Saturday 28 April 2007

Warmest April for 140 years and no one is worried

Anyone living in the UK can't of helped notice how warm April has been and this week the Met office confirmed just how warm it has been. The Hadley Centre, which is part of the Met office confirmed that the same trend was now happening all over the world and was in line with their models for global warming.

Yet it seems that very few people are changing their lifestyles to cut down on their carbon footprints. Short haul flights are increasing every year, recycling rates are still the second lowest Europe and people seem to think they have plenty of time to make the change.

My friend Huge Gage had a great idea - at the end of the weather forcast, the presenter should then ask people why they thought it was so much warmer and then suggest that perhaps they should start taking some practical steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

Waitrose commits to sustainable farming

There is only one thing that I miss in Wales and that is a nearby Waitrose. Tesco's and Sainsburys are Ok, but don't have that special edge that Waitorose does.

Waitrose is part of the John Lewis group which is a workers cooperative and one of the original social enterprises. Like the Co-op, they have been at the forefront of trying to produce and enviromentally and ethically produced food.

This week they announced that by 2010 all conventional fresh, prepared and frozen fruit, vegetables and flowers on sale in is supermarkets would be farmed to high environmental standards using sustainable farming methods.

It'll be interesting to see if they can manage to actually to achieve this, considering the huge effort that this will take. The next step will then be to get all the other supermarkets to do the same.

Thursday 26 April 2007

If You Tolerate This, Then Your Children Will Be Next

Naomi Wolf writes an excellent article on how civil liberties are slowly being eroded by the Bush administration

She details the following ten steps that have been taken and asks whether the next president, Republican or Democrat will have the courage to rescind these steps.

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

Its a timely reminder that in these current times, we need to make doubly sure that when governments pass legislation that they are doing it for the right reasons.

In case you're wondering about the title, it comes from the Manic Street Preachers song about the Spanish civil war

Tuesday 24 April 2007

Is Foxs Bill O'Reilly really Lewis Prothero

Last week I watched the excellent OutFoxed which details the Republican bias of Fox news. Even if you think you know all about Fox News, the documentary is real eye opener.

I then watched V for Vendetta which while not being as good as the original book, is still worth watching, although you'll either either its got some really interesting messages or complete tosh (comments from two of my friends).

It did occur to me that V for Vendettas Voice of Nation character Lewis Prothero is in fact Foxes Bill O'Reilly.

Watch both and till me that I am wrong.

While I'm at it, check out my friend Floyds Blog www.oneinchpunch.com as he originally introduced me to V for Vendetta

How do we reconnect people with the countryside

According to the Observer on Sunday, 32% of the British public still are not aware of climate change or the effects of it.

In a thought provoking article, Madeline Bunting examines how the British public have lost their connection with the countryside and how this affects their thinking with the environment.

She's perhaps a little over keen to knock the middle classes, but the core principle is correct in that we need to get those people to live in the cities to actually reconnect with the countryside in the same way that countries such as Sweden do.a

Ignore this at your peril

Just in case you had missed all the fuss about climate change and still are not sure exactly what could happen, this very informative article from the Guardians Climate Change section, breaks down the possible effects if the temperature gets 6C hotter.

Effects range from increased rainfall all the way to a methane burp from the oceans floor which cause a massive explosion.

If you're still no convinced by global warming, take a look at the latest pictures from Greenland and you'll see just how much the glaciers are retreating