Winter 2017 newsletter final version

Birmingham

friends of the earth Newsletter, Winter 2017

Inside This Issue 8

COP 23

17

Our Journey to Clean Air

24

Don’t Lose Your Bottle!

Contents Campaigns Digest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Community Share Issue Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 COP 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Go Renewable, Keep Our Air Clean. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Digbeth Community Garden Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Big Bee Debate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Our Journey to Clean Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 What is Going On in Birmingham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Hidde Voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Sifa Fireside. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 BFoE Heritage Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Don’t Lose Your Bottle!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Plastics in the Ocean. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 A Rubbish Christmas for the Environment. . . . . . . . 28 Divest WMPF Campaign Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Volunteer in the Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Stalls Competition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Diary Dates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Contact Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Cover: Grass designed by Freepik. Medical icons deisgned by Lyolya Profitrolya / Freepik

2

Campaigns Digest

By Libby Harris

Hello and welcome to our winter newsletter. It has been very busy here at the Warehouse. We have been campaigning on air pollution, climate refugees and the Bee Cause alongside preparing our new bottle recycling campaign.

There has been a lot of activity around preparing for the building renovations which started in October. We also welcomed a new member of staff, Nasreen who is our Admin and Facilities Officer.

In this issue we will be taking a closer look at our air pollution and bottle recycling campaigns along with taking a look at what else is

going on in Birmingham with guest articles from Hidden Voices and Sifa Fireside. There is also a helpful guide about how you can reduce the amount of waste you produce during the holiday season.

Air Pollution We have been very busy campaigning on air pollution over the past few months. We held a Clean Air Conga at the end of September which provided the perfect opportunity to engage people with issues of poor air quality and how they can make a positive difference. You can find out all about it in Poppy’s article.

3

On 14 October we took part in the International Climate Action Day in which we were highlighting the importance of switching to renewable energy. We spent the day in Birmingham City Centre asking people to sign our mural.

Read Molly’s article to find out more.

Energy and Climate Change At the beginning of September we had an interesting meeting with Hidden Voices who are working on a similar climate refugee campaign to ours. We are hoping to work with them on something soon so watch this space! Take a look at Liz’s article to find out more about Hidden Voices.

The Divest team have been very busy since winning the support of Birmingham City Council over the summer. They have now started to put a working group together in Coventry. Take a look at Kay’s article for a campaign update.

Nature Our beehives in Digbeth Community Garden are doing well and the bees are busy preparing for winter. There is a lot of debate around how ethical it is to keep 4

bees which Poppy and Mark have started to explore. Take a look at the Big Bee Debate articles and let us know your thoughts.

Transport Our work on transport issues has been a little quiet lately but we did respond to the consultation on the proposed changes to Birmingham Airport’s Runway 33.

Waste As I’m writing this there have been some developments with Birmingham City Council’s Future Waste Strategy. The waste team have sprung into action, keep an eye out for developments.

The waste team have been busy developing our new bottle recycling campaign which you can read all about in Jodie’s article.

There are many different ways you can get involved with our campaigns and we always welcome new people. Whether you have a little time or a lot please get in touch or come along to any of our weekly Monday night meetings (Check out the diary page for contact details).

Follow us on Twitter (@Bham_FOE) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/ birminghamfoe)

S U P P O R T We are the only organisation in Birmingham that campaigns on Air Quality, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Energy, Transport, Planning, Waste and Recycling.

You can help us to do this in a number of ways: Take part in our campaigns.

Join us as a supporter.

Make a donation.

Or you could receive our email updates and decide what you want to do when you know us a bit better.

Whichever way you get involved, you are helping to make Birmingham green and sustainable!

For donations go to http://localgiving.com/birminghamfoe

5

Community Share Issue Update

By Richard Bickle

Following our successful Community Share Issue, a lot of effort has been going in to getting ready for the builders - who should have started by the time you read this!

As you’ll see next time you visit, the meeting room has closed until next year, our main entrance has moved around the corner to Shaw’s Passage and the old reception has been filled with the Warehouse Café’s refrigeration equipment.

Behind the scenes we have been busy emptying the middle bay area, archiving old records and have had much-needed repairs carried out to the main warehouse roof.

