The campaign to save environmental protections within the planning system was taken up by many organisations this autumn and we played our part in pointing out the damage that will be done if developers just have free reign to build what they want where they want.
Friends of the Earth gave us the campaign slogan "Talk half as much rubbish" earlier in the year, but we found most people didn't associate David Cameron with their bins (strange as it may seem), so we put our focus on lobbying the council to halve the amount of rubbish. We got about 800 signatures on a petition for food waste collections and better recycling, as well as producing reports on the waste system and the damage done by the incinerator. We are now engaging with the Municipal Waste Review being conducted by the scrutiny committee to whom we'll give evidence in January.
This was the tenth year we've done a Santa Parade in Birmingham for Buy Nothing Day. This year we got a big piece on the radio about consumption and Christmas as well as press coverage and lots of people dancing round the streets with us :-) This video provides pictures from many of those ten years and the radio piece:
As part of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, we always put on events to raise awareness of what is happening amongst the public and politicians. This year it was a screening of the film Dirty Oil at the BMI, followed by a discussion.
The talks in Durban weren't as bad as we feared they might be, but still haven't done anything yet to prevent runaway climate change. Here's Andy Atkins of Friends of the Earth talking about it:
All that makes it even more important that our Final Demand campaign makes a big impact both on the way the energy market is run and the carbon emissions it's responsible for. We are hoping to get thousands of signatures to show the government that people really want a shift in power away from the Big 6 with people taking control over producing their own energy, not just pouring money into shareholders' pockets.
This shot is from Bristol, but we are all ready to hit the streets of Birmingham next year and make a real difference to the carbon emissions of retailers by getting them to close the doors. We have the materials and just need an army of volunteers to go round speaking to shopkeepers. Let us know if you want to help.
The last slide is for our wonderful volunteers, without whom, none of this would happen:
There's still a month to go until our annual Santa Parade for Buy Nothing Day, yet already we're seeing horrific amounts of advertising pushing the message of what we need to make us happy.
This advert by Littlewoods really does take the biscuit:
It reminds us that we should be promoting videos like this one from FoE International, which gives a much more realistic translation of what we're being told :
We have been out on the streets of Birmingham doing the Santa Parade for over a decade now and our picture from last year's Buy Nothing Day won us our first ever Earthmover's Award at Friends of the Earth's local groups conference:
As you can see, we have some tried and tested slogans for our placards, but it has been suggested we could crowd-source some more for this year. So if you have any ideas to add to the likes of:
"Money Can Buy You Love"
"Debt; it's what Christmas is all about"
"Buy More Be Happy"
"Work! Spend! Don't Think!"
please add them in the comments or email them to us campaigns@birminghamfoe.org.uk and if you'd like to join us this year, we have loads of Santa outfits, so the more, the merrier!
On Saturday, the Birmingham Friends of the Earth Santa Parade took to the streets for the 8th time. This time we were joined by a polar bear for the first time ever and also took part in a Mexican Guitar Wave. Buy Nothing Day has never seen the like before! The usual messages about over-consumption were on display with our placards, as well as the more general Climate Change one in supporting The Wave. We were all filmed playing air guitar with our placards along with a few people who had real gu8itars and many others with pretend ones. After that, Andy and I were interviewed by a journalist from Birmingham Recycled before starting the Parade from St Phillips Square. We stopped outside various shops to be photographed as we made our way down towards New Street. The public were happy to see us as always and several people were asked for photos and/or hugs by passers-by. We were happy to oblige, of course, as that is entirely in the spirit of the event and costs nothing. We had a few eventful encounters with people of rather extreme views about Christmas and a short and easily resolved encounter with the police and council officials. Mostly, though, it was another successful and fun Santa Parade with the message of buying more not being what makes you happy well understood by those who took the time to talk to us. Please see the report on our discussion about consumerism from Birmingham Recycled for more on the issues surrounding Buy Nothing Day. They should also have a video up on there soon with the interviews. To end this short report on the day's activities, though, here's a picture of a load of Santas at a bus stop.
The usual messages about over-consumption were on display with our placards, as well as the more general Climate Change one in supporting The Wave. We were all filmed playing air guitar with our placards along with a few people who had real gu8itars and many others with pretend ones. After that, Andy and I were interviewed by a journalist from Birmingham Recycled before starting the Parade from St Phillips Square.
Please see the report on our discussion about consumerism from Birmingham Recycled for more on the issues surrounding Buy Nothing Day. They should also have a video up on there soon with the interviews. To end this short report on the day's activities, though, here's a picture of a load of Santas at a bus stop.
