World’s population reaches 7 billion today - Monday October 31st  

I rather like this cartoon from http://subdude-site.com/WebPages_Local/Blog/topics/environment/enviro_worldPopGrowth_charts.htm which highlights part of the problem of this statistic but there are other problems!

 

 

According to the U.N. the world's population will reach 7 billion people today. Since the turn of the 20th century global population has soared from 2 billion in 1927 to 4 billion in 1974 and 6 billion in 1999. This has sparked all sorts of discussion over the past week.  For those of us concerned about the future of our planet this is rather depressing - all these extra humans apart from needing food - and millions of people are already undernoursihed - will use more of our scarce resources and cause more pollution and send even more of the other wonderful life forms we share our planet with, speeding to extinction.  Not that people aren't lovely but you can have too much even of a good thing!

Here in the UK, the Office for National Statistics has released projections showing that the current UK population of 62 million is rising at 0.8% a year and may increase to 73 million by 2035.  The carbon footprint (or impact on the Planet) of UK citizens is much greater than those living in Africa and most of Asia so rising population here and especially in the energy hungry USA is particularly worrying.  Here are some links to some excellent interactive websites which may help you understand why some of us are worried.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/datablog/interactive/2011/oct/26/un-world-population-growth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2011/oct/24/how-big-worlds-population-born
http://www.breathingearth.net/

Another good website to exlore is http://populationmatters.org/

 

Compost and Self-sufficiency

Saturday 19th March 2011 

2 - 5.30pm at 8 The Drive, Fetcham, KT22 9EN.

Admission free.

Composting

Compost Works volunteers will be on hand to explain how to get started, advise on the compost container best for you, answer your compost queries, and demonstrate ways of speeding up your compost using a mower and a shredder. And with our shredder, which you can borrow, you can see how to dramatically reduce the bulk of your woody prunings, and provide an ideal mix in the compost heap with your kitchen waste and grass cuttings.

We have working examples of all sorts of compost containers, including numerous low cost DIY examples, and how to make them. If you want to get even quicker and better compost, we can show you an insulated pallet composter, made from free materials. Also a home made wormery.

Self-sufficiency

• Find out how you could eat your own fruit all the year round, helped of course by lots of good compost!

• See how to grow soft fruit - Rhubarb, gooseberries, blackcurrants, boysenberries, jostaberries, blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries, as well as fruit trees - apples, quince, damsons.

• And most importantly, how to preserve the fruit by bottling, freezing, storing properly, making jams and chutney. All these methods will be on show.

• You can also find out how easy it is to propagate so you never need to buy new plants.

Throughout 2010 three Mole Valley District Councillors and eight residents were busy recording their household energy use, their car mileage and their flights on the carbon account website which calculated their carbon footprint resulting from these activities. 

Saturday January 29th at 11am

Dorking Friends Meeting House, off Butter Hill, South Street Dorking, RH4 2LE

the result of the contest will be announced and a prize presented to the winner by James Friend, the leader of Mole Valley District Council. 

 

Who will win a Councillor or a resident?  How have they all done compared to the average UK value for this footprint? 

Come along to the event and find out. No charge!

'Green' refreshments available.

 

 

It's much more fun trying to reduce your carbon footprint in company with others and having some sort of target to aim for.  So to help encourage Mole Valley residents to cut their carbon we are inviting Mole Valley residents and their Councillors to take part in a 2010 footprint challenge, to see who can achieve the lowest carbon footprint - a resident or a councillor!

The contest is based on your individual household energy use, car use and airmiles during 2010 and your footprint is very easily calculated using www.thecarbonaccount.com.  The Green Mole Forum will present a small award to the winner.  If you saw the article  in the local press about the green granny with a zero footprint - don't think its not worth you entering as the green granny won't be so green in 2010 - she's flying to California to visit her son!

If you want to take part in this challenge contact us here or telephone 01372 456421.