The first jobs that the builders will be tackling are the creation of a new entrance and staircase from Allison Street to the first floor, repairing one of the roof timbers above the the offices and creating toilet facilities with a mezzanine storage area above them. Once this has been

6

done we can start on the exciting project to create new spaces for Natural Healthy Foods and the Warehouse CafĂŠ downstairs.

Over the past couple of months we have been very glad of the help provided our by Assistant General Managers John Newson and Mark Hawkins who provided temporary staff cover during the recruitment of an Administration & Finance Officer and we are delighted to have appointed Nasreen to fill this position over the coming year.

We know that there will be some disruption during the building works and thank you all in advance for your patience! Regular updates will be being posted on-line and in the next few issues of the newsletter.

We would like to invite you to our Christmas party on Monday 18 December to thank you for your generous investment and to show you the amazing work that Jericho have done so far.

Doors will open from 6:30pm until 9pm and The Warehouse Cafe will be providing some nibbles. We really hope you can come along and join in our end of year celebration.

You’re invited to our Christmas party on 18 December, 6:30pm at The Warehouse. RSVP: info@birminghamfoe.org.uk

Illustrations designed by Pixabay & Freepik

7

Fiji is the first Small Island Nation to host climate talks at COP 23

By Elin Strom

Two years ago, an agreement was reached at Conference of the Parties ( COP) 21 in Paris, an agreement with limitations but also possibilities. In November it is time for COP 23. This time in Bonn, Germany, however, the host country is Fiji.

It was a different world in 2015, nothing was stopping the

8

agreement in Paris, not even the threat of terrorism. Today, the threat of terrorism is still present, but we have a US President who has decided to leave the Paris Agreement. On top of that, the threat of a nuclear war seems to be real again. In the UK, Brexit steals the spotlight in the news, unless President Trump tweets, and climate change is underreported.

We have seen huge storms in the

Caribbean and the US in the last few months. Storms that have likely grown bigger because of climate change. Fiji were struck by the biggest cyclone ever to make landfall in the southern hemisphere last year, a third of the nation’s GDP was lost. Fiji is living with climate change right now. So is COP 23 important? Yes, but mostly because it will set the rules for COP24 in Poland and the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue, which will be “taking stock” on countries Nationally Determined Contributions and hopefully increase the ambition of the Paris Agreement. Fiji has also expressed hopes for bringing the target of limiting global warming from well below 2°C to 1.5°C. The fact that Fiji is hosting the talks is important, the first Small Island nation to do so. At Birmingham Friends of the Earth we are campaigning for the rights of climate refugees and we are pleased to see the Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, mentioning climate refugees in his speech at the UN General Assembly in September.

Even though Fiji is facing major challenges with whole villages being moved due to rising seas, salinity affecting crops and the constant threat of devastating cyclones, they have still promised refuge neighbouring islands Kiribati and Tuvalu, refugee, should they lose their own to the waves. That shows great compassion and we can all learn from Fiji. And as the Prime Minister of Fiji says – “we are all in the same canoe”.

If you would like to get involved in our climate change campaigning email info@birminghamfoe.org.uk

Illustrations designed by Freepik.

9

Go Renewable, Keep Our Air Clean

By Molly Luke

On the 14th October, Friends of the Earth held an international day of action for the climate, where we invited FOE groups across the world to get creative and come together for a day of climate events, actions and mobilisations.

The aim was to use powerful climate narratives to promote renewable energy, show the people in power that fossil fuels are dated and dirty, and remind them that we are still not standing for fracking, not now, not ever. It was a day of collective action and solidarity that will ensure this message is heard loud and clear..

As the theme was renewable energy, we saw the International Day of Climate Action as a good opportunity to talk about air pollution in Birmingham.

Renewable energy doesn’t create 10

the kind of dirty pollutants that are bad for our lungs, so the message we spread was to ‘go renewable, keep our air clean!’ To get the public talking about air pollution and the possibilities of renewable energy, we painted this message across a big banner before going out into the city centre and asking the public to show their support by signing it. The aim was to end up with a visual representation of local support for a transition to renewable energy that will improve urban air quality all over the country, and of course the world!

This action was inspired by FOE’s suggestion that local groups go out into public spaces to create murals that tell a climate narrative.

