Christian Aid is a brilliant campaigning organisation. Think back a few years – their main campaign for several years from around 1997 was ‘break the chain of 3rd world debt’.. then around 2001 they moved to ‘Trade Justice’… Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for March, 2007
Christian Aid leads on ‘Climate Changed’
Climate change starts to rear its head at Council meetings
It is salutary to witness man withdrawing from an attempt to control nature as the effects of climate change come to bear. The South coast, already affected by Isostatic effects Read the rest of this entry »
1/3rd of groceries end up in the bin
A horrific statistic that appeared in the Times this weekend. Apparently: 30% of all supermarket purchases go direct into the bin (?! surely) at a cost of £460 per year per person. Read the rest of this entry »
Climate change – human activity induced?
Martin Durkin produced a programme for Channel 4 entitled the Great Climate Change Swindle which seemed to offer a counter view about climate change – that is is all down to the activity of the sun. For all of us who are not scientists, most specifically climatologists or oceanographers this is confusing and I have no doubts that ‘the extent to which man’s activities are responsible for climate change’ will be debated for some time to come – which is good. Read the rest of this entry »
SE Renewables conference
I attended the SE Renewable Energy Conference in Nov 06 with several Wealden officers and 1 other member – Chantal Wilson. Over the 2 days there were 28 different speakers ranging from an MP and Defra officials to local primary school children who had won environmental awards for their recycling and renewables power generation projects…. Each had a 20 minute slot and a number of slides packed with information. There were also 4 break out discussion workshops ranging from expanding woodfuel generation to project financing and community involvement– it was an exhausting but enjoyable and highly informative time!
Here’s a link to the conference presentations – for Forest Row interest look particularly for the Hoathly Hill Biomass boiler funding presentation by Marion Briggs, and the other that was excellent from a ‘what are the rewewable’s options’ perspective is the Spatial Planning Technology Overview by Clare Bonham-Carter… http://www.serenewables.org.uk/Presentations.html
Forest Row and the Transition Towns project
Mike Grenville has run an excellent event today entitled ‘Changing Worlds’ encompassing climate change, peak oil, global trade and politics issues, and ideas about what actions we can each take as individuals, communities and in campaigning to Government to make our world and, very specifically our local community, a better place for everyone.
Highlights included a visit from the Lewes Transition Town project – to learn more about Transition towns go to: http://transitiontowns.org/ Contact Mike via this website to get involved: http://www.changingworlds.info/index.html
I am reminded yet again what a special place Forest Row is to live and how much we are blessed with in this area.
FairTrade – would you want your kids to work in a sweatshop?
I strongly believe that I shouldn’t ask anyone to do what I wouldn’t do myself…. Therefore, why should anyone work in unsafe or inhuman conditions, put themselves at risk of pesticides (do you know how much pesticide can go on bananas and cotton?), or not be able to see any positive fruit from their labours.
Forest Row recently became accredited as a FairTrade town – a relatively easy step as several businesses were already stocking FT goods and several more businesses and workplaces signed up to willingly. If you would like to know more about FairTrade – the FT foundation is a good place to start: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/
If you already support FT you might be interested in the work of Shared Interest, a ‘co-operative lending society’ that grew out of Traidcraft some years ago and exists to offer finance to FT producers who often have no access to bank loans on anything other than extortionate terms (think 100%/week type money). This is often for very short term working capital type use, and the aim is always that they become self reliant. It is a brilliant and truely responsible organisation. See: http://www.shared-interest.com/
My favourite places to shop for FT goods are Traidcraft: http://www.traidcraft.co.uk/
and Natural Collection: http://www.naturalcollection.com/
Forest Row kerbside recycling trial is coming…May 07
After some very good work by Forest Row Parish Council in their parish plan http://forestrow.gov.uk/ and particularly by Alan Potter a village resident and waste expert http://www.beyond-waste.com/whoweare/people/alanpotter/ we finally have a kerbside collection trial scheme starting in Forest Row in May 07.
The scheme will involve having recyclables’ containers that insert into the top of your wheelie bin with alternate week collections of waste and recyclables. Watch out for more information that will come via the Parish Council.
As well as providing kerbside pick up, it also encourages a reduction in the amount of rubbish to landfill. Both are very good things though it will be interesting to see how sucessful the waste pick up will be as some recyclables will still have to be taken to bring sites (for the moment glass and possibly cans). To get involved as a local Recycling Champion contact Alan on alanthewiz@btopenworld.com or mail recycling@wealden.gov.uk .
As this scheme is a trial it will be exciting to see how this unfolds and whether this proves a good model to then extend to other areas around the District and into the existing Wealden Crown kerbside scheme that operates on a slightly different basis covering 2/3rds of the District in the more built up areas: Hailsham, Crowborough, Polegate and Uckfield. http://www.wealden.gov.uk/Environment_and_Transport/Recycling/CROWN_Kerbside_Scheme/crown_expansion.aspx
Strange isn’t it that the principle reason that Forest Row has not had a kerbside collection of recyclables up to now is that Wealden DC has been ‘too sucessful’ and recycled beyond its targets… and importantly beyond that level of grant funding that pays for this kind of scheme so whereas other areas would be funded for increasing recycling, Wealden would not be.
All things come to those who wait…….
