Save the planet – a message from another world

The first member of a remote Colombian tribe ever to set foot in Britain brings a stark ecological warning.Jacinto Zarabata sits in a suburban back garden in north London and unselfconsciously uses a stick to probe the inside of a gourd, which is shaped like a rather phallic mushroom with a bright yellow cap. The first member of the Kogi people of Colombia ever to visit Britain is wearing traditional rough cotton clothes and has a cloth bag slung over each shoulder as he chews toasted coca leaves.

Coalition drops further green pledges on timber and renewables

Government has reneged on pre-election promises to tackle illegally logged timber imports and reward green energy ‘pioneers’.The coalition is being accused of reneging on two of its key environment pledges in a further blow to the credibility of David Cameron’s promise to lead the “greenest government ever”.

Climate change enlightenment was fun while it lasted. But now it’s dead

George Monbiot writing in the Guardian, 20 Sep 2010. The closer it comes, the worse it looks. The best outcome anyone now expects from December’s climate summit in Mexico is that some delegates might stay awake during the meetings. When talks fail once, as they did in Copenhagen, governments lose interest. They don’t want to be associated with failure, they don’t want to pour time and energy into a broken process. Nine years after the world trade negotiations moved to Mexico after failing in Qatar, they remain in diplomatic limbo. Nothing in the preparations for the climate talks suggests any other outcome.

Lobbying crackdown in government under threat

Remember back in May when the new government announced their secret lobbying crackdown? Now it looks like they’re trying to cook up a back room deal to water down the new rules. The government minister in charge of writing the new lobbying rules has set up meetings with professional lobbyists. But he’s ignoring requests to meet anti-lobbying campaigners.

International climate change action (? or spin)

The first formal United Nations climate change talks since Copenhagen have concluded in Bonn, Germany last week. Detailed discussion progressed between over 180 countries on key climate issues such as mitigation, finance and governance. Meanwhile, the European Union ambition on the move to 30% has received a boost, with Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne stating ‘a move to 30% is achievable, right for the climate and right for our economies’.

Where do the words ‘sustainability’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘environment’ appear in the Coalition’s Programme for Government?

Our in-house politico [sic], Maxim, has been probing further into The Coalition’s Programme for Government. He wondered how many times key words showed up. Words like ‘sustainability’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘environment’. Well here are the results…

Promising signs from the Coalition?

An extract from The Coalition’s programme for governmnent release on Thursday 20 May 2010.

Election 2010

No news from the return officers for West Devon and Torridge in this election. As you all know the Conservatives are ahead but lacking the majority to form a government. The news is buzzing with talk about who the Liberal Democrats will do ‘a deal’ with.

Growth isn’t possible…

Four years on from nef’s Growth isn’t Working, this new report goes one step further and tests that thesis in detail in the context of climate change and energy. It argues that indefinite global economic growth is unsustainable. Just as the laws of thermodynamics constrain the maximum efficiency of a heat engine, economic growth is constrained by the finite nature of our planet’s natural resources (biocapacity).