanwhile, China’s nose was put further out of joint after it was not invited to a heads of state meeting last night. While the Danish COP presidency have sought to play this down as a procedural issue (that it was simply a meeting of Kyoto parties), this seems to be a major error in judgement.
China's Premier Wen Jiabao told delegates: "To meet the climate change challenge, the international community must strengthen confidence, build consensus, make vigorous efforts and enhance co-operation."
The last draft, which is being called the "Copenhagen Accord", calls for global emissions to be cut by 50% from 1990 levels by 2050, with "Annex I Parties" (industrialised nations except the US) committing to cuts of 80% by the same time. Other nations would "implement mitigation actions", in the form of national action plans, that would be updated every two years.
The text also acknowledges the scientific view that nations need to keep emissions below a level that stops the global average temperature exceeding a 2C (3.8F) increase above pre-industrialised levels.
The draft proposals released may to large-scale destruction of ecosystems and unprecedented land grabs as spurious `offsets' will allow Northern countries to burn ever more fossil fuels say civil society groups who have been tracking negotiations. Camila Moreno from Global Forest Coalition says: "In Brazil we're seeing an obscene agribusiness lobby presenting themselves as the solution while they destroy Brazil 's unique rainforest and savannah habitats and contribute massively to climate change. Yet they continue too ply their trade in the highest political circles with impunity. Theses new CDM rules will further mandate this ransacking of the global South."
Naomi Klein says 'On the ninth day of the Copenhagen climate summit, Africa was sacrificed. The position of the G77 negotiating bloc, including African states, had been clear: a 2C increase in average global temperatures translates into a 3–3.5C increase in Africa. That means, according to the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, "an additional 55 million people could be at risk from hunger", and "water stress could affect between 350 and 600 million more people".
Archbishop Desmond Tutu puts it like this: "We are facing impending disaster on a monstrous scale … A global goal of about 2C is to condemn Africa to incineration and no modern development." And it is "better to have no deal than to have a bad deal"
UPDATE
The last day of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen ended with a group of countries including the US and China agreeing a deal which the EU early Saturday some described as "not perfect" but "better than no deal". However, it was rejected by a few developing nations who felt it failed to deliver the actions needed to halt dangerous climate change. Many nations are urging the Danish hosts to adopt the deal. To be accepted as an official UN agreement, the deal needs to be endorsed by all 193 nations at the talks. Mr Obama said the deal would be a foundation for global action but admitted there was "much further to go".
The deal promised to deliver $30bn (£18.5bn) of aid for developing nations over the next three years, and outlined a goal of providing $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change. The agreement also included a method for verifying industrialised nations' reduction of emissions. The US had insisted that China dropped its resistance to this measure.
Small island nations and vulnerable coastal countries have been calling for far more. "Can I suggest that in biblical terms, it looks like we're being offered 30 pieces of silver to sell our future," Tuvalu's lead negotiator Ian Fry said during the main meeting. "Our future is not for sale
twitter #jobisnotdoneyet
some pictures here
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Report From Copenhagen
Guest Post from Reading activist Miriam Kennet
The summit is exploding in lots of ways with a resignation of its president yesterday!
No NGOs are allowed in today, except those in with one small organisation RINGO who got all the tickets themselves. I spoke to UN officials who couldnt get in
Oxford University, The World Bank etc couldnt get in. Even the negotiator for Brazil and for India were barred from getting in, and an appeal went from the conference floor in plenary in the middle of the day to let them in allowed them acess!
I was interviewed on the BBC world service news and the journalist interviewing me said he had to wait 8 hours in the snow to get in. The Chief Negotaitor for the Indian Government was so upset with how he was manhandled at the outset at the entry barriers that he said he couldnt think straight and put Indians representations to the conference for about 20 minutes whilst he got his composure back!
Brazil and India are not minor players in this .. arguably Brazils rainforest holds the key to our human survival.....
The RINGO passes - ie research institutes including oxford university etc and think tanks were all given to an organisation called RINGO and only 8 passes have been given today to anyone else .. the rest went to RINGOs friends and supporters -so Oxford University has gone home.
The World Futures council couldnt get in and neither could we today .. even though we have been registered for 5 months on time and the conference is advertising our participation on its own website!
I also heard Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace cant go in.
But most telling of all -
The people from the UNs own think tank representing the states of the Middle East governments - couldnt not get in without a struggle !
The president resigned and the Danish Prime Minister personally took over in plenary yesterday - and was visibly nervous and allowed china to voice its concerns and this delayed the conference for hours.
Many of the smaller island states whose very survival depends on this conferences outcome were really worried and have put forward an alternative add on for limitation to 1.5 degrees but this was not really being discussed....
If this is really how we are going to deal with a megacrisis of climate - a police state where even the police dont seem to agree with what they are being asked to do - who is pulling these strings
The UNFCC secretariat is absolutely and totally out of its depth here ....and the whole organisation needs taking out of its hands and being run properly.. not even its own members seemed to have any grasp of what was going on and many of them couldnt get in either....
The biggest complaint by the delegations, is that the final deal is not being negotiated on the conference floor at all but somewhere else... entirely and will be imposed tomorrow when the bigger state presidents arrive and in a flourish off the deal = a deal already sealed .......
Everyone wants a deal - however its important that this deal comes from a quorate summit.....and that is going to stop climate change - not to simply provide for countries, large and small, developed and developing just to use it to pollute more and to simply to use it pay off their balances of trade ...!
Miriam Kennet
Copenhagen
Also see Naomi Klein on activism's impact on the climate negotiations.
Click here to sign the petition for a real deal -- the campaign already has a staggering 11 million supporters -- over the next 48 hours let's make it the largest petition in history! The name of every signer is being read out right now in the summit hall.
email Obama and the US ambassador in London now with38 degrees
“The time is past for big capital to make more money,” said Vandama Shiva, a former physicist who quit India’s nuclear program and become a leading voice for the environment. “The earth must make the change. The earth must make the rules. “We will be the change we want to see, and no one is going to stop us.”
And the Age Of Stupid youtube updates here
The summit is exploding in lots of ways with a resignation of its president yesterday!
No NGOs are allowed in today, except those in with one small organisation RINGO who got all the tickets themselves. I spoke to UN officials who couldnt get in
Oxford University, The World Bank etc couldnt get in. Even the negotiator for Brazil and for India were barred from getting in, and an appeal went from the conference floor in plenary in the middle of the day to let them in allowed them acess!
I was interviewed on the BBC world service news and the journalist interviewing me said he had to wait 8 hours in the snow to get in. The Chief Negotaitor for the Indian Government was so upset with how he was manhandled at the outset at the entry barriers that he said he couldnt think straight and put Indians representations to the conference for about 20 minutes whilst he got his composure back!
Brazil and India are not minor players in this .. arguably Brazils rainforest holds the key to our human survival.....
