Friends of the Earth Scotland’s supporters’ magazineIssue 54 Spring/ Summer 2010

WHAT ON EARTH

Help spread

the word - read me, then pass

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TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Friends of the Earth Scotland is the country’s leading environmental campaigning organisation. Our vision is of a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the world’s resources.

BUT WE CAN’T DO IT ALONE. WE NEED YOU TO:

www.foe-scotland.org.uk/whatyoucando

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Contents

WHAT ON EARTH

View from the Street Climate change doubt is on the rise, not least due to the media.

Campaign news We’ve been sticking our heads in buckets and exposed RBS’s ugly side.

International focus Post earthquake report from Haiti, and latest news from Nigeria.

Green wedding day A wedding that’s cheap and saves tonnes of CO2? We talk to green brides.

The Wave to Copenhagen We waved to Glasgow and we flooded Copenhagen calling for climate justice.

New look - new website A quick guide to using the new FoES website.

Interview: Saci Lloyd We meet the prize winning author of ‘Carbon Diaries 2015’, who is angry.

Your support Things you’ve done and can do to support us.

Local Groups Local groups have been buzzing with activity. Star activist is John Elliot.

Artist in from the cold Artist Darren Rees paints a picture of his Arctic travels.

ReviewsWe give you the lowdown on three very different books.

Annual General MeetingIt’s time for our AGM. We’ve added an opera to spice up the day.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2010What on Earth 54

Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) is:Scotland’s leading environmental • campaigning organisation

An independent Scottish charity • with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland

Part of the largest grassroots • environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 77 national member groups, and some 5,000 local activist groups - covering every continent.

Our vision is of a world where everyone can enjoy a healthy environment and a fair share of the earth’s resources.

Friends of the Earth Scotland is an independent Scottish charity SC003442.

What on Earth is published by and copyrighted to: Friends of the Earth Scotland5 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2PRT: 0131 243 2700E: info@foe-scotland.org.ukW: www.foe-scotland.org.uk

Editor: Davina ShiellDeputy editor and picture research: Per FischerDesign: Patricia HenningssonAdvertising: Kash BhattacharyaCover Photo: Tom Bishop

The views expressed in What on Earth are not necessarily those of Friends of the Earth Scotland. FoES accepts no liability for errors, omissions or incorrect data in advertisements.

Printed on Revive Pure Natural Silk

made from 100% post consumer waste

RE-USE AND SPREAD THE WORDWhen you have finished with this

magazine, save it or pass it on to friends, a doctor’s surgery, school, student union, library or café. As a last resort recycle it.

According to a recent poll, the number of Scots doubting the reality of climate change rose sharply in recent months. A few may have been confused by the term “global warming” being compatible with recent cold weather spells in Europe, not realising that climate change is about long term extreme weather patterns across the globe. Others were reacting to the media hype over leaked emails from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. These have been seized on by sceptics trying to persuade the public that climate change is a conspiracy theory to allow governments to restrict civil liberties and raise taxes.

Unfortunately for them, the emails reveal no such thing. There is plenty of evidence of researchers getting frustrated at the lack of serious action by the Government and public in the face of an emerging climate catastrophe, but nothing to suggest that the basic science of climate change is any less certain than before.

It is unsurprising that truth became distorted in the hothouse atmosphere that preceded the UN climate summit in Copenhagen. The media must bear a fair slice of the blame, but politicians talking up the importance of Copenhagen created the opportunity for vested interests to do their worst.In the end it helped prevent a fair and scientifically sound agreement at Copenhagen.

Instead Copenhagen resulted in a weak political accord, which attempts to turn climate politics on its head. Rather than starting from an understanding of what the planet can sustain, and sharing out targets, it begins from what countries will offer. What was offered by countries accounting for 80%

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COLD SNAP FOR CLIMATE ACTION

View from the Street

EDITORIALWe have another jam-packed edition of What on Earth for you, filled with campaign news and actions that you can take and even some top tips for a green wedding. We’ve experimented with a full colour edition for the first time. It only costs an extra 3p per copy to produce but please let us know if you think it is worth it by emailing us at info@foe-scotland.org.uk

If you’re able to do just one thing for us after reading this edition of What on Earth, please take the pink FoES membership form that you will find inside, pass it to a friend

and encourage them to join us as well. As a small independent Scottish charity we rely on membership income to fund our work and we need more members to be able to continue campaigning into the future.

If you’re reading this and you’re not already a member, get your voice heard and be part of the solution - join us today for as little as £2 a month at www.foe-scotland.org.uk/join

With best wishes, Davina Shiell, EditorWha

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Duncan McLaren at event with artist Darren Rees, see p14

of global emissions was at best enough to constrain a rise in temperature to 4°C – at least twice what the scientists say is safe. In financial terms it offers less than one tenth of what is needed by poor countries. It is riddled with loopholes, notably those promoting more carbon trading – including trading in avoided emissions from forest ‘protection.’

