Category: current affairs

“Pants Exposed” or “More than pretty knickers” is a new campaign highlighting the environmental and social impacts of buying clothes. Focussing on lingerie as an eye-catching (or should I say 'cheeky') conversation-starter the campaign shouts about cotton production's high pesticide and water use, nylon's dependence on oil and carbon emissions and the dismal pay of the people making the items.

It's a well produced, focussed and effective campaign from those running responsible clothing firms. Clothing is a gigantic business and as 2009 has already seen further accusations of Primark's use of cheap labour, the fairtrade eco message is so timely and welcome. I find it disappointing that ecologically and socially responsible clothing is still nowhere near as mainstream as organic and fairtrade foods have become in the UK. Perhaps 2009 is the year?

Happy New Year everyone. I've spent the season with family, most of them including me with a cough, cold or flu!

I don't normally read the Wall Street Journal but I picked up a stray Europe edition in the train the other day and found it less hard going than I have in the past. The editorial 'Dynasty' struck me a useful antidote to perception that it's all-change in US politics. It concludes:

So to recap all of this change you can believe in: A Kennedy and Cuomo are competing to succeed a Clinton in New York; the skids are greased for a Biden to replace a Biden in Delaware; one Salazar might replace another in Colorado; and a Governor charged with political corruption in Illinois wants one of his cronies to succeed the President-elect. Let's just say we're looking forward to 2009.

Too many things, too little time… apologies for the slow rate of posting recently. I have lots of blog post ideas, just no time to do them justice, I have been Twittering though. Here are some links I've been sitting on for ages which are still well worth a read:

• If They're Too Big To Fail, They're Too Big Period
  Robert Reich makes the point I've been continuously making to anyone who's interested… Merging huge companies into bigger ones makes no sense if they're all “too big to fail”. It only makes the problems much bigger and much worse. There should be consequences to errors and boundless greed. His blog is packed with excellent comment on US fiscal policy.

• My farewell plea to MPs: defend liberty
  Simon Jenkins' valedictory column for the Sunday Times was an absolute corker, ripping through the heart of this government's ever more intrusive surveillance plans. He finishes by attacking the spinelessness of elected representatives in the UK when compared to judges, peers or even journalists. I agree, which is why Greens so urgently need to get into Parliament. For example I've been speaking out on issues like ID cards and privatisation of the NHS in the face of silence from the other parties.

• Food waste on a staggering scale
  This dates back to May but still shocks me… The average UK household throws away 18% of all food bought, families with children throw away 27%. 60% of food thrown away is 'untouched' (which I assume means unopened or unused). We urgently need to change people's attitudes to food, to understand that it is precious but also so that anything which does need disposal (e.g. peels, apple cores) gets composted and not burnt or stuck in landfill.

At first glance, there's a sense of justice in the Scottish Government's decision to eliminate parking charges at NHS Hospitals in Scotland. Yes, there are exceptions for privately financed car parks, once again PFI narrowing government choices in favour of private profit.

But does removing parking charges really make health care free at the point of access? No, of course not. Cars have running costs: fuel, insurance, maintenance and so on — parking is just the most obvious cost drivers encounter. Bus users have tickets to pay for, as do those on the train. Cycling is close to free as bike maintenance costs are extremely low – but if you're ill you probably don't feel like biking in to hospital. Walking is truly cost-free but again not likely to be an option for many patients.

So eliminating parking costs has a number of consequences that I can see: It reduces but doesn't eliminate the cost of car travel to hospitals, it reduces the annual costs for employees that drive to work, plus free parking for visitors and local residents has now been provided.

Opening up parking facilities in this way could have significant and unintended negative consequences to local traffic and parking. I know it would in Brighton & Hove.

If you are rushing to hospital paying for parking is the last thing you need to worry about. But why shouldn't others in non urgent situations, visitors and staff, pay for the cost of parking if they choose to take a car when other options are available to them?

I am astounded and delighted by the result of the Kingsnorth Trial as reported in The Guardian. Six Greenpeace activists have been cleared of causing criminal damage by successfully arguing that they were trying to protect us from the greater damage that climate change will cause.

