Getting Serious part II

We presented over 100 Get Serious postcards to the leader of Islington, Cllr Terry Stacy, at the October Council Meeting. Islington Council are already doing a great deal to combat climate change, but there is more that needs to be done. We would like them to pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020, and produce a plan saying how they will do it.

We will be continuing the campaign over the next few months.

Getting Serious about Climate Change

Last year Friends of the Earth scored a massive success with the Climate Change Law which commits the government to year on year cuts in CO2 emissions. Now the real work begins - actually making those cuts. Our new campaign, Get Serious about CO2, is all about getting local authorities to take action.

Nationally councils can have a big influence on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. They have an annual spend of £10billion, they employ 2 million staff and they provide 3.5 million homes.

Action on climate change will create green jobs, slash energy bills and boost Islington’s economy. Inaction will lead to increased flooding and droughts, rising food prices and continued economic instability across the UK and the rest of the world. It would leave billions of the world’s poorest homeless within our lifetime.

Islington Council is already a bit of a pioneer when it comes to tackling greenhouse gases. They have set up the Climate Change Partnership, working with other organisations committed to cutting CO2, and they have recently joined the 10:10 pledge - to cut CO2 emissions by 10% by the end of 2010.

However, our campaign is calling for them go further and make cuts of 40% by 2020. It's a big ask but we know it is possible. That's why we have been out on the streets asking people to sign up to our Get Serious Campaign.

Islington FOE at the Angel Canal Festival

Islington Friends of the Earth were enjoying the sunshine and persuading passersby to sign up to the Get Serious Campaign at the Angel Canal Festival in September

Outdoor Heaters removed from Upper Street Bars

At our prompting, Islington Council has taken planning enforcement action against several Upper Street bars and restaurants who had screwed high power electric heaters to the front wall. Upper Street falls inside a conservation area and these heaters didn't have planning permission (and most likely wouldn't get it).

Five bars have removed their heaters. However one (102 Upper Street) claims that the heaters have been up for 4 years and were able to prove this to the council.

Of course, all outdoor heaters should be banned in the UK. But bar owners will do anything to keep their customers warm. Anyone know of other outside visible heaters on buildings in conservation areas?

Photo gallery of all the bars and their heaters

Greggs introduce the unrecyclable bag

Greggs, the high end foods retailer specialising in high salt and high sugar content has introduced a new composite bag made of plastic and paper. It combines all the features of both materials. If you get caught in the rain leaving the shop, you can be sure that although one half of the bag with fall apart in your hand, the other half of the bag will stay intact for hundreds of year, at which time the loaf will be just outside its 'best before date' thanks to the use of modern preservatives.

To the untrained eye and probably to most local authority recycling officers, this bag looks pretty much unrecyclable but Greggs have their best brains looking at this conundrum.

Transition Highbury

It hasn't launched yet but there is a steering group of five people: Isabel Carlisle, Antony Melville, Cinzia Sarigu, Roger Wright and Tom Hitchman! Transition Highbury

Large scale Renewable Energy will create many more jobs

Highbury resident Maryse Jones hands a postcard to Islington North's M.P. Jeremy Corbyn asking him to ensure that the government generates 15% of its energy from renewable sources such as wind power.

The Government has been trying to wriggle out of its EU commitment by proposing that cash spent on renewable energy projects outside of Europe should be counted towards the UK's renewable energy target.

Stephen Taylor from Islington Friends of the Earth (in the middle of the picture) said “Rising energy bills and the threat of climate change means generating green energy from renewable energy such wind, sun, waves and tides makes sense and it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs”.

Islington Friends of the Earth collected postcards from 68 other visitors to the Climate Change and Me event at Highbury Fields school on Saturday Oct 11th.

Islington FOE AGM 2008

Islington Friends of the Earth held their AGM on 17th July 2008.

Please click on the links below to download the co-ordinator's and treasurer's report.

Islington FOE Coordinator report 2008.pdf
Islington FOE Treasurers Report 2008.pdf

Lighting up Highbury Fields

The manager of the very popular Oasis cafe on Highbury Field knows about climate change. At least that what he says. Unfortunately he switches on his arrays of 60 watt light bulbs on very hot sunny days and as well as dull overcast days.

Not much of an example to the many kids that visit the cafe who have been told at school that we need cut back on energy use to save the planet.

