8 Nov 1989 – Margaret Thatcher Speech on Global Environment to United Nations General Assembly

Many people’s first exposure to climate science was when they saw Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Gore took a topic that was beyond most people’s comprehension and made it easy to understand. Back in 1988, however, it was a different politician who put the science of climate change firmly on the global agenda. Unbeknownst to many, that person was Margaret Thatcher. As a Fellow of the Royal Society, Britain’s national science academy, she presented a series of high profile speeches on the topic of climate change. Armed with a degree in chemistry from Oxford, her scientific expertise enabled her to speak from a position of strength and knowledge about climate-related issues. She used that knowledge to act as a champion for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and personally opened the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research (the UK’s foremost climate change research centre).

Margaret Thatcher and her environment secretary Nicholas Ridley did more than anyone in the last 60 years to put green issues on the national agenda and swell the membership of groups like Friends of the Earth.
“Things really took off during Mrs Thatcher’s short-lived green period. From 1987/1988 when she started to talk about the ozone layer and acid rain and climate change, a lot of people who had said these issues were for the tree- hugging weirdos thought, ‘ooh, it’s Mrs Thatcher saying that, it must be serious’.
“She played a big part in the rise of green ideas by making it more accessible to large numbers of people. Nicholas Ridley was one of the best recruiting sergeants we ever had. He was always on the wrong side of the science and public opinion. We always had a fantastic response every time he talked.”

Video put together for the MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London.

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China Whale Sharks from WildLifeRisk on Vimeo.

The world’s largest slaughtering facility for whale sharks — an internationally-protected endangered species — has been discovered,near Wenzhou, in China’s southeastern Zhejiang Province. The factory, which operates openly, is reportedly slaughtering over 600 whale sharks annually to produce shark oil for health supplements.

Revelations about shark-processing at the factory, located in Pu Qi township, near Wenzhou, follow a four-year investigation by the Hong Kong-based marine conservation NGO, WildLifeRisk.

In a joint-statement released today, Alex Hofford and Paul Hilton of WildLifeRisk said: “We went to Pu Qi three times in the last three years, and on each occasion the scale of the slaughter was truly staggering.

“How these harmless creatures, these gentle giants of the deep, can be slaughtered on such an industrial scale is beyond belief. It’s even more incredible that this carnage is all for the sake of non-essential lifestyle props such as lipsticks, face creams, health supplements and shark fin soup. We are calling on China’s regulatory authorities to enforce the international agreements on this illegal activity now, before these animals are brought closer to extinction.”

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to which China is a signatory, the international sale of products from an endangered species is illegal and the trade is unsustainable.

However, the WildLifeRisk investigation found that countless basking sharks and great white sharks – two of three species currently afforded the highest protection under CITES– are also being industrially processed at the Pu Qi factory.

The products derived from these protected species are being exported to the United States, Canada and Italy, in contravention of the internationally-binding CITES agreement.

Undercover footage and audio recordings obtained by WildLifeRisk reveal that the whale sharks ending up at the factory are being caught off the coast of China in the South China Sea as they traverse the region on their migratory journeys. These extensive journeys across the world’s oceans, take in such famous whale shark-spotting sites as the Ningaloo Reef off Australia’s northwest coast, and waters off  Indonesia, the Philippines and Mexico.

WildLifeRisk believes a compelling argument exists for the better protection of whale sharks in their natural habitats, maintaining that these endangered creatures are worth far more, in economic terms, alive rather than dead. According to the Pew Environment Group:

“In regions where whale sharks are known to aggregate, ecotourism has proven to be an extremely lucrative alternative to fishing. It has been estimated that whale shark tourism, mainly through recreational diving, is worth about US$47.5 million worldwide.”

The WildLifeRisk statement pointed out that if whale sharks are to avoid being hunted to extinction, consumers must be persuaded to reject whale shark products, or any other kind of shark-related products. It said that the trade in endangered shark and manta ray products is both environmentally unsustainable and morally unethical.

“If we hope to save species such as the whale shark from extinction, we must hold individuals accountable for their violation of international protection laws and demand transparency so that consumers can make informed decisions about the products they buy.”

Full report available here

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Have you ever felt like we’re living through a nightmare of consumption? That you wish you could un-hook yourself and reconnect with a life that is somehow more real and vivid? Then perhaps you’re ready to heed Earth’s Wake Up Call.

Today we live in a time when there is little to no understanding of how the goods we consume and take for granted came into being. Without this we lack the knowledge to understand the true costs of our consumption, and the power to take action. As a result we have become disconnected from Earth – the origin of our health, wealth and all of the ‘things’ we depend on.

Wake Up Call takes us on a fast-paced, animated glimpse of the true costs behind some of our most prized possessions – our electronic gadgets. Joining the dots between the stages of extraction, production, consumption and disposal, it reveals that, although our gadgets appear sleek and shiny, their appearance is misleading.

From the mining that causes huge ecological and social destruction, to the mountains of e-waste shipped around the planet and dumped, the lifecycles of our technology are strewn with unacceptable devastation and toxicity.

It is time to Wake Up to this nightmarish destruction, broadly driven by our obsessive pursuit of economic growth at all costs. Things do not have to be this way, but it will take a critical mass of people willing to stand up and say ‘NO! We will not participate in these systems of violence against Earth and our fellow humans’ to make a change.

