Of protests and climate change

The MP's certainly had a an original welcome party upon their return to the House of Commons after the summer.
Last Sunday (11th October), some 35 Greenpeace activists breached Parliament security using ladders and scaled the roof of the House of Commons to make their message heard. Passerbys, tourists, politicians, and the general public of London witnessed the silent but extremely clear message: a change in politics is desperately needed if climate change is to be tackled.
Perhaps not the most legal or safe way to go about getting your voice heard, but effective nonetheless, this manifestation of sorts was abruptly ended yesterday and the activists were put behind bars.
Without scaling roofs and putting ourselves in mortal danger or behind bars, there's a lesson to be learnt here: we're all a part of saving the climate, and doing our bit means engaging our individual responsibilities. Perhaps that way the climate can be saved from below.

The Point of No Return

In the past couple of years, the media has been very vocal about the fact that the polar ice caps are melting. To most of us in the UK as well as elsewhere is the world this seems ominious enough, but all the same, a distant reality, almost something out of a science fiction movie.

Understandably so, because we are not directly affected by it, or rather not yet affected by it.

The fact still remains that near or far, each one of us on this planet contribute to this unalterable effect of climate change. Yet we understand so little of what is actually happening.

The Earth's polar ice caps are as we know located in the North and the South poles. The North Pole is covered by floating pack ice over Arctic Ocean. Portions of the ice that don't melt seasonally can get very thick, up to 3–4 meters thick over large areas, with ridges up to 20 meters thick. One-year ice is usually about a meter thick. The area covered by sea ice ranges between 9 and 12 million km². In addition, the Greenland ice sheet covers about 1.71 million km² and contains about 2.6 million km³ of ice. The land mass of the Earth's South Pole (in Antarctica), is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet. It covers an area of almost 14 million km² and contains 25-30 million km³ of ice.

The all time low for ice cover in the Arctic was reached in 2007. This year, ice cover is up by 23%. However most of this is fragile one-year ice and nevertheless represents the same risks to the eco systems of the North Pole. The backbone of the poalr icecaps are mutli-year ice sheets which are steadily in decline. Once lost these can never be refound, as they have taken 12,00 years to be formed.

The effects meting ice in the North Pole are numerous. Obviously, it causes sea levels to rise, putting whole communities close the Artic Sea at risk. Secondly, harmful effects on the natural habitat of Arctic animals such as the polar bear are quite serious. Most importantly, if a warmer Artic ocean emits heat into the atmostphere which affects global cimate pattern, to which no counrty or place, however distant is an exception.

This is where the story comes full circle: greenhouse emmissions cause our plane to heat and thus the polar ice caps to melt. Therefore, by cutting down on C02 emmissions every individual on this planet can help prevent irreperable damage to the polar ice caps.

H2O

The Art of Walking

How much easier would it be to live greener and more environmentally responsible, if one could see the impact of the smallest daily activity? Well, that can now be scratched off the wish list!

The most wonderful discovery of this weekend is by far this website:
www.walkit.co.uk

Its relatively straightforward to use and works for all of the UK. By typing in your location and your destination, not only does it provide you with an easy walking route, it also calculates how much energy your burn in calories (depending on your pace) and how much C02 emissions you save!

Whats more, there are plenty of interesting activities listed that can all be done walking . Don't miss the interesting facts on walking that make giving the tube/bus a skip well worth it.
And with the winter knocking on our doors, who can resist the idea of getting a little warmer?
So, grab a pair of comfy shoes and walk it!

are you up for the 10:10 challenge?

Whoever said the best ideas are the simple ones hit the nail on the head! And 10:10 is a perfect example of this. Contributing towards stopping Climate Change never sounded this simple, and yet so meaningful.

The 10:10 campaign is movement to unite every sector of British society to collectively work towards reducing Britain's carbon emissions by 10% in 2010. How's that for a start?!

If you jog your memories a little to our screening of The Age of Stupid, in May this year, you might recall Daniel Vockins, a campaign coordinator from the film talking about using the film's message to bring companies, individuals, institutions and governments together to actively fight climate change. Well, a few months later, an idea struck Franny Armstrong (Director, The Age of Stupid), and Team Stupid and hey presto! 10:10 was born.

Launched yesterday (1st September 2009) at the Tate Modern, the 10:10 campaign already has a whopping 7500 individuals, around 7600 educational institutions and close to 7600 organisations already signed up and ready to reduce their carbon emissions.

The ten commandments so to speak of 10:10 are relatively straight forward and do-able by just about anyone who wants to make a difference:
1. fly less, holiday more
2. save 10% on heating
3. save 10% on electricity
4. drive less
5. eat better
6. buy good stuff
7. dump less
8. don't waste food...
9. ...or water
10. feel happier!

So how about it?

For more information on 10:10 and how to sign up, check out: www.1010uk.org

Footprints, Anxieties, and Thirst...Oh My!