We liked this idea, and thought we could use it to simultaneously promote our clean air campaign. As there’s nothing we like more than

a conversation starter, we were looking forward to the opportunity to chat with local residents, find out how they feel about the air pollution levels in Birmingham, and get the city thinking about what a Clean Air Zone could do for us. As the International Day of Climate

Illustrations designed by Freepik.

Action is a day for collaboration and collective action, we also invited other local groups to come along and join us. As usual, we had a group photo at the end of the action!

11

Digbeth Community Garden Update

Keep up to date with the latest developments:

Twitter @DigbethGarden

Facebook www.facebook.com/ digbethcommunitygarden

Website https://digbethcommunity garden.wordpress.com

Illustrations designed by Freepik.

12

August was a busy month at the Digbeth Community Garden. We had 2 National Citizen groups lending a hand. We have done some landscaping , mixing compost into our annual beds, improved our insect hotels and propagated some herb cuttings.

The runner beans are doing really well and for the first time this year our Greater Burdock is in flower.

Darren from Hives and Honey has been for the hive maintenance and has spun and processed some jars of Digbeth Bees honey for us.

After our last Digbeth first Friday of the summer, the garden is going to calm down as it hibernates for the winter. Right now the garden is swarming with froglets and they can be seen around the pond and hiding under logs and in the hedges. Once they have all vacated the large pond, we will be doing some maintenance on it. We have already added bog plants and soil to our smaller pond to create a bog garden.

13

The Big Bee Debate Mark Hawkins

flora.

There are various reasons people choose to keep bees in the UK. These include; as a hobby, for conservation and for farming (honey etc). Bee farming on a large scale is mainly for the production of bee related products such as honey, bees wax and royal jelly.

**The value of honey bees as a pollinator far outweighs their value as honey producers and the UKs crop pollination industry has an estimated value that is greater than ÂŁ400million every year**

Bee keeping in the UK is largely a hobby. There are commercial beekeepers, but the vast majority of them use beekeeping as part of their income and the number who rely entirely on bees is very small.

Here at BFoE, we have had 2 bee hives installed in Digbeth community garden for around 18 months now. We are keeping bees as we feel they are beneficial to the local area as their numbers, especially in our cities, have been on the decline for many years now.

Our 2 colonies prove that bees can thrive in our cities and can live happily alongside humans.

Our community garden shows how beneficial they can be as pollinators with an abundance of budhlia and other flowers and herbs and the wild flowers all along the railway line to Moor street station.

Most new beekeepers will start off with a small number of colonies to enable them to study bee behaviour and produce a small amount of honey to sell. After a few years experience some will decide to increase their stocks and go commercial. (bee keeping for profit, “farming�). During recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the important service bees and other beneficial pollinating insects provide by pollinating many agricultural and horticultural crops as well as wild 14

OUR REASONS

This is the first full year we have had our hives and we have harvested the honey (leaving plenty

in the hives to sustain the colonies over the winter). This wasn’t our incentive behind obtaining the hives and is purely for hive maintenance. Our incentive was to enable us to help raise awareness and teach the local community just how important our bees are to everyday life. The financial implications alone of losing our bee colonies completely in the UK are massive as it it estimated that it would cost £1.8 billion per year to self pollinate just the essential crops we need for food , let alone the impact a further decline in wild flowers would have on our already delicate ecosystems.

Poppy Buckingham There are a number of reasons to reconsider the virtues of beekeeping and eating honey. Many of us love the sweet taste of honey, but even so, we must consider where our food comes from and how we treat bees to get it.

There are clear arguments against bee farming (on both a large and small scale) and against eating honey. We get honey by manipulating a living creature, stealing its food source that it has worked hard to build up, causing them stress and sometimes harm in the process.

Beekeeping is profiting on the back of the hard work of others.

Bees collect nectar and use it to make honey, which provides vital nourishment for them, especially during the winter months. Nectar contains lots of water, so the bees have to work hard to dry it out, adding enzymes from their own body to the nectar to convert it into food and preserve it.

Coninued on Page 16 15

Continued from page 15 PETA has identified concerns about how some large scale bee farming operations treat and manipulate their bees. They cite how the bees are kept in unnatural environments and also the stress caused during transportation. There are also causes for concern and caution about small scale beekeeping.