The campaign for climate justice will have to continue globally,but locally we can work to deliver a strong example – an exampleof a rich country that makes big emissions cuts, without trading, and in ways that create jobs and opportunities for our people. Here in Scotland the debate is mainly moving beyond targets to focus on delivery, with continued endorsement of Scotland’s 42% by 2020 target by the Scottish Government and the UK’s Climate Change Committee.

We will need to work hard to get decision makers and the public to understand that cutting carbon is good for the economy, good for society, good for health and good for people. But that’s the challenge now. At least even though the number of Scots doubting climate change rose, there is still a large majority convinced of the need for action – a strong foundation for our ongoing campaigns.

Duncan McLaren, Chief Executive

No More Carbon DinosaursOur campaign against Scotland’s pollutingcoal fired power plants has entered a new phase. We said goodbye to our Coal Campaigner, Som Narayan, as our funding from the European Climate Foundation came to an end. The campaign called for tough rules for new power plants in Scotland and we were successful in obtaining a big hurdle - that at least a quarter of any new plant’s capacity would have to fit carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology from day one.

We expected this to be a big deterrent to investment, and indeed DONG Energy pulled out of plans to develop a new coal power station at Hunterston in Ayrshire. However Peel Holdings, the other partner in the proposal, is pushing ahead. We are now working with RSPB, WDM and others to campaign against this proposal.

One of Scotland’s existing coal fired plants,Cockenzie, will close down by 2014. We are resisting proposals for it to be replaced with a gas-fired plant. Although cleaner than coal, this would still be unnecessary given Scotland’s burgeoning renewables sector. Longannet remains the front runner in the UK Government’s competition for funding to demonstrate CCS. We have supported this proposal as the competing one from Kingsnorth would see a new power plant being built which would then be ‘retro-fitted’ with CCS.

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Campaign news

Access to Justice

We used the remaining funds to set up a legal defence fund for environmental justice cases. In February we used some of these funds to help community campaigners in Ayrshire, who are challenging the inclusion of a new coal fired power station at Hunterston in the Scottish Government’s National Planning Framework.

The campaigners fought to get a cost capping order and won, which means that their legal costs will be limited. This sets a precedent that we now want to turn into standard practice, to ensure that in future environmental justice cases community groups and campaigners are not prohibited from challenging decisions due to the excessively high costs involved in taking a case to court.

In England and Wales, the law already allows your liability to pay the other side’s costs to be capped in specific cases where the issues are of public importance and where those costs might otherwise stop someone from pursuing the case.

We need to strike while the iron is hot and push the Scottish Government and Courts to back a similar change in the law to help ensure environmental justice for decades to come.

Many of you will remember that we fundraised tirelessly to fight a court case to stop the M74 extension being built in 2006. We raised over £50,000, but after two days in court we were advised by our lawyers not to take the case any further.

The innovative Carbon Accountability Programme (CAP) has drawn to a close,and with its end we also said goodbye to long time staff member Iain Thom.

The CAP’s final year was a whirlwind of activity. The government bail out of the banks made our work trying to improve the accountability of banks even more relevant. The new and completely unforeseen situation of government ownership of banks stimulated a coalition campaign to influence the investment practices of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). The CAP worked with People and Planet, the Word Development Movement (WDM) and others to lobby the Chancellor, Alistair Darling,

arguing that he should use the weight of the government’s ownership to ensure that RBS’s investment policy reflected government and public priorities.

As part of this coalition, we contributed to the ‘Royal Bank of

Sustainability:

protecting

taxpayers’ interests; cutting carbon risk’ report by independent actuary Nick Silver. This report argues that the government should behave as an active shareholder to initiate a transformation of RBS into a sustainable bank.

WHAT YOU CAN DOPlease support our Access to Justice campaign and donate today. www.foe-scotland.org.uk/access-to-justice

Carbon Accountability Programme

WHAT YOU CAN DORead the CAP reports at www.carbonconfidence.org

Campaigning at Longannet power station,

Photo - Maverick

WHAT YOU CAN DOComplete our cyberaction to stop Hunterston at www.foe-scotland.org.uk/stophunterston

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G20 meets in ScotlandThe finance ministers from the 20 most powerful countries in the world met in St Andrews late last year to talk about responding to the economic crisis. We were there as part of a coalition of Scottish NGOs and unions demanding action on jobs, justice and climate.

It was an inspirational day of activism with the ‘heads in the sand’ stunt on the beach, a march and the People’s

Summit, where we heard from a range of passionate speakers and activists.

The day was also marked by some real progress from the debate at the G20 itself, particularly with commitments expressed by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling for a transaction tax to regulate the financial speculation that helped to cause the global crisis.

Scotland sticks to 42% emissions reduction targetThe influential UK Committee on Climate Change recently published its advice to the Scottish Government on their ambitious climate change targets. With the EU and UK governments failing to increase their targets for 2020, the report proposed three options for the Scottish Government to consider including:

lowering the target to 38%1. meeting the 42% target through 2. carbon tradingbeing ambitious and meeting the 3. 42% target without purchasing carbon credits.

The report also contained advice on annual targets and how aviation and shipping emissions should be accounted.

