This gallery contains 1 photo.
Written by Lauren Stevens, Chester People & Planet member The University of Chester has signed a deal with oil producer Shell. The Shell Technology Centre in Thornton will be acquired by the University in a deal it called “one of … Continue reading
On Monday 25 March, Ben Powrie, student activist from People & Planet Reading attended a demonstration with 300 staff and students in opposition to the privatisation of services at Sussex University. That day a large group of people decided to … Continue reading
By Laura Clayson from Lancaster People & Planet “Ecocide”: “heedless or deliberate destruction of the natural environment, as by pollutants or an act of war.” ‘Unconventional Fossil Fuels’ certainly fit this framework well. As Dan Sweeney explains them, these are … Continue reading
This gallery contains 1 photo.
This article is by Ben Powrie from Reading People & Planet. It was first published in Spark, Reading University’s student newspaper. I like the University of Reading. I like the trees, and the lake and all the green space. I … Continue reading
This gallery contains 1 photo.
We’ve got to put a stop to tax dodging. At a time when public services are being slashed and household budgets are under increasing strain, students know only too well that it’s not fair that companies aren’t paying their way. … Continue reading
Hello all you brilliant People & Planet campaigners.
It’s my third day at the People & Planet support office and I can’t stop smiling. The atmosphere is buzzing as we fresh-faced interns learn about all the exciting events and actions that are planned for this year.
I have been active in the network since my first term at The University of York. My earliest memory as a new-born campaigner is spending one winter’s day dressed up as a caged chicken… for a campaign of course.
It is fair to say that I am obsessed with food co-operatives and growing initiatives as really positive local solutions to help fight the problem of climate change. I helped set up Scoop- York University’s Food Co-op and founded Edible Uni- a guerilla gardening project turning unused green areas of campuses into edible spaces for all to use and enjoy.
My new role at People & Planet is as Climate Change Campaign intern. I will be working on our Going Greener:Transition Universities campaign helping you to bring about a low-carbon, resillient and community-led education sector.
Please do contact me (on goinggreener@peopleandplanet.org) with any new ideas you have for Going Greener campaigns at your University or just to update me with what you’ve been working on. You can find me on Facebook or on Twitter
Can’t wait to hear from you!
Phoebe
Greetings from sunny Oxford.
My name’s Lauren, and I am one of the fabulous new People & Planet interns. This year, I’ll be working on climate change education and workshops in schools and colleges, and on lots of exciting enterprise projects to help People & Planet stay active and independent. (Money stuff. Boring, I know.)
Before People & Planet, I volunteered delivering Film Club sessions to primary school children alongside completing my PhD at the University of Warwick. I get a real buzz from introducing young people to new ideas and concepts, so I’m thrilled to be working with People & Planet to help support the next generation of activists. I also love yoga, playing football, and dreaming up ways to save the world while wearing pretty dresses.
It’s going to be a great year for People & Planet, and I’m really looking forward to meeting you all. If you are interested in getting us in to do one of our amazing, empowering workshops for your school or college, or if you have any other questions, please get in touch. You can email me on lauren.thompson@peopleandplanet.org, follow me on Twitter @toomanydresses, or add me on Facebook.
I will be blogging from Rio de Janeiro next week, reporting on issues raised at and around the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (otherwise known as Rio+20), which will be taking place between June 22nd and 24th around 30 minutes outside the city (30 minutes that is if you have a VIP pass, for the exclusive traffic lanes and heightened security are similar to the plans currently being rolled out here for the London Olympics). The gathering of world leaders is to focus upon two main strands: firstly, the need to build a so-called ‘green economy’ in a context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; secondly, upon what an institutional framework for sustainable development might look like. However, for reasons alluded to below, the focus of this blog will be less upon Rio+20 itself (and its related UN organised cultural events), and more about the discussion and action that will take place in the centre of Rio, during the Cúpula dos Povos (People’s Summit) that will run concurrently alongside the conference.
The Future We Want
Many activists are sceptical about the agenda and therefore the outcomes of Rio+20, for two key interrelated reasons. Firstly, because whilst ideas of a green economy sounds great in theory, there is legitimate concern that this may produce yet more ‘greenwash’ market solutions, that don’t address the root of the problems, but merely find sometimes quite ingenious new ways to commodify nature. The second concern is that politicians may well be even more resistant than usual towards implementing the progressive change needed, using austerity as an excuse and citing the continuing reverberations that still follow the financial collapse of 2008.
This widely held pessimism about outcomes is interesting by comparison to the optimism that accompanied the first Earth Summit in Rio, 20 years ago this June. As Mikhail Gorbachev(former President of the Soviet Union) wrote earlier this week, ‘during and just after the Rio Earth Summit, there was an overwhelming air of enthusiasm and hope for the future…20 years later we are instead surrounded by cynicism and, for many, despair’. The reasons for this apparent decline in trust and indeed hope for the future are of course both myriad and complex. However, let us wait and see what happens. This cynicism is conceivably misplaced and the conference may yet deliver upon its promise of a ‘Future We Want’, as their strap line promises. Of course though, we do remain concerned. This is not about a future that is distant, but one which affects all of us here and now. As Sha Zukang, the Secretary-General of the UN Conference himself remarked on Wednesday, ‘Time is precious. We have little of it left to ensure we deliver. We need ambitious and historic outcomes.’