There is some concern that the trend of urban beekeeping may be harmful to bee population size and overall health. Many people who get into urban beekeeping do so to help save the bee population,but this may be counter productive.

In 2013 Francis Ratnieks and Karin Alton of the Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at the University of Sussex highlighted the trouble caused by a recent spike in urban beekeeping in London. The number of hives in the city had doubled in the preceding 5 years. However, the increase in hives had not been coupled with an increase in suitable plant life. The result was very many malnourished and unhealthy bees.

16

Ratnieks and Alton stressed the importance of considering the local environment first. They argued that the best way to encourage and support bees in your area may not be to have a hive and become a beekeeper, instead plant beefriendly plants (such as lavender or marjoram) and keep a bee friendly garden.

If you want to help bees in your area, rather than run a beehive, consider having a bee friendly garden, signing a petition against neonicontinoids and other harmful pesticides which are damaging the bee population, or contacting your MP about this. Visit https:// www.foe.co.uk/bees for more information.

Our Journey to Clean Air or by foot. This will help to reduce car journeys, improving air quality and also people’s health.

Our reasoning is clear: Every year an estimated 40,000 people in the UK die prematurely due to air pollution. For Birmingham, the annual figure is around 891. Air pollution in Birmingham is having a long term impact on our health.

By Poppy Buckingham We have continued to be busy with our Clean Air Campaign over recent months.

Saturday 14th October was Friends of the Earth’s International Day of Action Against Climate Change. We used this date to launch our petition. We’re asking Birmingham City Council to: 1. Implement an enforceable Birmingham wide Clean Air Zone by 2020 2. Ensure Nitrogen Dioxide levels remain below EU limits everywhere in Birmingham, all the time once the Clean Air Zone is in place 3. Make certain that monitoring of all areas in Birmingham is regularly carried out and reported and that this information is publicly available.

We also want them to improve Birmingham’s public transport infrastructure and the safety of cyclists and pedestrians so that more journeys can be made by public transport, by cycle

Over the next few months we hope to: - Meet with councillors to discuss plans for the Clean Air Zone.

- Put up extra air testing kits around Birmingham to measure air pollution. This will increase the body of evidence about the state of our air.

- Continue building up signatures for our petition.

- We’re also planning a stall in January before we present our petition to the council.

To sign our petition or learn more, please visit http://www.birminghamfoe.org. uk/what-we-do/issues-we-work-on/airquality/tell-birmingham-city-council-thatyou-want-clean-air-everywhere/ We are always happy to welcome new members. If you would like to learn more about our campaigns, please feel free to contact us or pop along to weekly Monday meetings.

17

What is Going On in

Hidden Voices

Photo courtesy of Hidden Voices

By Liz Bull-Domican

Climate change is not a taboo subject. We are constantly being informed by the media when it comes to climate change, from droughts and flood events, to international summits being held to combat the rising issue. However, whilst climate change and the refugee crisis can be found in almost every media outlet daily, attention is lacking towards one group of people affected by both current issues – ‘climate refugees’.

18

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 22.5 million people have been forced to migrate due to weather and climate-related events and disasters in the last ten years. Currently, the majority of climate refugees internally migrate, meaning that instead of trekking a life-threatening journey across the Mediterranean Sea, they stay within their country’s borders.

However, as a result of climate change, more people will eventually be forced to migrate beyond the borders of their homeland. The main issue is that climate refugees are not officially recognised by the United Nations and therefore lack legal protection under international law.

Hidden Voices wants to change that. Whilst world leaders are discussing strategies to prevent further global warming, we must

Birmingham help those already affected by it.

How can you help?

You can help us campaign for the United Nations to officially recognise climate refugees by signing our petition here: https:// www.change.org/p/uk-parliamentgive-climate-refugees-therecognition-that-they-urgentlyrequire.

Stay in touch If you want to keep up-to-date with the campaign, you can find us on Twitter and Facebook at @

Sifa Fireside

By Libby Harris

Homelessness is an issue which is close to my heart. In Birmingham, where the rate of homelessness has increased by 2,000% since 2009/10 – up from 157 cases then to 3,479 last year, there are many people experiencing homelessness in our city. I was really pleased

HiddenVoices17. You can also email us at hiddenvoices2017@ gmail.com for any questions about our campaign.

