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Newsletter
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Esso donated
more dollars to get Bush into the White House than any other oil company.
They are actively undermining the Kyoto global warming treaty. They deny
the link between their oil and global warming. They are are not investing
in renewable energy.
I wrote to them thus:
"Mr Ansel Condray
Chairman Esso
St Catherine's House, 2 Kingsway London, WC2B 6HA
Dear Mr Condray
I am boycotting Esso products until you support the Kyoto Protocol and start investing in clean, green energy.
Please let me know if you intend to change your policy.
Yours sincerely"
I have received Esso's standard response letter. It does not refute the two points I made. If you haven't already done so please write to Esso.
Regarding supermarket petrol the Guardian reports that "Asda and Tesco are not buying Esso but Sainsbury and Safeway apparently do."
For more info try www.stopesso.com
Terry
They will be urging delegates at the climate talks in Bonn to stand firm on the Kyoto Protocol, the only global agreement to cut the greenhouse gases causing climate change.
Prime Minister Tony Blair
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2A
Dear Mr Blair,
I warmly welcome the important contribution the UK Government has made towards securing the Kyoto Protocol, and your support for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Now I urge you to stand firm at the forthcoming climate summit in Bonn. Please declare publicly that the UK will ratify the Kyoto Protocol whatever the Americans do. And please work with your European colleagues to secure its ratification - without the US if necessary.
At the same time, I urge you to do more here in the UK to promote clean, renewable power and energy efficiency. It is the best contribution you can make to combating climate change and protecting our children's future.
I would be grateful for your response.
Yours sincerely,
Terry
Bath FoE put its
outsize wellie print posters on display at Green Park Station on Saturday
23 June, Rural Craft Market Day, and asked shoppers to sign up for a better
deal for farmers and consumers, sustainable farming, real food: GM free,
pesticide free, organic, local. Yummy.
Andy Nelmes, Richard Carder and Susan Traill practiced their costermonger tones and got people signing the posters and postcards to Tony Blair asking him to include FoE's campaign priorities in the thorough review of ruralpolicy he announced earlier this year. Shoppers also signed a list for follow-up information on the campaign. Quite a few felt sorry for Tony & they seemed o think he'd had quite a tough time lately, what with the election and all but they signed anyway. We convinced them that politicians really do have to deliver on their promises, not just say so, otherwise why are we paying their salaries? Aaahhh, poor Tony! And he just increased his pay packet. Sorry, parliament did. I think some productivity is due.
We have asked him to
Susan Traill
"Environmentalists are taking legal advice to see if they can stop all trials of GM crops near organic farms, after one near Europe's biggest research centre for pesticide-free farming was scrapped last week.
The anti-GM campaigners believe an important precedent has been set by the abandonment of the trial, two miles from the Henry Doubleday Research Association Centre at Ryton near Coventry, following an exclusive in the Independent on Sunday. The industry fears they may be right and that, as a result, its entire programme for introducing GM crops to Britain could be jeopardised.
Research by Greenpeace and the Soil Association has revealed that 31 of this year's trials, from Herefordshire to the Scottish Highlands, and Shropshire to Kent, are about the same distance, or less, from an organic farm as the scrapped test is to the Centre. In all, about 24 farms are involved, because some are near two or more trial sites.
Scimac, the GM industry body responsible for the trials, called off the test at the last minute last week under intense pressure from Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, and agricultural ministers backed by Downing Street. Until then, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Prime Minister had been unfaltering supporters of GM crops.
The Soil Association said yesterday that it was consulting lawyers to see if last week's decision gave it a legal basis to demand that the Government stop all trials near organic farms.
Its position has been strengthened because ministers have discovered that they do have the power, under EU law, to force GM crops to be grown at a safe distance from organic farms.
Mr Meacher and his counterpart in the Welsh Assembly, Carwyn Jones, have been told by legal experts that they can lay down minimum "separation distances" between GM and other crops to avoid contamination. Mr Jones told the Welsh Assembly that this "has the effect of introducing, for the first time, a statutory safeguard of organic reproduction".
It was "a means to provide a basis to safeguard organic production in Wales," he added.
The Soil Association believes that if it gets legal clearance it will be able to challenge, through a judicial review, any decision to site a trial closer than two miles from an organic farm. It might even be able to contest decisions to put them closer than six miles, since authoritative research shows bees can carry pollen from oilseed rape that far.
Patrick Holden, the association's director, said last night: "The Independent on Sunday's campaign pressured the industry until it cracked over the Ryton site last week and played an important part in this vital victory.
"We are determined to ensure the purity of organic produce in Britain and we are prepared to go to court to do so. Farmers have the right to grow crops free from the fear of genetic pollution, and consumers have the right to choose to buy uncontaminated food"
Terry
1st July 2001 saw the
4th anniversary of the K&A Canal Cyclists' Towpath Tax. It is unbelievable
that British Waterways have kept this £15pa tax going now for four
years.
