There’s been much rejoicing and back-slapping recently in the London Borough of Merton, satellite state of the People’s Republic of Suburbia. The Wimbledon Park area of Merton is set to be the first part of London to go plastic bag free with the launch of  Sustainable Merton’s Bags for Better Lives initiative.

As part of the project, volunteers have been knocking on every door and handing a fairly traded cotton shopping bag designed by the Bags for Better Lives team, and a second fairly traded cotton bag from The Co-operative’s Wimbledon Park food store, to every one of approximately 3,000 households in the ward. The volunteers are asking residents to use their new bags every time they go shopping and to support a ban on throw-away plastic bags. Says ‘The Guy From Sustainable Merton‘:

“Around 9,000 plastic bags are handed out by traders in Wimbledon Park each week. If the initiative achieves a 50% reduction in bags issued, about 234,000 fewer plastic bags will be used each year. If the reduction is 75% bag consumption will fall by 351,000. Traders’ annual spending on throw-away bags could be cut by £8,000-£12,000. Even if not every retailer abandons plastic bags immediately the environmental impact will still be significant.”

Great news, but why has it taken so long for an initiative like this to reach London? Many other countries around the world are years ahead of us:

• Australia is calling for a phase-out to start by the end of 2008
• Bangladesh banned all polythene bags in the capital Dhaka in 2002
• Bhutan banned bags in 2002
• China banned production of ultra-thin bags in January this year, and will ban their use in supermarkets and shops from June
• Eritrea has had an outright ban since 2005, with fines for anyone imprting, producing, distributing or selling plastic bags.
• France plans an outright ban by 2010
• In India, six states have bans or are considering them. Mumbai banned bags in 2000 and Himachal Pradesh banned ultra-thin bags in 2003
• Ireland imposed a plastic bag tax in 2002, reducing use by 90%
• Italy imposed a levy in 1998, with an outright ban to be introduced by 2010
• Kenya and Uganda banned thinner bags and imposed a levy on thicker ones in 2007
• Papua New Guinea banned the import, manufacture and sale of plastic bags in 2004
• Rwanda and Somalia banned bags in 2005
• South Africa banned ultra-thin bags in 2003
• Switzerland requires supermarkets to charge for bags
• Taiwan banned bags in 2003
• Tanzania banned their import and manufacture in 2006

Do you notice a trend here? It’s the developing nations who have introduced outright bans, while developed countries rely on taxes to discourage use, if they’re doing anything at all. The UK has traditionally used ‘encouragement’, or ‘discouragement’ depending on how you look at it, to reduce bag usage. Even in the face of mounting disquiet over the environmental problems caused by these unnecessary trinkets, the UK government’s ‘toughened’ stance involves putting pressure on retailers to follow Marks and Spencer’s lead and charge customers for bags.

‘Gordon Brown gives supermarkets one year to start charging for plastic bags … or else‘

‘M&S to roll-out charging for food carrier bags across UK – All profit donated to national environmental charity‘

Why does every environmental measure have to come down to money? Why does the UK government take such a determined stance on issues of personal liberty such as ID cards and detention without charge, yet show such timidity with regard to telling people how they should carry their shopping home? Why haven’t we got the courage to just say “These things are bad for the environment, they’re a waste of precious resources, they’re totally unnecessary, they’re banned”?

Or, as Sir Alan Sugar might say, “You’re a waste of space. You’re fired”.

May 18-23 2008 is Walk to School Week. The Walk to School campaign asks parents, pupils and teachers to think about their journey to and from school and the many benefits of making it on foot. Walk to School is promoted jointly by ACTTravelwise and Living Streets, and is now in its 13th year, with each year’s campaign having its own theme. Previous years have focused on the benefits of walking on health and independence. This year’s theme will link with Noise Action Week, by exploring the links between noise and walking to school.

In addition, take a look at the Every Journey Matters website which contains games, quizzes, competitions and a host of facts about how children around the world get to school, as well as KS2 lesson plans on the theme of sustainable transport.

