Green New Year's Resolutions

Have you made a new year's resolution this year? If so, is it one that will benefit the environment as well as yourself?

There's no reason why you couldn't make a late one now if you haven't got round to it yet...

How about one of the following?

Transport

• Fly less, or not at all if you can help it. Flying is the most polluting activity a person can take and not doing it will make more impact on reducing your carbon footprint than anything else. The reason why it is only a small proportion of the UK's carbon emissions is because relatively few people do it still.

 

• Drive less. Per mile, driving can also have very high CO2 emissions (although people don't tend to drive as far as they fly). It also has a negative impact on the area in which you live in terms of congestion, air pollution, noise pollution and creating a dangerous environment for pedestrians and cyclists. If you can cycle, walk or take the bus/train, please do. It's good for your health and can also mean lower stress levels than driving in the rush hour.

 
Waste and Resource Use

• Think about buying things with less packaging. Plastic bags are an environmental problem, but then so is the packaging that most food (and other products) is encased in. If you buy fresh fruit and veg to cook from scratch, it almost always has less packaging and you could also make a point by unwrapping things in the shop and leaving the retailer to deal with the waste - they might re-think what they stock then.

• Try to find ways to re-use as many things as possible rather than throwing them away or putting them in the recycling. It can be fun to think of new uses for things. 

 
Food

• Buy local. Use local independently owned shops/market stalls as much as possible and try to find products that are produced locally, too. The smaller the distance between where things are produced and bought, the better for the environment, generally speaking. Also, eat less meat and dairy, as these foods have a bigger environmental impact.

  
Energy

• Ensure electrical devices are turned off when not in use, both at home and at in the work/study places you go to. Also, make sure you don't leave doors/windows open when the heating's on.

 
Campaign

• Get involved with Birmingham Friends of the Earth and help us to campaign for change and a better environment.

Do you have any other ideas you'd like to share?

Save the Diva - Birmingham gets Street Opera

On Saturday 5 June, the opera came to Birmingham and hit the streets!

The Opera Group performed Save The Diva - a short opera focussing on climate change and consumerism.

Our mission – raise awareness of the issues, promote Birmingham Friends of the Earth and encourage passers-by to attend Seven Angels, a full-scale climate change opera based on John Milton's Paradise Lost at the CBSO on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 June.

With Birmingham activists Rosie and Hetta plus Friends of the Earth Events Manager Joanna Watson on hand to explain things to curious passers-by, this was campaigning with a difference.

As you can see from these photos, the performers certainly stood out in Birmingham city centre.

So if you like what you see, come along to Seven Angels in a week’s time! We will have a presence there too and an opportunity for climate campaigner Rob Pass to address the audience after the Saturday matinee.

Tim Atkinson

The Moseley Swap Shop

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

At The Moseley Swap Shop

Have u got anything you don't want? Or do you just fancy some new stuff for FREE? Then the Moseley Swap Shop is the place for you! Brought to Moseley by FOEcycle and REUSED. Don't miss first Swap Shop February the 27^th, at the Prince of Wales. It'll open at 12pm and finish around 5pm and will be appearing at The Prince of Wales every 4^th Saturday of the month!

Come along maybe after a visit to the Moseley Farmers Market, pop in to The Prince of Wales to get out of the cold and there you will find books, clothes, kitchen stuff, DVDs, Computer games, Ornaments, and anything you bring along to add! All for FREE This stall is entirely dependant on you getting involved, so come down and participate! Based on the online yahoo group Freecycle (now Freegle). www.IloveFreegle.org which allows you to place ads to get rid of things you don't need and respond to ads to get things you do, without money getting involved, well worth a look. The Moseley Swap Shop is your local alternative!

We all know about the 3R's, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, this is a great way to achieve all 3 of them on a Saturday afternoon in the pub and leave with some nice stuff! The stall will also be taking donations for Birmingham Friends Of The Earth and have promotional information available about the activities of BFOE in Birmingham, and other information about what Green alternative stuff is going on in Birmingham and how you can get involved if you're interested.

So don't miss out on the 27th of Feb because you won't be disappointed!

