As the global recession takes hold...bugger the environment

In the current issue of Private Eye there is a cartoon in which the EU environment ministers re-assess climate targets. "Great! We can dump these targets that we were never going to meet and blame the banks".

On the same page there is an article about Gordon Brown campaigning to get the price per litre of fuel reduced, yet high fuel prices really were causing people to re-think their driving habits even before the banking system went tits up and people started feeling financially vulnerable.

As we know living in an ethical and environmentally friendly manner can be achieved fairly easily by those who can afford it, but with a recession the number of people who feel that they can afford the luxury of prolonging human existence on the planet beyond their lifetime will surely reduce.

Of course it doesn't need to be expensive to be green, but it takes more effort to do it on the cheap. Let's hope the cause doesn't get forgotten as world governments scramble to find ways to restore the reckless standard of living that their populations have become accustomed.

Citizens or Consumers?

Did you know that in the United Kingdom at the moment you can be arrested for eating a cake in parliament square if it happens to have words iced on it that politicians don't like? And not even words that they legitimately might take offence to either, for example if your icing of choice spelled out "Ruth Kelly is a creepy mad manboy bullshit muncher" you might at least understand why the Government wouldn't be impressed although even so you might find it a bit extreme if the tourettes baker had their collar felt.

So which delicious iced words will get you arrested then? "Freedom of Speech" is one example. It's true. In 2005 a group of "protesters" were arrested in parliament square. Their protest comprised eating politically decorated cakes.

If you are reading the above and thinking "well I already new that and it's a fucking disgrace" then you are either more tuned in to the more sinister activities of the shower of weasel piss that we've given power to for the last 11 years than most of the zombie consumerist drone people that modern Britain has created, or you might have read Dan Kieran's "I Fought The Law" which has recently been released in paperback. If you've not read it, you live in the UK, and you weren't aware that cake is now a crime then you need to get down your local library and borrow a copy because the entire situation is far more bleak than you might expect.

What makes Dan's book stand out is that it started life as another novelty Christmas gift of the type he written in the past (Crap Towns, Crap Jobs, Crap Holidays...etc). This time he was planning to find ridiculous bylaws left on the statue book as a result of lazy legislative housekeeping and break them but as he started his research he found another far more important story, that is the sheer extent to which our freedoms have been eroded as a result of laws passed by the current Government. "Erosion of freedoms you say...change the record...you'll be tin-foiling your hat next" - but because of the way this book came about from someone who was just discovering what the Government had done in his name it's all the more convincing for it.

On his journey Dan explains how we have all become consumers of the country rather than citizens of it, a wide reaching hypothesis that is applied to all manner of shittiness in society. It also demonstrates the extent to which we as UK citizens can no longer be considered "innocent until proven guilty", including the law abiding IT consultant who was arrested for nothing more than failing to make eye contact with a policeman.

Buy a copy of this book for anyone you know who has voted Labour in the last 10 years so you can show them the dark times their X on the paper has plunged us into. Maybe they'll exercise a bit of democratic responsibility next time.

Off-grid, Beer (mmmmm beer) and the Olympic Flame

Q: What do the 3 things in the title of this update have to do with each other?

A: They all appear in this update.

Firstly and most importantly let's talk Beer. If any of your pub buddies are still sceptical about climate change and need convincing point them to this article Global warming will affect beer production.

Also on the subject of fall down juice be sure to check out Grist's review of organic beers for hippies.

Spent all your utility bill budget on Beer? Never fear. Live off grid.

And finally, the link that isn't beer related. Let's all congratulate China on being so downright lacking in human rights that they have managed to taint an Olympic tradition that has managed to stand proud for decades despite the fact that it was invented by Hitler. Free Tibet, or "how parading something invented by Nazi's is backfiring on commies".

ED out.

Britain wants to redefine "Renewable", Earth Hour and more

It seems that here in the UK hypocrisy when it comes to the environment is rife. On the surface the government seems to be at least trying to come to terms with the issues, not least by taxing the arsehole off of anything that they can get away with in the name of green. But then they go and do something like this.

For those that can't be bothered to read the article basically ministers have realised that meeting our renewable energy objectives will be bothersome and so they are trying to have the rules changed so that British investment in renewable energy anywhere in the world counts towards our quota, and even more ludicrous they are lobbying to get coal fired power stations counted as "renewable".

Just build the fucking windfarms already.

