June 10th, 2010
This month is Recycling Week from 21st to 27th June. Recycling and composting are the aims of the week and getting as many people as possible involved in the nation-wide project.
The recycling awareness week is being backed by everyone’s favourite M&S, Innocent Smoothies, ASDA, Royal Mail, Tesco and the British Heart Foundation. We are not just talking about the bog-standard plastic, glass, paper and cardboard, this week is promoting the awareness of recycling and how much of your household items can be used again. Don’t forget those unwanted CD’s, light bulbs, printer cartridges, video tapes, bicycles and even beds that can be recycled. You can find out about many,many other items that can be recycled by going to RECYCLE NOW.
Schools and businessess across the nation are getting invovled and recycling as much as they can through the Recycle Now initiative. The Recycle Now website offers advice, tips, explains some of the jargon and recycling symbols and 4 easy steps to start recycling today!
Tags: composting, recycle, recycle now, recycle week, Recycling, recycling awareness | Posted in News, Recycling, education
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April 6th, 2010
Plane Stupid is inciting a ‘subvertising’ campaign on the weekend of April 22nd/23rd.
Designed to get activist’s voices heard above the noise of corporate advertising, the event encourages people to make their own stickers/slogans or download versions available on flicker: And then plaster them over advertisements for the aviation industry.
The event is also being run as a competition with prizes including spray cans, Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn, Do It Yourself, A handbook for changing our world by the Trapese Collective and Scribbleboy by Philip Ridley.
To win participants take photos of their stickers in situ and send them to info@planestupid.com using a temporary email address in an internet cafe and under a pseudonym. The group who stickers the most adverts in the 48 hour period wins.
The need for secrecy is explained in the Plane Stupid disclaimer: ‘Some officers of the law may be convinced that subvertising is borderline illegal, so take a friend as lookout, keep an eye open for CCTV and don’t get caught.’
I for one am going to be really interested to see the response to this event and whether it gets any positive or negative media coverage. An organized event of this nature could easily be termed as inciting vandalism and yet protesters are clearly being driven to take action because their views are not being heard, listened to or considered.
Clearly organizers intend the event a peaceful demonstration. The Plane Stupid disclaimer goes on to note: ‘Please be respectful about where you sticker. Corporate nasties are fine…..but the local old people’s homes may not appreciate your art on their walls! Use your head.’
In a world where we are bombarded with advertising from every quarter is this such a bad way to get your views across?
For more information visit the Plane Stupid Website
Tags: advertising, aviation industry, get your sticker on!, plane stupid, subverising | Posted in Airport Protests, Events, Transport, education
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February 26th, 2010
A great article posted in The Independent recently debated the best way to make progress on environmental issues and it seems that times are changing. The 1970’s saw a surge in the success of the Environmental Protests and Rallies; however there is an argument that ever since these successes, the achievement of protests and mass demonstrations has been in steady decline.
Given last December’s COP 15 debacle, there has never been more proof that our glorious leaders are not listening to us; that they cannot be trusted to act in our best environmental interests when they keep getting distracted by pretty shinning things like money and popularity and that they are no longer taking much notice of physical protests.
There is of course always the lobbying aspect, where campaign groups converge in the paperwork, littering MP’s desks with letters of concern, petitions for action and cluttering up their hard drives with online petitions and e-mails threatening not to vote…
The 1990’s saw a raise in more dramatic feats to get heard, with handfuls of the more adventurers, steadfast protestors scaling huge buildings, tying themselves to things often in fancy dress or taking up residency in trees or on sites of environmental interest.
Although I am being flippant in my descriptions, all of the above represent large swaths of people, action groups and protesters who feel incredibly strongly and are desperately trying to make a difference.
It seems that in 2010, with the rapidly gaining prevalence of groups such as Transition Towns, Transition Heathrow and 10:10, a new form of action is being put in motion. Not surprisingly given the disillusionment of environmentalists following Copenhagen, this new style of making change happen operates on an individual, grassroots level, cutting out government and attempts to change legislation and instead focusing on the reality of modern day living and the price we will all have to pay for it.
