Posted by jamie — 14 January 2009 at 7:41pm
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So we've heard that, at long last and after much faffing around, the government will finally announce its decision on that third runway tomorrow. I have to add the 'probably' caveat as it's been delayed many times before but I doubt anyone will be slack-jawed if they give Heathrow expansion a big thumbs-up.
Despite the enormity of this decision, and the ramifications for people around the world, Gordon Brown has refused to promise a vote in the Commons on the issue. John Randall MP referred back to the day Plane Stupid sat on the roof of the house when he waggishly reminded Brown what he said at the time.
I don't know if you've been following thisstory about the mole who tried to infiltrate Plane Stupid recently but if you're anything like me, you'll be less surprised at the fact that someone's tried to infiltrate a direct action group working on aviation than at the fact that somebody's felt the need to invent the word 'threatscape'.
Toby Kendall / 'Ken Tobias' (the spy concerned, who listed Top Gun as his favourite
movie on Bebo, along with 'war movies' and 'revenge movies') works / worked for 'security' firm C2i International. C2i apparently works closely with clients "to understand their unique
threatscape" before delivering "appropriate and proactive
solutions".
A coalition
of some of Britain's
biggest environmental and development groups has warned the Government that its
biofuel policy risks doing more harm than good in the fight against climate
change and global poverty. The
organisations are demanding that ministers delay the introduction of
legislation which would see biofuels pumped into every tank in the country from
April 15th 2008.
NGOs echo words of top DEFRA scientist and demand biofuel obligation be postponed
24 March, 2008
A coalition of some of Britain's biggest environmental and development groups have sent a joint letter (1) to Government warning that the UK's biofuel policy risks doing more harm than good in the fight against climate change and global poverty.
The intervention intensifies pressure on the Government following a BBC interview in which Professor Bob Watson, DEFRA's chief scientific advisor, cast serious doubt on the plans and insisted that it would be "insane" if the policy ended up having the opposite effect to the one intended. (2)
Posted by bex — 11 March 2008 at 6:37pm
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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 catastrophiccollisionwithecologicalreality 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.