While we were delighted with Scottish Government statements at the launch that ‘lowering the 42% target is not on the agenda’, we now need to make sure this is delivered without the use of carbon trading and by taking the action needed now to reduce emissions over the next few years.

WHAT YOU CAN DOUrge the EU to follow Scotland’s lead in emissions reductions www.foe-scotland.org.uk/go/eu40

Green Jobs for Scotland

RBS: Still bankrolling the climate crisisThe government approved over £1 billion in bonuses for RBS bankers - not for creating jobs in the UK, but for continuing to bankroll destructive developments in coal, oil and tar sands, the latter being oneof the most carbon intensive fuels known.

A new report from a coalition including Friends of the Earth Scotland and Platform reveals that RBS is the largest investor in Canadian tar sands outside North America.

Tar sands developments are grossly polluting, and are harming health and human rights in indigenous communities. Despite a new ‘sustainability policy’, UK Financial Investments, the body managing the public’s investment in RBS, continues to back RBS’ attempts to profit from climate damage.

We have joined a new group promoting investment in green employment opportunities in Scotland. The SustainableDevelopment Commission has convened the group, with other members including the Scottish Trades Unions Congress and Scottish Business in the Community.

It will be examining how the Scottish Government, banks and other investors could better help Scotland deal with the effects of recession on jobs by targeting new investment into green measures such as energy efficiency in homes and public transport.

WHAT YOU CAN DORead the report at www.foe-scotland.org.uk/tarsands

WHAT YOU CAN DOFind out more about the Robin Hood tax: www.robinhoodtax.org.uk

Stunt demonstrating G20 Ministers with

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NigeriaFoE Nigeria is represented by Environmental Rights Action (ERA). Their Executive Director Nnimmo Bassey was voted a TIME Magazine Hero of the Environment 2009 and he is also currently Chair of Friends of the Earth International.

Nigeria is being exploited my multinational oil corporations, who pollute and poison the environment with oil leaks, dumping and gas flares. Gas flaring is an illegal and harmful practice of burning natural gas that is released when oil is extracted from the ground.

Attending events in Edinburgh and Glasgow in November 2009, Nnimmo Bassey said: “Gas flares are nothing short of crimes against humanity. They roast the skies, kill crops and poison the air. These evil gas stacks pump up greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, impacting the climate, placing everyone at risk. Gas flares go on because it is cheap to kill, as long as profits keep on the rise. That is the logic of Shell, Chevron and their cohorts.”

Dutch Shell is currently being brought to trial in the Hague by four Nigerian victims of oil leaks and spillages, helped by a coalition of organisations, including Friends of the Earth Netherlands (Milieudefensie).

WHAT YOU CAN DOFind out more on FoE Nigeria’s website www.eraction.org

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International News

HaitiThe earthquake that hit Haiti with devastating effects on 12 January this year left an estimated 3,000,000 people affected and more than 217,000 dead.

FoE is represented there by Haiti Survie. Their Director Aldrin Calixte said: “I think between deaths and disappearances Haiti has lost about 350,000 people. There are people who were removed from the rubble dead and buried by parents or neighbours and there has been no structure or method for recording this.

“We have put in place health clinics where we have helped the injured and victims to recuperate and have provided water and food for the victims.

“We think that since the beginning there has been a lack ofcoordination on the part of those operating to respond to theearthquake. As time has gone on it has improved even thoughsome victims have not received any help from government or other organisations specialising in emergency responses.”

FoE Haiti plays a vital role within Haitian civil society, and throughout the Caribbean. They work on food sovereignty, deforestation and desertification, climate change adaptation, as well as international finance.

The organisation is very grateful for the donations and moral support that has come from Friends of the Earth International’s call for solidarity funds, which until now has collected close to £20,000 from FoE members around the world.

WHAT YOU CAN DODonate to the FoE solidarity fund for Haitiwww.foei.org/en/get-involved/take-action/haiti-earthquake

FIGHT FOR JUSTICE GOES ONFriends of the Earth

is represented by 77 member groups around

the world, uniting over two million supporters.

Our Communications Officer, Per Fischer,

reports on the latest from FoE Haiti and Nigeria.

Shell gas flare in Nigeria. Photo: Kadir van Lohuizan/NOOR

Nnimmo Bassey Photo: Kuljit Athwal

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Lifestyle Feature

Everyone loves a wedding and your own can be the best day of your life. But not everyone stops to think of the impact that their perfect day can have on the planet. Davina Shiell talks to brides who have chosen a green wedding.

The average wedding emits around 14.5 tonnes of CO2, much morethan the 12 tonnes emitted by the average person during a wholeyear, and costs around £20,000. With an estimated 260,000 couples planning to marry in 2010, this means that at least £5.2 billion will be spent on weddings this year in the UK alone.

Glasgow resident Mirella de Jonge was married two years ago. For her, having a green wedding was about “not being able to justify excessive waste just because we were getting married.” Her wedding day cost a mere £2000 and had a minimum impact on the planet.

