Birmingham Friends of The Earth newsletter - Aug-Sep 2007

Faith and climate change One of Birmingham Friends of the Earth’s (BFoE) key campaigns is on ‘Faith and Climate Change’. This campaign aims to explicitly get people of faith on board in collectively saving our one Earth…, where choice of words between ‘secular’ arguments and ‘faith’ arguments wouldn’t always connect people of faith to the issues. Thanks to a recent grant from the Birmingham Environmental Partnership (BEP), BFoE has been enabled to hire a temporary worker to dedicate to taking this campaign to the next level.

Continued on Page 12

Editorial 3 - Editorial 4 - Warehouse News 6

- Campaigns Digest

7 - Population 8

- Population

9 - One thing you do this month

It’s been a busy “summer” so far at Birmingham FOE . Whether the current floods are the beginning of climate or not, it’s a big incentive to address environmental issues.

One way to tackle this has been the heavily criticised “private jets for climate change” event otherwise known as Live Earth. Maybe you think the carbon footprint of these events was worth the extra public awareness (estimated to be 3,000 times the average Briton’s annual use)? Maybe the last people you want lecturing you about energy saving are carbon guzzling celebrities with

more homes than most of us have bathrooms? Whatever you think it’s worth considering in terms of the environmental movement as a whole. An alternate approach would be to focus on small changes and local campaigns which when added together become a global force.

Our stalls and postcards, freecycling the sofa and signing a congestion charge petition are certainly not as glamorous as a rock concert, but collectively they do bring about real and positive change.

You can always play your music really loud while you do it.

10 - Congestion 12

- Islam & the Environment

16 - Volunteer Spotlight 17

- Guest Article Freecycle

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- Multi Faith

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- Green Nappies

20 - If you do one thing 21 - Diary 22

- Membership Form

23 - Contacts 2

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2 Events and 2 missions

the other organisations based here.

More details to follow as things take shape!

Last newsletter I was looking back on our 30th celebrations, this month I’m looking forward to 2 events we hope to organise. Firstly, Tamsin and Maud would like to invite you to a cleaning party at the Warehouse on Saturday 18th August. Although we try to keep on top of cleaning the public areas of the building, there are some places which could do with extra elbow grease and some TLC. If you’d like to come and help Maud and I add some sparkle to the Warehouse then we will provide cake and copious amounts of tea and possibly even a game of hide and seek.

In terms of missions I’m aiming to collect as many of our supporters email addresses as possible. This is not to bombard your inbox with rubbish but to keep you up to date with events such as the ones mentioned above and to save paper of course. Maureen, our lovely membership secretary may therefore contact you in the near future to ask if you’d be willing to share this information with us.

Secondly we’re hoping to run a a series of events over the August bank holiday to continue celebrating our 30th year and to give people an opportunity to learn more about Birmingham Friends of the Earth and

Lastly BFOE, the One Earth Shop, the Warehouse Café, Sprockets and some of our neighbours would like to invite you to sign a petition to improve the street lighting in the area as current provisions are rather poor. Please help us to create a safer and more welcoming environment by signing the petition when you visit the building.

Tamsin Mosse

One Earth Shop -100% vegan

David will be cooking up a Mexican feast …fajitas, corn bread, refried beans, tortillas, salsa verde and more.

The full menu will be available soon.

Contact the café for more details or join our mailing list to be the first to hear by sending an email to the address below.

and

-A Large selection of organic and fairtrade products, most supplied and delivered by a workers co-operative -Vegan owners - no meat or dairy products sold Open Monday to Saturday, 10am-5pm

The Warehouse Café 54-57 Allison Street

Sprocket Cycles

0121 633 0261

Sales, service, repairs, accessories. Bikes also built to your own specifications.

info@thewarehousecafe.com

Open Wednesday Saturday, 10am-4pm

www.thewarehousecafe.com

0121 633 0730

Birmingham, B5 5TH

Appeal for Volunteers at BFOE Fundraisers - We are looking for fundraisers to help us continue our work. If you have any experience in this field we would be very glad to hear from you.

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vegetarian

to

Retail Manager - Also we still

need a retail manager to take our existing shop forward. If you have retail and marketing experience and would be interested in monitoring stock, merchandising as well as researching new products please contact Tamsin Mosse on 0121 6326909 for more details.