Photo: zappers

Plastic’s been getting a pretty bad press for quite a while now. Bloggers like my erstwhile colleague Matt over at The Coffee House (‘The Dead Zone – plastic fcuktastic‘) have been covering the problem comprehensively, and quite right too. There can’t be too many people left who aren’t at least aware that plastic bags are a Very Bad Thing. How many of them take the issue seriously enough to actually do something about it is another matter.

Claire Morsman felt strongly enough about the media coverage of the thousands of marine creatures killed by ingested plastic each year, to make her own reusable cloth shopping bag, the Morsbag. This single individual act inspired a worldwide movement of over 200 ‘pods’ (groups of Morsbags creators), in the UK, America, New Zealand, Spain, Japan, Morocco, France. Since the ‘sociable guerilla bagging’ campaign began, the tally of Morsbags has reached 17,869, potentially saving 8,934,500 plastic bags. Says Claire Morsman:

“I’ve learned there are a lot of people out there who want to do something about environmental issues but don’t necessarily know how to start. There’s so much energy and emotion and intelligence ready to be unleashed. I’ve always thought there are many more good people than bad in the world, but now I’ve learned how brilliant people are! They’re joining in and not giving in to desperation.

“Everyone inspires each other. It’s a win-win situation. Anyone can do it, it’s completely universal, and you’re making a bag. How fabulous is that?”

For more information about Morsbags and instructions on how to make your own, go to www.morsbags.com

Today, Tuesday April 22nd, is Earth Day, an annual event that was founded in 1970 and has grown into an international celebration of our collective commitment to building a safer, healthier and prosperous world for all of us, starting in the communities where we live. There are many ways to get involved and no action is too small. On April 22nd, go out and celebrate the earth, volunteer, let your elected officials know your priorities, organize an event – most of all have fun, meet new people, and make a difference where you live.

Download the Relocalization Network’s Action Handbook, outlining examples of relocalization projects, or the Earth Day Network’s Earth Day in a Box toolkit to get started and organize an event! Learn the basics on running a successful event from contacting the media to potential sources of funding. Make use of fliers with tips to reduce energy consumption at home, at school, at work and with your kids, courtesy of the Earth Day Network.

Get a move on. You haven’t got long.

Here in the London Borough of Bromley, de facto capital of the People’s Republic of Suburbia, the environmental bush telegraph is throbbing. Change Alley has received a personal invitation from the local branch of Friends of the Earth (FoE), printed on “rescued, redundant office letterhead paper”.

Tony Juniper, retiring Executive Director of FoE, is coming to Bromley on Tuesday May 6th. The local group is understandably quite proud of this coup, and is keen to get bums on seats.

“We are very excited about this and are hoping that he will share with us some of the highs and lows of his eighteen years at Friends of the Earth and his assessment of the current state of the planet”

If anyone’s in the area and fancies a shot (not literally!) at one of the UK’s big league enviros, here are the details:

The time: May 6th, 7.30 p.m.

The place: Friends’ Meeting House, Ravensbourne Road, Bromley (5 minutes walk from Bromley South station) map

Contact details: let them know you’re coming by emailing sheilabrown336@msn.com. At least, that’s the email on the invitation, it might well be sheilabrown33@msn.com.

There’s quite an interesting valedictory article by Tony Juniper here. It may supply raw material for some probing questions if you’re short of ideas. Here’s a few suggestions off the top of my head:

Why do all environmental campaigns boil everything down to one issue: climate change?

What happened to all the other environmental solutions apart from reducing our ‘carbon footprint’ (which isn’t actually a ‘footprint’ at all)?

Why are FoE and the other ‘green’ NGOs so dogmatic and black-and-white about issues like nuclear power and GM technology?

Why, when policemen, teachers and politicians look younger every day, do FoE members look so old ? Where are the young activists going?

See you there.

