December 2008
Your correspondents in Poland are in the middle of UN climate change conference chaos, but we wouldn't let you go a month newsletter-less. So, here's one we prepared earlier.
Turn On Turn Off
Stop talking about the environment Tar sands
Global Day of Action
On December 6th, right bang splat in the middle of the UN Climate Change Negotiations in Poland (COP 14), the global day of action will do exactly what it says on the tin. That is, get the global masses mobilised to ask their governments to act on climate change. Since the first global day of action in 2005 (to coincide with the coming into force of the Kyoto Protocol) turnout has increased year on year. Last year, during UN Climate Change Negotiations in Bali, demonstrations were held in more than 70 countries. There were 10,000 people out on the streets of Germany and Taiwan, 3,000 people demonstrated in Nepal, over 1,000 in New Delhi with hundreds more people involved in smaller actions across India and 2,000 people at the first climate rally in Beirut.
So, you get the gist. It's a big deal, an increasingly big deal (much like climate change itself) and it's going to be an even bigger deal this year. The National Climate March will start at Grosvenor Square, London at noon, and head to Parliament Square. At the climate rally in London last year, in typically British weather, 7,000 people marched in the rain. This year will be bigger, better and drier. It will also be preceded by a bike ride (who doesn't love a bike ride) and succeeded by an after party at the Synergy Centre.
A little climate change activist also tells us that there's a rally in Glasgow too.
We won't be there
Because we're here, at COP14 itself (The 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), along with the 4th Session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, phew), the much talked about (in the circles we mix in anyway, possibly because we haven't stopped banging on about it for months) UN Climate Change Negotiations in Poland. That was a long sentence.
We're part of a group of 15 young people from the UK, who came together just 2 months ago to form the UK Youth Delegation. This is the first time a formal youth delegation from the UK has been to the UN, but there's a history of international youth involvement in these meetings. There's an even bigger history of industrial lobbyists at these meetings, so we're hoping to redress the balance. We're only 4 days into the 2 week conference and we've already done loads and written about a mere fraction of it here.
EU wraps up the Energy and Climate Package
Next week, the EU will decide on the details of the EU Energy and Climate Package. This could quite literally change the world. The EU needs to stop squabbling and agree to drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions (and not seek to make these reduction targets completely meaningless through offsetting measures) in order to keep global warming below 2 degrees C (and avoid catastrophic climate change). If we can put pressure on the EU to do this, the EU can rock up at the current UN Climate Change Negotiations in Poland feeling smug. We hope that this smugness will actually take the form of inspiring leadership. Then all other governments currently slugging it out at the UN will the EUs lead. And we'll all avoid catastrophic climate change and live happily ever after.
What can you do? Email Ed Miliband, feel good that spent 2 minutes doing your bit to keep global warming below 2 degrees C, pass it on.
GM vs Organic
Sir David King, the government's former chief scientist, claimed that "the Western world's move toward organic farming - a lifestyle choice - and against agricultural technology and GM in particular, has been adopted across Africa ... with devastating consequences".
The University of Kansas, however reckon that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent. And so not such a good solution for solving a global food crisis.
Achim Steiner, the head of the UN's Environment Programme, has said that the "potential contribution of organic farming to feeding the world maybe far higher than many had supposed". This was based on UN Environment Programme that showed that small scale organic farming can acheive yields just as great as high intensity, oil dependant industrialised farming. So sowing organic seeds starts to seem like a sensible idea. And that's before you even get started on all the other social and environmental issues that you've got to wade through once you start treating farms like factories. If you still agree with David King, read this.
When Jay Rayner asked his audience to help him research an article on GM he was rewarded both with sound advice (not confusing the technology with the business) and insults (being called a giant tool). A novel approach to writing an article, perhaps this is a good way to get your readers to do the writing for you, perhaps a clever way of avoiding the inevitable backlash when writing about something as contentious as GM, perhaps an opening to a lively debate?
And finally
This month at Otesha, we have been taking the train across Europe, enjoying the ride and vowing never to take short haul flights again.
Jo, Liz & Hanna
The Otesha Project UK