Dear Mark,
I do despair of any energy reductions when at my doctor's surgery this afternoon, one receptionist said that the energy-consuming, ubiquitous TV could not be switched off because of patient confidentiality. The receptionists talk about patients and need the damn television blasting out to drown out their confidential talk!
Such people will not be impressed by 90% cuts by 2030. Nor those who carelessly leave lights on, or install constant boiling hot water boilers that are never allowed to be switched off in my office, or use the much-loved 2 Kw heaters to supplement the central heating or, the latest, portable air conditioners that are now brought in and used even when windows are left open, or my directorate that builds new social care centres with floodlighting for CCTV cameras when they have super-secure windows and doors and are in low-crime areas anyway!
Aren't targets always missed and even simply ignored? Is not 99% of the population energy illiterate, complacent and careless and just not interested in saving energy let alone are prepared to meet targets?
What do you think? What answer would you give to Tim's despairing questions?
]]>St Mary's Priory, Abergavenny
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
]]>St Mary's Priory, Abergavenny
11:00 am - 4:00 pm
Live Music, activities and performances include:
Exhibitors include:
About 60 folk turned out and more sent their apologies (including the local MP.) Monmouthshire Cable TV were there (with access to 75,00 viewers), so we'll soon have a weblink to the event and you can all see what you missed.
Well done to Lexi and team - now time to recruit more members and engage in a campaign of action locally!
]]>The
primary school children of the Hampshire village, Hartley Wintney, will
The
primary school children of the Hampshire village, Hartley Wintney, will
unfurl a giant petition for their local MP James Arbuthnot, calling on
the Government to protect their future. The children will present the petition to James Arbuthnot MP at 3pm on Friday 4th
July at St. John’s Church, in Hartley Wintney, as part of a community
climate change weekend event called Operation Noah Day. The petition
calls on the Government to cut the UK’s carbon footprints by 90%.
The
Chair of the Hartley Wintney Operation Noah Group, Ruth Jarman, took
the petition – made of recycled bed sheets - to all four primary
schools in the area and collected hundreds of brightly coloured
signatures. Children also received an Operation Noah Day
leaflet with five suggestions for all village parents to “Change the
way you live because of who you love”. Supporting her was St. John’s Church Careforce volunteer, Josh Parmar.
Operation Noah Day will take place on Saturday 5th July from 10am to 4pm. Mr Noah will welcome people into the ‘Ark’. Inside
the ‘Ark’ a variety of stalls will show ways to cut carbon footprints
and there will be an official petition which will be presented to the
Government in July. Opportunities for prayer and reflection will be provided with a Taizé style service in the afternoon. There
will be plenty for children, with face painting and craft activities
using recycled materials, a puppet show and a youth and children’s
session including songs and drama. The film An Inconvenient Truth will be screened in the afternoon and evening. Entry to the day and the evening is free and everyone is welcome.
Ruth
Jarman said, “People of faith should take the lead on moral and
spiritual issues and the greatest moral and spiritual issue of our time
is climate change. It is highly appropriate that this is
a children’s petition as it is they who will see the physical result of
this generation’s actions – either of our moral and spiritual
bankruptcy, or of our courage, vision and integrity.” The aim of both
petitions is to urge the Government to strengthen the Climate Change
Bill.
Taking
part in Operation Noah Day will be the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre,
the Countryside Agency, Friends of the Earth, Christian Aid, Thames
Valley Vegans and Vegetarians, West Green Fruits and Livingstones
Bookshop. Refreshments will include local produce, beer and wine tasting.
Digital photos of the petition and children signing the petition are available.
CONTACT DETAILS
Mrs Ruth Jarman
Tel: 01252 849904 or m. 07970 907784
]]>The schedule for the day is:
10:45 am - Assemble at St Thomas's Bradwell-on-Sea.
11:00 am - Opening service at St Thomas's Church, Bradwell-on-Sea followed by a 2-mile walk to St Peter's Chapel (transport will be available for those who need it).
During the day there will be a Renewal of Vows service on the beach and reflections and presentations on the theme of 'water'. Lunches will be available at the Othona Community by advanced booking on 01621 776564.
3:15 pm - Closing service at St Peter's Chapel.
4.00 pm - (approx) Finish.More information at http://www.bradwellchapel.org/sppilgrim.htm.
]]>
For more information, send enquiries to leeds@christian-ecology.org.uk.
]]>The schedule for the day is as follows:
10:00 - Launch
11:00 - Puppet Show
11:30 - Youth and Children - songs and drama
1:00 - Screening of An Inconvenient Truth
3:00 - Taize singing
4:00 - End of Operation Noah Day
7:30 - Bonus free screening of An Inconvenient Truth with wine and discussion.
There will be local food, wine and beer tasting and refreshments.
You can download a flyer with information about the event below. Feel free to print and distribute these!
For more information, please contact Ruth Jarman on 01252 849904 or ruth@sjarman11.wanadoo.co.uk.
]]>]]>
Had a weird Saturday. Spent part of it at the Labour Party's Compass conference in London ('Born Free and Equal') and another part watching thousands of cyclists ride by, cycling as they were when born - stark staring naked! (The latter was much more fun of course and was a powerful and assertive statement of against oil dependency and car culture and also an assertion of positive vulnerability 'Pass wide and slow. I am easily hurt'.)
At the Compass conference heard the Rt. Hon. Douglas Alexander MP, Minister for international development say something surprising. A questioner had asked why the government, treating the electorate as a market, had assumed only 'right-wing' demand in the market, instead of 'creating demand' for progressive ideas in the way that Barak Obama succeeded in doing with his campaigning.
In response the Honourable Minister said this, and I paraphrase: social democracy and progressive ideas was built on two pillars, the trade union movement and faith organisations. Now that both were in decline, and we live in a largely secular society....the social forces on which a Labour government depended for progressive policies were absent....
In other words, there is not enough faith (or trade unionism) to save the planet.
We could react to this approach in two ways. We could regard it as wrong-headed, and a lame excuse for an absence of progressive leadership by a government fearful of leading on the greatest question of our time: the threat to our security posed by climate change. Instead the government is inclined to abrogate such leadership to something abstract called 'the market', because, it would appear, faith organisations and trade unions no longer play a leadership role in society!
In other words we could indulge in yet another round of weeping and wailing about the weakness of the Labour government. Or we, as Christians and faith organisations, could rise to the challenge....as we are doing at Operation Noah..and exercise the kind of moral and ethical eadership that the market is incapable of.....This will then allow elected leaders like the Rt. Honourable Alexander, to follow.
I feel strongly about this, especially after a fascinating inter-faith dialogue at Heythrop theological college in London last week....when people of faith questioned how they could 'add to the debate' about climate change, without alienating others; without alarming others; and without paralysing potential campaigners with fear and defeatism. We should not, in my view, be 'adding to the debate'. People of faith, more than any other I would contend, whether they be Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims or Hindus all have their faith rooted in morality and ethics. They/we should be leading the debate on climate change; condemning the destruction and exploitation of those precious resources on which all life on our planet depends - and proposing alternatives.
And if we model ourselves on Christ, we will not do so by trusting to focus groups and 'warm words'.
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