Among the arguments fielded by Greenpeace:

The jury was told that Kingsnorth emits the same amount of CO2 as the 30 least polluting countries in the world combined…

This is astonishing and embarassing. We have the technology and skills to eliminate the need for this carbon monster, yet the government want to build another coal-fired station next door. It's a completely unjustified and frankly reckless proposal that not only jeopardises our emissions targets but also undermines our ability to argue for strong action on the global stage.

Greenpeace have pulled off a real coup with this successful protest and court action – I'm sure a huge amount of hard work went into this so congratulations!

This past weekend's Green Party conference in central London marked a significant turning point in the party's fortunes. We now have a leader after years of noble but ultimately flawed attempts to support a number of alternative structures for presenting the public face of the party, most recently with the two gender-balanced Principle Spokespeople.

Caroline Lucas MEP was overwhelmingly elected as the Green Party of England & Wale's first leader with Cllr Adrian Ramsay her deputy. They have been elected to positions unlike any other leadership posts in British politics: They must be re-elected every two years, with a limit of five terms and are subject to a recall procedure by members. Leaders, yes, but not in the overbearing way of the other parties.

From the moment of the leadership election result being declared on the Friday evening of conference we could see the electrifying impact of the change. Media coverage of the party was much higher with Caroline and Adrian getting significant space on TV, radio and print media. Furthermore an impressive array of candidates, committed to working for the success of the new streamlined party structures, stood for the national party executive.

A rising cost of living, energy costs continually in the news, an unstable climate, broken government commitments to reducing our carbon emissions and increasing concern about the health impact our 'modern' lifestyles are making the Green Party's unique perspective relevant to a rapidly growing number of people.

I hope that this will signal a surge in Green support in the coming couple of years. I'll remember that London, Autumn 2008 was when it took off. You'll be able to keep track of our progress on the re-launched national party website and on the new Green Home blogging centre for Green bloggers both launched at conference.

Both Hillary and Bill have delivered speeches well beyond what duty required of them. Losing the primary was undoubtedly a bitter pill to swallow but it barely showed in Hilary's speech, and Bill once again reminded us of his incredible skills as a political communicator.

Certainly there's plenty of Democratic policy I find too timid, but they're fighting a different election to a very different audience to the one I'm used to here. Bill Clinton's speech is concise, exquisitely timed and summarises positions with a rare clarity and simplicity.

You can watch it in its entirety (not the hatchet edits news sites are showing) on the Convention's own site.

UPDATE: Jon Naughton adds his own thoughts in a similarly complimentary vein citing Dave Winer's praise also (and Mr Winer was there).

If you aren't already convinced by the arguments for organic farming then the news of ocean 'dead zones' is pretty persuasive…

The International Herald Tribune reports that nitrogen-rich run-off from crop fertilisers is the main culprit in an expanding number of marine dead zones. The number of zones has doubled every decade since the 1960s:

About 400 coastal areas now have periodically or perpetually oxygen-starved bottom waters, many of them growing in size and intensity […] While the size of dead zones is small relative to the total surface of the oceans, scientists say they account for a significant part of ocean waters that support commercial fish and shellfish species.

The article goes on:

Many dead zones are cyclical, recurring each year in the summer months. But over time, they can permanently kill off entire species within the zone. They have also prevented the rebounding of species that are under protection after overfishing, like the Baltic Sea's cod […]

Once dead zones recur, “they are very hard to reverse,” said Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, adding that “they have major consequences for the ability of fish populations to renew themselves.”

Organic agriculture can provide excellent yields is better for the health of farmers, consumers and the wider environment… as well as the oceans. We need to stop looking at issues in isolation – artificial fertilisers stay in our ecosystem and have lasting effects. The good news is that organic alternatives are viable, but they taste better too!

Just in case you were in any doubt, our green house gas emissions are going up [according to two detailed reports]. The increase is 18% between 1992 and 2004 according to one government report.

As my brother-in-law who drives lorries for a logistics company likes to remind me 'everything goes by road' so if the economy grows, so do emissions. Despite claims from ministers, we have not broken the link between economic security and our impact on the climate.