There are several interesting courses this year being run fairly locally by the Soil Association Organic Farm School.  Here are some of them - to see a full list go to www.soilassociation.org/farmschool.aspx

• Organic Growing - from growing your own fruit and vegetables to learning how to compost at Bore Place, Edenbridge, Kent, Friday 11th September
  
• Bee keeping  - An introduction to bee keeping course.  Daylesford Organic Farm, Gloucestershire, Friday 11th September or Saturday 12th September, 10am to 5pm
  
• Cake making - Enjoy a day turning organic, fairly traded and local ingredients into delicious traditional treats.  Bore Place, Edenbridge, Kent, Monday 28th September

Members of the Soil Association get 25% of the cost of the courses which are £50 including a home made lunch at Bore Place, and £85 for the bee-keeping.

Some people might like to support the WWF's Earth Hour on 28th March.  Their publicity states 'Join millions of WWF supporters worldwide.  Sign up and switch off your lights for one hour (from 8.30pm to 9.30pm) and send a powerful message to world leaders that you want positive action to halt climate change'.  You can sign up on wwf.org.uk/earthhour.  They suggest you have, for example, a candlelit party and invite Friends around to chat about the issue and raise awareness in a fun sort of way. During Earth Hour in 2008, some 50 million people in more than 370 cities and towns across the world switched off their lights; even the Eiffel Tower and the Sydney Harbour Bridge were dark for the hour.

There is some question as to whether this will, in practice, save any emissions as it is very difficult for power stations to reduce output in an economical way for one hour unless they have some idea from past experience how much the demand is going to drop by.  Maybe WWF is going to give them some idea by letting them know the numbers who have registered. However I think the main purpose of the action is to raise awareness and give WWF some figures to lobby governments with.

International Presentation and Discussion on Climate Change

7th February, 7:30 at Capel Memorial Hall

 

Organised by Capel Goes Green

 

The speaker is to be Vida Ogorelec Wagner, who is President of the Slovene Foundation for Sustainable Development. She has worked with Al Gore on the slide show on which An Inconvenient Truth was based, and has subsequently presented the slide show, with regular updates, over 65 times; Al Gore himself acclaimed her activities in the presence of Slovene President Tuerk during a recent visit to Ljubljana . Vida is an alumna of HRH Prince Charles' Business in the Environment programme, and recently met the Prince at Highgrove during a reunion. She will present the slide show and then lead the subsequent discussion.

Revised detail:  The march will now start at Grosvenor Square, (5 minutes from Speakers Corner, Hyde Park and Bond Street and Marrble Arch Tube stations) assemble 12 noon  - and goes to Parliament Square .

It marks the Saturday midway through the UN Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland and the demands on the UK government are made in solidarity with the world's poorest and most vulnerable communities that will suffer worst and most immediately from climate change caused overwhelmingly by the rich long-industrialised countries.

Speakers will include Nick Clegg (leader Liberal Democrat Party), Caroline Lucas (leader, Green party), Michael Meacher (ex-Environment Minister) and George Monbiot (Honorary President, Campaign against Climate Change).

The march will be preceded by a climate protest bike ride starting from Lincoln's Inn Fields at 10.30 am joining up with the National Climate March at Grosvenor Square.

 

Christian ecology Link is organising a Climate Change Service at Hinde Street Methodist Church (19 Thayer Street W1U 2Q) at 11.30 am - worshippers will join the march afterwards at Grosvenor Square.  Doors of the church will be open from 10am and coffee served from 10.30am.



And after the march—an invitation from Westminster Quakers: Westminster FMH, 52 St Martin's Lane, just north of  Trafalgar Square, will be open for tea, coffee, biscuits, etc., from 2.45 to about 5 p.m. after the Climate Change march.  

I've just had a mailing from Avaaz about a petition being promoted by the small islands states who are already being badly affected by human-induced climate change.  Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva.

Here is the information from Avaaz and details on how to access and sign the petition:

Imagine the sea rising around you as your country literally disappears beneath your feet, where the food you grow and the water you drink is being destroyed by salt, and your last chance is to seek refuge in other lands where climate refugees have no official status. This is not a dream, it's the fearful reality for millions of people who live on islands around the world, from the Maldives to Papua New Guinea.

