Co-operative Toxic Fuels petition - sign up NOW!

[Outtasight]

Check out the web site here:

http://www.co-operative.coop/toxicfuels

They're running a two pronged lobby campaign to try and curtail the rapid expansion of the Canadian tar sands oil mining operation.

The first step is to sign a petition to get road fuel derived from tar sands oil banned from the EU.  This attempts to cut off the demand chain for the product.  Although it says "add your photo" to the petition, you can opt for a blank default photo and just add your name on the list.  No excuses!!!

The second step is to use the automated e-mail generator (like the 38Degress forest campaign one) to write to your local MP to urge them to vote in the Early Day Motion to get a Commercial Carbon Reporting bill passed before 2012, in order that investors can know where their money is going.  This will allow investors to switch funds to cut off investment in carbon intensive industry (like tar sands mining).

The 38Degrees site raised an "army" of 500,000 in a few weeks for the forest sale campaign and we soundly thrashed the government.

This is the real meaning of the often coined past phrase "The Digital Revolution".  It used to mean "web shopping from home", now it could mean "March on Parliament from the comfort of your living room!!!".

Brits are an apathetic lot... Like to complain, but can't be ar#ed to complain to the right people (actually, don't even know who the right people are...).  Web based lobbying fulfils two basic human needs... Complaining and not getting off your ar#e.  Organise a "virtual march on Parliament" without missing your tea or Eastenders .  The web page looks up the name and e-mail address of your local MP for you and formats an e-mail for you (that you can edit before sending).  See, no effort involved other than exercising the built in need to "have a moan".

They're at 6,351 signatures today.  That's RUBBISH!  Sort it out TODAY! Don't make me come round your house and [shouted in a Snickers, Mr T voice]

[martin]

Great campaign - thanks for giving it a push!

http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,6417.0.html

[Amy]

WHats the point?

If we dont buy it the chinks will, so nothing will change, the damage will go on

[renewablejohn]

I would hardly say "thrashed" the government

All that has been achieved is a press awareness campaign to increase the value of Forestry Commission woodland which will now be sold off using stealth tactics in the same way thats its always been sold in the past. 

[dhaslam]

The native Indians do control quite a bit of the territory  and  it is hard to see how the courts could allow their rights to be interfered with.  

My granduncle  was the first person to do a geological survey of North West Canada.   He depended entirely on the Indians  for everything and spent several years at a time on  each trip.    I have quite a few photographs he  took   which I must put on my website.    

[Outtasight]

I would hardly say "thrashed" the government

All that has been achieved is a press awareness campaign to increase the value of Forestry Commission woodland which will now be sold off using stealth tactics in the same way thats its always been sold in the past. 

Such a cynic...  We did get the proposals thrown out (for now) and a public appology in the House of Commons from the minister.  It's as close as you get to a public flogging for a government minister.  She had to say "I'm sorry, we got it wrong."

Without the pressure of the very large number of signatories, they'd have just pushed it quietly through and they'd have blown the profits of the sales on a gold plated duck house.

The fact that they will undoubtedly try again by more devious means doesn't mean we should throw in the towel after one small victory.

Only two things keep a government or dicatator in power:  Fear and Apathy.  Of course, the 3rd option is that they could be doing a wonderful job and deserve to be there... 

dhaslam:  Not what I saw on the documentary "Arctic" by Bruce Parry about the indians living there.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ydbl9.  The oil men are moving in and silencing all who oppose.  When they went to film at a reserve, they were "escorted" by oil company reps who were more than a bit miffed when an old woman spoke her mind...  Many indians have already lost their lands and livelihoods and been sucked into driving the 400 ton dumper trucks that are taking the top soil away to get at the sands below.

Amy:  The point is it's up to YOU and ME to take a stand (the chairman of BP sure as hell won't).  We have to clean up our own house before we start telling the Chinese that their carpets are filthy.  In 2 years, the Chinese will be pointing the finger the other way...  "We developed a mass market EV first.  We developed mass market large format Lithium batteries for renewable storage first.  We developed the largest manufacturing base for PV in the World.  We lacked the technology to make them without using coal fired generators, but we do now have the largest hydro, wind and PV generation capacity in the World.  What did you do in the UK, Europe and the US..?  You burned the tar sands and drove your gas guzzlers, blocked your own renewable projects with oil company profiteering.  Don't DARE tell us what to do!"  The penalty for failing to meet our CO2 obligations for 2020 are not primarily financial (a rap on the knuckles - ooh you've been a bad boy).  It's losing forever the possibility of holding a position of moral leadership in the World community.

The task before us is so monumentally huge that nothing short of 100% commitment and a full speed change in direction will even come close to meeting it.  A friend trying to educate local councils and other interested green parties (the infant "transition town" organisers) pointed out to me.  Sure, retrofitting insulation to the 26 million homes in the UK is technically feasible.  You could put a Navitron thermal collector on every roof - it's not rocket science.  But where are the 26 million kits of tubes, controllers and dual coil tanks going to come from?  Where are the literal army of installers who will be required to do this within the next 9 years?  We haven't even started!  It's like the Douglas Adams joke about the application of the SEP field and the cautionary tale of Effrafax of Wug:

   
"An SEP,'' he said, "is something that we can't see, or don't
see, or our brain doesn't let us see, because we think that it's somebody
else's problem. That's what SEP means. Somebody Else's Problem.  The brain
just edits it out, it's like a blind spot. If you look at it directly you
won't see it unless you know precisely what it is. Your only hope is to
catch it by surprise out of the corner of your eye.''