IT’S A NICE DAY FOR

RingsIt all starts with the engagement ring. Diamonds may be a girl’sbest friend but there are ethical factors to consider if this is your choice of stone. In the 1990s so-called ‘blood diamonds’ were used to fund the conflict in Sierra Leone, which resulted in a worldwide campaign to stop this unethical trade. Despite over 70 countries signing up to an international agreement, diamonds from Sierra Leone are still smuggled out of the countryby rebel groups and diamond companies, who take advantage of loopholes and traffic them through legitimate markets.

If you want a diamond, avoid the De Beers cartel and buy a certified and branded diamond that has been mined in Canada or one from Martin Rapaport’s fair trade mine in Sierra Leone. Even better, you could use a family heirloom or have an antique rock re-fashioned to the style you want. Alternatively synthetic diamonds, or having a different type of stone entirely, are both cheaper and more ethical options.W

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Lifestyle Feature

New gold is also problematic as mining releases poisonous chemicals into the atmosphere. I had a small budget when I got married at the age of 24 and I was delighted when my Grandmother offered her wedding rings to me. Not only do they have a sentimental value but it also saved us having to spend money on new gold rings.

DressesThe trend for most weddings is to buy an expensive gown, with some brides spending thousands of pounds on a dress that they wear for just a few hours. Many bridal dresses are mass produced in the Far East in factories with poor labour conditions. If your gown is made of polyester, its fabric comes from petrochemicals, is non-biodegradable and uses water and energy extensively in its production. There are also issues with silk, as silk worms are often boiled alive or electrocuted to extract the silk from the cocoon.

“I made my wedding dress from organic cotton and Justin took it as an opportunity to buy the new suit that he needed,” says Mirella. Another option is to go vintage – you could re-style your mother’s gown, buy second hand from one of the many charity bridal shops that now exist, or you can even look on eBay. If you are buying dresses for your bridesmaids, consider getting dresses that they could wear again, or that could be transformed into cocktail dresses by dying them.

LocationTempting as it may be to get married on a beach in the Maldives, there is a large carbon footprint attached to having a wedding abroad. Most of us these days have family and friends around the world so it is inevitable that some of your guests will have to travel some distance to get to your wedding. But try and choose a wedding location that means that the majority of your guests will have to travel a minimal distance – your guests will thank you for it too!

You can have a wedding with a difference by arriving at your venue by horse-drawn cart, rickshaw, hybrid car or even a hired double decker bus for all your guests. You can also choosea unique wedding venue, such as a botanic garden or an organic farm, rather than the standard commercial hotel chain.

FoodFeeding your wedding guests can be vastly expensive and if you hire a commercial venue you are often tied in to using their caterers. A green venue is more likely to be flexible about allowing you to make your own choices, selecting organic, locally sourced produce and sustainable meat and fish produce. Edinburgh resident Emily Townsend, who is currently planning her green wedding, is looking into various eco-friendly options. Top on her list is having a barbeque on recycled compostable paper plates, to reduce energy from washing and transporting cutlery and plates.

FlowersIf you are buying flowers for your wedding, ask your florist for flowers grown in the UK. In Latin America and Africa, pesticide use is not controlled in the same way as it is in this country. Labourers on flower farms are mostly women of reproductive age, and exposure to pesticides can be very harmful. And of course flowers flown in from overseas come with a hefty carbon footprint too. Mirella chose to have flowers picked from her mother-in-law’s garden, adding a personal touch to the event. You could also give away small potted plants to your guests rather than buying favours.

InvitationsMost people you know are in touch by email these days – so save yourself some money and some trees by emailing your invitations. If you want to post invitations, follow Emily’s example by making sure the paper is from sustainable sources that use vegetable inks. If you’re a creative type, why not make them yourself?

Spreading the green messageSo does the green message rub off on the guests as well? Emily certainly thinks so. “We hope that it may spark an interest and inspiration in them to make some small easy changes at home once the wedding is over,” she says.

If you’re currently planning your wedding, what’s important to remember is that every little helps. Even if you are able to add just one green element to your wedding, it can make a real difference.

WHAT YOU CAN DOGetting married and got everything you need? Why notset up a wedding list in aid of Friends of the Earth Scotland?www.foe-scotland.org.uk/donateincelebration

Mirella de Jonge made her own wedding dress in orange,

following traditions from her Dutch family.

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Climate campaignW

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Campaigning in ScotlandIn the run up to the Copenhagen talks, our activists made lots of noise to demand climate justice from world leaders. We ran training days for activists to help them take part in a day of action, which saw stunts in 10 locations across Scotland.

Local group members in Ullapool visited schools to collect children’s messages that were presented to First Minister Alex Salmond. Other activists gathered video and photo messages from the public to present to world leaders in Copenhagen.

As part of the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition, we took part in the Glasgow Wave, Scotland’s largest ever climate change demonstration. 8,000 people attended to voice their concerns and call for climate justice.

After securing a 42% emissions reduction target in the Scottish Climate Change Act we

focussed our efforts on FoE International’s campaign to Demand Climate Justice at the Copenhagen summit in December 2009. Campaigner Mary Church reports.

