Rupert's Read

Crucial reading here from John Vidal: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/29/financial-negotiations-money-copenhagen-summit Money matters, and is welcome. But there are severe problems, because of the market-fetishism of the world today; e.g. : (1) REDD would be absolutely disastrous, helping monocultures, hurting indigenous people; (2) Carbon-trading is a hopeless non-solution. We need contraction and convergence / carbon rationing, or possibly Kyoto 2. And these aren't even on the table. It's depressing... Time to start thinking about 'Seattle-ising' Copenhagen...

Astoundingly, this is a UKIP press release sent out yesterday. They are actually proud of being in the gutter, proud of slurring someone just for them having been active in CND...:   UKIP Press Office 2 Queen Anne's Gate London SW1H 9AA Nigel (sic.) reprimanded in European Parliament over Ashton speech WATCH THE SPEECH HERE AT WWW.UKIP.ORG UKIP Leader Nigel Farage was this morning reprimanded by European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek for his questions relating to the appointment of Baroness Ashton as the EU's High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs. Buzek insisted that Mr Farage 'restrain his language and refrain from making unacceptable comments in the chamber'.       Mr Farage was questioning whether Ashton was a suitable candidate for the post because of her past associations with th...

The motion came to Norfolk County Council on Monday. It included this: 'This Council... urges all residents of Norfolk, including Members of Norfolk County Council, to reduce their carbon footprint, for instance, in the manner suggested by the current 10:10 campaign' The Green Party amendment clause was: 'recognises that there is a Climate Emergency and write to the Prime Minister to call for the Government to do everything possible to each a lasting agreement at the Copenhagen Climate Summit', and was passed. This I believe was the first instance of a Tory-run council using the words 'climate emergency' and was carried unanimously in the meeting.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/rupert-read/real-scandal-in-hacked-climate-change-e-mails-controversy

This is quite encouraging. If it is done right, and sensitively to terrain, and any biomass-sourcing that comes from it is done genuinely-sustainably, then it will be just the kind of thing our country and our world needs:   http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6930091.ece From The Times November 25, 2009 Plant forests across Britain to beat climate change, say scientists Iconic species such as the English oak and the beech could be destroyed by higher temperatures in the South of England Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor   The creation of new forests and woodlands across the country will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent and protect communities at risk of flooding, according to a scientific study for the Forestry Commission . Planting trees in 23,000 hectares a year for the next 40 years — about the size of Queen's Balmoral estate, or a town the size of Kettering,...

  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/6631000/CBI-calls-for-new-sources-of-credit.html This is quite fascinating... The CBI are basically endorsing (presumably unknowingly) OUR policy - Green Party policy - on local-business-banks!   See e.g. http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/mfss/min.html  : 'Local Initiatives - Long-Term Action IN504   Small businesses in the UK find it difficult to get timely access to external funds and affordable interest rates. Community Banks are needed which have funds available for local activities. (see   EC512 ) IN505   Community Banks would give local firms and co-operatives access to funds managed locally and supplied at preferential rates. This would favour activities identified by the Local Government Local Development Plan. The allocation of funds would make use of environmental impact analysis but be simple enough to be understandable. IN506   A pilot Community Bank scheme (i...

This quotation from a LibDem website (passed onto me by an eagle-eyed Green colleague) is so cute, it's classic; notice the tacit admission that usually these kinds of things ARE nothing more than meaningless slogans in a Focus newsletter...: "Robin Meltzer, who ran Carol's winning campaign, said, "We won the election so handsomely because, in Carol Caruana, we had a candidate who really did work tirelessly, for four years. It wasn't just a slogan we put in a Focus. " " http://www.westminsterlibdems.org.uk/news/000194/historic_libdem_breakthrough_in_kc_points_to_victory_in_bayswater.html

On Monday November 30th, 2009 I will be delivering two talks at MMU Cheshire, Crewe Campus . The talks are free and open to all staff and students, and to outside visitors. 4pm-6pm — Couzens - 0 - 17 "Swastikas and Cyborgs: Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations as a War Book " 7pm-9pm — Crewe Lecture Theatre "What Does a Film Need to be Like, to be About Madness?: PERSONA and FIGHT CLUB" I hope to see you there!