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Campaigns Digest The beginning of summer, if it ever did begin, has been eventful. June was packed with so many activities.

It shows that month by month, our reach is impressive. In early June, we had the Birmingham Friends of the Earth AGM, which really highlighted the massive amount of work we had done in 12 months.

It was enough to motivate Louise Hazan, Friends of the Earth Midlands Network Developer, to nominate Birmingham FoE as the Friends of the Earth Group of the Year for the FoE Earthmovers Awards. Louise spent some considerable time perfecting the nomination form. Whether we win or not, the nomination is an honour.

The Climate Change Bill, announced earlier in the year, was out for consultation up until June. We had a late rally of campaigners to get in individual responses to push for a stronger bill that includes emissions from international aviation and

shipping as well as annual targets.

We know from recent training events that there is clear evidence that the more that the public push for something, the more likely it is to happen. So all the thousands of postcards we have collected over the years have been worth it.

....month by month, our reach is impressive.

Kate Nancarrow’s inspiration began a flurry of incredibly successful stalls.

We enticed people with bags at the World Environment Day recycling stall; with a raffle at the BBC Springwatch Festival and Jeff secured us a prominent presence at the Birmingham University Vale Festival where the FoE Big Ask was the official campaign the festival chose to support. From those three events in the space of a week, we gained 5 new members, got over 1000 Big Ask postcards signed and engaged countless number of people in a wide range of issues.

to try to earn us a few bob. Thank you to Karen Leach, Sue Elkin and Louise Elkin for making it happen.

Yes, it felt like they did enough work to organise the entire festival. We held a showing of “An Inconvenient Truth” at the Electric Cinema with MPs Lynne Jones and John Hemming speaking afterwards.

In late June, Maud Grainger returned, this time in the guise of Multi-Faith Climate Change Project Worker. We participated in the Stop Climate Chaos stall during the Live Earth concert; got 200 petitions forms signed as part of our campaign for a rail station for Kings Heath and welcomed the release of the City Council’s Sustainability and Climate Change report.

Most recently, we held our fundraising barbecue at the Anchor Pub’s Organic Beer Festival and ran a stall in Cotteridge to campaign against the Planning White Paper that threatens to make it far easier to build whatever Big Business fancies.

The end of the school year has seen several opportunities to participate in activity days. Gareth gave a talk to Edgbaston High School for Girls, I ran climate change workshops at Swanshurst Girls’ School and Tamsin has been working with an environmental artist at Yardley Wood Junior and Infant School.

What a testimony to the power of volunteering!

Chris Williams

Phil Burrows secured the presence of climate change supremo, Mark Lynas, to talk to us about his new book, Six Degrees. And for that, we got front page coverage of the Birmingham Post. In the same week, 87 sterling volunteers set off for Glastonbury

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Opinion

Population, the Environment and Political Correctness

Many people are frustrated by the fact that any consideration of the impact of human population growth on the environment, sustainable development and climate change seems to be off limits at almost every level of political discourse.

Many people are afraid that any mention of population growth as even a factor in ensuring a sustainable future for the planet risks them being branded as someone denying the right of developing world countries to develop, or ignoring the disproportionate impact of the excessive consumption, waste and pollution of the developed world, or worst still being racist.

So here’s my twopenth worth, flak jacket and helmet in place!

When we consider population growth, the starting point must be the principle that all citizens are entitled to an equal share of the earth’s resources and that those resources (for the sake of future generations) must be exploited sustainably. This is the principle behind Contraction

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and Convergence (C&C), which is the model for reducing greenhouse gas emissions favoured by many NGOs. C&C’s starting point is that every citizen has an equal right to emit greenhouse gases within a world limit that keeps emissions below 450 parts per million CO2 equivalent. The model works by the high polluting countries cutting down their emissions until they converge with the emission levels of low polluters which will be allowed to increase to a limited extent to enable economic growth.

Humans are the only significant living creatures who live without regard to the sustainability of their environment.

The total population of the planet is central to all sustainability issues.

Humans are the only significant living creatures who live without regard to the sustainability of their environment.

This is primarily because of excess consumption by inhabitants of developing countries, but also due to the overexploitation of immediate natural resources by millions of desperately poor and under-nourished people.

