MPs Responses to Questions on Climate Change
The Rough Guides asked every MP in Westminster to comment on three questions on climate change:
- How important a concern is climate change?
- What can Britain do to make a difference?
- What steps do you plan to take (or have you taken), in your constituency, and as an individual?
the responses they received from the 318 who replied here.
climate, climate change, green, green politics, greenwash, politics, uk, uk politics
Prescott on Climate Change
I’ve been spurned into action by a commons debate with the Deputy Prime Minister on climate change from last Wednesday (19th of July) that I found.
Basically at the end of the debate Norman Baker (former Liberal Democrat Environment Secretary) asks John Prescott if he has advocated a plan of contraction & convergence in his discussions with Chinese leaders on the issue, and he basically admits that he doesn’t know what C&C is:
Norman Baker: When the Deputy Prime Minister met his Chinese opposite number, did he advocate adoption of the concept of contraction and convergence? What is his view of that concept?
John Prescott: I did not understand the question.
If a man who has been involved in high-level talks on this issue for a number of years isn’t aware of all of the solutions to the problem then he really isn’t fit for the role.
I didn’t think it was possible for me to think less of John Prescott, but unfortunately it is.
climate, climate change, emissions, idiot, labour, prescott, uk politics
Potential State of Fear Confrontation
I felt the need to blog about an incident that happened today. On the platform waiting for my train home I noticed a guy reading Michael Crichton’s State of Fear.I was about two seconds away from grabbing the book from him and hurling it onto the tracks when it occured to me that he might be reading it out of curiosity, and for a laugh. I’ve considered stealing buying it for that very reason.
If he is in the same place tomorrow and is still reading the book I think I may ask him what his attitude towards climate change is.
climate, climate change, crichton, fiction, idiot, sceptic, state of fear
Undercover Treehugger Lives!
I’ve been a bit of a disgrace lately and haven’t posted anything, but that is only due to my involvement in serious business. I hope to be back to blogging in due time, but the nice summer weather may put paid to that!
Lazy Tory-Bashing Post
I’m not devoting as much time to this blog as I’d like to, mainly because I’ve started a fitness regime and have also been reading a lot of material in dead tree format. So here is a link to a Guido Fawkes post that made me laugh. It highlights a Tory MP Hugo Swire’s badly maintained website that reports that he has no opinions on any current issues (just click the link if that makes no sense). Not remotely related to green politics (although my hatred of the Tories is down to their current enthusiasm for greenwash), but there you go.
If I was responsible for a political website I would never let such a thing happen.
conservative, politics, tory, uk politics
Blair Claims Taxes on Aviation Are Unrealistic
Tony Blair told the Commons liaison committee this week that it would take a “fairly hefty whack” for taxes on air travel to encourage UK flyers to cut back and suggested investment in more environmentally friendly aircraft would be the smarter option.
Aviation tax will undoubtedly be unpopular in the short term, and the Conservatives may even try to gain votes by opposing it - even with their new green policy drive - but we can’t continue with a situation in which it is cheaper to fly to certain domestic destinations than it is to take a train. I don’t think it would take such a “hefty whack” to do away with that discrepancy.
aviation, blair, climate, climate change, emissions, tax, transport
Cameron Takes One On the Chin at PMQs
Nice to see David Cameron getting his first real kicking at PMQs this week; he slipped up by calling Tony Blair a potential flip-flopper on his education reforms. Blair seized the pot-calling-the-kettle-black slip-up (and it can only have been a slip-up) and produced a tatty photocopied Conservative Party leaflet that had been delivered as part of the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election campaign*. The leaflet quoted Cameron’s “I’m a liberal Conservative” line (note the small “l” in liberal, but we all know what he was implying). Another by-election leaflet quoted Cameron as saying that he was in agreement with the Lib Dems on the issue of Iraq when everybody knows he backed the government.
I do not know about me facing anything down, but it is about time that the right hon. Gentleman faced the same way for more than a day at a time.
