Campaigns 2004 (Archived)

Previous content of the main Campaigns page for 2004 is now archived below, in reverse date order.

13 November 2004 "Nuclear Power: The Answer to Climate Change?" Debate arranged by Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, Islington, London

Chaired by the environmental correspondent to Independent on Sunday newspaper, this was very one-sided, those supporting the motion not putting up an effective fight, and the audience just as committed against nuclear power at the end as it was at the beginning. The one telling argument that continued and increasing economic growth and demand for energy can only be met at the scale that nuclear power can operate, was much better expressed in a channel 4 TV programme 'The end of the world as we know it' in the UK on 8 January 2005. The answer to this argument, of course, is that economic growth is not sustainable either.

Nevertheless, the event is worth reporting for a number of effective arguments against nuclear power. First of all John Gummer MP, memorable Secretary of State for the Environment in the Thatcher government, urged against placing less important issues above Climate Change; warned against the UK keeping nuclear power and refusing it to other countries, and allowing its adoption to replace developing non-polluting renewable sources of energy.

Jeremy Leggett, of 'Solar Century', said that the necessity for nuclear energy could be obviated by retrofitting houses with energy-efficiency methods; his company is doing thousands of zero carbon-emitting projects; and that nuclear energy would take too long to introduce as well nowhere near solving its waste disposal problems.

Roger Higman, senior climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth UK, echoed the unsolved problems of nuclear waste, equivalent to five times the size of the Royal Albert all in London; mentioned the consequences of terrorist attacks on nuclear power stations; and the dangers of nuclear power being misused for military purposes; and said other countries will not cut greenhouse gas emissions if we deny them the nuclear technology that we use ourselves; besides, energy demand can be reduced by one third and both on- and off-shore wind-power is already competitive in price.

12 November 2004 "Climate change and humanity: elite perceptions, sustainable solutions" Crisis Forum Workshop held at University of Southampton, UK.

This Workshop brought together a cross-disciplinary group of invited academics and activists, practitioners and fundraisers, in order to discover ways of combining their contributions to dealing with climate change. Jim's conclusion, representing Save our World, was that it was effective in challenging participants to 'think outside the box' of our normal perspectives, but did not extend to our 'seeing' from one another's viewpoints, and so transcend our cultural differences and arrive at a new synthesis. He expressed the view that an examination of the various motivations linking the main perspectives which were presented could assist this process, but it was not sufficiently supported as a possible way forward, at the end of the day Workshop, or to feature in a proposed publication on it.

Many valuable contributions were nevertheless made at the Workshop, about which you are welcome to contact jim@save-our-world.net.

Thursday 4 November "Rally for the planet at the US Election" whoever gets in, organised by Campaign against Climate Change www.campaigncc.org

In the event, of course, hopes were dashed of any prospects of a change of heart on climate change in the USA. Nevertheless, there was a good turnout and a lively parade through London's West End to Grosvenor Square. Once more, the ills of the Bush regime on climate change were robustly challenged in rousing speeches in front of the closed and impassive US Embassy.

Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 October "European Social Forum" mostly at Alexandra Palace, London

On behalf of Save our World Jim first attended a workshop on "Privatising the atmosphere: emissions trading in the Kyoto Protocol", at the National Association of Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) in King's Cross. This was convened by Carbon Trade Watch, which appeared to be based in Germany - judging by the number of speakers with observations on the situation there. No clear objectives were presented for the workshop and it was centred on general attitudes to carbon trading, with the organisers appearing to be ideologically opposed to it.

From there Jim travelled to Alexandra Palace and was amazed by the huge numbers of largely young people taking part in an enormous variety of plenary sessions, workshops, campaigning and refreshment activities in the atmosphere of what seemed like a middle-eastern bazaar, competing with one another to be heard, and with huge amounts of fliers and reports that entirely covered the floor by the end of Saturday evening.

Jim first attended a plenary meeting there, on "Environmental crisis and European responsibility" with a panel of mixed nationalities including George Monbiot as the star attraction. He said the exhaustion of oil sounds good for saving carbon emissions, but the alternatives of biodiesel, hydrogen fuel cells and coal are just as bad or worse. He said that people haven't twigged the devastating prospects of a 6-12 degree change in global temperatures and we have all to drop everything else and take to the streets to avert new coal exploration and reduce the use of fossil fuels altogether by 80%.

Jim managed to respond to this point, after waiting in a long queue to speak, to say we have to create a critical mass of like minded people in the form of a movement and with a new moral compass first, before people can be induced to take to the streets.