Unsustainable practices take many forms but sustainability can be objectively and scientifically quantified. The simple fact is that, by definition, unsustainable practices cannot continue indefinitely and the longer we fail to address all such practices, not just CO2 emissions, the more difficult it will be to solve and the greater will be the suffering, particularly for the world’s poorest people.

We should be concerned as much about the quality of life as about economic well-being. What quality of life is there when every scrap of land is cultivated, probably with G.M monocultures in order to feed our teeming cities? Actually, our abundant planet has enough resources to sustainably give every single person a high quality of life but almost certainly not 6 billion of us and certainly not 9 billion. A population of 9 billion people will put unbelievable pressure on the earth’s agricultural resources and is likely to involve a last desperate throw of the chemically-induced, water-denuding practices of the so called ‘green

revolution’ of the post war era.

The onus is overwhelmingly on the inhabitants of the developed world and their governments to guarantee a quality of life to people in the developing world through measures such as supporting projects that empower women, facilitating fair trade, introducing sustainable energy and agricultural technologies, supporting reforestation initiatives, and so on. At the same time, the population of the developed world must stabilise or fall and consumption of all resources, especially those that are heavily energy-dependant, must be significantly reduced.

Tackling population growth is not about being for or against certain religions or cultures Tackling population growth is not about being for or against certain religions or cultures (though the hierarchies of some are less than helpful), it’s not about curtailing an inalienable right to reproduce; it’s about a decent quality of life for all humans and enough space on the planet for biodiversity to flourish.

Nigel Baker

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All Aboard:

Drivers for Congestion Charging

In 2006, Councillor Alistair Dow (Lib Dem, Selly Oak) wrote in the preface to his report on Traffic Management to Birmingham City Council that ‘Congestion is one of the greatest challenges facing Birmingham today and tackling it is a priority for our residents’.

This statement reflects the depth to which congestion affects all of our lives, whether cyclists, walkers, car, van or lorry drivers; congestion impacts on us when doing the school run, delivering to our customers, making it to meetings, getting to work and doing the shopping. When at its best it is endurable, and when at its worst it can turn what should be a relatively short journey into a 4hr claustrophobic nightmare of a car journey. Congestion causes increased pollution from cars ticking over while standing still; they not only emit more carbon dioxide while doing this, but also particulates that affect our health.

Congestion also causes considerable economic problems for Birmingham; it is estimated that it costs the West

Midlands alone £2.5billion a year.

The problem isn’t likely to go away anytime soon either, as a recent report1 into the issue by ‘West Midlands Metropolitan Authorities’ (WMMA) and the ‘Passenger Transport Authority’ (PTA) points out: ‘If action is not taken congestion across the area will grow by nearly a quarter (22 per cent) on current levels by 2021 with West Midlands roads filled by an extra 469,000 journeys each day’.

Luckily the aforementioned report by the WMMA and the PTA suggest a solution: ‘a combination of substantial public transport investment together with road charging could reduce the number of vehicle trips on West Midlands roads by 180,000 per day’.

But what would this solution mean to our everyday lives? Realistic answers are:

• Reduced traffic and congestion • Faster bus services • Improvements to our public and road transport infrastructure, including; in

commuter

rail

• Midland Metro • Park and Ride schemes • Enhanced bus networks • Highway improvements, amongst other priorities • Less through-traffic on the streets where we live • Less pollution, both particulates and CO2

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Peter Roberts, the Account Manager from Telford who started the petition, said ‘It is a tax too far that will be put on the people without the backing of them. It is a stealth tax. The London system has generated £900 million and this is what the Government is looking to extend - the money that can be made from congestion charging.

Also, none of it will go back into public transport.’2

• Faster traffic speeds for those that still need to drive

• Investment services

Congestion is one of the greatest challenges facing Birmingham today....

So why aren’t we all beating a path to the government to tell them that we want congestion charging, along with the increased investment in public transport and road infrastructure? In fact why did almost 2 million people sign a petition against road pricing in Britain?

This simply is not true, as Ken Livingstone states ‘by law, all money raised from congestion charging will be added to what‘s already been spent on London‘s transport facilities – so that it benefits everyone’3.

Could it be that it is too easy for the Truck Lobby to scare us into believing

we are going to be hit with extra taxes on our transport? Could it be that there are vested interests in sticking with the status quo? And are those vested interests justified, when they too will be hit just as hard by the growing congestion in Birmingham.