Wake Up Call invites us to do just that. To forge new paths into the future and join those who are already taking this stand. We must reconnect with Earth, reduce our consumption, revalue what really makes us happy, and become part of the movement for an ecologically sane, and socially just economy that delivers fair technologies.

Wake Up Call expands on the story examined in “Short Circuit”, released by The Gaia Foundation in April 2013. It is a call to consciousness. Please watch, share, reflect and take action.

More information here

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It is possible to draw up extensive scary lists of all the out of control and dangerous natural phenomena happening around the world right now but what is the point? If you want to check the science then these recent papers bring it home in: Scientific American, Nature   and even the World Health Organisation. The main thing to realise is that it is happening and that this changes everything.

When I was still a child twenty years ago, decisive action could have averted dangerous climate change. That window was missed but the things we need to do remain the same. When your lying in the bath and you realise it has suddenly got too hot you don’t say “oh well – I might as well just leave the tap on then” you move fast so you don’t completely stew in your own juices.

The time lag for an understanding of climate science to seep into the mainstream has not applied to an active minority group who have made it their business to become expert in exactly what we should do. The practical safety measures are not rocket science. We need to, for example, mobilise armies to plant millions of trees – these will soak up carbon dioxide as well as reduce flooding. We need to cover every suitable roof in solar panels, insulate all leaky homes and take every other available action to ensure we burn less oil. Top priority is to preserve wild spaces, the ultimate natural buffer against planetary change.

The mission is planetary-scaled but we rise to it like a lunar voyage. Not only can it pull the diverse peoples of the world together at a time of mass disharmony and doubt but it offers vast arrays of new jobs which can lift millions out of poverty and help create a new kind of economy that all of us, not just financiers, are invested in. This is a great historical moment when the human species, recognising it power to change the world, takes on new responsibility as planetary stewards and adjusts its governance, philosophy, ethics and law accordingly. Nation states are required to take bold, coordinated action, united at last by our shared atmosphere and destiny.

As it becomes increasingly obvious, even against the distracting wail of the corporate media, the kinds of things we have to do to respond to dangerous, climate-activated, natural phenomena the actions of this Tory government are perceived on a par with the lackeys on the Titanic who locked the poor people below deck. Not only are they still failing to take action to protect the populace against climate change they are using tax payers’ money to sponsor their friends to frack the English countryside. This isn’t “just politics”, it is inhumane, stupid and grotesque.  It is exactly the wrong thing to do.

The fact that Cameron and Osborne think they can get away with it reveals how out of touch they are. They refuse to aknowledge the simmering anger that is mobilising great swathes of humanity all around the world. They still sing to Margret Thatcher’s hymn sheet while the rest of us have moved on. Of course there is society, we are it and we know what we want – health, happiness and enough environmental stability that we might consider bringing children into the world.

Steadfastly pushing through their grim, selfish ideology of disaster capitalism while trampling on our last chances to make a better world must surely drive the long awaited lurch to the left? By running roughshod over the English countryside the tories finally show to everyone they really do not care about anything other than the concentration of wealth.

Imagine this future scenario. Years from now David and Sam Cameron head out from their town house, defended, not just by police with machine guns – as in the case of the delightful Mr Blair, but also lines of riot cops. The populace will leer and shout – “why didn’t you do anything while we still had a chance!?” David’s callous eyes, as dark as the infinity of space, will never flicker, staring straight out of his grey, sallow face. SamCam, the English Mrs Assad, will lean into his fur-lined coat and shudder, hissing through her collagen-pumped, pursed lips “we did it for the money you idiots.” They have to be stopped, we can’t let this happen.

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Q & A with the director – Peter Downey

1. What motivated you to make the film?

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You don’t need to be a scientist to be able to tell the world is in trouble: climate change, species extinctions and wealth inequality are symptoms of civilisation malfunctioning. This is only depressing if we don’t do anything about it. If we get motivated and work with our friends and family to put it right it is a great, transformative adventure. We get to re-dream a better world and bring it into being.

Conscious “post consumers” are realising the joy of enough and rejecting the propaganda that we need to keep buying things for ourselves or others to be happy or successful. Those of us awake to whats happening on our planet will opt out of giving or receiving consumer products this christmas choosing instead to make something, write a poem or simply exchange a hug or some bodily fluids.

There is something else we can give with a tasty revolutionary ripple.  There is a purchasable present that not only by-passes corporations but actually takes power away from them. It also responds to climate change, keeps giving over time and connects you with the sustainable future we are all working towards. Enter – Abundance’s new micro, clean energy, investment gift.

This gift does good in multiple ways by:

1. earning the receiver a decent rate of interest
2. taking money away from banks who most likely invest it unethically (e.g. arms companies and big oil)
3. putting money into renewable energy projects (supporting alternative energy companies, bringing energy bills down and responding to climate change)

If you can’t face heading into a mall and giving mother nature another slap to the face – here is a positive present that spreads some love in the world.

Every present like this given connects a new punter to the distributed renewable energy grid. It is another citizen invested in their energy generation – making money while the wind blows and the sun shines. This gift may only earn them a few pounds in the first year but if they start using their account and putting in their savings over the months and years this could end up being a significant contribution to their financial health whilst helping to clean up the atmosphere for the rest of us.

Lets spread the love.

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