In the evening Jim attended a very cold workshop in a marquee on "NGOs, trade unions, social and solidarity economy for sustainable European development" which contained none of the passion of the above plenary. This was possibly, he suggested, because the trade unions appear more concerned about negotiating agreements with the existing energy industries than in exploring the employment possibilities of new renewable ones.

Making a great effort to be back at Alex. Palace by 9 am on Sunday morning, Jim handed out SoW leaflets before the delayed start of the final "Assembly of Social Movements". It consisted almost entirely of the presentation of prepared written motions, passionately promoted by speakers of many tongues. Phil Thornhill, founder director of Campaign Against Climate Change, managed to get a motion included calling for 'international action on climate change in 2005', but it was clearly not the top priority for the politically committed audience.

9 October 2004 "Join the Rainbow Pilgrimage" - a day of inspiration and action on climate change: Conference, Procession and Service in the new Coventry Cathedral.

Promoted by Christian Ecology Link on behalf of the Environmental Issues Network of CHURCHES TOGETHER in Britain and Ireland. For further details visit www.christian-ecology.org.uk/conf2004.htm.

Christian Ecology Link is one of the organisations with which Save our World has been trying to form a broadly based Campaign for Climate Crisis Resolution. See the Archive page version of this Campaigns page.

There were some very strong speeches at the conference, of which the first was from Sir John Houghton, past co-chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate change. He said the Earth's temperature is undoubtedly 'rocketing-up' over the last 50 years, and that, from the effects of global warming to date, we cannot avoid sea level rises of half-a-metre per century for hundreds or thousands of years. He also said that 2003 was the warmest year ever recorded by a clear 2 ½ degrees; that 150 million refugees are expected to result from climate change; and that if we carry on as we are the carbon dioxide emissions per year of 7,000 tonnes will climb to 20,000 tonnes by the end of this century.

He was followed by Aubrey Meyer, who described the principles of his Contraction and Convergence framework for reducing carbon emissions, stressed the principle of sharing the received wealth of creation equally, and said that we have to undertake an emergency contraction of emissions by 2050 if we are to stabilise the climate at 450 parts of carbon gas per million.

John Cridland, representing the Confederation of British Industry, said the business community in Britain now accepts the evidence of climate change and supports the Kyoto protocol and the British government targets within it. With products being able to be made five times cheaper in China than the UK at present, he sought understanding for the sector's competitiveness in insisting that carbon reductions be made on a global, not a unilaterally national basis.

In the discussion period, Jim asked the panel of speakers to agree that 'those of all faiths around the world have to create a critical mass of those valuing the preservation of life above all other interests, as claimed in the book Tomorrow's God'- and received positive support from a number of them.

The conference was followed by a procession through the City to Coventry Cathedral, where the whole service was dedicated to tackling climate change in a very inspiring way. Operation Noah's Climate Covenant, which anyone can sign, was inaugurated and powerful talks were given by the Bishop of Hereford and the environmental representative of the World Council of Churches in Canada.

1-3 October 2004 "Rising Tide Network Gathering" in Nottingham

Stuart Price and Jim Scott attended a number of informative workshops, particularly on: the OIl, War and Climate Change campaign and one on opposing the expansion of the UK Air Industry (the subject of one of our current petitions). Jim also offered and ran a workshop on Motives, Conflicts of Interest and Alternative Values for Tackling Climate Change. Only two people attended but they were both very interested and one of them appeared profoundly moved by taking part.

The main outcome affecting SOW is an Airport Pledge to resist airport expansion, which Rising Tide is promoting on a large scale, having got the entire UK membership of Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Transport 2000 committed to it. It pledges personal but not direct action, and is intended both to make people aware of being part of a wider movement and to scare off investors in future expansion plans. Rising Tide would clearly like organisations to join as such, as well as individuals signing the pledges.

15 September 2004 "Round Table discussion on Water" hosted by Stakeholder Forum, in order to provide UK Stakeholder input to the UN Secretary General's Report on Water and the Millennium Development Review for 2005.

The main purpose of the event was to inform the UK's views, through representatives attending on behalf of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA], to be presented at meetings of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, the Millennium Task Force, and the United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP].

A very wide range of speakers addressed topics on: challenges for the marine environment from land-based pollution; water, conflict and the millennium development goals; integrated water resource management; coastal zones; drinking water supplies and services; and the impact of climate change on water resources.

From a wealth of observations the following stood out: water tends to be treated as a product rather than a necessity for life; the UK Department for International Development spends most money on emergency and not long-term development needs; the USA is only financing five developing countries; Spain is encountering big salination problems; that most countries do not have the resources to build desalination plants; no country seems to be measuring the value of water to its economy in the way it does e.g. oil; little support is given to rainwater harvesting; there are many coastal erosion problems around the world; the practice of digging deep wells for water is causing arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh; and over-extraction of water from the ground is causing desertification and salination, especially in coastal areas.