With the release of the RAC’s latest survey of 2000 motorists4, it seems that the tide may be changing, and that the Truck Lobby’s hold on public opinion may have shifted. Their annual review on motoring said 73% of drivers would find road pricing acceptable if the money raised was invested in buses, trains and trams an increase of four percentage points on last year’s poll.

Are the drivers now on board? It appears so, but are they vocal about it? Not quite yet. Maybe it is time that campaigning organisations in Birmingham with an interest in transport get together, helping people to voice their opinions on congestion charging. A collaboration of walkers, cyclists, car drivers, bus and train commuters, environmentalists and truck drivers, all acting in the interest of Birmingham’s economic, social and environmental future.

If we don’t, then Manchester will, and it already feels like they are pushing out in front5.

Phil Burrows 1. http://tinyurl.com/22boor 2. http://tinyurl.com/ytrcot 3. http://www.cclondon.com/Whatis.shtml 4. http://tinyurl.com/28ebz5 5. http://tinyurl.com/2gcvfe

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Islam & the Environment Continued from front page....

Whether we are Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jew etc, we all share this single Planet and either we work together for a habitable future on it or we all go down together. With 3 of the world’s 10 largest companies selling oil and 5 selling cars (Fortune 500), it’s an uphill struggle to get the truth out as when you sell oil or cars it’s very difficult to admit/ be serious about climate change… or as Upton Sinclair so succinctly put it: “It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” And to give you an idea about how large ‘large’ is: Exxon’s turnover is bigger than the GPD of Bangladesh (CIA FactBook) or Belgium (WorldBank) and Exxon’s profit alone is similar to GDP of Uruguay or Cambodia (CIA FactBook).

Whether we are Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jew etc, we all share this single Planet

So it’s a challenge with such powers against us, but inspired by our faiths we need to give it our best try, for

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the sake of those generations after us who have just as much right to enjoy the Earth as we do! Thus, are you active in your Church/ Gurdwara/ Synagogue/Mosque/Temple etc?

Have you always wanted to become active in your place of worship, but didn’t know what task to focus on?! Then wonder no longer, but become your place of worship’s own Climate Change Ambassador (CCA)! Want to know more, want to be kept informed what other CCAs are doing?! Then contact Maud now: our aim is to have a CCA at every place of worship, community centre and place of work. There are no formal conditions to becoming a CCA, just some enthusiasm and commitment.

As part of the ‘Faith and Climate Change’ campaign the BFoE newsletter will highlight, over the course of the coming months, a short overview of the different faiths’ teachings on the environment. In this issue we start off with Islam and Environment.

Away from the terrorists abusing the religion (like all are/ have been from time to time!), away from the wilful misrepresentations, ignorant remarks etc etc, Islam has very clear guidelines: Islam is not just a religion, but a way of life. Islam organises the believers’ relations with God, with oneself, with one’s children, with one’s relatives, with one’s neighbours, with one’s guest, and with other members of Creation. This shouldn’t scare

non-Muslims, as nowhere is the killing of innocents sanctioned (on the contrary!), but should highlight a permanent remembrance of Muslims’ submission (islam) to God, being at peace with our Creator, ourselves and those around us. That said, not all, starting with myself, are anywhere near perfect examples of fully living by all the teachings.

Muslims believe that Islam came for the benefit of humanity and God has tasked humans with the job of ‘khilafa’ or guardian of Creation (“It is He who has appointed you viceroys in the earth and has raised some of you in rank above others, that He may try you in what He has given you. Surely thy Lord is swift in retribution; and surely He is All-forgiving, All-Compassionate.”

-Qur’an 6:165). Also we are but one tiny part of Creation: “Indeed, the creation of the heavens and the earth is greater than the creation

of mankind, but most of mankind do not realise it.” (Qur’an 40:57) and “No creature is there crawling on the earth, no bird flying with its wings, but they are nations like unto yourselves. We have neglected nothing in the Book; then to their Lord they shall be mustered.”

(Qur’an 6:38).

Even the aims of Sharia (‘the way’, based on the Qur’an and the example of the Prophet Muhammed) clearly require we all work to maintain a living planet: protection of life, dignity, progeny, religion and property cannot be sustained on a planet with increasingly extreme weather patterns!