The RINGO passes - ie research institutes including oxford university etc and think tanks were all given to an organisation called RINGO and only 8 passes have been given today to anyone else .. the rest went to RINGOs friends and supporters -so Oxford University has gone home.
The World Futures council couldnt get in and neither could we today .. even though we have been registered for 5 months on time and the conference is advertising our participation on its own website!
I also heard Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace cant go in.
But most telling of all -
The people from the UNs own think tank representing the states of the Middle East governments - couldnt not get in without a struggle !
The president resigned and the Danish Prime Minister personally took over in plenary yesterday - and was visibly nervous and allowed china to voice its concerns and this delayed the conference for hours.
Many of the smaller island states whose very survival depends on this conferences outcome were really worried and have put forward an alternative add on for limitation to 1.5 degrees but this was not really being discussed....
If this is really how we are going to deal with a megacrisis of climate - a police state where even the police dont seem to agree with what they are being asked to do - who is pulling these strings
The UNFCC secretariat is absolutely and totally out of its depth here ....and the whole organisation needs taking out of its hands and being run properly.. not even its own members seemed to have any grasp of what was going on and many of them couldnt get in either....
The biggest complaint by the delegations, is that the final deal is not being negotiated on the conference floor at all but somewhere else... entirely and will be imposed tomorrow when the bigger state presidents arrive and in a flourish off the deal = a deal already sealed .......
Everyone wants a deal - however its important that this deal comes from a quorate summit.....and that is going to stop climate change - not to simply provide for countries, large and small, developed and developing just to use it to pollute more and to simply to use it pay off their balances of trade ...!
Miriam Kennet
Copenhagen
Also see Naomi Klein on activism's impact on the climate negotiations.
Click here to sign the petition for a real deal -- the campaign already has a staggering 11 million supporters -- over the next 48 hours let's make it the largest petition in history! The name of every signer is being read out right now in the summit hall.
email Obama and the US ambassador in London now with38 degrees
“The time is past for big capital to make more money,” said Vandama Shiva, a former physicist who quit India’s nuclear program and become a leading voice for the environment. “The earth must make the change. The earth must make the rules. “We will be the change we want to see, and no one is going to stop us.”
And the Age Of Stupid youtube updates here
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Who will have your vote in 2010?
This clip from youtube has only the big parties, but is quite amusing.
I will of course vote Green, who unlike the other parties have a coherent strategy for the future.
Meanwhile you can sing along to
"The ice caps are melting all the world is drowning "
by Tiny Tim from 1968.
transitionculture
I will of course vote Green, who unlike the other parties have a coherent strategy for the future.
Meanwhile you can sing along to
"The ice caps are melting all the world is drowning "
by Tiny Tim from 1968.
transitionculture
Monday, 14 December 2009
Solar Power Plans, Europe, China, India, Africa and Beyond
Energy from the Sahara plants is expected to supply Europe by 2015. A huge solar project in the Sahara desert has been announced by a consortium of 12 European businesses.
The first stage will be to build massive solar energy fields across North Africa's Sahara desert, utilising concentrated solar power technology (CPS), which uses parabolic mirrors to focus the Sun's rays on containers of water. The super-heated water will power steam turbines to generate electricity 24 hours a day, 52 weeks of the year. The electricity will then be transported great distances to Europe, using hi-tech cables that suffer little conductive loss of power, a loss of 3 percent per 1,000 kilometers. Some of the 20 gigawatts used in Africa also.
Africa also has a fantastic wind resource, with huge potential to put wind farms along the North African coast. Winds created by the Sun heating the air are especially strong during the summer, when European wind turbines, including those in Britain, are at their least productive.
The concept was first announced in 2007 by the Desertec Foundation, with small pilot projects based in North Africa. Companies signed up to the consortium include ABB, Abengoa Solar, Cevital, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium, Munich Re, M+W Zander, RWE and Schott Solar. Its a snip at $564 billion.
Meanwhile China plans to achieve the goal of 20 million kWh of installed solar power capacity in 2020, said Liang Zhipeng, head of the new and renewable energy division of China's State Energy Bureau. The goal is over 10 times the target set by the government two years ago. Its estimated that by 2020, China's renewable energy use will be equivalent to 800 million tons of standard coal, or one third of China's current annual energy consumption. By then, China will be able to reduce carbon dioxide emission by 1.8 billion tons annually.
Although India has virtually no solar power now, they have plans; and envisage the country generating 20GW from sunlight by 2020. Global solar capacity is predicted to be 27GW by then, according to the International Energy Agency, meaning India expects to be producing 75% of this within just 10 years!
I have been to the Almeria Solar Platform (PSA) is a European test facility center developed by the CIEMAT Spanish Center for Energy, Environment and Technological Research, devoted to the development of concentrating solar technologies in Spain. Spain has built further plants in Seville (11 megawatt), another in Granada, and is building more.
There are even ideas on Space based solar power, as different projects aimed at beaming energy to Earth from orbit begin to take shape.
The first stage will be to build massive solar energy fields across North Africa's Sahara desert, utilising concentrated solar power technology (CPS), which uses parabolic mirrors to focus the Sun's rays on containers of water. The super-heated water will power steam turbines to generate electricity 24 hours a day, 52 weeks of the year. The electricity will then be transported great distances to Europe, using hi-tech cables that suffer little conductive loss of power, a loss of 3 percent per 1,000 kilometers. Some of the 20 gigawatts used in Africa also.
Africa also has a fantastic wind resource, with huge potential to put wind farms along the North African coast. Winds created by the Sun heating the air are especially strong during the summer, when European wind turbines, including those in Britain, are at their least productive.
The concept was first announced in 2007 by the Desertec Foundation, with small pilot projects based in North Africa. Companies signed up to the consortium include ABB, Abengoa Solar, Cevital, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium, Munich Re, M+W Zander, RWE and Schott Solar. Its a snip at $564 billion.
Meanwhile China plans to achieve the goal of 20 million kWh of installed solar power capacity in 2020, said Liang Zhipeng, head of the new and renewable energy division of China's State Energy Bureau. The goal is over 10 times the target set by the government two years ago. Its estimated that by 2020, China's renewable energy use will be equivalent to 800 million tons of standard coal, or one third of China's current annual energy consumption. By then, China will be able to reduce carbon dioxide emission by 1.8 billion tons annually.
Although India has virtually no solar power now, they have plans; and envisage the country generating 20GW from sunlight by 2020. Global solar capacity is predicted to be 27GW by then, according to the International Energy Agency, meaning India expects to be producing 75% of this within just 10 years!
I have been to the Almeria Solar Platform (PSA) is a European test facility center developed by the CIEMAT Spanish Center for Energy, Environment and Technological Research, devoted to the development of concentrating solar technologies in Spain. Spain has built further plants in Seville (11 megawatt), another in Granada, and is building more.