10-12 September 2004 "Great Thinking Conference" Oxford

This covered a very broad range of topics in the areas of 'the exploration and development of the human spirit', and the conviction that 'our global crisis is, at root, a crisis of consciousness'. It was attended by SoW members Gary Foster and Jim Scott, primarily for personal interest, but some notes follow on two particular presentations with environmental implications.

Helena Norburg-Hodge spoke on the modern economy producing unhappiness for traditional cultures like Ladakh, taking people away from nature in the name of 'progress', 'development' and 'growth' at the expense of peace and well-being. Localised renewable energy costs much less than huge subsidies for conventional systems. The talk is of 'sustainability' but the economic practices increase destruction. The International Society for Ecology and Culture www.isec.org.uk is promoting the local food movement as the key to recreating local economies and cultures.

Vandana Shiva said that getting India to speed up with the rest of the world is considered a great virtue, but the road-widening, tree cutting, removal of cows and bullock carts are increasing car mobility and reducing that of everyone else and at the cost of traditional community structures. Permanent famine for food producers is being caused by reducing the availability of seed, commercial hybridisation and the enforced use of agricultural chemicals; the soil is made fertiliser and pesticide dependent and farmers cannot afford to pay for these products and get forced into debt, hunger, off the land into cities, and to suicide.

She said 75% of humanity farms the land without capital, and with it gets into debt. False choices are given to the people, for genetic technology concentrates on single crops rather than overall nutrition, well-being and social cohesion. Many rivers are being re-routed, creating wealth for engineers and security firms, and an externalisation and specialisation of functions best left to local people. Producers' co-operatives are better than big corporations, because members will not rip themselves off. Fair-trade is fine as long as it does not cut out local food production.

8 July 2004 "South East Climate Change Partnership Forum" University of Brighton

Save our World member Gary Foster took part, along with another 160 or so people from a mixture of businesses and public sector organisations. The theme of the day was the impact of climate change on the business sector. Speakers from a variety of backgrounds covered the science and impact of climate change, adaptation responses needed as well as the need to reduce CO2 emissions. There were no fixed outcomes, but the event was the first of kind in the SE region aimed at engaging businesses, some of whom are starting to realise the effect of climate change in terms of higher insurance premiums and disruption caused by volatile weather patterns.

29 June 2004 "News from a Warming World" - a Catalyst Climate Change Trust event organised by New Economics Foundation, at the Royal Geographical Association in London.

Mark Lynas gave examples of calamitous climate change already happening, from his new book 'High Tide'. James Cameron highlighted disproportionate coverage given to climate sceptics by the media. Andrew Simms called for a new coalition on averting climate change, which has a similar breadth of appeal as Jubilee 2000 had on debt. See latest Boiling Point for valuing the continuation of life on Earth above all else, as providing such a rallying point, which SoW has followed up with both Mark and Andrew since this event was held. Sir Crispin Tickell (past UK ambassador to the UN) said the latest UK Energy proposals by the government fail to state how targets are to be met and that neither the public or politicians understand climate change. His stating we have to bring climate change into the school curriculum instead of our being forcefully educated by catastrophe - fully vindicated SoW's current programme for Climate Change Roadshows and Workshops.

15 June 2004 "What can we do about climate change?" - evening meeting at the House of Commons, UK Parliament, London.

This meeting provides the opener to the latest issue of Boiling Point. It marked the publication of Meyer Hillman's book 'How we can save the planet?' Meyer was the first speaker, who berated the public for making excuses for continuing to travel by air and for collective amnesia about climate change, and warned of the danger of runaway global warming before the target date of 2050 for the UK government to achieve 60% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. He went on to say carbon rationing has to be imposed if not willingly supported.

Aubrey Meyer, founder of the the Global Commons Instiute, then illustrated the necessity of rapid contraction of emissions because carbon concentrations are cumulative in the atmosphere, and strongly defended the principle of per capita equitable reductions of emissions across the world - within the framework of Contraction and Convergence, which he has been advocating globally since 1990. He has also been a close ally of SoW in our correspondence with Michael Meacher prior to the World Summit in 2002 and in coalition building (see Summit page in Archive, Campaign for Climate Crisis Resolution - below, and Global Projects page on the global site).