Sometimes we may think that the earth can’t be as ruined as ‘the environmentalists’ say, because we surely would have been replaced (as the Qur’an warns us God has done with the people of Ad and Thamud)…but “If God were to punish people according to what they deserve, He would not leave on the back of the (earth) a single living creature: but He gives them respite for a stated term: when their term expires, verily God has in His sight all His servants.” (Qur’an 35:45). So when a man denies an animal (or vegetation) its right to mercy, then the right to mercy the man has from God is similarly withdrawn, and he will be punished (either in this life or the next).

The whole of creation works because it follows the laws of the

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Volunteer Spotlight Creator. The only creature that can act contrary to its preordained patterning and upset the balance is the human being as it has been given a free will (otherwise the life in this world can’t be considered a test). When we pray and place our foreheads on the earth in obedience to the Creator it should remind us that in the end, maintaining the balance of creation requires continuous awareness of the work and the will of God.

Even the aims of Sharia (‘the way’, based on the Qur’an and the example of the Prophet Muhammed) clearly require we all work to maintain a living planet

Muslims believe that this life is a test and on Day of Judgment our life on earth will be reviewed and those that ‘pass the exam’, that is have absolved well of our duties on earth, will be granted paradise. Others will not be so lucky. The ‘exam’, however, is not a ‘one size fits all’: the more

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power, money, intellect etc we have in this world available to us (those “raised in rank above others”), the harder the test, the more actions (or opportunities for actions) we are accountable for.

As an example: prayer is very important for Muslims (something we should do five times a day). For our prayer to be accepted we need to make ablutions. And even for such ‘trivial’ actions, Prophet Muhammed has given us clear guidelines that half a litre (1 mudd) or two litres (1 sa’a) of water (depending on type of ablution necessary) should suffice for this. There was a clear occasion when the Prophet saw someone performing ablution and said, “What is this extravagance, Sa’ad?”

He said, “Is there extravagance in the use of water?” He said, “Yes, even if you are at a flowing river.”

Extravagance is to use water without any benefit, using more than your fair share and thus denying it to others, either fellow humans or of any other species.

Chris Williams interviewed Russell Fitzpatrick What do you do at Birmingham Friends of the Earth?

I am involved in a lot.

Better to ask what I don’t do! I act as a receptionist, do painting, decorating, electrical work, plumbing, make things anyone asks me to make (e.g. a bike trailer for Maud) and I have worked in the cycle shop.

I’ve been working here since January 2005. It was only supposed to be a temporary thing but I just can’t leave the place and don’t intend to.

How did you get involved here?

I saw an advert at BVSC. I liked the idea of the work involved and the city location meant I could get here easily.

If I had to get from Perry Barr to Kings Heath or Bordesley Green, say, it would involve two buses and it would be typical to find the 2nd bus leaving the bus stop just as my 1st bus arrives.

Why do you like working here?

I can do so many new things and in greater depth than normal. I am able to learn and to use my own initiative.

What environmental issue are you most interested in?

Transport above and beyond all else.

Living in the Netherlands for 10 years has brought home to me the fact that it’s perfectly easy to live without a car.

It made me realise how easy it is to cycle. In the Netherlands, cyclists are not seen as poverty-stricken or wimps as they sometimes are here. I am aware of a neighbour that drives her child to school despite it being just a 5 minute walk away.

Finally some advice from Muhammed, should you wish it: “If the Day of Judgment comes upon anyone of you while he has a seedling in hand, let him plant it.” (again highlighting importance of duty of care towards Creation… you’d have thought that one might have other priorities at such time).

Salam (in peace).

Rianne

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Don’t just recycle Freecycle!

Freecycle is another of those ideas that has leapt across the Atlantic and taken root over here – but, unlike, most it is extremely good for the environment.

The basic premise is simple: if you have something that you would otherwise throw into the tip – don’t; instead, offer it to someone else for free. What’s more, the organisation is set up so that the obligation is on the receiver to pick it up from you. This all means that the stuff you’d otherwise throw away and send to landfill gets used by someone who actually wants it.

The benefit of Freecycle is that items that still have useful life left in them are kept out of landfill and we don’t pollute the ground with anything more than is absolutely necessary. And that’s not the only benefit – we also avoid all of the energy costs involved in making yet another item like the one thrown away – the mining, the fuel and transport costs, the manufacture, retail, storage and distribution costs.