About Hidden Voices Hidden Voices started through the UpRising Environmental Leadership Programme in Birmingham. In addition to continuing with our climate refugees campaign, Shamas Khan and I hope to expand and cover a wider variety of social and environmental issues in the near-future.

when Melissa, Fundraising & Corporate Partnerships Manager for Sifa Fireside agreed to meet me so I could find out more about the amazing work the organisation undertakes to improve the health and wellbeing of homeless people as well as offering many additional services within the drop in centre at SIFA Fireside.

Continued on page 20...

19

Sifa Fireside Continued from page 19...

Sifa Fireside formed in 2007 and opens their doors 7 days a week.

On a daily basis they provide a drop in service for homeless people and those who are vulnerably housed.

I was surprised by the amount of different services they provide under one roof. On arrival each person reports to reception where they can have their post delivered to.

They are then sent to an advisor who assesses their needs. They can have a meal, take a shower, wash their clothes, have a haircut, see the dentist,get expert legal advice and so much more! During an average month they serve 3,404 meals, provide over 100 people with clothing and 429 people use their shower facilities.

As well as catering for basic needs, Sifa Fireside is a safe place for people to go along to socialise with each other. Even well-behaved dogs are allowed. As well as talking over meals, playing board games and borrowing books, people can take part in many different workshops such as crafts and music. During 20

a music workshop a few years ago a band formed who now lead workshops and play fundraising gigs.

All this incredible work couldn’t be possible without the help of staff and dedicated volunteers. They are always looking for volunteers and they continually rely on donations of food, clothing and financial support to keep the charity operating.

More details about Sifa Fireside can be found on their website and Facebook page: http://www.sifafireside.co.uk https://www.facebook.com/ sifafireside

Divest WMPF The WMPF, which manages the pensions for all the region's council employees, has significant investment in fossil fuels.These investments expose the pensions to risk. The share prices of the top 5 fossil fuel companies have fallen over the last 5 years.

Tell the WMPF to take this opportunity to contribute to a greener future and move away from fossil fuels by: Sign our petition Write to your local councillor Volunteer

www.birminghamfoe.org.uk/divest­wmpf DivestWMPF

@DivestWMPF

21

BFoE Heritage Project

By Liz Palmer

We had two sessions in October having a brief overview of the existing BFoE archives held at the Library of Birmingham. One of the sessions was exceedingly brief as there had been an unexpected and somewhat chaotic evacuation of the building just as we were heading up to Level Four!

But we were able to spend some time catching up with Val Stevens on one of her rare forays back to Birmingham which she left 24 years ago! Val was one of the founder members of BFoE back in the early 1970s and is still very much involved with environmental and population issues over 40 years later. Graham Lennard reminded her that she had been responsible for his involvement with BFoE after he’d popped into the Warehouse in 1983 to see what went on there - she’d grabbed him and got him putting up shelving and so began his long association with the organisation.

22

There is a variety of material within the archive collections (& more to be added from material still held

by BFoE and donations received during the course of this project) and there was much discussion about how we use it to tell the story of the organisation from its inception. What are we looking for and how are we going to mine the archive to give us the answers to our questions?

Following these discussions, these are the areas that we have decided to focus on: Timeline & Infographics A timeline was included in a 1980 newsletter featuring 3 years at the Warehouse & this could be extended to include key events in the following years Campaigns: Then & Now What were the key issues in the 70s & 80s? Successes & Failures?

Global, national & local?

Practical Projects From its inception BFoE set up practical projects using volunteers

or paid staff eg Home Insulation Project,Paper Recycling Project.

How successful were these – and why/when did they come to an end?

Ways of Working: Then & Now Looking at the early material it is clear that co-operative principles and non-hierarchical ways of working were very important. How did this impact on BFoE’s activities

and campaigning?

Don’t forget you can follow our progress and contribute via our social media: https://wordpress.com/post/ bfoeheritage40.wordpress.com https://www.facebook.com/bfoe. heritage.5 https://twitter.com/ BFoEHeritage40

23

Don’t Lose Your Bottle!

