Earth Day

Today is Earth Day! It's the first year I've come across it although apparently it's the 39th year it has happened. There's more information about it at earthday.net. It's time to start planning things for the 40th Earth Day next year!

Check out this video from Greenpeace too:

Greenpeace Airplot

You may have seen this in the media already but in brief: Greenpeace, along with Alastair McGowan, Emma Thompson and Zac Goldsmith, have bought a plot of land on the proposed site of the Heathrow Airport expansion. They're calling it Airplot and ou can find out more information on their site at www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/join-plot-stop-airport-expansion-20090112 as well as signing up for updates.

I think the money would be much better spent on improving the rail network in the UK, particularly opening high speed rail lines which would prove a real alternative to flying. I try to avoid flying if possible, and certainly to destinations in Europe it is easy enough to do, if not yet as cheap or fast as by air. I performed a show in Hamburg last year and travelled by rail. It wasn't particularly cheap, particularly when compared with the low cost airlines, and took pretty much a whole day to get there but it meant I was able to see more of the countries along the way, including having a good look around Brussels, and also experience a sleeper train (a great way to travel) and meet some interesting people on the journey.

I struggled to find a website showing the actual savings in carbon emissions (any suggestions of sites welcomed!) but my very rough calculations show that the emissions are likely to be less by rail and are also much closer to the ground so less likely to be emitting gases into the thinner atmosphere. If more people choose to go by rail than air, all the benefits will be increased as there would be less flights happening.

I'm not sure if I've blogged it before, but the way I got to Hamburg was:

Virgin Pendolino from Crewe-Euston
Walk from Euston - St Pancras
Eurostar from St Pancras - Brussels
City Night Line sleeper train from Brussels - Hamburg (originating in Paris)

and the return was similar in reverse, although I ended up coming back through the UK via an alternative route (via Reading or Wales I think) as it was a bank holiday and there was engineering work on the West Coast Main Line.

I got the information about the journey from seat61.com, a great website for information about travelling by rail. I've just checked their site to confirm the route I took and it seems that from 14 December last year (ironically the date that rail timetables in the UK seemed to get easier) the Brussels - Hamburg sleeper service was discontinued. There's more information about this (and places to complain to!) at euronight.net.

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.

Christmas

If the lights up around town are anything to go by, it's heading towards Christmas time again!

It seems hard to believe that it's nearly a year now since the Another Christmas EP was released. If you don't already have a copy, it's available as a download on various sites including iTunes, Napster and CD Baby. I'm looking into getting a handful made as physical CDs too so watch this space... Another Christmas is also available on the new album, Octagon.

I had a good time performing with the band last Saturday at the Oxjam Unwrapped gig to make money for Oxfam. It was our first time performing all together and it seemed to go pretty well. We didn't have the video on for this one but for photos, check out the event's website at oxjam.dayve.co.uk or keep an eye out on my Flickr feed at flickr.com/dayvedean. You can find out more about Oxjam at their website at www.oxfam.org.uk/oxjam or check out the Oxfam website at www.oxfam.org.uk.

It's looking as though our next gig is going to be on 20 December at The Woodlands in Alsager. It's a jam night - so feel free to come and join in - but we'll be doing a fair bit of playing as well. We're going to be working on a number of covers and Christmas songs for the night so if you've any requests in advance, send them in to mailinglist@dayve.co.uk or contact via the blog comments or message boards at dayve.co.uk/forum. And if you're not already on board, why not join the mailing list - sign up from pretty much any page at www.dayve.co.uk?

It's the time of year that people send out Christmas cards, and I'm never really sure how I feel about this practice. At a basic level, I like to receive them as it's nice to hear from people that maybe I don't often hear from and I like the idea of sending them. I rarely actually get around to it though for several reasons, including not knowing people's addresses and running short of time. There's also the ethical argument to contend with. One one hand, it's a terrible waste of paper and resources especially if they're not made from recycled materials and recycled or reused after Christmas. On the other, charities are able to raise funds from the sale of the cards so good causes can greatly benefit. Maybe a solution would be to send ecards (but then I never know anyone's email address!) and either donate the money saved to charity or buy gifts such as Oxfam Unwrapped. I'll see what I end up doing this year.

In the meantime, I've come across some cool cards at a favourite company of mine, Howies. You can check them out here - http://www.howies.co.uk/product.php/1593/18/. They're recycled and donate to charity so maybe that's another solution.

Have a great Christmas if I don't get around to blogging again before then!

