UK Election – first Green MP
Posted by mlamond in Clean up the World, Green News, Uncategorized, campaign, green media on 10. May, 2010 | 9 Comments
Well the UK election has officially been over for 4 days and we still don’t know exactly who is in charge (some might say no change there, then!).
One interesting possibility is that the UK’s first Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, could hold the decisive vote – that is if Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, decides that he’d rather work with the Labour Party rather than the Conservatives.
Whatever happens, it’s right that we give Caroline Lucas due recognition for her remarkable achievement in getting elected – she engineered an 8.4% swing in her favour. While for many ‘minority’ parties this would be seen as a crowning achievement I suspect that for Ms Lucas and the UK Green Party this is just the start.
The Green Party has done well in local and European elections in the past and polled 1% of the total vote in the General Election. While this is slightly down on their share in the 2005 election if Nick Clegg negotiates the introduction of some form of proportional representation then the Greens could, in theory, have 6 seats at the next election.
The Future Starts Here: Parliament debates 10:10
Posted by annied in campaign on 19. Oct, 2009 | 1 Comment
This week our Government has the opportunity to take a bold leap towards immediate cuts in our emissions. The Liberal Democrats have tabled a motion to garner cross party support for 10:10 Based on one simple ask, 10:10 calls on all of us to commit to a 10% reduction in our carbon emissions in 2010. On Wednesday, the motion being discussed will call on parliament, the government estate and the public sector to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 10% in 2010 compared to 2009 levels. Gordon Brown, his cabinet, the shadow cabinet and the Liberal Democrat party have already signed up. At the time of writing, the 10:10 campaign has gathered over 35,000 supporters from all sectors. The motion may just have enough support to pass.
Blog Action Day: Ecopsychologist says that it’s time to “constructively frighten people.”
Posted by annied in campaign, climate change on 15. Oct, 2009 | Comments Off
Brayne:“The challenge is: how do we mobilize the fear centers of the brain in a way that doesn’t immobilize people. If you shout at them they shut down, if you don’t tell them what’s happening they do nothing…. We have to make this relevant to people’s personal survival.”
Brayne is convinced the way to do that is for the governments to tell their people the truth: at this point it’s a question of adaptation and mitigation– not avoiding a global temperature rise of two degree Celsius. We must change our collective behavior as a species and we must change now. We must paint a grim picture of the future and convince the public that it will happen.
Extreme weather in SE Asia & Climate Change
Posted by annied in campaign, climate change on 04. Oct, 2009 | Comments Off
We wanted to draw your attention to the extreme weather happening in South East Asia currently:
An Earth quake in the ocean caused a Tsunami on the American Samoa Islands, Thursday. A 7.6 magnitude Richter earthquake struck the city of Padang, Indonesia on Thursday as well. The Philippines is still experiencing extreme flooding after a “super” typhoon hit the island of Luzon. Saturday, the alternation in terrain left by the earthquake in Padang made things worse: a mudslide occurred and 4 villages were wiped out. As of Saturday night, it was estimated that more than 1,500 people had been killed.
One Giant Leap for Sandbag (one small step for Ed)
Posted by annied in DECC, campaign, climate change on 29. Sep, 2009 | Comments Off
“The West needs to do more or it’s an excuse for everyone else not to do more.” Though Worthington laments, “They’ll probably do it anyway just embarrass them.” She is confident about non-Western’s countries, in particular China’s ability to adjust their carbon emissions, “When China says it’s going to do something, it generally does it.”
Campaigns DO Make Change. The clock is TckTckTck-ing
Posted by annied in Oxfam, WWF, campaign on 25. Sep, 2009 | Comments Off
Our friend Erica Grigg of carbonOutreach.com has a response to our query: Too Many Climate Campaigns?
Too many climate campaigns?
Posted by annied in DECC, Oxfam, UNEP, WWF, campaign, climate change on 16. Sep, 2009 | 7 Comments
green.tv has featured campaigns by all of our partners and some non-partners soliciting action on climate change– from signing petitions to convince government leaders that they should not leave the Cop15 without a deal to individual action campaigns. And yet, we still aren’t doing enough. What’s the point of all these campaigns? Are there too many that we have now become saturated with climate change that we have been spurred past action to continued inaction? Has anything really changed?