The trip to CopenhagenA delegation of 30 FoES activists travelled to Copenhagen on an epic overland journey that took 30 hours each way, including a three hour middle-of-the-night search by the border police on the way into Denmark!

On Saturday 12 December we took part in Friends of the Earth International’s Human Flood for Climate Justice. Over 5,000 activists dressed in blue ponchos flooded through the streets of Copenhagen to protest against carbon offsetting and demand Climate Justice Now! Later, we joined in the System Change, not Climate Change block of a demonstration attended by 100,000 people from all over the world. It was a long and tiring day, but enormously inspiring.

“It was a great experience to be there; the result has been a

bit of a setback but we’ll carry on campaigning!”

Malcolm Bruce, Edinburgh

“How great it was to meet and travel with all you young and

young-at-heart people with questioning minds and a shared

conviction. It’s sometimes lonely being an activist of one in

a radius of 50 miles! Although it was really tiring, I’d do it

again tomorrow - oh well, maybe the day after tomorrow.”

Irene Brandt, Ullapool

“It was an amazing trip and worth every single second.”

Barry Dalgleish, Glasgow

“I’m just delighted that I coped with the minor difficulties on the outward journey then survived two marches on Saturday

after no proper sleep.”

John Elliot, Duns

“I’ll never forget the positive mood and great sense of

belonging from the Flood - joining in with FoE members

from all round the world was so uplifting. And of course

being part of a 100,000 strong march of people from such

diverse backgrounds just took things to another level.”

Corrie Cuthbertson, Falkirk

“It was just ace.”

Emma Margrett, Comrie

Here’s what some of our activists said about the trip:

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Climate campaign

Inside the Bella CentreOur Chief Executive, Duncan McLaren, spent much of his time in Copenhagen inside the Bella Centre, where the talks took place, as part of the Friends of the Earth International delegation.

Inside the Centre our delegation used the blue ponchos – which had become a recognisable uniform - to carry out flash mobs about specific incidents and developments in the talks, as they happened. We used this mechanism to show backing for African nations as they walked out of the talks one day, showing the delegates support and encouraging them not to be bullied into an unjust agreement.

That is until, in a serious breach of the rights of conference observers, FoE International was refused access to the conferencecentre halfway through the second week of talks. A substantial campaign action was expected on the day, and it seems that security feared that our delegation was going to be involved.

Delegations from several poorer nations were disadvantaged by this move. Not being able to afford to send as many delegates as the richer nations restricted the number of meetings they were able to attend. FoEI and other organisations were assisting these delegations with policy advice and support. Since many NGOs were excluded during the last week of the talks, there was less assistance available.

Outcome of the talksThe Copenhagen talks ended in great disappointment, with an accord that is little more than a political statement. The ‘Copenhagen Accord’ has no binding commitments, instead merely calls for countries to volunteer their carbon reduction targets.

Unfortunately, the reality is that based on existing commitments,action by poorer countries to cut emissions will be collectively greater than richer countries. This amounts to ‘Climate Colonialism’where rich countries are taking far more than their fair share of the earth’s resources, and its capacity to absorb carbon.

<<<We asked for:An agreement that would result in the world warming by • less than 2 degrees

Adequate finance for developing countries to grow in a • clean way and to cope with the effects of climate change

Wealthy industrialised countries to commit to at least 40% • cuts in emissions domestically by 2020

Cuts to be achieved domestically, not by buying carbon • credits from developing countries.

>>>We got:Inadequate targets which the UN believe will lead to a 3 • degree rise in global temperatures

A vague promise of half the money that is needed by 2020•

No legal framework, and no timetable to fix it.•

However, looking on the bright side, the Kyoto Protocol is still

on track. The United Nations climate body, the UNFCC, has

extended the deadline for agreement until world leaders meet

in Mexico this December, which is the opportunity to develop

the Accord into a meaningful agreement.

The campaign for Climate Justice continuesClimate change is not going off the political agenda. More than 100 Heads of State came to the Copenhagen talks. The movement to tackle climate change has put the environment into the heart of global politics – as an issue of economics, and fundamentally as an issue of justice.

We thought we would get better results from the Copenhagen summit. Scotland is still leading the way on climate change with the government’s 42% target. Now we have to ensure the Scottish Government gets on with the job of delivering their targets to show other rich countries that it can be done.

WHAT YOU CAN DOContact the 6 Scottish Members of the European Parliament and urge the EU to commit to a 40% emissions reductions target now at www.foe-scotland.org.uk/go/eu40

Register at My FoESto change your contact details, set your preferences for receiving information, post comments on the website and keep a log of all the campaign actions that you have done.

Easier to use, secure online donation pages for you to pay your membership, give one off donations or donate to appeals. We are on lots of social networking

sites so link up to us to receive regular updates. You can also navigate your way through a pre and post climate change world on Second Life.

Organisational News

Better search functions so you can find reports and news releases. Each report and news release is introduced with a short summary.

Improved navigation by clearly setting out what the organisation does and everything you can do as a supporter.

A new and improved

events listing.