Reuse, reduce, recycle
1. Reuse comes first. The East Grinstead NCT sale for childrens toys, clothes and equipment is on 24th March at Sackville school 1.30 – 3pm. Jumble sales are out of favour it seems but ebay is a great service in this area. I have now moved to the point where I am happy to give second hand toys bought from ebay as presents to other children when I know they have good play value. It has taken me some time to get to this point as though I have always been happy to use anything serviceable for us at home, it seems odd to actually give it to someone else. I think the fact that I have to pay on ebay helps psychologically!
2. Reduce comes second….I’m not sure if Freecycle ideas and ‘give and take’ days fall under reuse or reduce – probably both. I was chatting with Alan Potter, a FR resident who works in ‘rubbish’ and was delighted to hear that as well as assisting develop the FR kerbside pickup, Alan is mulling other possible waste ideas that I too have been talking about and looking into - a ‘zero waste’ challenge project (households challenged to get their landfill destined waste to as near as zero as possible), Freecycle (hurrah, he knows someone thinking of bringing this type of scheme into Forest Row) and even a Share-It scheme where infrequently used items could be shared between scheme members (DIY tools and ice cream makers?). As I have run a cloth nappy loan scheme for a number of years in the
East Grinstead area this all makes perfect sense to me. If any area can test out and run these things, I’m sure Forest Row will.
Please send me your ideas….
Own carbon footprint leaves no room to be smug
Before Christmas 06 I signed up to a Tory project to encourage people to ’save a tonne of carbon’ and to blog about the process…
Here’s a link to the Carbon Challenge – part of the excellent Quality of Life huge policy review the Tory party is currently undertaking… http://qualityoflifechallenge.typepad.com/carbon_challenge/
Here is my blog that I posted when I first calculated my own carbon footprint…
Carbon calculator a sobering experience for Mrs Smug Married with 2 children (no dog)
As rather a greenie Tory local district councillor (mum of 2 under 5s, thankfully both now out of washable nappies) I have been putting an increasing amount of effort into reducing both my personal and our District Council’s carbon emissions. I’ve volunteered to take on this Carbon Challenge knowing that I’ve done the easy bits personally, and I’m wondering where to go next. I’m hoping for some inspiration, some ideas …and doubtless some more challenge.
It is slighly unnerving to disclose one’s personal lifestyle habits and choices to all who choose to read it – so please be gentle with your feedback, and recognise that for each of us this carbon thing is a learning, evolving journey, and I believe only when taken in good heart will it get us globally anywhere. But please do send some.
I feel rather smug. The light bulbs are all low energy, even finally the downlighters; we have a solar thermal water heater that I’m thrilled with; the central heating is mostly off or down low, and we are much more aware of heating just the space, or the water, we are using; we have cavity wall insulation and at least 10” insulation in the loft; we shut our curtains and plug the gaps; we’ve definitely decided a small cheap wind turbine on the rafters is not a good idea for us (but I’d love to have some medium or biggie turbines in the countryside around us, as would at least one neighbour, but more of that later..). We have plans to replace our oil fired boiler (old, inefficient and starting to break down) with a wood burning boiler and large hot water storage tank; and all the other straightforward things, and where do I find myself personally on the Carbon calculator….
Crikey – not only do I find myself contributing just a little over the UK average carbon amount on a personal basis (6 tonnes/annum) (am I being too honest?), I also find that as much as that again is added onto me by the carbon calculator as standard secondary carbon from things such as recreation, buildings and public services.
It is sobering. 12 tonnes, and the guidance on ‘emissions/person to stop global warming’ is 2.5 tonnes per person.
More than double this – 6 tonnes – is emitted by my ‘average secondary footprint’ as calculated by the Carbon Footprint Calculator. Perhaps I’m not really so bad, perhaps as we do think about what we buy before we buy it, we do recycle (hence helping using less ‘initial manufacture carbon’), and buy recycled goods and local food where possible. However, of course, maybe we’re worse. Maybe my recreation/public service consumption is above average. Who knows, I won’t really go there for now. Save to say that my primary carbon footprint is just above average.
The ‘biggies’ within it are heating the house, and driving my car. I’m not surprised at the sources but I am surprised as to how much carbon I add to the atmosphere.
I play around with the ‘type of car’ dropdown and find I can vary my emissions by a tonne easily by classifying my car in a similar bracket… is it MPV diesel (better) or 4×4 diesel (considerably worse). As our diesel 4×4 is not a big one and does over 40 to the gallon (we did look into fuel consumption when we bought it, though perhaps not as much as we would now, almost 5 years later), I hope perhaps it is not such an offender……Yet, even with a 1.2 supermini the calculator tells me that my average mileage (8000 miles /year) would produce 1.8 tonnes carbon, almost all my 2.5 tonne allowance.
I resolve in a Bridget Jones fashion to do the following: 1. Consider all journeys more carefully. Make more efforts to car share (I’ve made some but apart from the odd school run journey (4kg)) nothing substantive. 2. Really try to use more local public transport. I’ve been toying with the idea of taking the bus to council meetings in Hailsham, a 40 minute drive away… it is one of the few significant journeys I do that is busable, so must at least try….It’s been very cold and I’m always in a hurry and cutting journey times fine. 3. Consider flights even more carefully. We took just one last year to a friend’s wedding in Edinburgh, but I’ve often taken more in the past. 4. Must commit to doing the wood burning boiler (this would make a big impact). 5. Finally and possibly the most significant, keep on with efforts to raise the sustainability and carbon profile in Wealden District Council. I will post more about this in future, but it is a clear objective, it’s been gathering pace and achievement, but there is so, so much futher to go.
Rowena Moore
