Adventuring into action

There's a new video on Vimeo of a talk I gave in West Wales just before Christmas, at the Wildlife Sightings Event, organised by Tom Luddington from the Marine Charter / Outdoor Charter organisations. The other talks from the evening will be posted on their site soon

www.pembrokeshiremarinecode.org.uk

Adventuring into Action from Tom Luddington on Vimeo.

Out-lobby the lobbyists

There was an interesting article in today's Guardian.co.uk quoting Rajendra Pachauri's prediction that 2010 would see an increase in climate scepticism. Following hard on the heels of the largely failed COP15 talks in Copenhagen, this might seem strange, but is less so armed with these facts:

Last year the Centre for Public Integrity found that 770 companies and interest groups hired an estimated 2,340 lobbyists to influence US policies on climate change, while America's oil, gas and coal industry increased its lobbying budget by 50%.

Most of the companies that are paying lobbyists are doing so to increase returns for their shareholders - the yous and mes of the world represented by our pension funds (if we have one) and insurance companies (almost everyone has some). Most of the time, we take no time to get our voices heard by those companies or their representatives. There may have been 2340 lobbyists hired to influence policies on climate change, but that's a small number compared to the 300m or so population of the US. It's about 1/100,000th of the size. Sure, they may have knowledge and more time, and get paid for it, but that doesn't make them omnipotent.

Here's a little Do for your first week back at work: commit to writing 10 letters this year to people who provide you with products or services (Tesco, Walmart, AXA insurance etc) and ask them for information on the actions that they are taking on climate.

It's time to out-lobby the lobbyists. There are more of us.

The Ecologist is getting simplistic

In an increasingly crowded marketplace of information, ideas and media channnels, it's been difficult for The Ecologist, one of the longest established voices for environmental justice, to get heard. Their decision to publish solely online must have been a tough one, but is understandable from a footprint perspective.

Their quality of thei voice seems to have diminished at the same time, and this is a shame. This little piece was in today's online content

"But some experts are now starting to ask: what if we used the carbon as a resource instead of disposing of it? As far-fetched as it may sound there are already a number of experimental technologies that are making use of carbon either by absorbing it from the air or taking it in concentrated form from industry or power plants."

Maybe I'm affected by some kind of seasonal thinking disorder, but I thought this what plants and algae had been doing for some 3.5bn years.

Going green on the BBC

It's been a hard journey getting the right messages on air with the BBC, and progress is starting to arrive. A few weeks back I had the pleasure of working with broadcast colleague Sarah Dickins to record part of a half hour programme on "Going Green - what's the point".

Watch it for yourself here