There are even ideas on Space based solar power, as different projects aimed at beaming energy to Earth from orbit begin to take shape.
only five days left, the crucial Copenhagen climate summit is at a tipping point
With only five days left, the crucial Copenhagen climate summit is at a tipping point.
The climate-change conference in the Danish capital of Copenhagen is in disarray after some 130 developing countries walked out of the confab today. That’s led to at least a temporary suspension of the conference while rich-world delegations try to convince developing nations to rejoing the talks. Fundamentally, the walkout seems to be a “put up or shut up” message from poor countries to rich ones. The developing countries are upset that the Copenhagen conference may ditch the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and are upset with paltry amounts of financing offered so far by developed countries. Treehugger calls this the nuclear option. A similar tactic was used during recent climate talks in Barcelona.
Meanwhile the US and China, the world's biggest polluters, are blocking a deal. The rest of the world could cave in to their pressure for an empty agreement, or fight for a real deal. We urgently need a massive global outcry for the US and China to do the right thing, and for Europe, Brazil, South Africa and the rest of our leaders to draw a line in the sand and insist on a deal that saves the planet.
Click here to sign the petition for a real deal -- supported by hundreds of organizations it's already at a staggering 10 million signatures - let's make it the largest petition in history in the next 72 hours.
The negotiations work through consensus, so if even just a few of our leaders stand absolutely strong, an empty agreement will be impossible. Avaaz has a large team meeting daily with negotiators at the summit who will organize a spectacular petition delivery as world leaders arrive. If the petition is massive enough, any country that stands up to the big polluters will feel massive public support -- the US will feel intense pressure to offer more money and stronger emissions cuts, and China will be pressed to agree to a binding treaty.
US President Obama and Chinese President Hu will join an unprecedented 60 hours of negotiation among world leaders in Copenhagen this week . Both leaders value their respect on the world stage, and will have a personal choice about whether to go far beyond what their negotiating teams have offered so far. Historic agreements are made when leaders decide to stake their legacy on something - Obama and Hu need to hear it from the people of the world, and the rest of world leaders, that this is the time for boldness and vision, not empty agreements that cave in to domestic oil and coal lobbies.
A global climate movement is finally here. Yesterday Avaaz members led thousands of events worldwide, and millions watched our vigil inside the summit on TV, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu told hundreds of delegates and assembled children:
“We marched in Berlin, and the wall fell.
"We marched for South Africa, and apartheid fell.
"We marched at Copenhagen -- and we WILL get a Real Deal.”
Copenhagen is seeking the biggest mandate in history to stop the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. History will be made in the next few days. How will our children remember this moment? Let's tell them we did all we could.
The climate-change conference in the Danish capital of Copenhagen is in disarray after some 130 developing countries walked out of the confab today. That’s led to at least a temporary suspension of the conference while rich-world delegations try to convince developing nations to rejoing the talks. Fundamentally, the walkout seems to be a “put up or shut up” message from poor countries to rich ones. The developing countries are upset that the Copenhagen conference may ditch the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and are upset with paltry amounts of financing offered so far by developed countries. Treehugger calls this the nuclear option. A similar tactic was used during recent climate talks in Barcelona.
Meanwhile the US and China, the world's biggest polluters, are blocking a deal. The rest of the world could cave in to their pressure for an empty agreement, or fight for a real deal. We urgently need a massive global outcry for the US and China to do the right thing, and for Europe, Brazil, South Africa and the rest of our leaders to draw a line in the sand and insist on a deal that saves the planet.
Click here to sign the petition for a real deal -- supported by hundreds of organizations it's already at a staggering 10 million signatures - let's make it the largest petition in history in the next 72 hours.
The negotiations work through consensus, so if even just a few of our leaders stand absolutely strong, an empty agreement will be impossible. Avaaz has a large team meeting daily with negotiators at the summit who will organize a spectacular petition delivery as world leaders arrive. If the petition is massive enough, any country that stands up to the big polluters will feel massive public support -- the US will feel intense pressure to offer more money and stronger emissions cuts, and China will be pressed to agree to a binding treaty.
US President Obama and Chinese President Hu will join an unprecedented 60 hours of negotiation among world leaders in Copenhagen this week . Both leaders value their respect on the world stage, and will have a personal choice about whether to go far beyond what their negotiating teams have offered so far. Historic agreements are made when leaders decide to stake their legacy on something - Obama and Hu need to hear it from the people of the world, and the rest of world leaders, that this is the time for boldness and vision, not empty agreements that cave in to domestic oil and coal lobbies.
A global climate movement is finally here. Yesterday Avaaz members led thousands of events worldwide, and millions watched our vigil inside the summit on TV, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu told hundreds of delegates and assembled children:
“We marched in Berlin, and the wall fell.
"We marched for South Africa, and apartheid fell.
"We marched at Copenhagen -- and we WILL get a Real Deal.”
Copenhagen is seeking the biggest mandate in history to stop the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. History will be made in the next few days. How will our children remember this moment? Let's tell them we did all we could.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Letter Of Objection Enriched Uranium Facility AWE Aldermaston
Pic from thisisHampshire.net
Letter to:
Planning Department (Attn Mr C. Inwards)
West Berkshire Council, Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury, RG14 5LD
Planning Application 09/02396/COMIND
Enriched Uranium Facility, AWE Aldermaston
I would like to object to the planning application for a new Enriched Uranium Facility at the Atomic Weapons Establishment Aldermaston on the following grounds:
Information about the risks to public safety and the environment posed by the new facility has not been disclosed to the public or the Council.
No consultation with the general public took place before the planning application was submitted.
The new facility is unsustainable and will produce radioactive wastes for which there is as yet no safe disposal route.
Construction of this major development will lead to noise, disturbance, and increased traffic volumes.
I should be grateful if you would bring these concerns to the attention of the Planning Committee .
Further information on each of these points is included in a
briefing available at www.aldermaston.net
Twitter updates at http://twitter.com/stoppegasus
www.nuclearinfo.org
Nuclear Information Service (NIS), has branded the project a waste of money which, they claim, sends out a signal that the UK intends to develop a new generation of warheads.
Peter Burt, NIS director, said the facility is: “a white elephant legacy of the Bush and Blair years which is no longer needed to support the UK’s nuclear weapons programme.
968 Climate Protestors Arrested & Treated Like Animals
Climate change groups have criticised Danish police for using heavy-handed tactics after they detained 968 people at a rally near the Copenhagen summit.
Mel Evans from Climate Justice Action said protesters were held for hours in freezing conditions without medical attention, water or toilets. She said the actions of the police were appalling.
"People were very scared and they were held for about four hours on the ground. They weren't able to have any medical attention, any water, and weren't allowed to have any toilet facilities," "People were there in freezing conditions urinating on themselves and being held in lines like, essentially like animals."