Update Sept 1st 2008. The Highbury Fields Ranger from the council's Greenspace department has got involved, the lights are off and the carbon footprint of the cafe is very much smaller now.

Bring back the bottle banks

That seems to be the message from the British Glass Manufacturers' Confederation on June 16th. If we put our bottles in the recycling box for commingled processing, very little of the glass is used to manufacture new bottles, it ends up in the foundations for roads instead. Their press release says:

“The result is that the cullet is not only being colour mixed, it is also being compacted and mixed with the other materials, possibly making the end product less suitable for new containers. The cullet from such activities is not only potentially unsuitable for container manufacture but could also affect fibre applications. The result is it is only suitable for low grade applications such as aggregate from which little or no carbon benefit is derived.”

The British Glass Manufacturers have been to visit the North London Waste Authority and explain this. So says Councillor George Allan, who has just stepped down from the NLWA Committee. He says that the glass in the recycling bins also contaminates the paper making that fairly low value as well.

The EC recycling targets have been a good thing in that recycling rates have been forced up. However, in carbon terms, the old system of sorting everything into different bins ourselves had a lot going for it.

The looming UK energy gap in 2015

M.P.s Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry were both at the bike breakfast this morning at the Angel. Both confirmed that they had asked for amendments for the climate change bill to include international aviation and shipping and an 80% (rather than 60%) reduction target by 2050.

But the topic I wanted to discuss with Jeremy was the looming energy gap. It looks as if the government is going to encourage/permit all the ageing nuclear power stations to be replaced. And more significantly, the government has indicated that it wants to significantly increase the amount of nuclear power. As vice chair of CND, Jeremy opposes nuclear power. In any event, little of this will be in place by 2015.

Jeremy thinks that the government has made a prejudiced argument in favour of nuclear power. But I pointed out that the government's view is shared by many others (such as the Royal Society). Jeremy thought that opposition in Parliament to nuclear power has been muted but it would get much stronger going forwards.

I argued that I would prefer to use nuclear power and have a local (UK) nuclear waste problem than to use biofuels, still seen as a solution by many politicians, which takes food from the mouths of the poorest people in the world.

Jeremy thinks that we can manage with far less energy (which I agreed with) and he thought that energy would be rationed by price in 2015. I argued that no government should allow this to happen. He suggested that customers would be given a discount for the first N units and then customers would pay a premium for additional units. I pointed out that that would be unfair to large families. He argues that allocation could be based on the number of individuals per household. I said this was pretty similar to introducing personal carbon allowances which Emily had said a few months ago, was unpopular with many MPs.

Jeremy also mentioned that he'd considered putting solar PV on his roof. But it was too expensive. I pointed out that some individuals had had solar PV installed on their roof funded entirely by the Low Carbon Buildings Programme and Islington Council. He said 'good on the council'.

NO to a third runway at Heathrow

Islington Friends of the Earth along with some other people created an enormous NO in the middle of this field in Sipson village, which will be tarmaced over if the third runway is built. Special thanks go to Debbie for climbing up a nearby tree to get this photo. She's down on the ground on the left of the next photo.




There is free entry to the next monthly meeting of Islington Friends of the Earth if you can spot the difference between these two photos.

Islington FOE Membership Leaflet

Joining Islington Friends of the Earth

By joining Islington Friends of the Earth, you are adding your voice to others campaigning to change how we live our lives to protect our environment locally, nationally and across the world.

Joining costs very little - anything between £5 and £10, or we accept offers of time and help as well. Just fill in the relevant bit on the form.

To join, download Islington FOE Membership leaflet and send to our membership secretary (full details on the form).

the North London Eco Park

Many years ago Islington Friends of the Earth visited the incinerator at Edmonton. In those days the people who ran the incinerator were proud of how much they could burn

These days it is all very different.

On 6th May we re-visited the former fiefdom of Martin Jones (ex boss of North London
Waste) - the scene of our famous foray in 1991.

The Incinerator has now been rebranded the North London Eco Park and the incinerator is only allowed to burn "the residue we can't do anything else with". The I word isn't mentioned though as it's an energy centre and also on the site are ash recycling (for incinerator residue)wood chipping plants, bulky goods recycling and highly confidential waste recycling amongst other stuff.