C limate Camp London and Zed books invite you to : The Great Global Warm-Up a day of workshops , discussion and debate . When: Saturday 28 November, 11am—5.00pm Where: SOAS, 10 Thornhaugh St, London, WC1H 0XG. Rooms: G2, FG07, FG08 Cost: Free (donations welcome) Climate change is one of the biggest issues of our age . Copenhagen is almost upon us. But the current political response is feeble. Whatever your level of knowledge , this is an exciting opportunity to learn more, meet others and be part of shaping the agenda in the run up to UN climate talks in Copenhagen . Last chance to sign up for places on coaches taking activists to Copenhagen: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/copenhagen-2009/coaches And find out about Actions in London during Copenhagen: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/copenhagen-2009 Contact: london@climatecamp.org.uk Speakers will include: Ruth Davis -Head of climate change policy at the RSPB, David Fleming -Lean Economy Connection, James ...

 Encouraging news!- http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/22/obama-greenhouse-gas-cut-target Obama is seemingly ready to offer target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions cuts. I always suspected that the 'pessimism' of the last fortnight or so was a lot to do with managing expectations...

The 'scandal' of the hacked emails from Environmental Science at UEA ( http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/2009/nov/homepagenews/CRU-update - this includes a direct rebuttal of the single seemingly most-damaging email, the 'trick' email), my University, has been gotten out of all proportion in some of the right-wing media, old and new. I have now read a good number of the 'worst' of the hacked emails. I also know a few of the protagonists personally, and for human-interest value the hacked emails certainly do offer some tidbits. But: When the dust settles, I predict that the climate-deniers will be left holding onto hardly anything, here. There is so far as I can tell at this (still-admittedly-early) stage no significant scientific scandal, and most importantly absolutely no reason to doubt any of the fundamentals of the science of manmade climate change here, just a few unpleasant or silly or (at worst) unwise and bad-practice emails. Scient...

This is so sad. This is what we are doing to the innocent creatures of our world. This is the carcass of a baby albatross; filled with plastic junk that it was mistakenly fed as food... You can find many more similar images, at: http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1C1CHMA_en-GBGB354&um=1&sa=1&q=albatross+plastic&btnG=Search+images&aq=f&oq=&start=0 This is the world we have to change...

Come to a FREE screening of the seminal film "The Age of Stupid" from Midday to 2pm on Tuesday 24th November in the Thomas Paine Study Centre lecture theatre at UEA, Norwich. The film stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? The film will be followed by a Q&A session. Places will be on a first-come, first-served basis, so arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Quite tragic, really. As unstoppable climate change slopes nearer, all that Conservative (and Labour?) politicians are obsessed by is: building more roads... http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-11-19a.244.0&s=chloe+smith#g247.0

'The fossil fuel lobby repeatedly misrepresent science. One misrepresentation is the claim that the science of global warming is dependent on computer models. This is a total misrepresentation of the truth! The models are dependent on the science NOT the other way round. The science is simple and based on measurements. 1. The global temperature is 30C higher than it should be based on radiation balance. 2. The 30C temperature rise can only be explained by the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Without those greenhouse gases most of the Earth would be covered in ice. 3. If greenhouse gases increase the temperature will rise. 4. Greenhouse gases have increased. 5. The temperature has increased. These all involve simple measurements that have nothing to do with models. The science is so basic that most of the work was not done in the 21st century, nor even in the 20th century but in the 19th century.'

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/TobinTaxThanks/ Please sign (I have!), blog, tweet and generally disseminate this petition. Brown is going to get a huge amount of counter-lobbying from the banksters, so he needs a positive push. Since it is one of the rare petitions that is actually supporting what he is saying, it may get noticed.