The telegraph says those arrested were lefty anarchists, The times of India says they were 'black blocks', the bbc say it was 'youths'.
A police spokesman said almost all of those detained on Saturday had now been released, but a few would be charged. Tens of thousands marched to press for more decisive action on global warming. Nearly 1000 were arrested, this was the single most arrests ever recorded in one situation in Danish history, says a local.
The World Development Movement's director, Deborah Doane, condemned the authorities for what she said was a "complete violation of the right to protest and a step towards the breakdown of democracy".
In a statement, Copenhagen police said a large group of protesters had organised themselves in a so-called "black bloc", in which they put on masks - an illegal action at a demonstration in Denmark. Officers then decided to "seal off" the group from the march. The force said the large number of arrests had "produced a huge amount of pressure" on officers responsible for transporting, receiving and registering detainees. "This [meant] a large number of detainees got to sit disproportionately long on the street before transportation was possible. Copenhagen Police will evaluate if there is an opportunity for a faster way of transporting detainees away from the scene in the future," it added.
Danish police say only 13 of 968 people detained during Saturday's protests in Copenhagen remain in custody.
Some activists dressed as polar bears, some as penguins with signs like "Save the Humans!". Some held a giant balloon of an inflatable snowman about to melt — a symbol of warming tied mainly to the burning of fossil fuels that the U.N. panel of climate scientists says will bring desertification, floods, heat waves and rising seas. "There is no planet B" and "Change the politics, not the climate", read other banners.
Youtube;
Earthkeepers , itn, sky, Danish News.
Mel Evans from Climate Justice Action said protesters were held for hours in freezing conditions without medical attention, water or toilets. She said the actions of the police were appalling.
"People were very scared and they were held for about four hours on the ground. They weren't able to have any medical attention, any water, and weren't allowed to have any toilet facilities," "People were there in freezing conditions urinating on themselves and being held in lines like, essentially like animals."
The telegraph says those arrested were lefty anarchists, The times of India says they were 'black blocks', the bbc say it was 'youths'.
A police spokesman said almost all of those detained on Saturday had now been released, but a few would be charged. Tens of thousands marched to press for more decisive action on global warming. Nearly 1000 were arrested, this was the single most arrests ever recorded in one situation in Danish history, says a local.
The World Development Movement's director, Deborah Doane, condemned the authorities for what she said was a "complete violation of the right to protest and a step towards the breakdown of democracy".
In a statement, Copenhagen police said a large group of protesters had organised themselves in a so-called "black bloc", in which they put on masks - an illegal action at a demonstration in Denmark. Officers then decided to "seal off" the group from the march. The force said the large number of arrests had "produced a huge amount of pressure" on officers responsible for transporting, receiving and registering detainees. "This [meant] a large number of detainees got to sit disproportionately long on the street before transportation was possible. Copenhagen Police will evaluate if there is an opportunity for a faster way of transporting detainees away from the scene in the future," it added.
Danish police say only 13 of 968 people detained during Saturday's protests in Copenhagen remain in custody.
Some activists dressed as polar bears, some as penguins with signs like "Save the Humans!". Some held a giant balloon of an inflatable snowman about to melt — a symbol of warming tied mainly to the burning of fossil fuels that the U.N. panel of climate scientists says will bring desertification, floods, heat waves and rising seas. "There is no planet B" and "Change the politics, not the climate", read other banners.
Youtube;
Earthkeepers , itn, sky, Danish News.
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Reading climate change vigil, Gobal Action Day
Friday, 11 December 2009
Global Day of Action, 12th December
Around the world a series of actions are taking place to mark the Global Day of Action, 12th December.
In Copenhagen there will be a day of demonstrations. Friends of the Earth International are organising a “Flood for Climate Justice” starting at 10 am at, gathering at Halmtorvet [near the Klimaforum09 venue]. A colourful procession moving as a human flood will march through the streets of Copenhagen to Christiansborg Slotsplads (Parliament Square) where there will be a street theatre act.
In the afternoon, a coalition of climate organisations will gather for a mass demonstration. The march will start at Christiansborg Slotsplads at 1pm, and will reach the Bella Centre (the UN Summit Venue) for an assembly at around 5 pm.
The Global Day of Action will see protests of many forms all over the world. India is expected to see 50,000 people demonstrating on the streets of New Delhi, with actions happening in 15 other countries, including a candle-lit vigil on Kanyakumari Beach in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. 10,000 people are expected to join in “Walks against Warming” in different locations across Australia. In Tanzania there will be a mass bike ride as well as a Demonstration in Morogoro, while in city of Osasco, Brazil, the will be a parade with floats and drummers attended by students, workers and environmentalists. See what else is happening around the rest of the world, from Dakar to Djakarta and Buenos Aries to Istanbul.
Reading, Berkshire is having a vigil at 5.30pm. Hope to see people there.
For those in London during Copenhagen:
During the second week of Copenhagen, from Monday 14th - Thursday 17th Dec, Stop Climate Chaos Coalition will be organising 'flying pickets' at the embassies of countries that are blocking progress in the UNFCCC talks. Each day the country identified by Climate Action Network (CAN) as 'Fossil of the Day' will be targeted.
Camp for Climate Action have set up in Trafalgar Square and aim to stay there for the duration of the talks. You can go and support them by pitching a tent and staying or by simply taking visit and taking their minds off the cold. More info here.
For those all over the country:
Avaaz are heading a mass phone-in to Gordon Brown ahead of the meeting of European leaders this Thursday and Friday to decide the offers they will be taking to Copenhagen. Help flood the PM’s phone line with demands for European leaders to offer 30-40% cuts by 2020 and put forward sufficient finance for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries at the talk.
More info here.
You can sign up to Friends of the Earth “Climate Justice Swarm” which will send you email updates on how how to take part in daily actions which will react to latest developments at the talks. Actions will include putting pressure on heads of state, negotiators and other key figures via email, text, phone and letters to government officials and the media. Sign up to get daily action alerts from 7th December here
Keep track of what’s happening in Copenahgen:
Links:
Klima Forum, the main hub and and meeting of activists in Copenhagen will have regular updates and reports on their websites
Reel News will have daily updates from activists in Copenhagen during the Summit
At the recent Commonwealth meeting,a £13.3bn global fund was launched to reduce deforestation, build flood defences and boost renewable supplies in the developing world.
Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol.
Alliance of Small Island States say any deal that allows temperatures to rise by more than 1.5C is 'not negotiable'.
There are also regular articles and updates from the talks and around
Copenhagen at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment
Age Of Stupid are showing the 'Stupid Show' in Copenhagen
In Copenhagen there will be a day of demonstrations. Friends of the Earth International are organising a “Flood for Climate Justice” starting at 10 am at, gathering at Halmtorvet [near the Klimaforum09 venue]. A colourful procession moving as a human flood will march through the streets of Copenhagen to Christiansborg Slotsplads (Parliament Square) where there will be a street theatre act.
