Author Archives: jenny

Reclaim our NHS march and rally in York, April 6th

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Yorkshire and Humberside Reclaim Our NHS are  organising a march and rally in York on April 6th between 12 and 2pm, to mark the first anniversary of the Health and Social Care Act and bring to broader public attention what has been happening to the NHS in the last twelve months, specifically the privatisation and fragmentation of health services and the impact of budget cuts.

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Stop earth hotting up, or permafrost will thaw

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This video from Yale Climate Forum explains that we are half way to the threshold temperature at which arctic permafrost will thaw and release huge quantities of carbon dioxide and methane into the earth’s atmosphere, triggering uncontrollable climate change.

Recent research from Oxford University indicates arctic permafrost thawing will occur if the earth’s temperature increases to 1.5ºC above the pre-industrial temperature of the earth.

We are now 0.8ºC hotter than in pre-industrial times, so it’s vital that we reduce human-caused carbon emissions quickly and steeply, in order to have a chance of stopping the rise in the earth’s temperature before it reaches 1.5ºC above the pre-industrial level.

Large-scale biomass burning is not carbon neutral and will worsen climate change

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The Leeds City Region Green Economy Panel is promoting large-scale biomass electricity generation at the Drax power station near Leeds.

Like many members of the public, the Green Economy Panel members probably assume that burning wood and other biomass is carbon neutral. In other words – that burning wood and other biomass doesn’t add to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, because new forest growth will absorb and store the carbon emissions released when the wood is burned. This isn’t the case – the European Environment Agency calls the assumption “ a serious accounting error”.
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Hebden Bridge retailers favour Growing Futures proposals

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Most town centre businesses who responded to a Hebden Bridge Retailers’ survey take a positive view of IncredibleEdible Mytholm’s proposed Growing Futures sustainable, community-owned food business on the Mytholm Works site. Comments from town centre businesses include, “Looks great,” “ A fantastic idea, especially the hotel that will attract more visitors,” “…a visitor centre would help focus the interest..,” “Excellent stuff, much preferable to the supermarket/hotel proposal.” “Brilliant!” Continue reading →

Please sign petition against ConDem’s new NHS privatisation plans

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Email from 38 Degrees follows:

“A new fight over NHS privatisation has just begun. Jeremy Hunt is trying to use new powers, hidden within last year’s controversial NHS laws, to force local GPs to privatise more health services. [1] This is one of the things we were afraid might happen – and now our worst fears are being confirmed. We need to do all we can to stop it.
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Education Secretary’s “totalitarian behaviour…is a disgrace to democracy”

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Here is the text of an open letter to the Prime Minister, from the people who organised the recent petition against Michael Gove’s attempt to force Calder High to become a Sponsored Academy. The letter draws the Prime Minister’s attention to the Education Department’s “totalitarian behaviour”, which the letter writers explain is “a disgrace to democracy.” The petition, signed by 345 local people, has been sent to the Education Secretary, Michael Gove.
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EU environmental law enforcement

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Since Ban the Burn submitted a formal complaint to the European Union Environment Directorate-General, I wondered how many complaints the EU actually follows up with either prosecutions of governments and agencies that infringe EU Habitats and Birds Directives, and other environmental legislation.

Here is is list of environmental infringement cases that the EU has taken action on recently, in case anyone else is curious too.

 

Defra withdraws PFI funding for Bradford/Calderdale waste incinerator

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York Press reports that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has just withdrawn Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding for waste incinerators/Combined Heat and Power generators in Allerton Park, North Yorkshire and Bradford. This is because EU waste reduction targets have now been met, so the incinerators are no longer needed.

Defra is reported as saying that it’s up to the local authorities to decide if they want to go ahead with the waste incinerators without the PFI funding.

Apparently Calderdale Council have already spent £670,000 on the Bradford PFI incinerator project.