Plane Stupid at Stansted

I've been watching the BBC News Channel reports about the Plane Stupid protest at Stansted. While I'm not suggesting that breaking the law is a good idea, it's been very interesting to hear the reactions to the protest.

There has been a lot of comment that people have been disrupted and that flights are a necessity for business and people going on holiday. There have even been complaints about the action by a group of delegates on their way to a conference about climate change in Poland.

Firstly, I can't help but think there's something ironic about catching a plane to a conference on climate change. Surely the best way to do this would be through technologies such as teleconferencing which would eliminate the need to travel at all. Or if not, Poland is pretty easily reachable by rail (check out /http://seat61.com/Poland.htm to find out how). I travelled to a gig in Hamburg this way earlier in the year and it's a really nice way to travel, both relaxing and allowing you to see a lot more than you are able to from a train.

I also wonder how many of the flights were as necessary as people seem to think. I'm very often surprised and disappointed how many people that I meet at various get togethers have travelled by plane, particularly if coming from Scotland to the south of England. While a high speed rail link could very well help to cut a lot of these journeys, and could easily be paid for if the money being proposed for airport expansions were used for this instead, I find it's the opinion of trains compared to planes which needs to be addressed.

Oxfam World Food Crisis Appeal, a greener Local Transport Bill, Energy Saving Week

Some more campaigns you might like to get involved in:

Oxfam launches report and £15 million appeal to tackle world food crisis

Oxfam has launched a massive fundraising appeal to tackle the impact of rising world food prices, which have pushed an extra 119 million people into hunger, taking the global total to nearly 1 billion.

The appeal has been launched on World Food Day alongside a new Oxfam report, Double Edged Prices, showing that the increases in food prices have pushed the world’s poorest further into destitution while quadrupling profits for some international businesses.

Oxfam needs an extra £15 million to pay for its international development and humanitarian work on food and agriculture, and to campaign for changes to the flawed trade and agricultural polices that have left poor farmers vulnerable.

Read more about this campaign on the Oxfam website.

Ask your MP for a greener Local Transport Bill

The Local Transport Bill will determine what happens to transport for many years to come. At the minute it doesn't say anything specific about cutting CO2 emissions. Ask your MP to support an amendment to the bill which requires local authorities to make sure their transport policies tackle climate change.

Find out more and take part in the campaign at http://tinyurl.com/637dwo.

Energy Saving Week

While I'm blogging, take a look at the Energy Saving Trust's website as this week is Energy Saving Week. While I will happily waffle on about energy saving in ANY week, this one's a good excuse to take a look at how you can reduce your energy usage, saving both money and CO2 emissions. Check out the website at http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/What-can-I-do-today/Support-our-campaigns/Energy-Saving-Week.

Greenpeace - Take action: Write to Angela Merkel

More than a tenth of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU are caused by cars.

The German car industry is lobbying hard to stop European lawmakers from setting tough emissions standards. They want to carry on building heavier, less efficient luxury cars.

Now that the European Parliament's Environment Committee has voted for standards, starting in 2012, industry lobbyists and the German government are trying to wreck the proposal.

Take action now - visit http://greenpeace.org/eurocarsmerkel.