Argyll - Sustainable Oban - at The Wave in Glasgow

Hiya
A few of us travelled to Glasgow (by car-share and with one of the most climate-friendly vehicles, a Toyota Prius) to participate in Scotland's great Climate Change demo. It was great to see about 8,000 people gathered to march, chant, dance and wave. We felt buoyed up by the news just in this morning that Barack Obama will attend the Copenhagen climate summit this December during the period when it matters most, i.e. the second week. (source)

Here are two video impressions from Glasgow:



and



Let's hope this, and the much bigger demo down in London on the same day, will make an impression on the UK government, help the Scottish government push through its very ambitious legislation to mitigate climate change, and encourage everyone at COP15* to pull together for fair, binding, fast climate action.

*COP15 - The official title of the Copenhagen conference which takes place from 7-18 December 2009. It refers to the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). (source)

16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world

Just read an article in The Mail on Sunday (22 Nov 09) that "16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world". Apparently, "54 oil tankers are anchored off the coast of Britain, refusing to unload their fuel until prices have risen." … "the super ships that keep the West in everything from Christmas gifts to computers pump our killer chemicals linked to thousands of deaths because of the filthy fuel they use."
Ships are as bad for our climate as planes. It's time we gave them the attention they need.
Hey, people, Copenhagen is almost upon us. Write to your governments and councillors and representatives to include ships in the next climate protocol.

For the full article, go here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-16-ships-create-pollution-cars-world.html


PS: It is a good idea to think before you buy: do you really need this? do you really want to give your friend/lover/parent/child the gift you were thinking of?

Countdown to Copenhagen

Global Warming -- a reminder of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Dear all,

Here's an extract from the UNFCCC website, just to remind ourselves of a burning issue, a ticking bomb, an alarm bell that has been silenced by the credit crunch and, here in the UK, by the MPs' ridiculous milking of the system which has resulted in the allowances scandal and has caused about half the MPs to leave their posts. Will it improve the system? I fear not. Will it help the climate? Hardly.

We need to focus our action. This is one way of doing it. Thank you, Low Carbon Communities, for the link and the information.

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The Climate Convention and the Protocol

Over a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty -- the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) -- to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable. More recently, a number of nations approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures. The UNFCCC secretariat supports all institutions involved in the climate change process, particularly the COP, the subsidiary bodies and their Bureau.

This section contains numerous resources -- for beginners or experts -- such as introductory and in-depth publications, the official UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol texts and a search engine to the UNFCCC library.

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If you would like to download the clock for your own blog or website, click in the headline or here.