Blog: Climate

Heathrow's Terminal 5 gets flashmobbed

Posted by bex — 27 March 2008 at 12:03pm - Comments

Flashmob at Heathrow

Flashmob at Heathrow's Terminal 5 this morning

This morning saw the opening of Heathrow's new Terminal 5 to the public. Unfortunately for the aviation industry and government - who wanted this to be a chance to promote their case for airport expansion - a large section of that public is vehemently opposed to unsustainable aviation growth, and not afraid to show it.

So at exactly 11am this morning, hundreds of people stripped down to reveal identical "Stop Airport Expansion T-shirts", and to highlight the problems caused by airport expansion and unsustainable aviation growth. Pictures of the flashmob are coming in to our Moblog thick and fast. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see video footage of the event.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, flash mobs, heathrow, videos

Problems at the pump as new biofuel law draws closer

Posted by jamie — 24 March 2008 at 10:00am - Comments

A car speeding along a road

In a few weeks' time on Tuesday 15 April, every fuel company in the UK will be obliged to include a certain amount of biofuel in their petrol and diesel supplies. This is because, to comply with EU policies, the government has decreed we will all be using biofuels whether we want to or not but as you're probably aware, a lot of people have severe concerns about this.

Article tagged as: biofuels, climate change, deforestation, EU, forests, RTFO, ruth kelly, transport

Bulb revolution sweeps into Argentina

Posted by jamie — 19 March 2008 at 4:53pm - Comments

A bulb display outside the Agentinean CongressAnother country is well on the way to making the switch as last week Argentina joined the rapidly growing list of nation states getting ready to use only energy efficient light bulbs.

If the Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner gets her way, by the end of 2010 mandatory efficiency standards will be introduced which will effectively ban incandescent bulbs. Better yet, she said her decision came as a direct result of the campaign run by our office in Buenos Aires.

And earlier this year, Italy followed Ireland's example to become the second EU country to propose similar efficiency standards and is also expected to remove incandescents from sale in 2010. All these bulb bans are a small but vital step in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, and introducing minimum energy efficiency standards on all electrical equipment has to be the ultimate goal.

Article tagged as: argentina, CFLs, climate change, energy, energy efficiency, light bulbs, successes

Are BAA's plans in terminal decline?

Posted by bex — 14 March 2008 at 5:30pm - Comments

Goddard cartoon

Image reproduced with kind permission of Private Eye Magazine and Clive Goddard.

Luckily for BAA, the Queen doesn't seem to have taken offence at apparently being banned from Heathrow in the run up to climate camp last year. This morning, she tootled off to Hounslow to officially open Heathrow's new Terminal 5 (although the public opening won't happen 'til the 27th).

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, consultations, heathrow

Kingsnorth coal campaigners plead 'not guilty'

Posted by jossc — 14 March 2008 at 4:18pm - Comments

The Kingsnorth 5

Five of the 'Kingsnorth Six' at the top of the 200m chimney

Today five six of our volunteers faced their first court hearing over the shutting down of one of Britain's dirtiest power stations, at Kingsnorth in Kent, last October. They pleaded 'not guilty' at Maidstone Crown Court to charges of criminal damage and trespass. The charges relate to climbing a 200m smokestack on the site and painting a message to the prime minister - "GORDON BIN IT" in huge letters down the side. They took action because the government is considering considering proposals for a new generation of coal-fired plants.

Article tagged as: climate change, co2, coal, energy, fossil fuels, kingsnorth

Evasion and newspeak: government action vs ecological reality

Posted by bex — 11 March 2008 at 6:37pm - Comments

Alex Steffen of Worldchanging recently wrote an excellent piece called Who Will Tell the People? And How? about the yawning chasm between the reality of climate change and the failure of government to bring in the massive changes needed. Talking about US emissions cuts, he writes:

We're running into a situation here where the acceptable political action is to move from A to C, but where realism demands that - if we want to dodge a catastrophic collision with ecological reality - we move from A to say Q. And that gap, between C and Q, is large enough to lose a future in.

As you're reading this blog, you probably don't need reminding about the catastrophic collision with ecological reality Steffen mentions. With stakes this high, the changes needed (Steffen's A to Q) are profound, fundamental and cross all facets of human existence - from our energy and transport systems to, dare I say it, our social and economic systems.

Article tagged as: climate change, decentralised energy, government, rhetoric versus reality
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