Spread the word by sharing pages you like with your friends.

Sign up to RSS feeds to receive the latest news, events listings and blog entries.

Each local group has its own page with contact details and information about meeting times

NEW LOOK – NEW WEBSITEwww.foe-scotland.org.uk

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Have you visited our new website yet? Launched last November to fit in with our new brand, the site has been designed to engage supporters, encouraging you to become more involved in Friends of the Earth Scotland. The website is more flexible, easier to manage and has facilities for interactive features. Log on today and take a look!

With many thanks to McConville Wellburn for

designing the website for us.

WHAT YOU CAN DOLet us know what you think of the new website. Email your comments to media@foe-scotland.org.uk

Saci Lloyd is angry. “We’ve brought a billion year old organic regime to its knees in just 300 years,” she says. “We need to transform society.”

The heroine of the Carbon Diaries, Laura, lives in London, but a dramatically different London to the one we know now. Personal carbon rationing has been introduced, and if you use too much carbon, your energy supply is cut off and the carbon police will be knocking at your door.

Saci started investigating climate change and its potential impacts on society after she walked past a newsagent and saw two papers with opposing headlines.

“The lead story in one paper was all about how we were going to fry and the main story of the paper next to it was all about how we were going to freeze unless we tackled climate change. I remember going, whoah, which one is it … before stepping aboard a roller coaster research ride of heart-stoppingbad news about how much we’re messing up the world.”

Saci was brought up in Anglesey in North Wales and had always felt a connection to the environment. To read about the changes we might see here in the UK was shocking.

But she still wanted to write something funny – although she says that in a way she got to know so much that it isn’t quite as funny as it could have been.

“And I did have to make it quite catastrophic just to compete with the wizards and vampires,” she added.

I asked Saci what she thought had brought us to this environmental crisis point and what she thought was needed to spur us on to change.

“There’s a strange fatalism that only capitalism works, but we have had societies that worked for long before that. It’s an insane system which needs to be dismantled.

“A small section of society are engaged but it needs to be extended. Political activism used to be more widely available. I wanted to explore how to start a new form of activism, I was interested in bringing the idea to everyone, that everyone could be part of the revolution.”

I asked Saci if she was optimistic about the future. The books paint a picture of a very different world, but for every calamity there’s an opportunity - from Laura’s Dad’s vegetable plot to her band getting the gig they’ve always wanted.

“The struggle makes you alive,” Saci said. “It’s not a sacrifice, it’s a fight. We are on the edge of war, but that means we are on the brink of struggle and honour and bravery and beauty. If you just look carefully at something you can see the magic.”

By presenting a future where climate change is having an immediate impact on the lives and livelihoods of people just like us, Saci Lloyd is providing a much needed glimpse of apotential future that we must address today. By ensuring hercharacters have fun, break the rules and rebel just like teenagersin any era, she also succeeds in presenting a vision of the future that whilst different and dangerous, has a certain style.

Saci ends by paraphrasing Naomi Klein: “The revolution needs style; new stories, new styles, are what we need to fight back.”

At Friends of the Earth Scotland we couldn’t agree more.

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Interview

Saci Lloyd, prize winning author of ‘Carbon Diaries 2015’ and the newly published ‘Carbon Diaries 2017’ was in Edinburgh recently, and our Head of Projects and Campaigns, Juliet Swann, went to meet her.

CARBON DIARIES

“The struggle makes you alive,” Saci said. “It’s not a sacrifice, it’s a fight. We are on the edge of war, but that means we are on the brink of struggle and honour and bravery and beauty. If you just look carefully at something you can see the magic.”

Raffle 2009

Many thanks to everyone who bought and sold tickets for our 2009 raffle. Almost £4,000 was raised. Well done to Andy Drummond for being our star raffle ticket seller. A massive thank you to the all the generous businesses who donated the prizes, especially Aktive8.com, Natural Collection, National Piping Centre and Fifi Bijoux.

Valentine’s Ceilidh

We sold out, drank the bar dry, had a great night and

raised a fantastic £2,393 for our campaigns! Many

thanks to the Ceilidh Collective for organising it for

us, to our raffle donors and to those of you who came

along. We hope to hold more ceilidhs in the future so

do watch this space and come along to the next one.

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Your SupportW

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RAISING VITAL FUNDS

Cyclists Needed

We are planning a sponsored bike ride in September. Our target is to raise £5000 - we can’t do this without you! The bike ride will be approximately 40-50 miles and there will be a shorter family route as well.

Find out more and register your interest at www.foe-scotland.org.uk/bikeride

Chris Hoy Half Marathon

We have 15 runners this year participating

in the Chris Hoy Edinburgh half marathon on

Sunday 18 April to raise funds for us.

We have free places

for runners who

are willing to raise

sponsorship for us

in 2011 and 2012 as

well. To register your

place next year email

us at fundraising@

foe-scotland.org.uk

As a small independent Scottish charity, your donations and membership subscriptions provide approximately half our annual funding and we greatly appreciate the support that you provide. The rest of our income comes from trusts and grants, which are tied to specific projects and campaigns and are time limited. Here are some ways that you can help us to raise vital funds to campaign.