In the afternoon, a coalition of climate organisations will gather for a mass demonstration. The march will start at Christiansborg Slotsplads at 1pm, and will reach the Bella Centre (the UN Summit Venue) for an assembly at around 5 pm.
The Global Day of Action will see protests of many forms all over the world. India is expected to see 50,000 people demonstrating on the streets of New Delhi, with actions happening in 15 other countries, including a candle-lit vigil on Kanyakumari Beach in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. 10,000 people are expected to join in “Walks against Warming” in different locations across Australia. In Tanzania there will be a mass bike ride as well as a Demonstration in Morogoro, while in city of Osasco, Brazil, the will be a parade with floats and drummers attended by students, workers and environmentalists. See what else is happening around the rest of the world, from Dakar to Djakarta and Buenos Aries to Istanbul.
Reading, Berkshire is having a vigil at 5.30pm. Hope to see people there.
For those in London during Copenhagen:
During the second week of Copenhagen, from Monday 14th - Thursday 17th Dec, Stop Climate Chaos Coalition will be organising 'flying pickets' at the embassies of countries that are blocking progress in the UNFCCC talks. Each day the country identified by Climate Action Network (CAN) as 'Fossil of the Day' will be targeted.
Camp for Climate Action have set up in Trafalgar Square and aim to stay there for the duration of the talks. You can go and support them by pitching a tent and staying or by simply taking visit and taking their minds off the cold. More info here.
For those all over the country:
Avaaz are heading a mass phone-in to Gordon Brown ahead of the meeting of European leaders this Thursday and Friday to decide the offers they will be taking to Copenhagen. Help flood the PM’s phone line with demands for European leaders to offer 30-40% cuts by 2020 and put forward sufficient finance for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries at the talk.
More info here.
You can sign up to Friends of the Earth “Climate Justice Swarm” which will send you email updates on how how to take part in daily actions which will react to latest developments at the talks. Actions will include putting pressure on heads of state, negotiators and other key figures via email, text, phone and letters to government officials and the media. Sign up to get daily action alerts from 7th December here
Keep track of what’s happening in Copenahgen:
Links:
Klima Forum, the main hub and and meeting of activists in Copenhagen will have regular updates and reports on their websites
Reel News will have daily updates from activists in Copenhagen during the Summit
At the recent Commonwealth meeting,a £13.3bn global fund was launched to reduce deforestation, build flood defences and boost renewable supplies in the developing world.
Developing countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol.
Alliance of Small Island States say any deal that allows temperatures to rise by more than 1.5C is 'not negotiable'.
There are also regular articles and updates from the talks and around
Copenhagen at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment
Age Of Stupid are showing the 'Stupid Show' in Copenhagen
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Today is Human Rights Day
Today is Human Rights Day. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “Discrimination is outlawed by international treaties. But abstract commitments are not enough. We must confront inequality and intolerance wherever they are found.”
UN Calls for End to Discrimination on Human Rights Day.
Among the principle victims, the United Nations cites 'women and girls' who are discriminated against, in varying degrees, in all societies. They say intolerance, prejudice and discrimination lie at the heart of human rights violations. To mark this year's Human Rights Day, the United Nations is calling on governments and people around the world to live up to the international laws and standards that exist to protect the human rights.
"I'm concerned that Europe has not ratified the Convention for the protection of migrants and their families," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights South African Navanethem Pillay said. "We have documented cases of criminalization of illegal migrants, long periods of detention of migrants and their children, of forcible deportation. They seem to be treating migrants who come by boat and across land borders as toxic waste."
Everyone of us can make a difference. You are encouraged to celebrate Human Rights Day by advocating non-discrimination, organizing activities, raising awareness and reaching out to your local communities on 10 December and beyond.
Some news headlines from 2009 that Amnesty have highlighted.
In January, President Obama announced that Guantánamo would be closed.
In February, Binyam Mohamed was released. He thanked those who wrote to him, saying “I would not be home in Britain today if it were not for everyone's support. Indeed, I might not be alive at all.”
In April, new legislation on UK arms controls came into force, closing a dangerous loophole that left UK gun-running companies free to traffic small arms and ammunition to human rights hotspots.
In July, we learned that a huge response from Amnesty's Urgent Action Network had helped to bring safety for Jose Luis da Silva, Severina dos Santos Silva and their family after threats to their lives which they believe were linked to their fight for land rights.
In August, after years of campaigning, the US Supreme Court ruled that death row prisoner Troy Davis should have a chance to prove his innocence before the state of Georgia executes him. We expect the hearing to begin in the New Year.
In early November, we saw the biggest breakthrough yet in the campaign for justice for victims of the Gaza conflict. The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to endorse the Goldstone Report. This calls on Israel and Hamas to investigate war crimes or face intervention by the International Criminal Court.
In late November the government announced an integrated strategy to tackle all forms of violence against women, including rape, domestic violence, trafficking, and forced marriage. This is great news after five years of campaigning to stop violence against women.
UN Calls for End to Discrimination on Human Rights Day.
Among the principle victims, the United Nations cites 'women and girls' who are discriminated against, in varying degrees, in all societies. They say intolerance, prejudice and discrimination lie at the heart of human rights violations. To mark this year's Human Rights Day, the United Nations is calling on governments and people around the world to live up to the international laws and standards that exist to protect the human rights.
"I'm concerned that Europe has not ratified the Convention for the protection of migrants and their families," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights South African Navanethem Pillay said. "We have documented cases of criminalization of illegal migrants, long periods of detention of migrants and their children, of forcible deportation. They seem to be treating migrants who come by boat and across land borders as toxic waste."
Everyone of us can make a difference. You are encouraged to celebrate Human Rights Day by advocating non-discrimination, organizing activities, raising awareness and reaching out to your local communities on 10 December and beyond.
Some news headlines from 2009 that Amnesty have highlighted.
In January, President Obama announced that Guantánamo would be closed.
In February, Binyam Mohamed was released. He thanked those who wrote to him, saying “I would not be home in Britain today if it were not for everyone's support. Indeed, I might not be alive at all.”
In April, new legislation on UK arms controls came into force, closing a dangerous loophole that left UK gun-running companies free to traffic small arms and ammunition to human rights hotspots.
In July, we learned that a huge response from Amnesty's Urgent Action Network had helped to bring safety for Jose Luis da Silva, Severina dos Santos Silva and their family after threats to their lives which they believe were linked to their fight for land rights.
In August, after years of campaigning, the US Supreme Court ruled that death row prisoner Troy Davis should have a chance to prove his innocence before the state of Georgia executes him. We expect the hearing to begin in the New Year.