That is why these small islands are taking the unprecedented step of putting an urgent resolution before the United Nations ahead of next week's global climate talks, calling upon the Security Council itself to address climate change as a pressing threat to international peace and security.

This is a creative move born of desperation, a challenge to global powers to end their complacency and tackle this lethal crisis with the urgency of wars. But the island states' campaign is meeting fierce opposition from the world’s biggest polluters, so they need our help. Sign the petition now to raise a worldwide chorus of support for this call -- it will be presented by the islands' ambassadors to reinforce their resolution at the UN next week:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/sos_small_islands/97.php/?cl_tf_sign=1

President Remengesau of Palau, a small island in the Pacific, recently said: "Palau has lost at least one third of its coral reefs due to climate change related weather patterns. We also lost most of our agricultural production due to drought and extreme high tides. These are not theoretical, scientific losses--they are the losses of our resources and our livelihoods.... For island states, time is not running out. It has run out. And our path may very well be the window to your own future and the future of our planet".

Beyond the islands, countries like Bangladesh, whose population of 150 million people is already suffering, face losing large parts of their landmass. The experience of our planet's most vulnerable communities serves as a warning sign of the future world we can all expect: extreme weather growing in intensity, conflict over water and food supplies, coasts disappearing and hundreds of millions made refugees.

The small islands' brave campaign for survival is our campaign too -- and the more signatures we raise to be delivered to the UN next week, the more urgently this call will ring out to protect our common future. These are the States who are sponsoring the resolution: Canada, Fiji, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

For a draft of the Small Islands States Resolution please see:
http://islandsfirst.org/draftres.pdf

For more information about those presenting the petition please visit:
http://islandsfirst.org

For information on Tuvalu's evacuation plan and climate refugees:
http://www.wwf.org.au/articles/climate-refugees-in-a-drowning-pacific/

For information about how rising sea levels will affect us all:
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update2.htm

At the recent Bookham Village day we held a Green Quiz. Why not try it for yourself.

1. Greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the climate.  Name two significant greenhouse gases.
2. The global average temperature rise since 1850 is 0.8°C.  If emissions dropped to zero now, the predicted further temperature rise is 0.3 to 1.0°C. (making total rise 1.1 to 1.8°C.).  What have scientists from the UK and other countries decided is the maximum global average temperature rise we should permit or we risk a very serious catastrophe?
3. What are 4 of the forecast catastrophic effects if we exceed this maximum global average temperature rise?
4. The present world population is 6.7 billion. What is the forecast world population in 2050?
5. Driving more efficiently can reduce your emissions and fuel consumption by up to 25%. Name 3 ways you can increase your driving efficiency.
6. Put the following in emissions size order for an average UK family (biggest first):
   • Car travel
   • Air travel
   • Electricity use
   • Home heating.
7. List 3 ways you could insulate your house to reduce emissions from heating by up to 30% altogether.
8. Can you put the following sources for heating your home in order of increasing overall emissions (i.e. best first) caused for the same amount of heating using the most efficient appropriate boiler?
   • Gas
   • Electricity
   • Coal
   • Oil
   • Wood (from sustainable source)
9. If you have solar panels (which supply hot water in bright sunny weather) by how much would that reduce your emissions due to heating water?
   • One quarter
   • One third, or
   • One half
10. In the average UK home what percentage of the pure, drinkable water we use is flushed down the loo?
    • One quarter
    • One third, or
    • One half
11. Can you name a good use for urine other than flushing it down the loo?
12. Emissions per person associated with a typical British diet, 38% animal-based, 2400kcal/day are 2 tons per year. What do you think are the emissions per person per year for lacto-vegetarians (meat in typical diet replaced with dairy)?
    • Less
    • The same
    • More
13. And what about emissions per year for a vegan? (0% animal-based).  Try and guess which of these is about right.
    • 1 ton
    • 1.5 tons
    • 2.0 tons
14. Suppose you ate only organically produced food how could this affect your emissions due to your food consumption?
    • Make no difference
    • Increase them
    • Reduce them
15. List 3 ways you can reduce the emissions due to the waste produced by your household.

For answers see here.