I don't know if anyone is actually paying the tax. BW are clearly not enforcing it. No sightings of BW towpath rangers have been reported for many years now but BW appear to be continuing to insist that the charge will nominally continue until all 7 local authorities along the K&A have agreed to some extra maintenance funding. They remain unconcerned about their anti-cyclists image and the fact that the mere existence of the tax discourages cyclists from using the canal towpath for both safe route commuting and leisure.
Terry
Conference provides a great opportunity for members of Local Groups and staff to get together. Conference includes the John Preedy Memorial Lecture, presentations on campaign successes by both Local Groups and staff, setting the agenda for the year ahead, workshops, the Motions Debate, exhibitions, plenty of networking time and a party. The deadline for booking is Friday, 17 August.
I am unable to attend this year. Please let me know if you would like to go along. I can provide booking arrangements and details of the workshops available.
Terry
The new GATS negotiations
taking place now in the World Trade Organisation are designed to further
facilitate the corporate takeover of public services by:
1) Imposing new and severe constraints on the ability of governments to maintain or create environmental, health, consumer protection and other public interest standards through an expansion of GATS Article VI on Domestic Regulation. Proposals include a `necessity test' whereby governments would bear the burden of proof in demonstrating that any of their countries laws and regulations are `not more burdensome than necessary,' (in other words, the least trade restrictive) regardless of financial, social, technological or other considerations.
2) Restricting the use of government funds for public works, municipal services and social programs. By imposing the WTO's National Treatment rules on both government procurement and subsidies, the new negotiations seek to require governments to make public funds allocated for public services directly available to foreign-based, private service corporations.
3) Forcing governments to grant unlimited Market Access to foreign service providers, without regard to the environmental and social impacts of the quantity or size of service activities.
4) Accelerating the process of providing corporate service providers with guaranteed access to domestic markets in all sectors - including education, health and water Ð by permitting them to establish their Commercial Presence in another country through new WTO rules being designed to promote tax-free electronic commerce worldwide. This would guarantee transnational corporations speedy irreversible market access, especially in Third World countries.
The chief beneficiaries of this new GATS regime are a breed of corporate service providers determined to expand their global commercial reach and to turn public services into private markets all over the world. Not only are the services industries the fastest growing sector of the new global economy, but also health, education and water are shaping up to be the most lucrative of all "services." Health care is considered to be a 3.5 trillion dollar market worldwide, while education is targeted as a 2 trillion and water a 1 trillion dollar annual market. The chief executive officer of U.S. based Columbia/HCA, the world's largest for-profit hospital corporation, insists that health care is a business no different than the airline or ballbearing industry and vows to destroy every public hospital in North America. Investment houses like Merrill Lynch predict that public education will be globally privatised over the next decade, declaring that untold profits can be made through the process. Meanwhile, water giants like Vivendi and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux of France are working hand in-glove with the World Bank to compel many Third World governments to privatise their water services.
GATS commitments are effectively irreversible. Governments may be able to reverse commitments that produce catastrophic consequences, but only temporarily. In theory a country can withdraw a commitment after 3 years. However, it must pay compensation and/or come up with compensating commitments that are satisfactory to all WTO members.
It will be difficult to stop inward investment on environmental grounds. Exhaustion of natural resources is not on the list of exceptions that can apply in placing a limitation on trade under GATS. There is no suggestion that negotiations should be proceeded by environmental impact assessments and services are defined as end of pipe services rather than services for conservation.
An Early Day Motion (EDM260) on GATS has been signed by some 228 MPs (including Don Foster). The EDM calls on the government "to ensure that there is an independent and thorough assessment of the likely impact of the extension of the GATS on the provision of key services both in the UK and internationally, particularly on the poor in developing countries" .
456 organisations in 55 countries (including Bath FoE) have signed an international sign-on statement opposing the extension of GATS. It is an organisational, not an individual sign-on statement.
It is organised by Public Citizen's Trade Watch, www.tradewatch.org. To sign up, send an email, subject "GATS Attack signatory", to: polarisinstitute@on.aibn.com.
Terry
"FOE's four priority campaigns for the next twelve months will be:- Climate; Transport; Food; Corporate Alert
Thanks to George
Bush, climate change has moved to the top of the media agenda FOE will
need to influence the climate talks at Bonn in July. It will do this by
helping FOE International (FOEI) to hold a high profile action at the negotiations,
as well as help co-ordinate the FOEI lobbying efforts, which are crucial
at these international meetings.
FOE will also hold actions in the UK. with the aim of sending a very clear message to Tony Blair and other world leaders. The message is that the Earth needs the Kyoto Protocol, with or without the US. Only by the rest of the world staying firm can we hope to convince the US to take action on the climate.