Monbiot's latest GUARDIAN column, prompted by my challenge to the TODAY programme on their free-airing of climate-denial... http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/nov/13/climate-deniers-today-programme?showallcomments=true#end-of-comments

  http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/10/filmmaker_philippe_diaz_on_the_end   Watch this! http://www.theendofpoverty.com/   This is going to be an important film. The filmmaker overstates somewhat his point about poverty vis a vis global over-heat, because the latter will impoverish or eliminate all future generations , unless we stop it.  But the general point he is making is nevertheless extremely powerful, and must provoke us to action .

THE COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE ON FOOD SECURITY http://www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/plan_b_updates/2009/update84 By Lester R. Brown For the 193 national delegations gathering in Copenhagen for the U.N. Climate Change Conference in December, the reasons for concern about climate change vary widely. For delegations from low-lying island countries, the principal concern is rising sea level. For countries in southern Europe, climate change means less rainfall and more drought. For countries of East Asia and the Caribbean, more powerful storms and storm surges are a growing worry. This climate change conference is about all these things, and many more, but in a very fundamental sense, it is a conference about food security. We need not go beyond ice melting to see that the world is in trouble on the food front. The melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets is raising sea level. If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt entirely, sea level would rise by 23 feet. Recen...

See the MediaGuardian: http://bit.ly/3ZIj67 'Sidewiki changes everything'. Now _we_ can start to take back the power from the PR people... ____________________________________________________ Read what Google has to say: http://tinyurl.com/lkbxbw And when you're done, and have set this up on your computer (it will take you less than a minute - the privacy sacrifice is a relatively small price to pay, in my view), go visit http://www.nestle.com and see what we've done to Nestle's website...! See also the sidewiki started I've up on The Sun homepage, e.g.: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ ...Let's 'get out there' and start having fun! There are _plenty_ of webpages worth targetting... Suddenly, 'other people's' websites are open to us as they have never been before... The web becomes the interactive space it was supposed to be...

COPENHAGEN CLIMATE EMERGENCY NORWICH PUBLIC MEETING WEDNESDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2009 7.30pm United Reformed Church, Princes St, Norwich (near Cinema City) Prof Kevin Anderson Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research This internationally renowned climate scientist will outline the action needed to prevent climate disaster. Ann Pettifor, New Economics Foundation Former head of Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt’ campaign Others will describe how we can change to a low-carbon economy which will create jobs and benefit us all. Discussion on how to help this and how to press politicians to do more locally, nationally and at Copenhagen. Organised by Campaign Against Climate Change, supported by FOE, Greenpeace members, Transitions Norwich NORWICH CLIMATE MARCH SATURDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2009 Ahead of the crucial UN climate summit in Copenhagen, millions of people around the world are marching to demand a safe climate future for all Assemble Chapelfield Gardens 12.00 A colourful, family-fr...

This is really kinda fun and clever... You can make one for your friends too...click the link! Crush Global Warming!

These are brill speakers! Do come to this event! I'll be there; looking forward to it a lot:   On the subject of Global Warming, addressees may be interested in an event taking place in Norwich this wk.  No climate event of this significance has been staged in Norwich since the Climate Public Mtg at the Assembly House in April 2001, hosted by Friends of the Earth - this is the final push before the U.N Climate talks in Copenhagen!            NORWICH  ACTION  ON  THE  CLIMATE  EMERGENCY   PUBLIC  MEETING     UNITED  REFORM  CHURCH,  PRINCES  STREET                         7.30  WEDNESDAY  NOVEMBER  11TH   Speakers:   PROFESSOR KEVIN ANDERSON  Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Cha...