The Transition Towns movement is a superb example of this; having lost all hope that local government will lead the way, and acknowledging the fact that fossil fuels are a limited resource, the movement prepares communities for a low carbon future, gradually yet effectively weaning towns off of fossil fuel dependency through a united and conscientious approach.
So are the days of protest marches well and truly over? Certainly not, any positive action will always have its place, however since we can’t trust the government to make the difficult decisions for us, we will simply have to start making changes to our own lives, doing what little we can to make a difference and leading by example – who knows one day they might just catch on.
Tags: Copenhagen, environmental decisions, government, progress, protests, Transition Towns | Posted in Airport Protests, Climate Change, Life Change, Local Councils, Protest Marches, Self sufficiency, education
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January 6th, 2010
Dorset County Council have won their bid for government funding to help protect the Jurassic Coast from the ravages of climate change.
The main concerns for the area (15 sections of coastline between Devon and Dorset) are storm damage, erosion and rising sea levels. In fact, only last year a huge landslide destroyed 400 metres of the world heritage coastline near Lime Regis. Clearly, the councils realised it was time to act.
£376,500 is now available to Devon and Dorset in order for them to assist the most venerable communities in the area. However, the money will not, as you would imagine, be going to improve sea defences, but to help the inhabitants gain a better understanding and ability to adapt to the impact of inevitable coastal changes. Debates will be held at local level, contingency plans devised and there will be the introduction and development of training programmes for conservationists.
Is this a case of forearmed is forewarned? Although it’s a positive nod by the government, towards recognising the dangers facing an island nation from the ravages of global warming, perhaps more should be being done to slow erosion and raising sea levels in the first place.
Tags: Climate Change, Global Warming, government, Jurassic Coast, rising sea levels | Posted in Climate Change, Local Councils, education, environment, rising sea levels
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November 25th, 2009
Alex Hartley, an artist, has discovered an island in the Arctic. It appeared from beneath the melting ice of a retreating glacier in the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Alex was the first person ever to stand on it and has named it Nowhereisland. With this project Alex won the Artists Taking the Lead prize for the South West of England
Obviously distressed by this casualty of global warming, Alex has arranged, as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, to use a part of it to highlight the climate change crisis we are facing.
The ‘portion’ referred to, will be transported by barge to Poole, in Dorset by mid July 2012. It will then embark a 702 mile coastal journey to Weymouth, arriving in time for the start of the Olympic sailing events in August.
The artist hopes that the island will capture international interest and by registering it as a micro nation and allowing people to become citizens, it is highly likely that he will succeed. Alex said, ‘The island addresses the most significant global issue of our time, namely how we can respond to the urgent issue of climate change together.’
For those of you who are wondering, some time after the Olympics the land mass will be returned to the Arctic and made whole again.
Tags: Alex Hartley, Arctic, artist, climate change crisis, Global Warming, island, London 2012 Olympics, Nowhereisland | Posted in 2012, Climate Change, education, environment, rising sea levels
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November 16th, 2009
This charity was set up last year by 3 Cambridge University students; Lynn Morris, Tim Bromfield and Will Lorimer. As the name ‘Atlantic Rising’ suggests their area of concern is the rising levels of the Atlantic Ocean and the potentially devastating repercussions of this.
In the next 100 years it is predicted that the Ocean will rise by 1.5m, taking with it unique landscapes, communities and reshaping our geography forever.
The trio believe that education is the key, particularly that of children. To this end they are embarking on a trip; the vision of which is to follow the 1m contour line around the edge of the Atlantic which is most likely to be affected. Their intention is to build educational links between places as far apart as the Scottish Isles, West Africa, Guyana and Canada.
Clearly some of these areas will suffer little or no affect whereas some will be devastated by the rising sea level – if these children communicate with each other it will, raise awareness of global climate change and hopefully teach our children the importance of helping and protecting the environment.
Tags: Atlanic Ocean, Atlantic Rising, children, education, environment, Global Warming | Posted in Climate Change, education, environment, rising sea levels
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