If you have any inquires please email me at fisher_woman@live.co.uk

Washout

One of the perils of campaigning at outdoor events is the weather and boy was that the case today. A brave team of us made it all the way out to Kings Norton for the 3 Estates festival, erected our gazebo and stood under it as the rain lashed down.

Even with our canvas cover overhead it was almost impossible to keep any of the campaigns materials from getting soggy unless they were in plastic boxes (luckily they were thanks to the foreward-thinking Campaigns Coordinator who had provided just the things). After a couple of hours one of the organisers came and put us out of our misery, saying that the amount of water was becoming a health and safety issue, so everyone had to start packing up.

We did get a few letters signed and hopefully made a good contact with a residents group down there who are very interested in getting us along to talk to their members, but this will not go down as one of the most successful days campaigning I've ever done.

Thanks to the volunteers who came along (and those who were half way there when the call went out to turn back and head home). A memorable day, if not for the right reasons.

Launch pad next Thursday - 18th June

Concerned about the environment?
Can you make a difference in Birmingham?

If you've been reading our blog for a while and want to get involved with our campaigns, come to Launch pad, 18th June 7.30 pm.

At: The Warehouse, 54-57 Allison Street, Digbeth, Birmingham B5 5TH

Birmingham Friends of the Earth invite you to Launch pad, an evening to give you a flavour of the current campaigns we are running around Birmingham. You may just be starting getting interested in campaigning, or someone that wants to get updated our campaigns. By the end of the night we can guarantee you will have done something to make Birmingham a better place. The Campaigns we are covering are:

Get Serious
Campaign to put pressure on Birmingham council to make sure they are making serious steps to make Birmingham greener.


Vote with your feet on Dec 5th
Time is running out to keep us safe from climate change. At the UN climate summit in Copenhagen this December world leaders will decide how to tackle Climate Change. Working with other groups in Stop Climate Chaos, we want the this march to be the biggest march and send a message to the world leaders that the time is now to act.


20's plenty
We are calling for the default limit on all residential roads in Birmingham to be set at 20 mph to make them safer for cyclists, pedestrians all road users and residents. Following the success of this campaign in other cities our 20's plenty campaign is hitting the streets here to get the message out to public and community groups. Help us make this happen.


Fix the food chain
The food chain in the UK is a mess. All over Europe we feed our animals soy feed that comes from South America where the rainforest is being destroyed and people are being thrown off their land. We want to turn this around. Come and get involved in the campaign to make sure we have planet-friendly farming in the UK.

We hope to see some new faces there. Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Joe and Mary (Campaigns Coordinators)

Simple Change - Huge Difference

The transport action group at Birmingham Friends of the Earth are currently putting their efforts into trying to get a default 20mph speed limit introduced on unclassified roads (not A or B roads) throughout Birmingham. This would be a very cost effective way of changing the lives of a huge number of people. No expensive calming measures or cameras are called for, just changing the signs from 30 to 20. We are working together with the following organisations so far:

• Living Streets
• Campaign for Better Transport
• Roadpeace
  

We are also looking to build a coalition with many more, so if you would like to get involved, let us know. There is more information on the Birmingham FoE website or you can write to
Birmingham@20splentyforus.org.uk .

Getting safer roads would mean more people feeling confident to cycle and use local amenities within walking distance. It would also cut carbon emissions as drivers would not be accelerating so much between the frequent stops that are made in urban journeys. Several towns across the UK have already introduced these limits with very impressive results, but if we could get Birmingham, the UK's second city to do it, that would be a great achievement.

There is opposition to it from motoring organisations, of course, but they do not have any strong arguments that I have seen. A debate has been taking place in the letters pages of the Birmingham Post, which you can read below by following the links:

• More can be done to bring down road casualties
  
• Reducing Speed limit not the answer to fewer casualties
  
• Cutting speed limits to 20mph does save lives
• 20 mph limit is needed for road users safety
  

We still continue to campaign on better public transport, too, but this seems a vitally important first step to bringing about the (must use buzzword) modal shift in transport that's required to make Birmingham greener.