As it has been awhile since our last post there are a few different things we want to show you, bring to your attention....



How Many Planets are You? Calculate Your Carbon Footprint.

One is figuring out what your carbon footprint is. This is a very cool link to the WWF website that allows you to take a quick and easy assessment and it tells you what your current footprint is. Ours are not impressive, since we are an American and Indian women living in London we each visit our families at least once a year- this puts us both in airplanes for 12-25 hours at least once per year...needless to say that accounts for 48% of my carbon footprint! There are no excuses...but the site gives really helpful and easy tips on how to reduce your footprint- all based on what you are willing to take on. Check it out at this link and please post us your results!!

Mine is 3.15 planets or 13.8 tonnes....disgraceful- but at least now I know and can do something about it!!

http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/

This national footprint calculator is interesting too!

http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/static/national_footprint

What are the REAL barriers behind making individual changes to help the fight against climate change?

Well, according to a report published last week by the American Psychological Association, "Anxiety and helplessness rather than ambivalence or apathy are the biggest barriers to individuals taking action."

This is ironic because it is exactly something we tried to bring forward in the panel discussion following our film screening of The Age of Stupid a couple months ago. We discussed how overwhelmed individuals felt by it all- conflicting stories in the media, conflicting tales of what one should do- all the confusion really does leave one feeling helpless and anxious. Individuals feel it is all too far gone so whats the point, and even if they could do something what should it be and where do they start.

The article link below takes a great look at this and brings up some great points. It is short, concise, and interesting- so take a look.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/301036/the_psychology_of_climate_change_why_we_do_nothing.html

Man, the BBC Sure is Thirsty!!!

This week, it has come out that the BBC is accused of spending £406,000 a year on bottled water! Well, whatever we may think of the BBC at least we know they are well hydrated...keeping those creative juices flowing.

This is both a environmental and an economic nightmare. They claim that while their Welsh offices are already using tap water, for their England and Scotch offices they need to look into the "health implications" of drinking from the tap. I have news for them, they don't need to look any further or spend any more money, THE TAP WATER IN LONDON IS SAFE! Yes, I said it folks- it is drinkable...even for BBC staff.

I get the novelty factor of having water coolers in the office- it looks nice, you feel like you are getting a perk, and lets not forget the ever popular "water cooler gossip", what office would be complete without it!!! But get your lazy bum up and fill up your mug from the tap! The environmental cost of shipping all of those bottles around the country- picking up and delivering- picking up and delivering...that is ALOT of emission and consumption of fuel.

I also get the bottled water at meetings thing. It is nice to walk into a board room and be offered a nice bottle of water, however I have to say I have been in a few board rooms and I am equally impressed by a nice cool jug of water. Or, if it is the prestige of bottles you are after, do what our university does through a company called Vivreu. They bottle tap water for us in branded recyclable glass bottles, what do you think of that for fancy?!? Okay okay, it does not solve the environmental implications completely, but it is a start... As I feel sensibility is an important part of sustainability, and the reality is BBC will not full stop discontinue use of bottled water. However, if they used a company like Vivreu for meetings and sent their employees to the taps....we would be making both and economic and environmental savings here.

The article below explains the breakdown and finding I am referring too above- really interesting!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/aug/11/bbc-bottled-water

While I have more I want to share...I fear I have overloaded you on this entry- I promise we will get back to writing more frequently so we can give you more target entries :).

Big Lunch. Big Community. Big Ambition.

According to the creators of the Big Lunch, rebuilding our sense of community could be the antidote to global warming and global isolation.

What is that?!?! How?

Well, if you don't already know, the big lunch is a concept that as a community, or a whole we are stronger- so, get to know the people around you and BUILD a community together. By getting rid of the isolation, individually we morph into a whole, and of course we feel warmth, responsibility, and pride in the new "whole" we become. So, by reforming a sense of community, we are more likely to be more environmentally and socially concerned with those around us- and dare I say it, they for us. By getting to KNOW the people who surround you- you begin to care about them and their future- your collective futures. Things such as community watch, recycling programmes, composite and growing schemes are just a few of the ways caring about the people and place you live in can fight climate change. Not a bad concept if I do say so myself!!

The Big Lunch is "your party" as they say. They suggest the most popular socially conducive event....a meal...a BIG LUNCH if you will. However, they arent trying to control or monopolise what you want your community to be, so they say to "Do whatever you would feel comfortable with." The site is clever in their acknowledgement that it is hard to not be a stranger, but the benefits massively outweigh the initial awkwardness.

The Big Lunch is scheduled for communities all over the UK this Sunday July 19th. To find your Big Lunch, simply visit the site http://www.thebiglunch.com/find-big-lunch, and plug in your post code.

Let us know what you find, we would love for you to post your Big Lunch stories!!