Come Reinvent the World
Of course he is right, we do need real ambition. But we also need a new vision. Surely, we can’t continue to fall back upon the failed current economic model based upon hyper-profits and hyper-consumption? Despite what some politicians may tell us, there are alternatives. These alternatives will be discussed next week by the people themselves at their own Summit in Rio’s Flamengo Park, where our Brazilian host organisers have asked civil society to ‘come reinvent the world’. And amongst our friends, despite it all we remain optimistic. Indeed, I am reminded of the earlier optimism of the French psychoanalyst and activist Félix Guattari, who on his trip to Brazil in 1982, 10 years before the first Earth Summit, said ‘I can see it…perhaps i’m raving, but I think that we’re in a period of …creation, utterly fabulous revolutions from the viewpoint of this emergence of a people. That’s molecular revolution: it isn’t a slogan or a program, it’s something that i feel, that i live, in meetings, in institutions, in affects’. (see Guattari and Rolnak’s ‘Molecular Revolution in Brazil’).
Is it really too much to hope for to look forward to ‘utterly fabulous revolutions’ through an ‘emergence of a people’? If we don’t do something soon, it may well become too late.
Dave will be blogging again next week direct from the People’s Summit in Rio, with pictures and hopefully video to complement the text. Your comments, concerns or questions would be very much appreciated.
This blog post was submitted by Chris Ibbett, a member of the UK Youth Climate Coalition.
As youth unemployment rises and the government’s work-to-welfare scheme crumbles, the need for Green Jobs and training for us young people becomes ever more essential.
The Office for National Statistics yesterday released its latest figures on unemployment, showing that in last quarter of 2011, 28,000 more people became unemployed, while the number of 16 – 24 year olds out of work rose to 1.04 million.
These sobering statistics reveal a worrying trend, and taken in combination with the recent controversy over the government’s exploitative work-to-welfare scheme, they raise serious doubts as to whether the rights of today’s young people and their aspirations for their future have ever really been on any policy agenda.
This news highlights the urgent challenges the UK government currently faces: to promote youth employment and to revitalise the economy, while mitigating the ever-increasing global threat of climate change. However, we believe that the creation of green jobs and training programmes for getting young people into sustainable, meaningful employment maps out a clear pathway to tackling all these issues simultaneously.
Green Jobs have environmental sustainability at their core but they also offer long-term, stable, living wage (non-exploitative) employment. While direct Green Jobs are those which are closely related to the development and production of environmental technology, indirect Green Jobs are linked to maintaining and improving environmental quality such as “greening” your existing work place.
Green Jobs can therefore provide meaningful work for a generation so affected by unemployment, who risk alienation in a society where the government refuses to protect current working conditions for young people, as well as their hopes for meaningful future employment.
The move towards a clean and just future has young people at its centre. The move to get the United Kingdom out of recession is also dependent on young people. These must equate as the same future. The opportunities and needs of our generation should be at the heart of all the policies that will shape it.
The UK Youth Climate Coalition will be campaigning on Green Jobs, emphasising the crucial role Green Job creation can play in empowering young people to be at the centre of building their cleaner, fairer future.
For a taster of what’s to come see here: What is a Green Job?
UK Tar Sands Network/Lush/People & Planet Valentines Day 'Oil Orgy' in Oxford
Who would’ve thought that EU transport legislation would be getting so many of us so worked-up this week?
As the EU prepares to vote on the Fuel Qualirty Directive (FQD) on Thursday, environmentalists around the UK are kicking up a fuss in support of a piece of legislation that has the potential to effectively ban tar sands oil imports from Europe, by classifying them as 23% more polluting than most conventional crudes.
Since People & Planet launched a letter-writing action last week, over 500 of you have let Under Secretary of State for Transport, Norman Baker, and his boss, Nick Clegg, know what you think of the UK’s plans to vote against the FQD.
We (and most of you who have written) have received a generic response from Clegg’s office. Like Baker’s replies (which we went on to debunk) when we launched an action to him last November, Clegg’s letter goes to great lengths to focus on technicalities. But first and foremost, Clegg’s reply avoids the bigger picture, which we want to make sure is not lost in the bickering.
These are the kinds of questions that are being shied away from – the big issues that the government is pretending are either not their concern, or well outside of their powers.
Instead, they focus on:
So the response has been a typically big ‘P’ political combination of misplaced emphasis, denial of responsibility and deflection of the core questions at stake. And this criticism has been echoed by politicians across the political spectrum – from Labour’s Shadow Transpor Secretary, Maria Eagle, to Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, and fellow LibDem Chris Davies MEP – all seeing the government’s position as out of step with current realities and the seriousness of the issues at stake.
We would like to ask for more from our elected representatives on this critical issue.
Liam Barrington-Bush
Tar Sands-Free Campaign Manager, People & Planet