Our Climate Conversation

2025-02-08

Growth Trumps All ?

It is very worrying that the current Government has such a huge majority ( two thirds of the seats based on one third of the votes) that it believes it can push through whatever it wants to do. This now seems to be about building for growth whatever the social and environmental impacts. As MP Clive Lewis says Labour should be levelling up wealth, not just GDP statistics. We do need to build huge numbers of new sustainable social housing and invest in renewable energy, regenerative farming and well-paid jobs in adult social care.

2024-12-31

Hope for the Future

In his end of year review, UN Secretary General Guterres said: “I can officially report that we have just endured a decade of deadly heat. The top 10 hottest years on record have happened in the last 10 years, including 2024. This is climate breakdown, in real time. We must exit this road to ruin and we have no time to lose. In 2025, countries must put the world on a safer path by dramatically slashing emissions and supporting the transition to a renewable future. It is essential, and it is possible.”

2024-12-16

A Different Christmas Message

We are approaching Christmas, in our culture it's the festival of over-indulgence, at the end of a tumultuous year for the Planet. It's past time to examine how we got here. Only a small number of nation states, and above all the very rich and affluent people, are driving Greenhouse Gas Emissions. We need to stop burning fossil fuels, and regenerate the natural world. But this will involve living more simply and sustainably with a different set of priorities. That's the important Christmas message.

2024-10-20

Carbon Capture and Storage

The Government's new committment to throwing Billions to Oil and Gas companies towards a Carbon Capture and Storage scheme and for Blue Hydrogen production is a Fiscal Nightmare that will lock in high emissions and fossil fuel dependency for decades to come. That's why the oil and gas industry have been intensively lobbying for it. This technology is supposed to catch greenhouse gas emissions before they can enter the atmosphere. But it is incredibly expensive, has never worked at the necessary scale and, until now, has largely been a ruse for the petroleum industry to continue pumping.

2024-09-23

Plans for Sustainable Communities

The Government's new ambitious target to build 300,000 homes a year is an opportunity to construct sustainable mixed communities following the venerable example of those in Vienna developed after the First World War. The emphasis then, as it should be now, was on integrating social shared areas and facilities. This Government needs to dispense with Right-to-Buy, give local authorities the duty and resources (they already have the power) to bring the 260,000 long-term homes that are empty back into use, and ensure highest Building Standards regulation to guarantee quality as well as quantity is achieved. There are now many examples of good practice and the latest use of modern manufacturing methods can prefabricate zero-carbon homes in a week then to be constructed on site in a few days.

2024-08-29

I Wrote to King Charles

I did not manage to get to Windsor to take part in Extinction Rebellion's Upgrade Democracy event. But I was encouraged to write a letter to King Charles. The topics I was concerned with range from the parlous state of our Democracy to the desperate need for action to tackle Climate Breakdown and Environmental degradation. In this blog entry I quote from some of it. I have not yet received a reply.

2024-07-27

We Should Care

When half a miilion people die from the effects of Climate Change each year then we should really be taking notice and trying to make things change. The Earth is Sick. The Earth is crying out for Help. But we are just not Listening. It is a Tragic situation because if we don't care for our Planet then we are killing Ourselves.

2024-05-28

Politics for People

Let’s reclaim democratic power by building a politics that belongs to us all. It is only in that way that we can approach a properly balanced debate about all our issues and especially the existential ones of Climate Breakdown and its interconnected Environmental Collapse that we know so many people are rightly very concerned about.

2024-05-12

Sunday with Laura?

Engaging mostly about the latest political stories, I suppose this gossipy program has to start with a question like 'Has saving the Planet gone out of fashion?'. But it puts the most critically important issue of our time in a strange place - as though we can just accept it or reject it on a whim, nothing of much consequence like a tired piece of clothing. Is that how we really see things? There is evidence that as many as 80% of the public are seriously concerned by Climate Change and are very aware that it is happening right now. They just don't know what to do about it.

2024-04-09

Food and Farming

I am aware that many small farmers are as much victims of current systems as everyone else as they find themselves squeezed between industrial agriculture and supermarkets. There are subsidies available to increase biodiversity and money available for rewilding projects, but ultimately small farmers need to make a profit to survive and so need our community support.

2024-02-23

Air Pollution

Measuring standards are not really the issue. The composition of air pollution is complex and the weight of particulate matter smaller than a certain size limit is less important than what the particles are composed of and thus how toxic they are. You can draw the line somewhere and prefer WHO recommendations as I do, but there is no safe value. I have chosen to concentrate on the known health issues currently experienced that include increasd risk of asthma, cancers, heart disease, strokes, dementia and type 2 diabetes.

2024-01-25

Fallacies and Denial

Our politicians are still promoting the fallacy that UK is the first country to reduce its emissions by 50%. They also continue to deny that rapid deep transformation is needed to avert the coming catastrophe. Both these are lies, and we need to stand together and call them out.

2023-11-04

Bromsgrove's Campaign

Bromsgrove Climate Action, a subgroup of Friends of the Earth, have collected over 160 signatures to give in to our MP Sajid Javid in support of the petition Bromsgrove for Warm Homes.

2023-08-04

Max Out Oil?

This week, following the surprise result of the Uxbridge by-election, PM Sunak flew by private jet to Scotland to announce the release of over a hundred new licences to drill for oil and gas. He seems to believe that there is political advantage to be gained from this new anti-green policy.

2023-03-30

Record Cost of Living

Today's event rebranded from Green Day to Energy Security Day was forced on the government by its loss of a legal review brought by Friends of the Earth. The re-packaged policy that supports the Oil and Gas industry has been criticised as Half Baked, Half Hearted and will not meet the target of 68% emissions reduction by 2030

2023-01-31

Choose Your Future

We can have an economic system that tackles inequality, protects the planet and properly funds the schools, hospitals and communities we all rely on.

2022-10-31

Democratic Deficit and Pressing Issues for People's lives

The country is desperate for a change. People want energy security, a strong NHS, good schools, and a decent income to afford life’s essentials. It begins with our new PM taking an easy choice: making the very richest contribute their fair share.

2022-10-03

Cost of Living Scandal and United for Warm Homes

We need your support to show politicians that there is widespread demand for action on the energy crisis.

2022-09-07

Climate Emergency and the District Council

It is time that councillors woke up and started working together, putting aside party politics and working for the good of the community as a whole.

2022-08-27

Collective Action or Collective Suicide

Climate justice is about creating a better future for all of us. It’s about giving everyone the ability to live a life of dignity, joy and safety. This better world is possible, but only if we all fight for it.

2022-06-26

All our Crises are Related

Cost of living Crisis is driven by our reliance on fossil fuels cruelly exposed by the war in Ukraine. We need to rapidly increase renewable energy production and make serious investment in a home insulation task force - exactly the same policies to reduce the impacts of Climate Breakdown.

2022-01-15

We must choose a better ending

We are being distracted by a complicit media whilst fossil fuel companies knowingly pollute the planet, at the same time buying off politicians and the banking industry. We need to work together as a community to communicate our objections and point the way to a better future.