I've been too depressed to blog after the Copenhagen Cop Out. If anyone wants to work themselves into a Copenhagen inspired low then watching the Stupid Show comentary is a very good way to do it.
There is a very good interview with Ed Miliband on his way home where Franny Armstrong tries to push the idea of the UK reducing emissions by 10% in 2010. I am still uncertain as to how this is to be measured, but however it is measured it is becoming (to me) blindingly obvious that this will have to be a grass roots movement. We have signed up to the Guardian campaign as a family and I will be approaching my children's school when the kids go back in January.
Wednesday 23 December 2009
Saturday 12 December 2009
Christmas wishes
Today we've been making Christmas cards for my son's classmates and I spent a long time pondering the message to write in them. I ended up with "Have a Simply Lovely Christmas", my sentiment is that we should all have a wonderful Christmas and also a Simple one.... so hard with kids who are demanding all the "stuff" to help them keep up with their peers at school. I have to admit to having sucumbed to buying some of the plastic trash I would in many ways prefer not to; I'm uncomfortable with how much I bought for the boys, however as I was doing the shopping there were people around me with trolley loads of the stuff - I only hope they have huge extended families and the trolley load is not intended for one or two kids.
Sunday 6 December 2009
The Wave
The Copenhagen talks start tomorrow and yesterday The Wave March took over central London to demonstrate in favour of bold moves at the talks.
I went down with some friends and their children. I'm not a habitual "Marcher" in fact this is the first time I've marched for anything in this country so the whole experience was a new one to me. It was fantastic to see so many people out making their voices heard and to see the passion that this issue raises. Particularly striking was the message given by children and I couldn't help but feel that an opportunity was missed to make their message one of the main ones of the march - after all they are the people who will be more effected by our actions than any of us older bods. Many people along the route seemed supportive of the march which was encouraging, but there were also many intent on shopping 'til they dropped - which was less so!!
Towards the end I had a brief view of the heavy hand of the police which was pretty shocking. The march was totally peaceful and yet the attitude of this one policeman was incredibly violent. It was easy to see how, had there been anyone in the vicinity who was easily riled, things could have got out of hand - and with lots of children around too. The policeman in question was intent on closing up a barrier when there were families split on either side of it and a massive crowd moving in one direction. Madness. The incident resolved itself when he moved on, but was fascinating to me since up 'til then I have largely thought that the police were probably doing their best to do a decent job..... seeming though, violence can easily come into play.
The Huddersfield Marchers all had a great day and Gordon Brown's response to the march was better than we could have hoped for. The mood currently seems to be one of pessimism with regards to whether an agreement can be reached at Copenhagen. I would like to urge anyone who reads this to keep up pressure on their MPs and put out positive vibes in the general direction of Copenhagen.
The report from Stop Climate Chaos's website is here.
I went down with some friends and their children. I'm not a habitual "Marcher" in fact this is the first time I've marched for anything in this country so the whole experience was a new one to me. It was fantastic to see so many people out making their voices heard and to see the passion that this issue raises. Particularly striking was the message given by children and I couldn't help but feel that an opportunity was missed to make their message one of the main ones of the march - after all they are the people who will be more effected by our actions than any of us older bods. Many people along the route seemed supportive of the march which was encouraging, but there were also many intent on shopping 'til they dropped - which was less so!!
Towards the end I had a brief view of the heavy hand of the police which was pretty shocking. The march was totally peaceful and yet the attitude of this one policeman was incredibly violent. It was easy to see how, had there been anyone in the vicinity who was easily riled, things could have got out of hand - and with lots of children around too. The policeman in question was intent on closing up a barrier when there were families split on either side of it and a massive crowd moving in one direction. Madness. The incident resolved itself when he moved on, but was fascinating to me since up 'til then I have largely thought that the police were probably doing their best to do a decent job..... seeming though, violence can easily come into play.
The Huddersfield Marchers all had a great day and Gordon Brown's response to the march was better than we could have hoped for. The mood currently seems to be one of pessimism with regards to whether an agreement can be reached at Copenhagen. I would like to urge anyone who reads this to keep up pressure on their MPs and put out positive vibes in the general direction of Copenhagen.
The report from Stop Climate Chaos's website is here.
Climate March
Here's the link to the BBC news on the climate march. I'll write about it later today. ;-)
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