Islington FOE triumph at Ecology Centre Quiz

In their spare time some members of Islington FOE just love doing pub quizzes. On Friday 16th November all that extra-curricular activity paid off when we triumphed over several other teams to win the Islington Ecology Centre Quiz.

The quiz included questions on general knowledge, food and drink and Islington. There was also a section on the environment (taken from Nicola Baird's book, Save Cash and Save the Planet). Luckily we didn't embarrass ourselves too much on that bit!

It was a nail-biting finish as it came down to a tie-breaker but in the event we won through.

The event was organised to help raise funds for next year's Gillespie Park Festival

Islington FOE activities this autumn

We are planning a series of campaigning activities over the coming months:

The Big Ask campaign - we will be out and about putting the message across that the Climate Change Bill needs to be tougher

Recycling picks - following our recycling picks at the Emirates stadium last season we are planning further picks elsewhere in the borough, rescuing rubbish that would otherwise go to landfill

Camapaign Against Climate Change March and Rally - and we will joining many others on the Campaign Against Climate Change March on 8th December

There will also be our regular monthly meetings and no doubt we will organising a Christmas gathering to round off the year's campaigning.

If you would like to get involved in any of these activities, get in touch with our co-ordinator. Email sltaylor001@yahoo.co.uk

Islington FOE at the Canal Festival

The sun shone for us at the Angel Canal Festival



Jenny, Debbie and Andrew


We were much in demand by local politicians. John chatted to several Liberal Democrat councillors and Stephen found himself in demand to have his photograph taken with...


... Bridget Fox, formerly local councillor and current prospective parliamentary candidate for the Lib Dems in Islington South

and...



Sarah Ludford MEP

All Lib Dems. It's good to see they support the Big Ask campaign.

Another eighty five people came by to sign Big Ask postcards, as well as Sarah and Bridget.

Islington FOE at the Canal and Gillespie Park Festivals

Islington Friends of the Earth will be running stalls at the Islington Canal Festival and the Gillespie Park Festival on the 2nd and 9th September.

The Climate Change Bill may come before Parliament this autumn so we will be using the opportunity to encourage people to send a message to our local MPs asking for it to be a strong bill that actually cuts greenhouse emissions.

The Canal Festival runs from 11am until 5pm at City Road Basin. Gillespie Park Festival is at the Ecology Centre from 2pm to 6pm.

If you are planning to attend either event do come along and say hello.

AGM 2007

Our Annual General Meeting took a record breaking fifteen minutes to complete.
There were three items on the Agenda:
Review of the year
Treasurer's report
Election of officers

Click on the links below to see the review of the year and the treasurer's report.



Islington Friends of the Earth has three officers (current occupants in the brackets):
Co-ordinator (Stephen Taylor)
Treasurer (Debbie Haigh)
Membership Secretary (Andrew Fuller)

All the current occupants were re-elected unopposed.

Arguing for Higher Parking Permit Charges at Speakers Corner

Well Islington Council set up a mock Speakers Corner complete with some Emily Pankhurst lookalikes on Tuesday 5th on Islington Green and Roger Lawson from the Association of British Drivers and I used megapahones to shout at each other. Needless to say the ABD are against higher charges but seemed to drop their previous stand that climate change wasn't happening. Anyway it was all pretty relaxed. Be interesting to see what the local papers make of it. Let's hope more people go out and vote.

The Big Art

The Big Art exhibition Monday 4th - 17th June 2007

The exhibition opened at 6.30pm on Monday 4th June, with a speech by Martyn Williams, Parliamentary Campaigner for Friends of the Earth. Several councillors attended including Lucy Watt, lead councillor for the environment. Tea and cakes were supplied courtesy of Islington WI.

We would like to thank the N1 Centre for allowing us the space for the exhibition, Islington WI for organising the catering and the children of Islington Arts Factory for creating the works of art.

The exhibition, was run in conjunction with N1 WI (Islington Women's Institute) and Islington Arts Factory, is supporting Friends of the Earth's Big Ask campaign to call for a tougher climate change bill and to raise awareness of the personal responsibility we all must take to reduce our carbon footprint

We welcome the fact that the government has introduced the bill but feel that it needs to be much stronger.

We want to see:
Bigger cuts The Government propose a 60 per cent cut of carbon dioxide by 2050. We need reductions of at least 80 per cent.
Annual targets The Government want five year budgets for CO2. We want shorter targets - to hold the current Parliament to account.
Aviation and shipping International flights and shipping emissions are excluded. We want these included.

For more on the Big Ask campaign, visit http://www.thebigask.com/

Some of the children's artwork

The artwork on display after the hanging

Councillors at the opening

Islington's Draft Core Strategy

Islington council have recently consulted on their draft Core Strategy. This document will underpin the council's decisions on planning applications so it is crucially important to include measures in new developments that will help cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Islington Friends of the Earth have responded to the consultation exercise. You can view our response, click on the link below.



For more on the Core Strategy consultation process visit Islington Council's website at http://www.islington.gov.uk/Environment/Planning/PlanningPolicy/CoreStrategy/

Recycling at the Emirates Stadium - an update

Whilst Manchester United were struggling to retain their lofty position at the top of the Premiership on Sunday afternoon, a gang of us were outside their opponents, Arsenal's ground collecting tin cans discarded by the fans. By half time we had collected 350 drinks cans that would otherwise have gone to landfill or incineration.

This was the third collection we have done this season to highlight the lamentable lack of recycling facilities at Arsenal's new stadium, the Emirates. In October we had collected 18 kilos of tin cans, and glass and plastic bottles. Back in December some 700 drinks cans were collected during the entire match. This is the tip of the iceberg however.

On every occasion we observe Islington council's street cleaners doing a magnificent job collecting rubbish abandoned by the fans on the way to the match. Unfortunately everything they collect will go to landfill or incinerated, adding to the amount of waste the UK throws away.

And recycling saves energy as well. Recycling aluminium cans saves 95% of the energy that would be used to make them out of raw material. The amount of energy to make a glass bottle is 50% less if the source is recycled material. And glass is 100% recyclable. 85% of PET plastic bottles end up in landfill but every single bottle that is recycled saves nearly half a kilogram of carbon emissions.

It is time that Arsenal took its environmental responsibilities seriously. Many of the European clubs they play have recycling facilities for their fans. Other UK clubs from Manchester City to Dartford FC have built new stadiums with environmental sustainability in mind.

Arsenal scored an own goal when they chose to behave like an environmental dinosaur over the building of their new stadium.

Click here to view more photos of our recycling pick