In early November, we saw the biggest breakthrough yet in the campaign for justice for victims of the Gaza conflict. The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to endorse the Goldstone Report. This calls on Israel and Hamas to investigate war crimes or face intervention by the International Criminal Court.
In late November the government announced an integrated strategy to tackle all forms of violence against women, including rape, domestic violence, trafficking, and forced marriage. This is great news after five years of campaigning to stop violence against women.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Rethink Trident, CND campaign
I have just signed a petition in support of the Re-think Trident Campaign to cancel the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system.
Did you know that renewing the Trident system is estimated to cost in excess of £76 Billion?
During this time of economic crisis I would much rather see the government spend the money combating child poverty and youth unemployment, providing affordable homes, investing in education and mental and physical healthcare as well as addressing the climate crisis, to name a few.
Please join the campaign to Rethink Trident - just click here
Thanks!
Did you know that renewing the Trident system is estimated to cost in excess of £76 Billion?
During this time of economic crisis I would much rather see the government spend the money combating child poverty and youth unemployment, providing affordable homes, investing in education and mental and physical healthcare as well as addressing the climate crisis, to name a few.
Please join the campaign to Rethink Trident - just click here
Thanks!
Conservative Sceptical Or Cynical
David Cameron has claimed he is a 'true green' to convince people that the Conservatives have changed, no longer the nasty party. When they got ahead in the poles, that has been quietly dropped, instead of 'vote blue go green' we have an Obamaesque message of 'Change'.
Prior to his election as Tory leader, his only recorded statement about environmentalism was to mock wind farms as “giant bird-blenders” and demand more roads be built. But within a year of the sneer, he had one of these built onto his house, and invited the press to see it, proclaiming himself a “true green.”
Cameron says he wants to copy the 'green' policies of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Angela Merkel – but he doesn’t seem to understand what they are. Schwarzenegger, for example, has passed a law requiring car manufacturers to massively slash the amount of fuel each car uses. By 2020, they will have to achieve 43 miles per US gallon. The car manufacturers are fighting the law in court; Schwarzenegger has told them to quit “whining”. This is precisely the kind of “regulation” with, a “bureaucracy” to police it, that Cameron explicitly disavows, and Redwood promises to dismantle.
The man Cameron has put in charge of drawing up his plans for “a bonfire of regulation” is John Redwood, who says global warming is a “swindle” – but if it was happening we should celebrate because we will have more sunny days. “If you want to know if I’m a Tory,” Cameron told the Spectator, “ask John Redwood.”
Wokinghams Mr Redwood 'gaffed' by insisting Britain would "benefit" from the Earth heating up.
In an article on his internet diary the chairman of the Tory's economic competitiveness policy group said he was "sceptical" about scientific evidence that warned about global warming.
He mocked concerns that gas-guzzling cars could contribute to climate change by adding: "A recent news item has told us visits to Mars by space probes detect "global" warming there, but have not yet discovered the 4x4s causing it."
'I have always thought we should remain sceptical about all scientific theories, for that is the way that science advances by constantly submitting theories to test. Meanwhile we are living in a period when things are warming up, so we should manage any unhelpful consequences of that and welcome the good effects it will have. We do need to increase the water supply in the drier south of the UK and make sure we have enough water stored in case we have longer drier periods, and we do need to improve sea defences in case there is going to be a combination of small rises in sea level and higher storm and tidal surges. We will benefit from the better weather for tourism, agriculture and outdoor sports. Fewer people will die of the cold and from snow and ice in the winter.'
A number of other prominent Tories including members of the Commons, Lords and European Parliament have publicly denounced ‘global warming alarmism', or the ‘lunatic consensus on climate change'.
Former leadership contender David Davis has launched a scathing attack on the efforts to achieve a new global agreement on tackling climate change at Copenhagen. He said evidence suggested the earth was cooling, not warming, and that recently leaked e-mails had shown leading scientists "conspiring to rig the figures to support their theories". "The ferocious determination to impose hair-shirt policies on the public - taxes on holiday flights, or covering our beautiful countryside with wind turbines that look like props from War of the Worlds - would cause a reaction in any democratic country."
Some of the Tory sceptics deny outright that man-made climate change exists. Others are willing to concede that the overwhelming scientific consensus is probably right but believe that to do anything about it will damage business or harm economic growth. But British businesses are embracing the development of a low carbon economy and taking advantage of the new worldwide markets in green goods, services and technologies that are opening up.
Graham Brady MP
"There is some room for debate about why the climate is changing and the best ways of tackling it. It is a good idea to reduce carbon emissions, but I would not want to see the whole economy destroyed in the process. There is a balance to be struck." Graham Brady, The Independent, 2 December 2009
Douglas Carswell MP
"I have thought long and hard about it and in my view the climate is not changing because of human activity." Douglas Carswell, Clacton Gazette, 23 October 2009
"The lunatic "consensus" on man-made climate change is starting to break down." Douglas Carswell, blog post, 12 October 2009
Philip Davies MP
"We appear to have gone down a road whereby people's ability to exercise free speech on certain subjects is being undermined, and there is no greater example of that at the moment than climate change. People have jumped on to that particular bandwagon with religious zeal, rather than looking at the issue from a purely objective perspective. Of course we all care about the future of our planet and the legacy that we leave our children and grandchildren-nobody doubts the importance of that-but the question is how effective the measures taken are in tackling any problem that there may be. It is no good our trying to do something completely disproportionate that disproportionately affects our economy and the quality of life of the people of this country, with no overall benefit to the world as a whole, anyway." Philip Davies, Hansard 15 June 2007, col 1020
"The case is not helped by the fact that the planet appears to have been cooling, not warming, in the last decade" David Davis MP
Peter Lilley MP
"There are plenty of other fairy stories around, and I want to touch on the idea that a rise of 2° C would constitute dangerous climate change that we should try to avoid by spending unlimited amounts. That is a 2° C rise not from now, but from before the industrial revolution. We have already had a rise of 0.7° C, so it is being said that a further 1.3° C rise in world temperature would be dangerous. One reason why the ordinary public are in disbelief is because they spend their time looking for places that are 10° C warmer than here, not 1° C. The Minister was frightfully upset when I pointed out that the average temperature in north-east England was more than 2° C higher than that in Cornwall and asked whether it was dangerous for people to go from Newcastle to Newquay. We cannot pretend that comparatively modest changes to the temperature of the Earth will lead to Armageddon- they will not."
Peter Lilley, Hansard, 5 November 2009, col 1052
Peter Lilley also questioned the science behind climate change, arguing that “Politicians, having committed themselves to the idea of climate change, invent the reasons to justify it, and there is a tendency to demonise anybody who dissents from the consensus.