A motley crew of us were taken on a school bus to see the composting facility. This has been functioning for two years and deals with the green and/or kitchen waste from the 7 boroughs making up North London Waste(Hackney, Camden, Islington, Barnet, Waltham Forest, Enfield and Haringay.)It handles 30,000 tons of waste per year and produces 15,000 tons of compost.

The food and green wastes are mixed together in a giant cement mixer type vehicle and then shredded in a monster shredder. Next they are taken to one of 16 tunnels where the composting takes place: bacteria break down the waste in the presence of moisture and oxygen producing CO2 and water as well as compost. If the waste is landfilled it decays anaerobically and produces methane, a much more potent climate changing gas. It reaches a temperature of 78-80C which kills pathogens and weeds. The whole process takes 12 weeks.

The tunnels are made of a Goretex material which keeps rain out but allows moisture and gases to pass out but keeps the smells in, following odour related complaints in 2006.

The compost we saw at the end had a lot of pine needles in from people's Christmas trees. They give it away to farms (over the last decade 15% of organic matter has been lost from agricultural land) within the M25 if possible and to allotments (hoping to give 4,000 tons to allotments in the 7 boroughs this year), the boroughs' Parks & Gardens and they have compost giveaways where people can come and help themselves.

Things have certainly moved on in the last seventeen years. Once upon a time it was considered okay to dig big holes in the ground and shove our waste in it. Then we thought we could burn it. Now slowly, slowly we have begun to realise that we cannot keep, almost literally, brushing the rubbish under the carpet. We have to deal with it. The transformation of Edmonton Incinerator into the North London Eco Park represents that change in attitude.

Flying blind?

Duncan plays the Prime Minister trying to ignore the exhortations of Debbie and John.



A climate change bill which excludes emissions from aviation is like going on a diet but eating all the chocolate you like. Or like introducing a drink driving law that excludes whiskey.

Other industries will have to play their part when the climate change bill becomes law. Why should the airline business be let off the hook?

Islington Friends of the Earth, along with FOE groups up and down the country, were out in force to remind Mr Brown that he must take into consideration aviation and shipping emissions in the climate change bill.


One of our members, Duncan, gamely volunteering to be our Gordon Brown for the day, tries to ignore the aeroplane John is launching at him, in the photo used in the Islington Gazette.

Today Newington Green - tomorrow the rest of Islington?

We are talking plastic bags here.
The pictures show you a few of the bags we saw littering Newington Green. If they were banned, then these kind of images would be a thing of the past.

We have joined forces with local residents of Newington Green to turn the area into a plastic bag free zone. Step one of the campaign kicked off with a survey on 29th March when we discovered that 94% of people questioned would be keen to see Newington Green go plastic bag free.

For more details on the campaign including more on why plastic bags are such a bad thing and how you can get involved, go to http://plasticbagfreenewingtongreen.blogspot.com

Stop Heathrow Expansion Public Meeting 7th February

Stop Heathrow Expansion Public Meeting

Thursday 7th February
7.30pm
Highbury Baptist Church
corner of Highbury Place and Baalbec Road N5
opposite Highbury Fields, Highbury

Click here for a map of the location

The campaign to stop the third runway at Heathrow Airport is holding a public meeting on Thursday 7th February in Highbury. It is the only meeting about this issue in North London and your chance to express about the government's misguided scheme to expand Heathrow Airport.

It is recognised that we need to take action now to cut CO2 emissions. After massive lobbying by Friends of the Earth and others the government has introduced a bill to create a legal framework to cut CO2 emissions.

If the third runway is built it will blow a hole in this government's plans to cut dangerous greenhouse gas emissions. Aviation already accounts for 34% of London's CO2 emissions. Expansion of Heathrow and more flights will mean that we will have to cut drastically other emissions such as heating our homes, travelling to work, and many other day to activities such as meet the planned cuts in CO2.

Further action

Find out more...
To find out more about the campaign and how else to get involved, go to http://www.stopheathrowexpansion.com/

Sign the petition...
Click here to sign a petition against the expansion

Respond to the government consultation...
The government is currently consulting on the third runway. If you would like to take part go to http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/heathrowconsultation/ The deadline is 27th February.


Come along to the mass rally at Central Hall in Westminster on 25 February

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.