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Society

Campaigns

This is a free campaign listing. If you have a campaign you want to publicise let us know, and we will be pleased to give details in Eco. All we ask in return is a link to Eco on your website.

Save the Portland Coastal Strip

18th April 2008

Read about a campaign to save a beautiful stretch of Dorset coastline from quarrying, and what you can do to help: Save the Portland Coastal Strip. Only UK residents can sign the petition but anyone can email the boss...neil.fuller@stone-firms.co.uk

WWF Campaigns

Illegal logging - http://www.wwf.org.uk/researcher/issues/forests/0000000284.asp

Chemicals and health - http://www.wwf.org.uk/chemicals/

Climate Change - http://www.wwf.org.uk/climatechaos/

One million sustainable homes - http://www.wwf.org.uk/sustainablehomes/index.asp

Greenpeace campaigns

Stop Heathrow Expansion

Say "no" to new coal

Biofuels

31st March 2008

In a few weeks' time, a piece of legislation will come into effect that will have serious consequences for the environment and climate change. From Tuesday 15 April 2008, the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) will force fuel companies to include biofuels as part of their fuel mix.

From that date, 2.5 per cent of all petrol and diesel sold in the UK will come from crops such as palm oil and maize. The government hopes this will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions which are contributing towards climate change, but the RTFO is being pushed through without any sort of sustainability criteria attached which will lead to a host of environmental problems and human rights issues.

Write to transport secretary Ruth Kelly, asking her postpone the compulsory use of biofuels until proper standards have been put in place.

We've already highlighted the problems: how rainforests, savannahs and grasslands are being uprooted to make room for either biofuel crops like palm oil or food crops which are being diverted into biofuels production; how the price of food could soar as an increasing amount is diverted to produce biofuels instead of feeding people; and how many biofuels are increasing greenhouse gas emissions, not reducing them.

We're not alone in our concerns, and others - from the EU Environment Commissioner to Defra's chief scientist, from the Royal Society to the Environmental Audit Committee - have also raised doubts. So together with Oxfam, Friends of the Earth, the RSPB and Cafod, we've written to transport secretary Ruth Kelly, telling her to postpone the RTFO until essential sustainability standards have been developed and implemented.

For the story so far on the RTFO, check our website, but this misguided piece of legislation is not inevitable and Kelly can put it on hold. We've asked her to do this and you can too - please write to her now, explaining why biofuels are not all they're cracked up to be, and ask her to postpone the RTFO.

Thanks for your support, Jamie Woolley

Palm Oil

Hi there,

Palm oil is everywhere. Found in hundreds of supermarket products, it's also increasingly used to produce biodiesel which is often seen as a green alternative to regular diesel.

It's not exactly news that oil palm plantations are threatening rainforests in South East Asia, but what's astonishing is both the pace at which the industry is expanding, and the role major food companies are playing in the destruction. Our latest investigation has found that top-name brands such as KitKat, Pringles and Flora are all implicated in this environmental catastrophe.

Our research focused on the province of Riau on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Right now, oil palm producers are clearing huge areas of forest which grow in tropical peatlands. This peat stores huge amounts of carbon which, when it's drained and burnt, releases immense volumes of greenhouse gases.

Indonesia's peatlands cover just 0.1 per cent of the Earth's landmass, but they contribute 4 per cent of global emissions. So by clearing these swampy forests for plantations, the palm oil industry is having a massive impact on climate change.

This investigation is just the start of our work on the role of palm oil in deforestation. We're following through by demanding that food companies and retailers to stop trading with suppliers who are trashing these forests, and there's more to come in the next few months - we'll keep you posted.

It's only with your help that we can continue to help protect the Indonesian rainforest from further devastation. As you may know, we don't accept any funds from governments or corporations. This means we can campaign freely and without bias at all times - but it also means we are totally reliant on the regular donations of supporters like you.

If you're already donating to us, thank you very much. You really do make a big difference. But if you're not and would like to, you can either set up a monthly donation or a give a single gift. Whichever one you choose, we'll put your donation to immediate use on campaigns just like this one.

Thanks for all your support, Kelly Maklowicz
To find out more about our palm oil campaign.

Stop the war in Iraq - http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?CFID=3758916&CFTOKEN=12876771&SitekeyParam=D-J

Stop Global Warming -http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/climate/?CFID=3758916&CFTOKEN=12876771

Choose clean energy - http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/climate/solution/?CFID=3758916&CFTOKEN=12876771

Stop incinerators - ttp://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?CFID=3758916&CFTOKEN=12876771&SitekeyParam=D-D

Nuclear Power -http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?CFID=3758916&CFTOKEN=12876771&SitekeyParam=D-E

Ancient Forests - http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/forests/?CFID=3758916&CFTOKEN=12876771

Oceans - http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/oceans/?CFID=3758916&CFTOKEN=12876771

Toxics - http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?CFID=3758916&CFTOKEN=12876771&SitekeyParam=D-C

Friends of the Earth Campaigns

Protect your right to be heard

The new Planning Reform Bill would force massive developments through the planning system by stripping you of your rights to participate in the planning process. Any opportunity to protect the environment will be lost. Take action now

Stop Europe's unfair trade deals

European Partnership Agreements (EPAs) could lock some of the poorest countries in the world into devastating trade deals that will damage small scale industries, jobs, livelihoods and the environment. Ask your MP to take action

A big push for the Big Ask

Over the last month individuals and groups from across the country have been taking action on The Big Ask. From public meetings to polar bear and penguin stunts – it’s been a busy few weeks. Click here to see the pictures