We came home from our Easter break to find that the offspring had taken delivery of a sturdy parcel from the Mayor of London, addressed to me personally. “DIY Planet Repairs” it says on the box, “Will you help with the repairs?”. Inside, there’s a collection of prezzies from Mayor Ken himself:

• A china mug with the slogan “Only boil enough water for the cups you’re making”
• A “DIY Planet Repairs” button badge
• A handy four-minute shower timer
• A window sticker
• A set of labels to stick on your appliances, saying “switch off”, “turn down”, “unplug”, “wash low”
• A leaflet for a £49 loft insulation offer from British Gas
• Last but definitely not least, a booklet of energy saving hints of tips. There’s actually some quite useful information in this (he said grudgingly).

There was no covering letter with this bundle, so I can’t be sure why I received it. I certainly don’t remember asking for it. It was addressed to me personally, so I may have got myself on some mailing list at london.gov.uk.

Whatever the reason, I’m sure there must be thousands of other people who received the same mailing. Someone has spent a lot of money and energy on getting this lot sent out. I applaud the message, of course we need to save energy and water, but there’s no information that isn’t freely available in many other places. I can’t help feeling that the timing, a month before the mayoral election, is either clumsy or cynical or both, and may backfire.

I like Ken Livingstone, and I’ll vote for him once again in May, but I’m going to play Devil’s Advocate for a moment. Is it really the Mayor of London’s job to lecture his ‘constituents’ on environmental matters? There’s a fine line between policies that directly affect the welfare of Londoners, and using the power of the Mayor’s office to promote his own pet projects. Coming so soon before the election, freebies like this can only be seen as a campaign stunt using public funds, providing ammunition for the opposition. This would be a shame, because I don’t see either of the other two major candidates (sorry, Green Party) showing any desire to make a platform on environmental issues. For that reason alone, it’s vital that Ken Livingstone gets re-elected, and I hope this little parcel doesn’t work against him.

Tomorrow, Saturday 29th March at 8:00 PM, 24 cities around the world will participate in Earth Hour 2008. Earth Hour is the highlight of a major campaign to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to take simple steps to cut their emissions on an ongoing basis. It is about simple changes that will collectively make a difference – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby. At the time of writing, 264,543 individuals and 19,185 businesses have signed up.

On 31st March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2,100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour. If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney Central Business District during Earth Hour were sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year. To put it another way, Earth Hour itself saved just over 5.5 car-years of emissions. Earth Hour 2008 hopes to build on that success and become a global event. Whether you embrace initiatives like this or regard them with a touch of cynicism is a personal choice, of course. You might say that every little helps, and we should reduce our energy consumption and carbon emissions however and wherever we can. Hard to argue with that, unless you’re a died-in-the-wool climate change sceptic.

“Switching the lights off for an hour is not going to make a dent in global emissions,” organiser Charles Stevens, from WWF, admits. “But what it does do is it is a great catalyst for much bigger changes. It engages people in the processes of becoming more energy efficient.”

Be that as it may, there’s a nagging suspicion about this kind of mega event that nothing really changes, that once it’s over it’s over, everyone’s had a good time, now it’s back to business as usual with a warm glow of righteous satisfaction that they finally found something useful to put on their Facebook page. Think Live 8.

For those who like this sort of thing, sign up here. Quite what is achieved by signing up escapes me, but then a lot of stuff passes me by nowadays. I’ll just carry on saving resources using good old-fashioned frugality. All day, every day, not just for an hour.

“You’ll love it, it’s a way of life” – Frank Zappa, ‘The Central Scrutinizer’

Last month The Coffee House drew your attention to the
Worst EU Lobbying and Greenwash Awards 2007.
The winners were announced at a festive awards ceremony in the Witloof Cellar in Brussels on 4 December 2007.

Winner of the Worst EU Lobbying Award 2007

BMW, Daimler and Porsche – nominated together in the worst EU lobbying category – gained more than 30% of the votes. Their joint lobbying offensive, designed to water-down and delay the mandatory CO2 emission reduction targets proposed by the Commission after voluntary targets were not met, was deemed to be the worst and most deceptive by voters across Europe.