“I believe that the claims that the scientific evidence is overwhelming and that the debate is ended are incorrect and exaggerated, that the damages supposed to result from rises in the global average temperature are exaggerated and that the cost of mitigating that rise in temperature is almost certainly understated.”
Lilley was supported by party colleague Peter Bone who raised the thought-promoting examples of medieval Greenland being warm enough to support vineyards and NASA research apparently finding temperatures to have registered a long-term increase on Jupiter and Mars as well as Earth.
John Maples MP (Conservative Vice Chairman)
"I do not believe that the science is anything like as settled as the proponents of the Bill are making out. In fact, the scientists hedge their predictions with an awful lot of qualifications and maybes that those who invoke them often omit. The science is a bit like medicine in the 1850s. The scientists are scratching the surface of something that they do not really understand, but no doubt will. They are probably on to something, but nothing like the whole story. What they say does not justify any of the apocalyptic visions that we have heard set out." John Maples, Hansard, 9 June 2008, c103
"The only argument for acting radically now is if there is a tipping point - a point of no return. None of the scientists whom I have read predicts that"
Andrew Tyrie MP
"I will not support the [Climate Change] Bill this evening. I have fundamental disagreements with parts of it. It requires the Government, and particularly their successors, to embark on a drastic restructuring of the British economy." Andrew Tyrie MP, Hansard, 9 June 2008, c98
Anne Widdecombe MP
"It so happens that I know that an awful lot of people in our party - and by that I mean a lot - are deeply unhappy with the way that we've signed up apparently quite blindly to the climate change agenda." Anne Widdecombe, Total Politics, 21 August 2009
Lord Lawson of Blaby
"The greatest error in the current conventional wisdom is that, if you accept the (present) majority scientific view that most of the modest global warming in the last quarter of the last century - about half a degree centigrade - was caused by man-made carbon emissions, then you must also accept that we have to decarbonise our economies. Nothing could be further from the truth."Nigel Lawson, The Times, 23 November 2009
Daniel Hannan MEP
"I see guys with clipboards and white coats telling me one thing and then guys with equally impressive white coats telling me another thing and you know I don't know what the science is, I'm not qualified, and I envy the moral certainty of some of the guys on both sides of this argument. But I am worried about the direction that these talks are taking in the sense that it's completely disproportionate, even if you take the figures being quoted by the most optimistic supporters of the whole process, they're talking about a nugatory reduction in climate change rates over the next century and look at the price that they're wanting us to pay for that. We together, Western Europe and the US, account for a tiny, at most 15% of all the CO2 emissions so what we do is really not going to affect things very much, even if you're wrong and all the climate change guys are right about this, it isn't going to make much difference."
Dan Hannan, Fox News, 9 November 2009
Roger Helmer MEP
"We are now planning to spend unimaginable sums of money on mitigation measures which will simply not work, and by damaging our economies will deny us the funds we need to address real environmental problems. As a British journalist, Christopher Booker, has remarked, global warming alarmism is the greatest collective flight from reality in human history."
Roger Helmer, speech, 4 February 2009
I was asked by the Heartland Institute to review EU climate policies, and in particular the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme, as I have served on the European parliament's Climate Change Committee. The subject is timely, as the new US Obama administration is looking at similar Cap and Trade schemes. I will argue that the EU's scheme is ill-conceived. It has been hugely expensive and damaging, adding to industry's costs and creating a mountain of red tape, while doing little to curb emissions. It is failing in its own terms. If climate alarmism is misplaced, then the EU's policy is entirely pointless and a vast waste of resources.
Roger Helmer, personal blog, 9 March 2009
Giles Chichester MEP
"Many are not convinced about global warming and argue that warnings of the melting of Polar ice packs and future rises in sea levels are not borne out by the scientific evidence. Others point to our wet, humid summers and local flooding as a foretaste of the increasing effects of climate change. The majority are, like me, confused by messages of doom from experts who issue statements based upon the latest climate predictions of their computer programmes. These are always prefaced by words such as should, could or may, thus emphasising by the vagueness of the language the inadequate foundations of their research."
Giles Chichester MEP, Press released letter, 7 October 2009
Douglas Carswell MP
"When I was a member of Friends of the Earth [before his election to Parliament] I did believe that Carbon Dioxide emissions were responsible for global warming. It is just the facts seem to have changed. And so i've changed my mind"
'Vote Blue:Go Green' turns out to be just Spin
This site is quite good for refuting sceptics.
And these from you tube.
For entertainment, see Sara Palin on the subject.
Tenth Tesco set to open in Reading
Tesco's relentless invasion of Reading is set to continue when it opens its 10th store in the town.
A new Tesco Express, based in the building in Market Place will open in February. The shop’s fit-out will begin immediately after Tesco bosses signed a 15-year lease on the 3,025 ft ground floor and 1,715 ft basement site.
Why do our Council let Tesco take over the town? Is there no limit to their expansion? Watch the small shops close, so the choice for customers becomes less good. When only supermarkets and a few specialist shops remain, will the council think it a good thing?
Tesco now controls over 30% of the grocery market in the UK. In 2009, the supermarket chain announced profits of over £3bn. Growing evidence indicates that Tesco's success is partly based on trading practices that are having serious consequences for suppliers, farmers and workers worldwide, local shops and the environment.
The Competition Commission had investigated Tesco last year after a two-year inquiry into the grocery sector and introduced a 'competition test'. It would have meant that permission for a new supermarket would be subject to a retailer’s existing market share in the area – based on data provided by the Office of Fair Trading. Tesco appealed and won, they can always hire the best lawyers. Tesco has a huge pipeline of properties that it hopes to turn into supermarkets and convenience stores to add to its more than 2,000 outlets. It says it will add 2 million sq ft (186,000 sq m) to its floorspace by April 2010.
Tesco’s win is a blow to some of its rivals, who had made submissions to backing the commission, which said it would study the ruling before deciding its next step. A commission remedy based on a market investigation has never previously been successfully challenged. Every little hurts.
A new Tesco Express, based in the building in Market Place will open in February. The shop’s fit-out will begin immediately after Tesco bosses signed a 15-year lease on the 3,025 ft ground floor and 1,715 ft basement site.
Why do our Council let Tesco take over the town? Is there no limit to their expansion? Watch the small shops close, so the choice for customers becomes less good. When only supermarkets and a few specialist shops remain, will the council think it a good thing?
Tesco now controls over 30% of the grocery market in the UK. In 2009, the supermarket chain announced profits of over £3bn. Growing evidence indicates that Tesco's success is partly based on trading practices that are having serious consequences for suppliers, farmers and workers worldwide, local shops and the environment.