After this, FOE will revise its Climate Change Campaign strategy, taking into account the outcome of Bonn. There will be fresh ideas and focal points. The role of fossil fuel companies in causing climate change and preventing international progress in tackling it will be emphasised, with a particular focus on Exxon Mobil.
Over the past
12 months the UK has endured the Hatfield rail disaster, with the subsequent
paralysis of the railways, and an increasing number of road proposals.
There is mounting public anger over the Government's failure to deal with
transport issues. The Government is now very vulnerable on transport.
This gives FOE a unique opportunity to channel public anger to help
demand a sustainable transport strategy that leads to a well-funded and
publicly controlled rail system, decent public transport and no more road
building.
The foot-and-mouth
crisis is yet another clear illustration that industrial farming is failing
to deliver healthy food, a rich environment and a prosperous countryside.
Over the next year, FOE will use the opportunities provided by this dreadful
crisis to get a thorough review of farming in this country. But in doing
so, the GM industry must not be let off the hook, nor must the supermarkets
and others, who must continue to be pressurised to produce pesticide-free
and healthy local and regional food economies.
This is an exciting
new area for FOE, as illustrated by the Ilisu Dam campaign and the action
at Balfour Beatty's AGM. In the coming months, FOE will develop plans to
take action against those multi-national companies causing significant
environmental and social damage across the world. It will be working to
influence investors in these companies, as well as campaigning to achieve
changes in company law so that companies have to be more open and accountable
for their actions"
The above covers the key priority issues. Alongside these are:-
Terry
It is in three stages - Consultation on the key issues; Development of a vision/shared idea and development of an action plan.
A consultation leaflet is available on stage one - the key issues. Copies are available from the Public Library, from B&NES Sustainability/Economic Development, Abbey Chambers Tel 477295 or on B&NES website - www.bathnes.gov.uk - click on E for Economic Development.
Terry
Michael Meacher, the environment minister, was interviewed and had to admit that he did not know whether health and safety laws had been broken. Apparently, the Environment Agency will at last be prosecuting those running the local incinerator for allegedly illegally depositing the toxic ash at public sites
The programme also covered the Edmonton incinerator, run by London Waste, which has admitted that until last August it mixed fly and bottom ash, which was then sold to Ballast Phoenix, a Lincolnshire firm. A breeze block made from 30% ash, from the ballast company's site.was tested by Newsnight. Dioxins at 10 to 20 times the permitted level were found in it.
The possibility was raised of DIY enthusiasts inadvertently drilling into their toxic walls but the industry spokesman refused to identify the affected houses. He said that the Environment Agency had already asked him to reveal the sites but had not insisted that he should do so!
Michael Meacher had to promise that he would demand an explanation from the environment agency on this and on how toxic fly ash holding dioxins - which are 167,000 times more toxic than cyanide - were mixed with bottom ash containing heavy metal residues, and distributed widely to the building trade by the Edmonton, London, incinerator for use in breeze blocks and roads.
Which reminds us that B&NES Labour and Conservative councillors need to be asked again if they still remain in favour of keeping the incinerator option open for B&NES waste. The Keynsham Waste Park proposal so far remains incinerator free. But it would be useful if the LIb Dems could retable their motion of a year or so ago which proposed that incineration should be ruled out for any of B&NES waste.
Terry
For the fifth
time since 1997, plans have again been submitted for the redevlopment of
the Southgate area. As usual, Bath FoE is taking a close look at them.
The new plans are in many ways very similar to the previous ones. In outline, the existing 2-storey Southgate Shopping centre, the adjacent multi-storey car park, and the bus station will be demolished. They'll be replaced by several multi-storey buildings, comprising shops, housing, restaurants and a fitness centre. There'll be a 3-storey underground car park. Churchill House (on the south side of Dorchester Street) will be demolished to make way for a new bus station.
Unlike the previous plans, however, the new scheme makes more imaginative use of the vaults under the railway station. The ramp/embankment to the south of Dorchester Street which currently gives access to the eastbound platform will be removed, and replaced by a simple steel ramp. This will open up access to the vaults which support the railway tracks. These will be converted for use as retail premises. There will also be space in front for a public open space. This idea has some merit, but similar proposals made previously ran into fierce opposition from English Heritage. Furthermore, the new bus station is (yet again) squeezed into a small area, so it will have fewer bus bays than the current station, and considerably less space for idle buses to "lay over".
The housing provision is increased a little - up from 70 to 92. A welcome improvement, but still a disappointingly low number for a scheme of this size.
Some improvements to the scheme are evident which have been prompted by earlier comments from Bath FoE. For example, a gas supply will be available to all shop and housing units, allowing tenants to make use of a less environmentally damaging fuel than electricity, should they so wish.When we first suggested this, the developers argued that it wasn't feasible. We're glad to see they've had a rethink.
We're still studying the plans in detail, and will be submitting comments to B&NES shortly.