The MPs expenses scandal is all about economic inequality. It would never have happened if MPs hadn't been trying to 'earn' as much as others such as headmasters, managers, etc. For narrowly political reasons, MPs were reluctant to award themselves salary increases. So for years they covertly took 'pay increases' via the route of massive expenses packages. MPs should not earn way more than the average salaried person that they represent. This is totally inappropriate, because it leads to MPs getting out of touch with their constituents. But equally, it is dangerous for MPs to earn far less than similar or lower status professionals and private sector workers. If they do, it risks us losing some talented would-be-MPs to these other professions, and it increases the risk of MPs becoming corrupt - being easier to bribe. So, we are in a cleft stick. But we wouldn't be, in a more equal society. We need a society where MPs can be paid the average salary in their...

  Reacting to former UK Independence Party Eastern Region MEP Tom Wise's guilty plea today at his trial for false accounting and money laundering, Dr Rupert Read, Councillor for Norwich and former European election lead candidate, said:   "If only Tom Wise had had the basic decency to admit that he is an expenses fraudster a few months back, I surely would have been elected Green MEP for Eastern England , in June. For this admission would have destroyed the public's sense of UKIP as a Party that could potentially stand up against expenses fraud.   "As it is, his having held out for four years before admitting guilt, wasting huge amounts of public money on the legal process in the meantime, has meant that once again UKIP have two MEPs in Eastern England, managing to hold onto a second MEP by narrowly defeating me, by just one per cent, on June 4th.   "It is shameful that UKIP managed to get in on an 'expenses sc...

Important news from the Soil Association, that I blog here because of how unprecedented it is. The only thing somewhat unsatisfactory is of course the use of the term 'belief' in this context. Environmental 'views' are in most cases simply fact-based; they are not relevantly similar to religious convictions!:   "Being human signifies, for each one of us, belonging to a class, a society, a country, a continent and a civilization; and for us European earth-dwellers, the adventure played out in the heart of the New World signifies in the first place that it was not our world and that we bear responsibility for the crime of its destruction." Claude Levi-Strauss, anthropologist, born November 28, 1908, died November 1, 2009, aged 100. Green beliefs win legal protection Employees who raise concerns about their company's environmental practices won the right to legal redress yesterday after a judge ruled that green beliefs deserved the same protec...

There is a real threat of Britain taking a hugely regressive step next year, and electing a Tory government at a time when our country and world desperately need something better, more suited to the times. What I think we really ought to be talking about is what we can agree on as a progressive agenda for fighting back against the tories (in whatever party they are, not just in the Conservative Party - e.g. New Labour and the LibDem leadership are tories too!). The kind of thing that Neal Lawson, James Graham, John Harris etc have been doing.  I think that the basic minimum parameters are something like: >A real Green New Deal http://www.greennewdealgroup.org/ , and serious action on dangerous climate change (and other major environmental threats) more generally. >Public ownership of _some_ form or another of at least some major bank(s), and re-regulation of the financial sector. >NO to public service cuts and further privatisations. >A thorough set of con...

Industrial-growth-economics has hit the buffers. The new economics is green; its official title within the discipline is 'ecological economics'. Obviously, don't just take my word for it. See e.g. http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/ecologicaleconomics/Costanza20.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Daly http://www.gaianeconomics.org/schmarket.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_economics http://www.clubofrome.org/docs/limits.rtf www.mnforsustain.org/meadows_limits_to_growth_30_year_update_2004.htm It is ideas such as these that underlie Green Party economic policies. I helped draft the Green Party's manifesto for the European Elections, for example: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/EU_Manifesto_2009.pdf These proposals were carefully costed, and would work. In the longer term, what will also help balance the books are things like the introduction of eco-taxes, of a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies ( http://rupertsread.blogspot.com/2008...

EU green sector spend is poor relative to that of Asia. A shameful record: http://www.euractiv.com/en/enterprise-jobs/eu-outflanked-asian-rivals-green-economy/article-186846  

See my latest EDP newspaper column, published yesterday, on inequality: http://bit.ly/22waSi