Contact the Supporter Development team on 0131 243 2700 for further information and to discuss your ideas.

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Local Groups and Activism

LOCAL GROUPS NEWS

At 75, John is an inspiration to us all. He’s been to numerous demonstrations over the years and is passionate about environmental and social justice.

In December he really went the extra mile (well, 1,234 to be exact) when he travelled by train and bus, slept on church and school floors and endured the cold Danish winter, to call for climate justice at the Copenhagen Climate talks.

Marching alongside others struggling for environmental justice around the world, John was inspired to hear stories of people suffering from the impacts of climate change. In fact, he told me it was one of the best days of his life so far. This is a telling sign of John’s priorities in life: looking after our planet and the people on it.

Star Activist – John Elliot

Residents of Kirkcaldy will get personalised help with reducing their carbon footprints thanks to a new project set up by members of Friends of the Earth Fife. Greener Kirkcaldy has received £219,000 from the Climate Challenge Fund to set up an advice centre in the town, and to reach out to the community with workshops, talks and events.

Suzy Goodsir, Greener Kirkcaldy Chair, said “There is a lot of information out there about saving energy and being greener but sometimes people need help to find it or to see what is relevant to their own lives. Our project will have a strong community focus and will help people

Hannah Kitchen, Activism and Local Groups

Development Officer, reports on the latest activity from

across Scotland.

Glaswegians have been braving the cold and getting creative to drum up support for Friends of the Earth Scotland. During 2009 they donated £1,300 to help fund our national campaigns. I spoke to Sara Barry, the group co-ordinator, to find out the secret to their fundraising success. She said: “We’ve done quite a lot of street collections, which are hard work but do bring in the money. We give talks to other groups, who often show their

appreciation by giving donations. We also run stalls selling recycled products and handmade cards.”

Acting as a resource to other communitygroups raises awareness of environmentalissues as well as bringing in money. The group is an invaluable part of the FoES network and we want to say, ‘Thank you very much Glasgow!’

Glasgow group members are fundraising heroes

Kirkcaldy goes greener

thanks to FoE Fife

save money as well as addressing environmental concerns.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is the constituency MP, met with members of the group soon after his return from the Copenhagen climate talks. Perhaps he was encouraged to see such inspiring local activism after the frustrating lack of progress on the international scene.

WHAT YOU CAN DOLocal groups and activists’ weekend 12-13 June 2009.If you’re in a local group or want to get involved in more campaigning, this weekend is for you. Find out more and sign up today at www.foe-scotland.org.uk/localgroupsweekend

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Feature - Artist in from the coldW

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No single destination affected me in a profound way until the Summer of 2006 when I travelled for the first time to the archipelago of Svalbard, a Norwegian territory far beyond the Arctic Circle. It’s a land shaped by the forces of nature, where vast ice caps feed mighty glaciers that force their way through jagged peaks and crash into fjords filling the water with chunks of ice the size of houses.

CHANGING ICE CHANGING MENAND

Wildlife artist Darren Rees, who has seen up close the effects of climate change on Arctic glaciers, recently exhibited his art at a Friends of the Earth Scotland event.

The scale of this polar wilderness is both a bewildering and humbling experience. Once we had boarded our ‘Little Red Ship’, Explorer, and left the port of Longyearbyen, there were no settlements to soften and civilise the landscape. For eleven days there was nothing but rock, and ice, and species of Arctic myth.

Everywhere huge buttresses rise from the sea and their faces can be stuffed with seabirds. puffins and Brünnich’s guillemots are commonplace on the steeper cliffs, and on the scree slopes and boulder fields little auks nest in colonies a million strong.

Stalemate, Storoya

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Feature - Artist in from the cold

At the head of many of the fjords, glaciers tumble into the cold water. Depositing minerals from the relentless carvings, and adding freshwater to the salty mix, the snout of the glacier is a productive place for algae, fish, and the feeders of fish.

Oh, and there are bears, big white ones. Bears that would peel you like a banana quicker than you could say glacier mints.

Svalbard is an unforgiving place, and for those species that can eke out a living here, the going is hard, and it’s getting harder. In 2006 the ice limit retreated further north by 90 miles or so. That’s a lot of ice to just disappear. Polar bears that have raised their cubs on Svalbard were stranded on the islands, awaiting the return of the ice so they could get out to hunt their primary prey source, ringed and bearded seals.

Ordinarily the ice limit allows boat access only to Spitsbergen and not the other islands. In 2006, with no sea ice, and using a smaller boat with a flexible itinerary, we could circumnavigate the whole archipelago and explore the far north and east regions of Nordaustlet, and Storoya, strongholds for polar bear and walrus, and places seldom seen by man. With a bittersweet irony we could watch bears as never before.

Not for the first time in recent years, my video camcorder could capture more than I ever could with some hastily made sketches from a moving boat. I watched and filmed, not knowing what was going to happen, and witnessed a riveting sequence of tense interactions between bear and

walrus, where both gave each other the distance and respect that fearsome tusks and claws demand. It was the most compulsive and inspiring encounter with wildlife I have ever had.