8 June 2004 "A Crisis in Global Governance" conference organised by Stakeholder Forum at Westminster University, London

Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for Environment in the UK, spoke of the great opportunity in 2005, when the UN will review progress with the Millennium Development Goals and the UK holds the presidencies of both the European Union and the G8 group of countries. She said the convergence of the hitherto separate environmental and world development agendas is very important, and provides an opportunity to mobilise political will. It is clear that climate change is the most significant factor already affecting the poorest developing countries - which the UK Prime Minister will address in his Commission on Africa in January 2005.

Jim Scott, on behalf of SoW, made a plea for countries to place a higher value on their common interest in survival than maintaining their conflicts of interest.

Ian Christie said we now have governance for unsustainable development. Global institutions are not democratic enough, show little political will, are poor at implementation, and have little or no impact. 'Corporate responsibility' requires a new ethic and controlled incentives to make money.

In discussion, a new World Environment Organisation was proposed to have similar authority to, and independence from, the World Trade Organisation. Failures to abide by Multilateral Environmental Agreements should be penalised as unfair subsidies.

29-31 May 2004 "Second World Renewable Energy Forum" and 1-4 June 2004 "International Conference for Renewable Energies" Bonn, in Germany

See coverage on Campaigns page of www.save-our-world.net global site.

15 May 2004 Annual "Campaign against Climate Change March" from Leatherhead to US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London

Once again we joined in this March, and utilised it in order to raise money for our programme of Roadshows and Workshops on averting Climate Change. We were delighted to raise around £500 through four of us obtaining sponsorship pledges for walking the ten miles from Wimbledon to Grosvenor Square. The whole March was bigger than last year, due to an active publicity campaign by the organiser, Phil Thornhill, and the last stretch from the Imperial War Museum was very exhuberant and colourful. Micheal Meacher, former Minister for the Environment in the UK, led the final speeches (illustrated).

11 May 2004 Launch of "New Academy Review on Climate Change" with Margot Wallstrom, EU Commissioner for the Environment, London

Margot Wallstrom said she believes Russia will ratify the Kyoto protocol, and was encouraged by support among north-eastern United States and Canadian states to undertake carbon trading, despite inaction by the US federal government. She believed the technological solutions exist for fossil-free forms of energy, which Jeremy Leggett later underlined for the UK. He said that more electricity can be generated than the UK uses, with just 1% of the building stock equipped with photo-voltaic solar panels.

7 April 2004 "Hilltops-2-Oceans (H2O) UK Stakeholder Roundtable", hosted by Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in London

The purpose was to contribute suggestions to the UK government for developing a national programme out of global recommendations for reducing marine pollution from land-based activities. Specific targets and timetable were called for, and suggestions for institutions, frameworks and financial resources.

Discussion centred on how to value natural systems and establish polluter-pay principles, and those of environmental justice and equity - particularly as the voices of ordinary people do not get through. Given the disincentives identified for awareness-raising on climate change (see World Summit page in Archive), the SoW view was advanced that agreement is needed on common intentions of government, non-government organisations, academia and the private sector. Proposals from break-out groups included: concentrating on ecosystem requirements, strengthening local government opportunities to prioritise environmental issues, getting the public to discuss attitudes to water usage and become aware of the consequences of their actions, and setting highly regulated waste-water emissions targets.

22 March 2004 "World Water Day Conference" hosted by the United Nations Association and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) in London

See coverage on Campaigns page of www.save-our-world.net global site.

31 January 2004 "AirportWatch Aviation Campaigners Conference" London School of Economics, London

John Stewart, of AirportWatch, opened by saying there are real opportunities for campaigning about the UK government's White Paper (see Petition on Challenge page) since the locally affected groups have withstood pressures to play them off against each other, and they have the support of some large NGOs (non-government organisations). The threat of direct action is particularly effective, and local and national groups can take part in one another's events. They can also set the agenda for action themselves instead of just reacting to external developments.

Progress reports were given from groups concerned with Birmingham, Stanstead, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Nottingham/East Midlands and Coventry/West Midlands airports. These were followed by discussions on: legal challenges, different forms of direct action, rallies and stunts, political action and making the arguments.

Tony Juniper, Director of Friends of the Earth UK, wound up by saying the assumptions behind the government's White Paper are flawed, since no consideration had been given to demand management as an alternative to bowing to the industry's dreams for expansion. The period up to 2030 is the most critical for the worsening of climate change, and vast social and economic disruption would result from the plans for expansion. Local people are being asked to pay with their lives for our cheap holidays abroad.

Please feel free to leave your comments and air your views,first mentioning the title of the Feature or Boiling Point issue to which you are referring.

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If you prefer, you can email your comments directly to Jim Scott, Chairperson of Save Our World.