How To Save £97billion.

2009 will be remembered most for the deep recession the UK and many other countries around the world had to endure. As a result the upcoming General Election has been dominated by just how much will need to be cut.
When deciding how much should be cut and from where, most of the political parties have missed one area that screams ”make cuts here”.
That area is not renewing the UK’s Trident Nuclear programe.With an ever-changing world and the wars that are fought, either using terrorist methods or hand to hand fighting, the UK does not need to build new nuclear weapons, infact both the Americans and Russia are now actively cutting their nuclear arsenals.
By not renewing the trident program the UK would be saving £97 billion pounds.
Senior military defence advisors have also indicated that there is no need for new Trident missiles and that the money would be better spent elsewhere.
They are correct, it could be used for schools, hospitals and a sustainable and renewable energy program that is environmentally friendly and healthy for everyone for generations to come.

So with the General Election just weeks away, be sure to tell your MP’s not waste £97 billion pounds on new Trident Nuclear Weapons.

Flying In The Face Of Our Future.

Flying from Edinburgh to Heathrow Airport is part of most business people’s lives. But these kinds of short-haul flights within the uk are some of the most damaging to the environment. By travelling by train the  co2 emissions cuts would be a welcome start to a future within the uk that HAS to, by law, happen within the next ten years.

The uk government has decided to go ahead with one of the most controversial transport schemes this country has ever faced. The village of Sipson, which adjoins Heathrow airport is set to be demolished altogether, condemning many of its inhabitants to an uncertain future, Schools, adults, children, and local business will  all disappear, replaced by noisy and polluting aircraft, all in the name of ”progress”. Many people who fought for this country and its future are now voiceless and unheeded by compulsory purchase of land that they do not want to give up,land that is and always should be theirs as much as anyone elses and land where that most English of fruit was first cultivated, the Cox’s Pippin apple.

Across the uk aviation expansion threatens to seriously undermine the uk’s ability to play its part in tackling climate change. The worlds leading scientists are agreed that we need to make massive reductions in Greenhouse Gas emissions if we are to avoid dangerous climate change. This should be at least 80% by 2050 and the uk government is legally bound to achieve this through the Climate Change Act.Urgent steps are needed to stop emissions rising and then start to reduce emissions within the next ten years.Due to flying at high altitudes, aviation emissions are more damaging and have more impact on Global Warming.

Many Green groups are readying themselves and preparing for any moves to begin building the controversial third runway at Heathrow Airport.Celebreties, politicians, the London Mayor and of course the people of Sipson are also ready to take direct but peaceful action if necessary. Greenpeace is hoping that more people will join up to their Airplot campaign. They and others have purchased a plot of land in the middle of the proposed third runway area and are asking people to become an ”airplotter”, a beneficial owner of the purchased land, the more people  join together the more voices will be heard. If you would like to know more about Airplot go here http://airplot.org.uk/ join the growing band of people who are saying NO to a third runway.

If Heathrow wins any future court actions and are granted leave to build a third runway, at full capacity it would become the largest single source of Greenhouse Gas emissions in the whole of the uk and if we are serious about helping the world to reduce co2 emissions, the thrid runway would make it impossible to honour our promised targets.For the sake of future generations we need to act on the co2 emissions and reduce them, not increase them, if we do increase them we could be condemning the children and adults of the future, say NO to a new third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Tar Sands….The Worlds Worse Environmental Scandal.

The world as we know it has changed and is changing dramatically, both Topographically and irrevocably. Around the world actions against the Earth and its future are being taken and in many cases the Earth as we know it will never heal and recover.

For too long now we have put money and wealth ahead of what is right and now is the time to take action to re-gain the perfect earth we need to flourish as a race.

One of the worst environmental disasters of our time is happening as you read this in Canada. An area of the size of England, with pristine wilderness and marsh, is being systematically destroyed in order to extract oil from sand. Oil Sands or Tar Sands is taking place in Alberta and other areas of Canada and it is a truly frightening undertaking and undertaking is not a grave enough word to describe what is happening there.First nation people are being poisoned and contracting serious illnesses like cancer and auto immune diseases as a result of drinking water from downstream where the Tar Sands project is happening. Bitumen is being dug up leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. The sands are made up of a mixture of bitumen,sand,heavy metals and toxic organic chemicals. This sand has to be heated and washed in order to extract the oil, the resulting toxic liquid is held in  storage areas known as tailing ponds, the water in these ponds has organic poison,arsenic and mercury contained within it and this water has made its way into the water stream, poisoning not only humans but wildlife as well. Three barrels of water are used to process one barrel of oil, refining requires two to three times as much energy as refining crude oil. The companies exploiting Oil Sands burn enough natural gas to heat six million homes.Albertas Tar Sands operation is the worlds biggest single industrial source of carbon emissions and all of this is taking place just for the oil, the worlds second largest reserve of oil.The project is also the biggest opencast mining operation on earth.

This kind of reckless disregard for the earth must not go unnoticed and unchecked.

If you would like to know more about this please visit www.tarsandswatch.org