                                   * * *

The technology involved in making anything invisible is so
infinitely complex that nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand million,
nine hundred and ninety-nine million, nine hundred and ninety-nine
thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a billion it is much
simpler and more effective just to take the thing away and do without it.
The ultra-famous sciento-magician Effrafax of Wug once bet his life that,
given a year, he could render the great megamountain Magramal entirely
invisible.

Having spent most of the year jiggling around with immense
Lux-O-Valves and Refracto-Nullifiers and Spectrum-Bypass-O-Matics, he
realized, with nine hours to go, that he wasn't going to make it.

So, he and his friends, and his friends' friends, and his friends'
friends' friends, and his friends' friends' friends' friends, and some
rather less good friends of theirs who happened to own a major stellar
trucking company, put in what now is widely recognized as being the
hardest night's work in history, and, sure enough, on the following day,
Magramal was no longer visible. Effrafax lost his bet --- and therefore
his life --- simply because some pedantic adjudicating official noticed
(a) that when walking around the area that Magramal ought to be he didn't
trip over or break his nose on anything, and (b) a suspicious-looking
extra moon.

The Somebody Else's Problem field is much simpler and more
effective, and what's more can be run for over a hundred years on a single
torch battery. This is because it relies on people's natural disposition
not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't
explain. If Effrafax had painted the mountain pink and erected a cheap and
simple Somebody Else's Problem field on it, then people would have walked
past the mountain, round it, even over it, and simply never have noticed
that the thing was there.

[Rupert]

Amy:   We have to clean up our own house before we start telling the Chinese that their carpets are filthy. 

That's hilarious The world has changed but some leaders and countries still dont get it......Anything the UK thinks or does is irrelevent today to the rest of the world, all you can do is improve your own patch.

[renewablejohn]

Outtasight

I am in the fortunate position being on the forestry commissions e sales list. So I know what sales are still going through the normal tender system and it does appear to be business as usual.
Tender dates.
25th Feb Scotland
10th Mar England
30th Mar Wales
6th Apr   Scotland

[Outtasight]

But I thought the aim of the proposed change (that was thrown out) was to make it even easier to sell off land and also broaden the scope of what they could sell... Otherwise they wouldn't have bothered tabling the motion at all.

Just goes to show, we need to keep the pressure up. 

[renewablejohn]

But I thought the aim of the proposed change (that was thrown out) was to make it even easier to sell off land and also broaden the scope of what they could sell... Otherwise they wouldn't have bothered tabling the motion at all.

Just goes to show, we need to keep the pressure up. 

The aim was to drive up the price of forestry commission woodland by the threat of selling in large blocks rather than the piecemeal method used in the past. To that extent it has succeeded with woodland now being sold for 10-15% more than the guide prices. Making it easier to sell is just a red herring as they already have the statutory powers to do that.

[noah]

Amy and Rupert: If we don`t do [something bad] then [someone else] will.

Hardly a sound ethical position I`d say.
Virtue is its own reward.
And sometimes you get FITs as well.

[Outtasight]

The aim was to drive up the price of forestry commission woodland by the threat of selling in large blocks rather than the piecemeal method used in the past. To that extent it has succeeded with woodland now being sold for 10-15% more than the guide prices. Making it easier to sell is just a red herring as they already have the statutory powers to do that.

Ok.  I'll get on to the bod at 38Degrees to let him know we've been scammed by Caroline Spelman. Admitting "defeat" while rubbing her hands in glee at the extra profits to be made by selling the forests off anyway, irrespective of the outcome of the proposals "consultation".  Admittedly, it's a brilliant ruse because the climb-down has had no effect on their underlying policy (to sell of the land) and has in fact made it more profitable, while simultaneously diffusing the protest and media attention (we've saved the forest, we can forget that one now.  What's today's story...?).

It's like people making a fuss about Hitler invading Poland and Hitler going "Ok, that was a bad call.  I promise not to do it again..." and us going, "Good.  Now that's sorted, we can get back to watching the cricket...".  You have to keep on top of the "bad guys", because being "bad" is their day job. 

Maybe we have overestimated the impact of the U turn, so we should be on to them now to repeal the powers that they have already given themselves.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/parliament/2011/02/caroline-spelman-formally-cancels-the-forest-sell-off-consultation-i-am-sorry-we-got-this-one-wrong.html

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Caroline Spelman has just made a difficult statement to the Commons, making a full U-turn on the Government's proposals to sell off some state-owned forests. She announced

The forestry clauses will be removed from the public bodies bill;
The consultation on the forest sell-off - due to have been going on until later in April - has been called off after two weeks, owing to the sheer volume of opposition from the public and MPs;
An independent panel will be set up to consider future forestry policy for England.
Mrs Spelman said that she takes "full responsibility" for the situation and in particular takes the message from this experience that people cherish the forests and woodlands and the benefits they bring. She concluded:

"I am sorry. We got his one wrong. We have listend to people's concerns."

I'd say to her... Ok, now that you're "listening", listen to this...

But sadly, the short term memory of the electorate and the media means we have political campaigns that go like this:

"Hey you.  Stop that!"
"Ok, sorry.  I'm listening. What do you want?"
"Never mind. Eastenders is on in a minute.  Do what you like..."