Winner of the Worst EU Greenwash Award 2007

The special greenwash prize for the most audacious attempts to gain unjustifiable green credentials was awarded to the German Atomic Forum, which received more than a third of votes cast. It was nominated for its campaign aimed at improving the image of nuclear energy. Under the slogan “Germany’s unloved climate protectionists” it featured images of nuclear power plants placed in unpolluted and unspoilt natural environments.

More than 6600 people across Europe took part in the online poll, which frankly was more than I would have expected. For a breakdown of the votes cast, click this link and also this one. Don’t forget to vote next year.

The use of “bland and ineffectual promotional language” puts organic food at risk of becoming “just another commercial brand”, concludes a study by the Open University’s Centre for Research in Education and Educational technology (CREET). Their report ‘The Discourse of Organic Food Promotion: language, intentions and effects‘ says that retailers and campaigners are failing to focus on the core selling points of organic food. They tend to use “poetic, vague and emotive” language in their marketing, with an “emphasis on story-telling rather than facts”. According to Guy Cook, Professor of Language and Education at the OU:

“Buyers are not as easily manipulated as marketeers seem to believe. They reacted negatively to extravagant descriptions of ‘succulent sausages’ and animals that are ‘free to root and roam’.
“People see organic farming and its benefits for the environment and economy as promoting a sense of community. Supermarkets by their very definition are not interested in the idea of small community and so cannot sell that ideal.
“Our studies [of organic food promotion] show marketing and PR departments and their received wisdom can often be patronising and out of date…. this is a key moment for the organic movement. Does it want to remain distinctive and politically committed, or go down the road of becoming just another commercial brand?”

Now I’m no academic, so I’m probably missing the point. However, I would have thought that the massive growth in demand for organic produce was the sign of a successful organic movement. Moreover, it seems to me that placing organics at the core of shopping habits is the way to go, rather than differentiating. If organic food becomes an automatic choice, rather than one that the consumer has to mull over for every buying decision, then that must be regarded as a success.

Last week the government launched its consultation into plans for a third runway and sixth terminal at London Heathrow. Greenpeace has been in touch with The Coffee House, asking us to support their ‘Stop Heathrow Expansion’ campaign. As in most issues nowadays, the prime arguments against the expansion are climate change and economics. To quote Greenpeace:

Already the busiest airport in Europe, the plan would mean a 70 per cent increase in flight numbers and a corresponding rise in climate change pollution. It’s crazy to be paving the way for such big increases in greenhouse gases when we should be doing all we can to reduce emissions.
What’s particularly short sighted about this proposal is that a third runway at Heathrow really isn’t needed. Well over a fifth of flights from Heathrow are to short-haul destinations, already well served by trains which cause ten times less damage to the climate than flying.

Hidden away in the small print are a few references to the effects on the local residents of additional noise and pollution. Nothing about wider environmental impacts on habitats and biodiversity. You get the impression that if this development was a Tesco rather than an airport no-one would bat an eyelid.

Contrast this with the campaign being fought in Florida against the dual expansion of Fort Lauderdale International Airport and Port Everglades. Citizens Against Runway Expansion give a whole list of reasons why the project is a bad idea. Here are a few:

• Eradication of protected mangroves, some of which are Essential Fish Habitat
• Loss of hatching and nursery habitat for numerous aquatic, terrestrial and avian species
• Destruction of Manatee habitat
• Decimation of 15 or more acres of our coral reef system
• Detrimental effects from noise pollution on wildlife
• Probable damage to the potable water supply from leaching of toxins from dredged fill during dewatering and compaction processes

OK, I know we’re not comparing apples and apples. I doubt if Heathrow has many manatees or coral reefs, but there might well be some great crested newts. It’s still interesting how the Heathrow campaign has taken a completely different spin from the one in Florida, which even accepts that increased capabilities for trade and leisure travel are benefits, rather than Public Enemy Number 1 as they are seen in the UK.