By Jodie Etheride

An update on our campaign for a Deposit Return Scheme on plastic bottles This campaign has progressed well over the last few months. Some background research has been carried out. Following this it has been decided that it would work best as a national level campaign

24

rather than a local level campaign as it will be more feasible to implement and fund this way. We have also had a Monday night campaigns meeting in which we voted for the campaign name and chose ‘Have you got the bottle?’.

We then allocated roles to those who kindly volunteered to help and they have now started to

carry these out. At this stage the tasks include some research into statistics on plastic bottle waste and plastic bottle deposit return schemes in other countries as well as making contact with other environmental groups to ask for their support. Thank you to everyone who is already helping or has already offered to help. There’s still time to get involved so if you would like to then please email jodie@birminghamfoe.org.uk Another exciting development has been that we have met with a contact at the Canal and River Trust. Thank you to John Newson for setting this up. The meeting was very positive and the Canal and River Trust seem keen to work with us. We discussed how they could do this by spreading the word to their members. We also looked at how we could work together to create and run a pilot deposit return scheme on plastic bottles.

bottles following an effective campaign for this in Scotland and a report by Zero Waste Scotland into the proposal. This is really positive news not only for Scotland but also for us in the UK as the way has been paved for us to implement a similar scheme.

Thank you very much to everyone who has been working hard to get this campaign off the ground.

We’ve already come a long way with it and I’m confident that the foundations are laid for the campaign to continue to develop.

Onwards and upwards!

We have also taken great heart from the decision of the Scottish government to implement a Deposit Return Scheme for plastic Illustration designed and photo courtesy of Pixabay

25

Plastics in the Ocean

By Alice Grennan

The Problem with Plastic In the increasingly disposable world, it is estimated that over 50% of the toxic emitting plastics are created with the intention of being disposable, meaning more are produced and less reused.

Since the 1950s the approximate production of plastic annually has increased from 1.5 million tonnes to 299 million in 2013. This plastic is estimated to take hundreds if not thousands of years to degrade, and even longer in marine environments, due to low oxygen levels and decreased UV exposure.

When plastic items such as plastic bags or bottles are deposited into the ocean, they break down into smaller fragments when exposed to UV radiation from the sun and many particles converge to a large area in the Pacific the size of France, called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Ocean plasticity problems The Great Pacific Garbage patch harbours many different problems 26

within the ocean, particularly regarding the ecosystem. Ingestion and entanglement of these plastic pieces has become an issue for many fish and birds and over 600 different marine life species and 1 million seabirds die every year as a result.

Bio magnification is another huge issue, as it can negatively affect human health. Broken down plastic particles, once ingested by marine life, will be transported up the food chain (each step will increase the concentration) as predators eat prey containing the particles. This means that humans (if fish is a key dietary component), at the top of the food chain, will contain a higher concentration of the toxic plastic than other marine life, within their body.

Solutions Bioplastics are a very encouraging development, meaning some plastics will no longer take thousands of years to degrade, and in some cases can even be

ingested by organisms with no harm whatsoever.

Another solution is a plastic bottle return scheme. This is the topic of one of our new campaigns which aims to lobby the government tom implement such a scheme. This will work by giving money back to people when they recycle their plastic bottles.

ways to reduce the use of plastic altogether. A hot topic at the moment is plastic free shops and the first UK shop was opened in London this year.

It is also important to think of

Images courtsey of Pixabay

27

A Rubbish Christmas for the Environment

By Victoria Heald

Christmas is known as a time for giving, receiving and also overindulging, but this means that December is one of the most wasteful months of the entire year. Figures from the ‘Women’s Environmental Network’ indicate that on average, the UK produces 28

30% more waste (3 million tonnes) during the Christmas period compared to other months. Four factors that are undoubtedly contributing to this extra waste at Christmas are: 1) food waste 2) wrapping paper

3) cardboard packaging 4) Christmas trees but what can we do to help make Christmas less rubbish for the environment?

Well according to ‘Love Food Hate Waste’, the equivalent of 2 million turkeys and 74 million mince pies are thrown away every Christmas. To overcome this, edible meat and vegetable leftovers can be made into meals (curries, stews etc.) and given to local homeless charities.

Moving onto wrapping paper, luckily, most types can be recycled so try to separate this from your landfill waste (except papers containing metallic and glitter). If you’re unsure, keep the wrapping paper and reuse it for wrapping gifts the following Christmas or reuse the paper for art projects and/or campaign posters.

sustainable sources or alternatively shop at zero-waste shops where packaging is non-existent!

