Wildlife filmmaker Rebecca Hosking’s BBC doc, Farm for the Future
Aside
Reply
Category Archives: Environment news
Defra wants your response to proposed merger of Natural England & Environment Agency
Defra’s Triennial Review proposes to merge Natural England and the Environment Agency.
Defra is inviting anyone with an interest in Natural England and the Environment Agency to respond by 4th February 2013 to a discussion paper which proposes to merge the two agencies. This follows considerable cuts to Natural England’s funding in the Coalition government’s first Comprehensive Spending Review, and the removal of the agency’s power to make policy. The Coalition government has also already cut 27% of Environment Agency funding, stopping 294 planned flood prevention schemes from going ahead – including one at Walsden Water.
Continue reading
Doha Conference of Parties leaves world on track for 3°C rise by 2040
The official United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in Doha have agreed that the Kyoto agreement will continue for a second commitment period, 2013-2020, and a number of countries have made carbon emission reduction commitments for this period. But not enough reductions have been agreed to limit global warming to the 2°C rise above the pre-industrial average global temperature by the end of the century, that most climate scientists believe is needed in order to avoid potentially disastrous climate impacts.
The reductions that have been agreed will not have any real impact by 2020, and Carbon Action Tracker calculates that on the basis of this scenario, by 2040 the average global temperature will have risen more than 3°C above the pre-industrial level. This is bad news.
Caroline Lucas MP refers Energy Royd criticism of Environmental Audit Committee to its Chair
Aside
Caroline Lucas MP, who is a member of the Environmental Audit Committee, has emailed to say:
“Thank you for your email and comments about the Environmental Audit Committee’s wildlife crime inquiry. I am sorry that you did not feel the investigation was sufficiently rigorous and am happy to pass on your feedback to the Chair. I appreciate you getting in touch and sharing your concerns.”
A good time was had by all at Blackshawhead community orchard
Here are some photos of Blackshawhead Environmental Action Team and helpers planting a shelter belt for the new community orchard near Jack Bridge, Colden, on Sunday 23rd September.
Why agroecology is the solution to hunger & food sovereignty
Defra calls us “customers” – I thought UK was a democracy, not a shop
On 25th June I emailed the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, to protest against the inclusion of Poul Polman, a Unilever executive, in the official UK government delegation to the Rio+20 climate change talks.
A few days ago (ie nearly two months later) some poor sap in the “Customer Contact Unit” in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) emailed me a non-reply. I didn’t know Defra was a shop or business (isn’t that usually where you find customers?). I am most definitely not a customer of Defra, which is a government department working on behalf of the “public” or “citizens”.
Continue reading
Sea level rises
This is a video about sea level rises on the East Coast of the USA.
Sea level rises are one of the indicators of a warming world.
Not strictly local – Manchester’s climate change plan seems to have stalled
News from Manchester Climate Monthly about (lack of) progress with Manchester Council’s climate change plan .
“A few fun facts;
The target for endorsements of that plan was 1000.
After two and a half years, the number of endorsers stands at … roughly 230 (including organisations that no longer exist).
Of those 230 or so endorsers the number that have actually produced their own Implementation Plan stands at… 2. (Manchester City Council and its offshoot Northwards Housing.)”
Oh dear. What’s going on?
What do you think of Leeds City Region’s Local Economic Partnership? A Parliamentary Group wants to know
The Leeds City Region group of local authorities has set up a Local Economic Partnership (LEP) which in turn has set up a Green Economy Panel, which as far as I can understand Is responsible for “growing” the green economy in the region, which includes Calderdale.
So if you have anything to say about the effectiveness or otherwise of the LEP or the Green Economy Panel, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Local Growth, LEPs and Enterprise Zones “warmly invites” your comments.
Updated 1 Oct 2012
The All Party Parliamentary Group has now published its Report on Local Growth, LEPs and Enterprise Zones.
I’ve also just found out from the people who answer the phone for media enquiries about Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership that no Green Economy Panel (GEP) minutes or agendas are on the LCR website because a) it’s a new Panel and no-one’s got round to putting the GEP papers on the website b) it’s a private group and its meetings are private and “not something LCR would publicise“.
So much for democracy.