August 2009 Archives

On Radio 4 last night there was a programme "The Great Climate Change Hijack" which investigated whether climate change is diverting attention away from other environmental issues. My concern about the need to tackle climate change is not in isolation and does not ignore non - CO2 emitting actions that are also endangering life on this planet. There are so many interconnecting factors between, for instance, CO2 emissions, "peak oil", pollution, loss of habitats and population control. I was not convinced by the assumption that we - individuals, organisations, companies and governments - are all already trying to tackle climate change. We will find out what progress is being made towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December

"Food miles" is one of these interconnecting factors. This is not just about buying locally sourced fruit and vegetables. "The well-travelled yogurt pot" story, written in 1995 described the problems caused by cheap transport that result in the sourcing of raw materials and other products over very long distances. The transport implications for all the ingredients and the packaging were detailed and the article has been quoted widely since it appeared in the first edition of the quarterly magazine "World Transport Policy & Practice". This magazine continues to provide useful guidance for in tackling climate change - read the latest edition.

The best way of reducing "food miles" is obviously to grow your own. I mentioned in July that I had planted six bean plants in my window box. One was damaged by the wind but five have been producing a good crop. For the record they are Kinghorn Wax Bush French Beans. I bought the plants at the Moseley in Bloom Open Gardens Weekend, which is an event to look out for next year.

Another Moseley in Bloom project is the Meteoric Makeover of Meteor Ford which has created a colourful and food producing screen to the derelict site in Wake Green Road, Moseley. Healthy runner bean plants grow amongst the nasturtiums and local residents - including my household - are benefiting from the produce.

Audrey Miller, who has a "grow yer own" blog in the Stirrer, recommends mixing vegetables with flowers in our gardens. The Meteoric Makeover shows how successful this can be.

The difficulty of buying local plums has been highlighted on Farming Today this week. If you didn't get to the Moseley Farmers Market last Saturday, where a variety of wonderful plums were on sale, you might like to go to the
Pershore Plum Festival this weekend, "culminating with Plum Fayre Day on Bank Holiday Monday - 31st August."

Check the Transport Direct website for public transport or share a car journey with friends.

I asked the Friends of the Central Library to respond to Gemma's comment (see comment column), which ends:
"Its an embarrasment to Birmingham and is definately not worth saving."

Alan Clawley sent the following to post on my blog:

"I agree that the Central Library is an embarrassment but only because it has been disgracefully neglected by its owners, the City Council.

The campaign can be followed in detail on "The Stirrer" website .

Do you want more City Centre shops, and more City Centre offices - and a new Library for at least £193,000,000?

Check the official Birmingham library website and judge for yourself if this would be money (Birmingham City Council Taxpayers' money) well spent.

Do you agree with Alan Clawley, that there will probably be as many people who dislike the design of the new library as there are people who dislike the old one?

Readers may already have strong views about the proposed demolition of the Central Library in Paradise Circus and the plans for its replacement in Centenary Square, or you may not have thought about it much.

It would clearly be more sustainable to refurbish the library, despite the warnings about the problems and the costs of refurbishment. These horror stories were spread by powerful council officers and politicians who wish to destroy it, and they have been challenged. Under the Freedom of Information Act, the report of engineering consultants Scott Wilson was released and publicised in the Birmingham Post. The engineering consultants found no evidence to support a city council assessment that the library was at risk of falling to bits and no signs of any defect in the structure of the 1970s building in Paradise Forum.

Those of us who knew Birmingham in the 1970s, when great Victorian buildings - including the old Reference Library - were coming down like skittles, may regret that history is repeating itself. Now it's the post-war buildings which are coming down like skittles.

Read wikipedia and building design online articles to be reminded of the treasure of our Central Library, and join the Friends of Birmingham Central Library on Facebook to help to save it - or contact Alan Clawley, the campaign secretary alan.clawley@virgin.net.

The planning application for the proposed new Central Library has been submitted and Keith Budden, in his "sustainable Birmingham" e-group mailing, encourages comments on this application in relation to environmental aspects of the proposal. Unfortunately the Birmingham "planningonline" website is offline at present, so comments and enquiries should be directed to planning.enquiries@birmingham.gov.uk.

The duty officer this morning failed to find the Central Library planning application number for me to quote, but the title "New Central Library" is self explanatory.

Please use all available opportunities to

>strongly oppose change that will increase greenhouse gas emissions.

If you wish to join the sustainable Birmingham e-group, write to keith.budden@birmingham.gov.uk

This week we heard a lot of warnings about "food security", about the impacts of climate change and global population growth on our food supply over the next five to 20 years.

Following the publication of the report on UK food security by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) we were told:

• "We have to feed another two and a half to three billion mouths over the next 40 to 50 years" (Environment Minister Hilary Benn);
• that food production policies are to be debated with consumers, farmers, the private sector;
• Britain is more self-sufficient now than it was in the 1930s and 1950s, but everyone needs to start thinking ahead about how to produce more using less water and less fertiliser.

The publicity about this report made readers feel powerless and insecure - there appears to be a real danger that there will not be enough food for everyone in the future, and there is little that we can do about it. There was a more positive, but much less publicised, message as well, things that we can all do to ensure that there will be enough food for everyone. This was a call for a re-think on "best before" and "sell by" dates to reduce waste.

Reducing "... food waste has the potential to cut carbon emissions equal to taking a fifth of the country's traffic off the roads." See Supermarket offers and food waste targeted in government's food strategy.

At present roughly one third of the food that enters our homes is not eaten but is wasted: reducing this waste will go a long way to ensuring that there will be enough food for everyone.

Early readers of this blog will realise that reducing food waste is something I feel very strongly about - I won't repeat my entries of January 15th and 22nd - new readers may like to read them in the "archives" - or click on the tag "food" below.

Two opportunities, for thousands of people to save time and reduce their carbon footprint, have coincided in Birmingham.

The first is that the public are being consulted about their priorities for funding improvements to the passenger rail service in Birmingham.

The second is that there is now a requirement for local transport plans to demonstrate that new schemes will play a part in achieving local authority targets in reducing C02 emissions by 2015.

This could bring forward the proposed new passenger rail service to Moseley, Balsall Heath, Kings Heath and Stirchley -
but this opportunity depends on Centro being told,
by me,
by you,
and all our friends and neighbours,
that this should be a high priority for their Rail Development Plan.

The danger is that, if we don't tell Centro that this is what we want, it may move down the priority list, and further into the future. Currently, a service is at least 9 years away.

The passenger service from Moseley, Balsall Heath, Kings Heath and Stirchley along the existing 'Camp Hill line' will be connected to Moor Street station using a new curve.

The Centro draft 'Rail Development Plan' is open to public consultation until 11th September 2009.

More details of how to ask for the project to be brought forward as soon as possible are on Friends of the Earth's website. Join the campaign to Re-Open Our Stations - Soon!

Please check this out today and pass this message on to as many people as you can.