Finally, the ‘British Christmas Trees Growers’ Association’ estimate that 6 million non-artificial Christmas trees are either burnt/dumped each year; there is no need for this!

In January, Household Recycling Centres often accept Christmas trees, whilst many Local Authorities offer recycling services at Country Parks (here the trees are stripped and used as wood-chip in parks).

In addition to this, certain charities also offer Christmas tree recycling in early January for a small donation.

As Christmas draws closer, remember to tell your friends and family about the additional waste that results from the holiday period.

I hope that you have a very Merry Christmas!

Furthermore, statistics from ‘Recycle Now’, indicate that the UK gets through 300,000 tonnes of packaging at Christmas - that’s enough to cover Big Ben 240,000 times over! To avoid this wastage, try to buy items and gifts that have been packaged in materials from

Photo by Alan Cleaver. Illustration designed by Pixabay.

29

Divest WMPF

By Kay Edwards

In June we found out that divestment from Fossil Fuels was at last going to be debated by Birmingham City Council! With only three weeks to prepare the Divest WMPF team sprang into action.

We set up a website information hub for public and Councillors alike. Brummies were called upon to lobby their Councillors.

The pieces of the puzzle started to come together as May’s lobbying of Mayoral candidates paid off, giving the motion cross party appeal, and postcards collected from constituents on Global Divestment Day were mailed to around 50 Councillors asking them to support the motion.

On Tuesday 11th July we witnessed the debate at Birmingham Council house. The passion being expressed was amazing: Councillor Harmer ( Lib Dem) “If we are to save our environment for future generations it is vital that we leave most of our coal and oil resources in the ground.

It therefore makes no sense for 30

Birmingham’s pension funds to be investing in industries based on exploiting these resources. Instead we should be investing more in low carbon technologies, which enable us to live cleaner, healthier lives.”

Councillor Straker Welds (Labour) ‘To continue investing in a commodity with a restricted capacity and decreasing value, that poses a threat to the values of our council, the safety of the planet and the targets set by Paris and Copenhagen, Is an inconsistency that doesn’t stack up.’

Councillor Alden,( Conservative) ‘We should be trying to position our city and region as the global leader on green infrastructure technology and green manufacturing.’

‘It was amazing ,when the vote came, to see all the hands raised and realise the Divestment Motion had unanimous, cross party support! ‘ Following this success we are taking the campaign to Coventry.

If you would like to be involved please contact the Divest Team via face book or email DivestWMPF@ gmail.com

Volunteer in the Spotlight Alice Grennan

How long have you been volunteering with BFOE? I have only been volunteering for a few months and I love every day that I come in!

What do you do at BFOE? I volunteer on Mondays and Tuesdays, mainly doing tasks such as updating the social media, helping to organise newsletters and writing articles. I am excited to get more involved with the campaigns soon, particularly the climate refugee campaign.

What do you think is the most important environmental issue and why?

I think deforestation is the most important environmental issue.

Deforestation not only destroys endangered and vital species’ habitat but it also releases the

carbon stored deep within the wood and the soil, leading to increased ghg’s in the atmosphere and resulting in climate change.

The replanting of trees, although obviously helping, will not solve this problem, as the ancient carbon stores, in places such as the Amazon (where the carbon has been stored for up to 55 million years) will be released into the atmosphere. Newly planted trees will not create that kind of sink for centuries upon centuries, and will just soak up the maximum amount a tree can take in.

What’s your best green tip/advice?

Know the facts, get informed and get involved. Thats a good place to start. Another thing I would say is to not give up and to always try to be better. If say for instance you’re trying to give up or cut down on meat and you break it, don’t be downed heartened, just keep trying, small individual changes if made by everyone can make huge changes globally.

31

Stalls Season & Competition

By Jodie Etheridge

As winter draws in and the days start to get shorter we have come to end of our main season for stalls and events. It’s been a fantastic one which I feel honoured to have co-ordinated. Lots of money has been raised, in particular for us to buy our beehives in Digbeth Community Garden. Also, lots of new people have found out about Birmingham Friends of the Earth by visiting our stalls and then got involved. We have had stalls at events we have been to before including CoCoMad in Cotteridge Park and Moseley Festival Street Fair and we have also attended some new events such as ValeFest, a charity music festival at University of Birmingham.