Earth Hour is today
That's right. At 8pm tonight the World Wildlife Fund and others through the Earth Hour campaign are encouraging people to turn off the lights for 1 hour to save the planet. Of course it's entirely symbolic, and designed to raise awareness of climate issues.

We'd like to tell you more but the Earth Hour website appears to have gone offline.

Of course here in the UK we don't appear the have organised anything, which is probably for the best after the UK Energy Saving Day fiasco. Also we couldn't possibly turn out the lights here for fear of binge drinking hooligan teenage gypsy hoards who would steal our children and stab each other up in the streets.

Gordon Brown, The Dalai Lama, And the trouble with politicians

In the UK news over the last day or two there has been occasional mention of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's refusal to meet the Dalai Lama.

This puts the exiled Tibetan leader in the company of such horrendous wastes of flesh and blood as Robert Mugabe as the previous newsworthy Brown non-meeter.

Of course there is absolutely fuck all the Dalai Lama has in common with Mugabe. One is the exiled leader of an occupied country who advocates peaceful action, the other has presided over 3 decades of human rights abuse, corruption and economic mismanagement that has destroyed the quality of life and halved the average life expectancy of the population of an entire country.

Of course you can understand Brown snubbing Mugabe, who is clearly a grade A cock, but why does he want to snub someone who despite intense provocation has refused to stoop to violent conduct in the face of human rights abuse? The very reason Mugabe is off his Christmas card list.

1 reason. Most of the influential countries in the world agree that Mugabe is a plum, therefore Brown feels that he can do what he likes as far as he is concerned. He's like a mid-ranking School bully only picking on the kids that the bigger kids say it's OK to wedgie.

Unfortunately for the Dalai Lama one of these bigger kids in the form of China is his own personal bully so Brown has no choice but to steal Tibets dinner money and flush it's head down the toilet otherwise China might call Brown a soft lad and push him off his bike.

In short Gordon Brown, like the majority of politicians is a 2 faced cock who only gives a shit about the suffering of foreign nationals if the people causing the suffering aren't ever going to be of any (usually economic) benefit or cause any ripples in his power pool. It makes me proud to be British.

And here endeth politics 101.

The Great Green Rip-Off

As I write this update there is a debate on politically suspect morning talk show "The Wright Stuff", the gist of which seems to be that it's all well and good for political parties to be seen to be promoting Green issues but when it comes to winning an election if those Green issues will cost the public money then you'd best forget them or forget your chances of government.

The message being put across by this oh-so-enlightened host is that the argument can be reduced to people will vote for the party that says it will cut taxes rather than the one that says it will save a remote polar goose.

Thanks for your helpful contribution to the debate Jeremy Kyle.

The Success of Green Marketing

I've recently spent a little time lurking around the Friends of the Earth forum. Now you would think that the people who post there would be fairly clued up on the type of issues that we concern ourselves with over here at Earth Dream but my God are there some easily fooled (environ)mentalists out there.

OK so it would be a sweeping generalisation to suggest that even the majority of posters follow any sort of stereotype but there is a significant minority that inspired this update.

Here are a few pointers:

Just because something sounds like your message is getting through it doesn't mean that it is. Case in point the widely lauded move by Marks and Spencer to start charging for plastic carrier bags. Hello, is this not a classic case of profiteering masked as environmentalism. OK so they aren't keeping the 5p's and are apparently giving them to environmental charities - but does anyone really think this is anything more than a marketing policy designed to appeal to the mostly middle class middle england environmentalism-lite politics of it's current consumer base, get a few positive news stories published in the media and hopefully attract a few people into the stores that might normally shop elsewhere? For the record M&S generally aren't that bad a retailer, just look into the welfare of the animals used to make their food.

Likewise Mayor Ken and his green congestion charge in London. Does anyone really believe that putting a big charge on certain types of car to drive in the city is anything other than a political gesture? Look beneath the surface and you'll find that you can still buy a huge 4x4 that averages 20mpg (less in London) but because it has a bit of a battery in it it's technically a hybrid so exempt from charges - any sensible "green tax" would surely cover a machine such as this which is a Gas Guzzler by any definition.

The whole thing is a bit of spin directed at people that aren't usually part of Red Ken's general voting demographic and is actually damaging as it makes people believe something is being done about green issues when in fact it's a self serving cover up. And only having Roller's on the streets of London is good for the capitals image I guess. Even if they have stuck a minicab licence on the back to avoid the charge.