Just like everything else nowadays this is all run from a website (see details below). One tip: when you join, make sure you set your receiving email options to “daily digest”. This option accumulates 25 emails into one large one - we have got 9,400 members and

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there can be a lot of stuff offered and requested!

In Birmingham we estimate we save a ton a day from landfill, and we want to do more; we would love to get the Council supporting us (since we save them £150 in landfill tax for every ton we keep out of the ground) and we would also love to change their default approach to bulk waste from “we’ll pick it up once a quarter” to “why aren’t you freecycling that?” Also, we need to pester them to put up Freecycle banners and posters at all of the Birmingham tips so that visits to the tip become less frequent.

In Birmingham we estimate we save a ton a day from landfill

If you want to do more than just join the Birmingham Freecycle volunteer group we have got a band of volunteers who go out to shows and put talks on where needed.

Main global Freecycle site: www.freecycle.org Birmingham Freecycle site: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ birmingham_freecycle/ James Robertson

Multi Faith Today I had my second first day at work at the warehouse!

Having previously worked here as the daytime campaigner, I have returned to coordinate BfoEs work supporting faith ambassadors champion climate change.

In June 2006 Birmingham FoE along with the Environment Agency, Birmingham Sustainable Energy Partnership, Friends of the Earth and support from the City Council launched this project with a multi faith conference attended by over 100 with 11 faith communities represented. Since then the work has achieved success beyond all our hopes. A successful speaker evening, introduction of the ambassadors

scheme, the exhibition which continues to tour venues around the city, and the arrival of a full time employee means we look forward to scaling new heights reaching out and supporting faith communities to take action against climate change.

Look out in future newsletters to hear of successful projects initiated by our ambassadors and the arrival of new and exciting ventures to support this work!

....we look forward to scaling new heights reaching out and supporting faith communities to take action against climate change.

If you are interested in hearing more about this work, or becoming a Faith Ambassador please call Maud for an informal chat on 0121 632 6909 or email multifaith@birminghamfoe. org.uk.

Maud Grainger

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Green Nappies

I disagreed with the environment agency when they concluded there was little difference between washable nappies and disposables. I went for washables as there was plenty of room for improvement on the given’s in their study.

Approximately 8million disposables a day are thrown away with around 90% ending up in landfilli. For comparison they used leading brands of cotton nappies which is one of the world’s most polluting cropsii, where hemp and bamboo are much more sustainable crops – fast growing, hardy and pesticide free. They assumed nappies would be washed at 60 degrees, didn’t account for less frequent washes or environmentally friendly detergent or the difference made with a “AAA” rated washing machine. Obviously there is also the drying factor: line drying rather than tumble cuts down your impact dramatically. Change to a green electricity supplier as well and the result of the report would be very different. I have some great hemp and bamboo nappies, much more absorbent than cotton and in the case of bamboo, naturally antibacterial.

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The only snag is that they take longer to dry, but choosing styles where the absorbent layers can be removed and dried separately speeds this up. The king of fast drying has to be pocket nappies – stuff them with absorbent material which then can be removed for drying. I have some that line dry indoors in a few hours!

So, that cleared up, what about greening up disposables? Various brands of “eco” disposables are now available made with varying percentages of compostable material.

Moltex are probably the best, as far as materials used and the potential for degrading, but they won’t decompose in landfill so they need to be composted!

Or you could go all out and try www. pottywhisperer.com or www.naturalwisdom.com for tips on how to go about what would be ultimately the greenest solution – no nappies at all!

Birmingham city council offers a one off refund for using washables.

Available locally: “Thyme Out” in Kings Heath for Moltex, “Hushabye Baby” in Cotteridge stock some washables. For washable nappy home demonstrations contact Su Crossland of Nappy Happy on 0845 652226 or go to www.nappyhappy.com and T. Whittall of Lollipop on 0121 5595981 or go to www.teamlollipop.co.uk Deborah Woolaston-Kovar i Women’s Environmental Network www.wen.org.uk ii Soil Association www.soilassociation.org

… why don’t you use the idle processing power of your computer to help forecast climate change in the 21st century? www.climateprediction.net is a screensaver that by definition only kicks in when your computer is not being used. It then uses your PC’s idle processing power to work on its own climate prediction model – one of many thousands being run with different parameters and assumptions by the millions of people running this software.