The stalls we have attended this season have been a great success and have really helped to raise our profile.

We will be having a stalls 32

competition for volunteers with the categories of ‘most stalls attended’ ‘most stall time’ and ‘best photo’. The winner of ‘most stalls attended’ and ‘most stall time’ will be calculated carefully according to records of this information kept throughout the season. The winner of ‘best photo’ will be voted for at the Christmas Party. I value everyone’s contribution equally; the competition is just to encourage volunteers.

I would like to thank everyone who has made this stalls season possible. A massive thank you to everyone who has helped out on a stall(s) and/or has come to one of our stalls or events as a visitor. We value everyone’s contribution. A massive thank you to our amazing Campaigns support Worker, Libby Harris, for giving me the fantastic opportunity of being stalls coordinator and for supporting me every step of the way with this role.

I couldn’t have done it without you!

Illustration designed by Freepik.

33

Diary Dates Campaigns meetings Mondays 7:30pm

27 November Action Meeting: Plastic bottle campaign planning 4 December General Meeting 11 December Action Meeting: Climate Refugee campaign planning 18 December Christmas Party 25 December Closed - No Meeting 1 January Closed - No Meeting 8 January General Meeting 15 January Action Meeting - TBC 22 January Action Meeting - TBC 29 January Action Meeting - TBC 5 February General Meeting 12 February Action Meeting - TBC Due to building renovations we are holding our meetings at other locations. Please email info@birminghamfoe.org.uk for more info.

1. General meeting: First Monday of the month and involves an update on each of our campaigns 2. A ction meeting: Skills share or interactive discussion or an activity which supports one of our campaigns.

34

Other events 18 December BFoE Christmas Party, The Warehouse 2nd/3rd December Decorating at The Warehouse 17 December Decorating at The Warehouse 13 January Don’t Lose Your Bottle! campaign launch

Farmers’ markets Kings Heath 1st Saturday of the month 9am – 3:30pm Solihull 1st Friday of the month 9am – 5pm New Street 1st & 3rd Wednesday of the month 10am – 4pm Sutton Coldfield 2nd Friday of the month 9am – 3pm Harborne 2nd Saturday of the month 9am – 2pm Jewellery Quarter 3rd Saturday of the month 10am – 3pm Birmingham University 4th Wednesday of the month 9am – 2pm Moseley 4th Saturday of the month 9am – 3pm

Contact Us Friends of the Earth (Birmingham) The Warehouse 54-57 Allison Street Birmingham B5 5TH Tele: (0121) 6326909 Email: info@birminghamfoe.org.uk Web: www.birminghamfoe.org.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/ birminghamfoe Twitter: @Bham_FOE Instagram: birminghamfoe Friends of the Earth is: • The largest international network of environmental groups in the world, represented in 72 countries.

• One of the UK’s leading environmental pressure groups.

• A unique network of campaigning local groups, working in more than 200 communities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

• Over 90% of its funds come from its supporters.

Birmingham FoE: We campaign at a local level to effect environmental change (in ways which feed into national and international policy) through:

Contacts Campaigns Co-ordinators Molly Luke & Poppy Buckingham Campaigns Support Worker Libby Harris General Manager Richard Bickle Admin & Facilities Officer Nasreen Treasurer Margaret Lynch Climate Change & Energy Molly Luke Nature Mark Hawkins Planning Benjamin Mabbett Waste & Recycling John Newson’s & Jodie Etheridge Newsletter Editor Catherine Palgrave Talks Libby Harris & others All enquires and callers welcome

• Lobbying • Education • Empowering others to take action • Participation and representation through public fora.

35

Come and help us celebrate the end of a fantastic year!

Monday 18 December at 6:30pm at The Warehouse We’re celebrating a great year of campaigning and thanking everyone who has volunteered for, supported and invested in BFoE. Everyone is welcome to come help and join in our celebrations. There will be a bring and share buffet.

So we have an idea of numbers Please RSVP by emailing libby@ birminghamfoe.org.uk

Birmingham

friends of the earth