The Competition Commission had investigated Tesco last year after a two-year inquiry into the grocery sector and introduced a 'competition test'. It would have meant that permission for a new supermarket would be subject to a retailer’s existing market share in the area – based on data provided by the Office of Fair Trading. Tesco appealed and won, they can always hire the best lawyers. Tesco has a huge pipeline of properties that it hopes to turn into supermarkets and convenience stores to add to its more than 2,000 outlets. It says it will add 2 million sq ft (186,000 sq m) to its floorspace by April 2010.
Tesco’s win is a blow to some of its rivals, who had made submissions to backing the commission, which said it would study the ruling before deciding its next step. A commission remedy based on a market investigation has never previously been successfully challenged. Every little hurts.
Engineers Say Achieving UK Emission Reduction Targets 'Unlikely'
A damning study from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) says that achieving the UK's target of an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 is unlikely and other approaches will be needed to mitigate climate change. While the report, "Climate Change: have we lost the battle?", applauds the Government's emission reduction targets, it says that to achieve them would require decarbonising at a rate never seen before.
According to the IMechE, between 2001 and 2006, the UK reduced carbon output per unit of GDP by 1.3% annually. But the rate necessary to achieve the Government's emission reduction targets would have to top 5% annually until 2050. To get the UK on track, says the report, would require the construction and operation of the equivalent of 30 new nuclear power stations in the next five years and the retiring of a similar amount of coal-fired power generation. The country would have to increase its number if wind turbines more than ten-fold from 2600 to 27,000 by 2030 and a further 13,000 by 2050. Nuclear Power is not the answer, it creates a big waste problem, is too centralised, has safety concerns and it would take too long. Renewables are the answer.
Even with unprecedented levels of public investment in low-carbon technologies, the IMechE report maintains that a different approach needs to be pursued. The report calls on the Government to adopt a 'battle plan' that, in addition to continuing its existing emission reduction policies, would pursue strategies to adapt to predicted climate change and undertake major geo-engineering projects to remove CO2 from the atmosphere or reflect solar radiation back into space. Schemes suggested in the report include building 100,000 artificial trees to absorb CO2.
They say that the geo-engineering technologies could be gradually reduced over time as the UK transitions to a fully low-carbon economy. Without adopting these kinds of measures, the report says the UK is already losing the climate change mitigation battle.
I dont think we need geo-engineering myself. Why design a technology (that may not work) that stores carbon when we already have the solution? Reduce emissions and plant lots of trees.
SOME STATISTICS
Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels have risen 29% since 2000, according to an international team of researchers. Compared to 1990, the Kyoto Protocol reference year, the rise is 41%. The Global Carbon Project, writing in peer reviewed journal Nature Geoscience, also report a 2% increase in emissions during 2008 despite the economic downturn. However, this is less than the 3.4% average annual rate of increase over the same period.
The use of coal as a fuel now exceeds oil for the first time in 40 years and developing countries have overtaken their western counterparts in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the significant increases in human-induced CO2 emissions, the researchers found that the fraction of global CO2 emissions that remained in the atmosphere each year has increased around 5% in the last 50 years, indicating that natural carbon sinks maybe decreasing in efficiency.
C. Le Quéré, M. R. Raupach, J. G. Canadell, G. Marland et al. Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide. Nature Geoscience (published online 17 Nov 2009)
According to the IMechE, between 2001 and 2006, the UK reduced carbon output per unit of GDP by 1.3% annually. But the rate necessary to achieve the Government's emission reduction targets would have to top 5% annually until 2050. To get the UK on track, says the report, would require the construction and operation of the equivalent of 30 new nuclear power stations in the next five years and the retiring of a similar amount of coal-fired power generation. The country would have to increase its number if wind turbines more than ten-fold from 2600 to 27,000 by 2030 and a further 13,000 by 2050. Nuclear Power is not the answer, it creates a big waste problem, is too centralised, has safety concerns and it would take too long. Renewables are the answer.
Even with unprecedented levels of public investment in low-carbon technologies, the IMechE report maintains that a different approach needs to be pursued. The report calls on the Government to adopt a 'battle plan' that, in addition to continuing its existing emission reduction policies, would pursue strategies to adapt to predicted climate change and undertake major geo-engineering projects to remove CO2 from the atmosphere or reflect solar radiation back into space. Schemes suggested in the report include building 100,000 artificial trees to absorb CO2.
They say that the geo-engineering technologies could be gradually reduced over time as the UK transitions to a fully low-carbon economy. Without adopting these kinds of measures, the report says the UK is already losing the climate change mitigation battle.
I dont think we need geo-engineering myself. Why design a technology (that may not work) that stores carbon when we already have the solution? Reduce emissions and plant lots of trees.
SOME STATISTICS
Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels have risen 29% since 2000, according to an international team of researchers. Compared to 1990, the Kyoto Protocol reference year, the rise is 41%. The Global Carbon Project, writing in peer reviewed journal Nature Geoscience, also report a 2% increase in emissions during 2008 despite the economic downturn. However, this is less than the 3.4% average annual rate of increase over the same period.
The use of coal as a fuel now exceeds oil for the first time in 40 years and developing countries have overtaken their western counterparts in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the significant increases in human-induced CO2 emissions, the researchers found that the fraction of global CO2 emissions that remained in the atmosphere each year has increased around 5% in the last 50 years, indicating that natural carbon sinks maybe decreasing in efficiency.
C. Le Quéré, M. R. Raupach, J. G. Canadell, G. Marland et al. Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide. Nature Geoscience (published online 17 Nov 2009)
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
'Poo power' reduces emissions
Human waste is processed and made into blocks which are burned make electricity. The water/sewerage firm says it saved £15m last year - by using human waste.
In 2008/09, Thames Water generated 14% of its power from either burning sludge or methane derived from the 2.8 billion litres of sewage it treats every day. The company hopes the move will ultimately help it cut greenhouse gases by 20%.
More than 13 million people in London, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and Surrey are served by Thames Water.
Dr Keith Colquhoun, Thames Water's climate change strategy manager, said: "There's no polite way of saying this but what we produce - our poo - isn't simply waste, it's a great source of energy. "The solids in sewage have a high calorific content that we use to generate electricity.
"This isn't a gimmick. As well as helping us to be more sustainable as a company, it also saves money - £15m less of customers' cash spent on National Grid energy last year alone, which ultimately has a downward pressure of bills. "Our goal is to cut greenhouse emissions by 20% on 1990 levels by 2020 - that's about 200,000 tonnes less CO2. "By using poo power and other renewable energy sources, we're making significant progress towards this target."
Perhaps the council collected dog poo could go to the same place.
The picture is from this site which compares poo power to nuclear power!
Update; Swedish Trains run on mainly cow poo, using biogas from 2005.
It takes 2.5 cows to produce enough biogas to move the train 1 mile.
One cubic metre of clean biogas is approximately the equivalent of 1 litre of petrol.
Biogas does less damage to the environment because it reduces the amount of waste going to landfill and has cleaner emissions.
See also Daily Kos
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