Friends of the Earth CorporateAction: A raw deal for Africa

Here's a couple of the latest campaigns from Friends of the Earth:

			13th November 2008
Call time on global greed Tell Gordon Brown we want a global economic system that works for everyone.		A raw deal for Africa New European trade deals pose a serious threat to forests, biodiversity and livelihoods. Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will threaten the ability of African governments to protect their environment and achieve sustainable development. In Africa these deals will hand rights to European businesses to exploit natural resources and cause massive problems for local industry. Join the growing resistance around the world. Take action to change the way Europe trades. Email EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso and demand that he stops Europe's destructive trade deals.

Goodbye Bush, Hello Obama

Email campaign from Avaaz.org:


After 8 long years of Bush – a fresh start!

Entrenched interests stand in the way, but Obama's victory brings a chance for the US to finally join with the world community to take on pressing challenges on climate change, human rights, and peace.

After years, even decades of distrust, let's seize this moment of unity, reconciliation and hope to send a message of warm congratulations and invitation to work together to the new President and the American people.

We've built a huge wall near the White House in Washington DC where the number of signatures on our message and personal messages from around the world will grow over the next several hours. We've also asked Obama to personally receive our petition from a group of Avaaz members. Let's get to 1 million signers and messages to Obama! Sign on at the link below and forward this email to others:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/million_messages_to_obama/98.php/?cl_tf_sign=1

This is a time for celebration of democracy, but already the sharks are circling – oil companies, war contractors, conservative lobbyists, and the powerful neo-con clique that brought us the war in Iraq are furiously lobbying to dim the prospects for change. Obama has promised national unity, and these interests will ask a high price for that unity.

Let's act quickly to make sure the people of the world are heard as Obama makes crucial choices in the coming days on how to live up to his campaign promises to secure a strong global treaty on climate change, ban torture and close Guantanamo prison, withdraw carefully from Iraq, and double aid to make global poverty history. Rarely has a US President been more likely to listen to us.

We'll make the point that on most of the pressing issues faced by Obama and the American people – from the financial crisis to climate change -- we need to work together as one world to achieve change. Sign below and forward this message on:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/million_messages_to_obama/98.php/?cl_tf_sign=1

With hope,

Ricken, Brett, Alice, Iain, Paula, Paul, Graziela, Pascal, Milena, Graziela and the whole Avaaz team.

PS – Send us a picture of yourself for our wall - email it to obamawall@avaaz.org

PPS – Here's a link to a report on Avaaz's past campaigning – http://www.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2/

PPS - And here's a list of 10 of Obama's campaign promises that concern the world – you can find his full platform here http://www.barackobama.com/issues/:

· Reduce the US's carbon emissions 80 by 2050 and play a strong positive role in negotiating a binding global treaty to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol.
· Withdraw all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months and keep no permanent bases in the country.
· Establish a clear goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons across the globe
· Close the Guantanamo Bay detention center
· Double US aid to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 and accelerate the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculoses and Malaria
· Open diplomatic talks with countries like Iran and Syria, to pursue peaceful resolution of tensions
· De-politicize military intelligence to avoid ever repeating the kind of manipulation that led the US into Iraq
· Launch a major diplomatic effort to stop the killings in Darfur
· Only negotiate new trade agreements that contain labor and environmental protections
· Invest $150 billion over ten years to support renewable energy and get 1 million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015

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.

Environment E-campaigns

It's a busy week for email campaigns. Here's some that I've taken action on and would urge you to do the same:

Scraplife: E-waste in Pakistan

Related action: Tell Philips to simply take back and recycle

www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/philips/write-to-philips

Make illegal logging illegal

Illegal logging is still a massive problem facing the world's forests.

20% of the total timber imports into the EU are illegal or of suspected illegal origin.

Much of this timber is then sold on to manufacturers and businesses legally under current EU laws.

The European Commission has proposed new legislation to combat illegal logging and address the trade in illegally sourced timber.

But it's too weak to meet the challenge.

Ask your MEP to strengthen this much needed EU law and tackle the trade in illegal timber.

www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/corporates/press_for_change/illegal_timber_15818.html

Crunch time for climate change

With the recent turmoil in the financial markets grabbing the headlines and causing so much worry for all of us, it's been hard to think about anything else. And yet, the climate change threat hasn't gone away, and a key set of EU proposals - called the Climate and Energy Package - is currently progressing through the European Parliament.

We need to keep the pressure on our political leaders...

This week the UK's new Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband and the Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, will be part of the final round of climate negotiations between EU member states.

They must adopt a strong position and we need to show that we are watching them closely - we expect to see strong leadership.

Mr Miliband has recently committed to delivering an effective UK Climate Change Bill. Now he must lead Europe towards an effective EU Climate and Energy Package deal.

This week is crunch time for the European response to climate change.

Keep the pressure on Miliband and Benn

www.timetolead.eu

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.