The download is all free and the site is easy to use; all you need to do is download the core software – called BOINC – and then decide which project to join – they even have one helping to analyse radio telescope data for signs of extra-terrestrial life!

This concept is known as “distributed processing” and chops up very large problems into smaller pieces that individual PC’s can work on.

When the results are accumulated together all of these different computers equate to the largest super computer on the planet.

© Photographer: Automatika

Should you take for granted that washable nappies are the environmentally friendly choice?

If You Do One Thing This is one of those “things you can do today” that is free and easy and helps the planet. And don’t worry about burning more power – your computer would be switched on anyway as you don’t turn it off when you stand up and go to make a coffee.

This is one of those “things you can do today” that is free and easy and helps the planet..

And if you are really worried about the power that you use then why not switch to a 100% renewable energy provider like www.ecotricity. co.uk – where you can even sign up online! They will change you over to electricity that is 100% guaranteed to be generated from wind power and it’s the next best thing to erecting your own wind turbine and solar panels, which are capital-intensive and slow to pay back.

And that means I have now mentioned two things you could do today!

James Robertson

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Dear Mary....

We are currently building our own house, and want a green solution for the loo. Are composting toilets the best solution?

John, Bromsgrove.

The main problem with conventional toilets is that they use lots of water so a ‘waterless toilet’ makes a lot of sense.

However, having said that, composting toilets are probably not for everyone.

Urban and suburban lifestyles, due to the concentration of population and high rise living, are best served by the collective sewage system, although water could be saved in the running of such systems if we made more use of ‘grey water’. Diverting shower and bath water into a holding tank could provide water for many flushes during the day, not to mention rainwater harvesting.

This would help reduce your meter readings and save money. It is difficult to incorporate composting toilets within a house and ensure compliance with health and building regulations water is the waste transporter!

fertility of many a cottage garden is attributed to the years of ‘bucket and chuck it’ that earlier generations had to resort to. Given that conventional septic tanks cost in excess of a £100 to empty, a composting toilet has its attractions but a late night trip up the garden might not be to everyone’s taste!

For the smaller suburban garden the chamber could be hidden within fast growing willows which thrive on the decomposing material. Health issues and neighbours must not be ignored and a lot of advice is available from the Centre for Alternative Technology and the Environment Agency. Try a Google search under ‘composting toilets’ and all will be revealed.

SEPT

4th Aug Kings Heath Rail Campaign Stall, Kings Heath.

1-2nd Sept, Moseley Folk Festival, Moseley.

14-21st Aug Climate Camp, Heathrow, London.

7-9th Sept, FoE National Conference, Reading.

16th Aug Organic Food Speakers Meeting, The Warehouse Cafe.

14-16th Sept, Artsfest, The Big Birmingham Weekend.

17th Aug Last date to book cheap tickets to FoE conference.

23rd Sept, Botanical Gardens Conservation Day, Edgbaston.

18th Aug Warehouse Cleaning Party, BFOE Warehouse.

27th Aug Christian Aid Climate Change March, Digbeth to Cannon Hill Park.

27th Aug Islamic Relief Cycle Ride, leading to Cannon Hill Park.

Mary Horesh

Farmers’ Market New St: 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month King’s Heath: 1st Saturday of the month

If, however, you want an extra toilet in the garden or on the allotment there are various ways of creating a waterless toilet with the added benefit of producing a soil conditioner. An elevated toilet enclosure is needed which is built on top of a chamber from which the compost is eventually removed. Sawdust or some other material will have to be added at each ‘flush’ time. Soil, peat substitutes, or home made composts could be used as the drying medium. The ‘compost’ produced should not be thrown around among your vegetables but dug in. The

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Sutton Coldfield: 2nd Friday of the month King’s Norton: 2nd Saturday of the month Harborne: 2nd Saturday of the month 9-2pm Moseley: 4th Saturday of the month Solihull: 1st Friday of the month Shirley: 3rd Thursday of the month except Jan and Feb Bearwood: 3rd Saturday of the month Visit this site for more info: http://thefoody.com/regions/centralfm. html#westmidlands

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