But we shouldn’t have been watching. As the planet heats up theice is melting. Global warming is happening right here, right now,and polar bears are going to be amongst the first casualties.

The video footage I gathered in Svalbard was only ever meant as reference material for paintings, and certainly not video evidence of a world in crisis. But as birdwatchers, wildlife watchers, eco-tourists and ramblers, we are all now frontline witnesses to the events of climate change. We who watch wildlife have, and cherish, a connection to natural world - a connection that for the majority of people has been fractured by urbanisation and modernity. Disconnection has lead to ignorance, and ignorance to lack of respect and abuse.

I’ve shown the same film to schools, community halls, politicians and most recently to Friends of the Earth Scotland. We have to enthuse and impassion - we have to rant and rave. We also have to heckle the voices of denial. That word responsibility comes to mind again. Responsibility, like action on climate change, is now a moral imperative.

Before I left for Svalbard my seven-year-old daughter, Sophie, asked me if there would still be Polar Bears when she grows up. For all our sakes there’d better be.

‘In 2006 the ice limit retreated further north by 90

miles or so. That’s a lot of ice to just disappear.’

WHAT YOU CAN DODarren’s paintings are available to purchase via our website with 50% of proceeds going to Friends of the Earth Scotland. Visit www.foe-scotland.org.uk/darrenrees

Clockwise from left:

Little auks, Skua, Duncan McLaren and Darren Rees, Bear, tracks

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BOOK REVIEWS

Reviews and Obituary

Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan (Hardback) ISBN 4770030746, 9784770030740.Japan’s Edo period (1603-1868) was both a time of increasing technological development and urbanisation, and a truly sustainable society. This fantastic book by architect Azby Brown takes the reader back in time to visit Japan

in the year 1800. Brown provides numerous examples of ways to incorporate sustainability into everyday life: from house building and city planning to farming and energy-saving. At a time where European cities were dumping their sewage onto streets or into the water supply, in Japan human waste was a valued commodity that farmers were willing to pay for and collect so that they could use it to fertilise their fields. The book is illustrated with detailed pen drawings throughout.

Chinese Economic Development and the Environment (Hardback) ISBN 1848445504, 9781848445505.China is clearly one of the big players globally, and perhaps a future economic world leader. This book examines the

environmental impact of China’s rapidly growing economy and tries to forecast what it means for the future, and how environmental regulations can be implemented in China. However, as this is a textbook with lots of data and tables written by two Japanese professors it is not recommended for easy bedside reading! The book’s subject matter, however, is very important and topical.

Journeys in the Wilderness: a John Muir

reader, ISBN 1841586978, 9781841586977As one of the East Lothian’s most famous sons, John Muir’s name is synonymous with conservation both here and in his adopted home of the United States, where he is known as the Father of the National Parks. This volume contains Muir’s well-known writings, and also those writings lesser-known but with significantly notable content. From his school days in Dunbar (The Story of My Boyhood and Youth) to the incorrigible daredevilry described in Steep Trails, Muir’s effervescent style and insatiable passion for his environment reflect a man who could only have been larger than life.

REMEMBERING LESLEY BROWN

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It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Lesley Brown, our Fundraiser, who lost her battle with cancer earlier this year. Lesley had been part of Friends of the Earth Scotland for nearly four years.

Lesley will be missed greatly, not just for her fundraising skills but for her sunny, friendly personality that always brightened up the office. Environmental issues were always close to Lesley’s heart. When she became a mum she was adamant not to use disposable nappies, but as there were no nappy services in the area where she lived she set one up. Lesley never saw problems, only solutions, and her enthusiasm was evident throughout the time she worked with us.

Lesley is survived by her partner, Steve, and two sons.

It was Lesley’s last wish that donations would be made in her memory to Friends of the Earth Scotland and Childline, where she also worked part time. So far we have raised over £3000 in Lesley’s memory. A special thanks goes to staff at William Grant and Sons, where a relative of Lesley’s works, for raising a large proportion of this.

If you would like to give a donation in Lesley’s memory to FoES please visit foe-scotland.org.uk/go/memoryoflesley

Enter Quiz win £50

Saturday 29 May 2010

Morning - 10.00 - 13.30 FoES Annual General MeetingIncuding a free lunchOpen to Friends of the Earth Scotland members Afternoon – 13.00 - 17.00 Low Carbon LivingFree events open to the public

13.30 - 15.00Katharine HibbertAuthor of ‘Free: Adventures

on the margins of a wasteful society’

Katherine gave up her job, her flat, credit cards,travel pass and shopping to spend a year livingoff the food, clothes, other goods and accommodation that would otherwise go to waste.

15.30 - 17.00The Carbon Chronicles, tragicomic operaA performance that provokes discussion and inspires action to reduce our dependency on a petroleum-based, exploitative global system, instead living sustainably in a low carbon society. Featuring singers from the Protest in Harmony Choir, as well as members of Active Enquiry theatre group.

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