Green goodies
View our range of books and goodies for family and friends. Order over £30 and you’ll get a free BBC Wildlife Calendar 2008! Just type ‘Calendar’ when you get to checkout. All profits go to fund our work

A green Christmas

Get into the ethical Christmas spirit and avoid the crowds by buying your green gifts online from Natural Collection’s award winning eco store. Get a free box of chocolate truffles on orders over £50 and for each product you purchase Friends of the Earth get a donation

Make polluters pay

The Government is currently asking us to what extent polluters should be made liable for damage to the environment.Demand that they take tough action to protect UK Biodiversity

Turn you old mobile into cash

Send your unwanted mobile phones to ShP where they will be recycled and a donation made to one of our campaigns. Recycle your old mobiles into cash and support Friends of the Earth

Reduce, reuse and recycle

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will soon vote on a revised European waste law. We are calling on them to improve waste prevention, reuse, recycling and composting rates in Europe – without encouraging more incineration. Ask your MEP to vote for a better European waste law

The Big Ask - campaign to tackle climate change

Palm Oil

Reduce rubbish

Save money and save energy

Book offer - "Save Cash and Save the Planet"

Free Letterbox Stickers

One little label can save a thousand trees.

In our first campaign, Eco is targeting the appalling waste of free newspapers. They come though our doors unrequested, and most simply get (at best) recycled unread, more likely thrown away, a criminal waste of energy and resources. Stopping these papers at source is the reduce part of the well known phrase: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.We are offering free stickers reading "No free newspapers or junk mail please". Do order extra to deliver in your road or distribute to green friends, or your local environment group. Just send us your name and address and indicate the number of stickers you would like: webmaster@ecozine.co.uk

www.DownshiftingWeek.com

Columnist and broadcaster Tracey Smith has carved a niche with Downshifting and Sustainable Living. She is the creator of awareness campaign, National Downshifting Week in the UK and USA and was recently confirmed a finalist in Britain’s Eco-Hero Awards, an initiative from ITV’s National News. Tracey specialised in this genre following her own extreme downshift in 2002 and has made it her mission to uncover all the layers and levels of simple living.

Combine this with her passion and genuine enthusiasm for getting people on the right, green track, promoting a true life and work balance and first-hand experience of surviving on limited funds and you have an energetic and realistic advocator for ‘back to basics living’.

Often approached to contribute to various media in this field, she co-ordinated and appeared in an episode of ITV’s “The Test”, exposing the negative side of a downshift gone wrong, co-ordinated and appeared in a documentary for YTV in Finland, exposing why so many people are turning to downshifting to relieve their stressful lives and her awareness campaign is featured in the book“365 Ways to Change the World”, by Michael Norton.

A lover of easy to prepare, delicious food, Tracey enjoys exploring everything from growing a little fruit and veg, raising chickens, taking the organic/fair trade/free range routes wherever possible, whilst balancing realistic budgets and enjoying the best things in life – the free ones!

Accomplished and equally comfortable with radio broadcasting, she can put a positive, upbeat spin on any topic, leaving listeners or readers excited about taking the first steps towards simpler, happier living. She lives with her family in a little cottage in the peaceful southwest.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

6th April 2008

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was formally incorporated in the United States in 1981 in the state of Oregon. Previous to this, the idea of Sea Shepherd was formed when Captain Paul Watson founded the Earth Force Society in 1977 in Vancouver BC, Canada. The original mandate of both organizations was marine mammal protection and conservation with an immediate goal of shutting down illegal whaling and sealing operations, but Sea Shepherd later expanded its mission to include all marine wildlife.

With financial support from Cleveland Amory of the Fund for Animals, the society's first ship a North Atlantic sea trawler "the Westella" was purchased in Hull, England (UK) and renamed the Sea Shepherd. It's first mission was to the ice floes of eastern Canada to interfere with the annual killing of baby harp seals known as whitecoats.

In the same year, 1979, the Sea Shepherd hunted down and rammed the notorious pirate whaler the Sierra in a Portugal harbor ending its infamous career as the scourge of the seas.

The success of the seal campaign and the ramming of the Sierra was the start of Sea Shepherd's historical 160 voyages over the next 2 decades, enforcing international laws where no law enforcement existed - on the high seas.

Sea Shepherd continues to accomplish its mission by upholding and enforcing international treaties, laws and conventions of world governments.

Sea Shepherd is committed to the eradication of pirate whaling, poaching, shark finning, unlawful habitat destruction, and violations of established laws in the World's oceans.

To that end, Sea Shepherd assists national and international bodies in the enforcement of international law under authority of the United Nations World Charter for Nature.

Sea Shepherd (UK)

Life Coaching

"Man is born to live, and not to prepare to live." Boris Pasternak

Life coaching is the latest idea in helping us to lead more fulfilling lives. So many of us complain about our lives, whether it is our jobs or our home lives, but how many of us actually get motivated to start doing what we really want to, treating each day as a celebration, or doing what we would want to if it was our last day on earth?

Life Coaching encourages us to look at our lives, and to write down our aims and aspirations, set ourselves targets, and start taking steps to achieve our aims. Along the way towards our aims we will need to reward success, and may need the support of a Life Coach to keep us on track. Life Coaching encourages us to start living for the day, and not treating life like a dress rehearsal for the the real thing.

There are some excellent books about Life Coaching around. Two of the best are:

"Be your own Life Coach" by Fiona Harrold, and "Awaken the Giant Within" by Anthony Robbins.