- Tony Blair
On the subject of flip-flopping, a guy (John Elledge) commented at Guido Fawkes and pointed out how accepting you’ve made the wrong decision is seen as a good thing in all fields but politics:
I’ve never quite understood this about politics - in most fields, the ability to change your mind when you get something wrong is regarded as a strength. Yet in politics, the ability to stick stubbornly to one position long after all the evidence is against you is regarded as evidence of integrity. So Kerry flipflopping is bad; Bush refusing to consider alternative solutions to rapidly mounting problems is good.
I totally agree with this, although it is generally the politicians who change their minds rapidly that get labelled with the tag - I think Tony Blair admitting that going to Iraq was a mistake isn’t really what you might call a flip-flop. Although admittedly it would end his career.
*Apparently it was posted through Gordon Brown’s letterbox, but I thought his house would be in his constituency? How many houses must he have?
blair, cameron, david cameron, parliament, politics, uk politics
Toast the Earth With Exxon Mobil (AKA Esso)
This is a great little cartoon Flash Movie from Friends of the Earth about Exxon Mobil and their efforts to dismiss climate science. Brought to my attention via Global Warming Watch. Stop Esso!
business, climate, climate change, energy, esso, exxon, flash, movie, oil, sceptic
Big Business Set To Conquer AIDS!
Here’s something else I found via perfect.co.uk - Giving paracetomol to a cancer victim. Bono was fronting a new socially responsible “global partnership” of corporations at the World Economic Forum last week. It is named Product RED, and is to raise money for the fight against AIDS in Africa by giving a percentage of the proceeds from a range of products that have been designed exclusively for the “initiative”.
RED presents a new and profitable way of doing business by harnessing the partners’ brand-building expertise while generating a new income stream for the Global Fund. International brands including American Express (founding partner), Converse, Gap and Giorgio Armani are the launch partners. They have designed products that will take on the RED mark and will be available from 1st March 2006.
Bobby Shriver, Chief Executive Officer of Product RED said, “This is a long term initiative designed for sustainability. RED partners expect that they will broaden their own customer base and increase loyalty in a manner that delivers a sustainable revenue stream to both the company and the Global Fund.”
Shriver continued, “It’s incredible to have the marketing brilliance of these companies behind the AIDS emergency.”
The free market will not solve these problems, we need strong government intervention, and I don’t just mean aid! This is no more than a predictable response to the Make Poverty History movement by a number of multinationals that are concerned about the burgeoning ethical retail sector. If any of these companies were to actually see disappointing profits on these products they wouldn’t hesitate to make up the losses with their vast ranges of somewhat less ethical lines.
American Express has developed a credit card that offers free annual membership and a minimum of 1% on all eligible spend is paid directly to The Global Fund on the Cardmember’s behalf. Spending above £5000 per year will generate an increase of 1.25% on all spending above that amount. An extra £5 will be given to The Global Fund if Cardmembers make their first purchase on the Card within the first month. There will also be a number of added benefits for American Express RED Cardmembers including unique ‘experiences’, hand picked discounts and access to entertainment and retail events. The Card will be available from March 2006.
A minimum of 1%! Where do I sign up? Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on them as AmEx are actually the only one of the partners that have quoted the percentage that will be going to the fund. We can only guess at what the others were willing to part with?
Converse was taken over by Nike a few years ago, and Nike just happens to be the only one of of the four Product RED partners that have made the Corporate Knights Inc. list of the 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World 2006 at the World Economic Forum. Hopefully I will post about that list later.
aids, business, csr, fair trade, greenwash, sustainability
The Strokes Suffer from Climate Change Irony Bypass
This is a little out of date now, but I only just noticed it! The original date of the One Earth Concert in Cardiff was to be last Saturday (28th of Jan) and in order for the Strokes to make that date they were planning to fly from Cardiff to Doncaster (about 200 miles) in order to make their pre-arranged gig there in the evening. At the time they announced this, Yahoo Music certainly didn’t see the irony, as they announced the band’s participation with the hyperbolic headline Strokes save Earth!
Apparently The Strokes were so keen to play the gig that they’ve agreed to fly to Doncaster after their performance, to play a scheduled concert there.
It really disturbs me that people still trivialise the climate impacts of flights. Okay, the Strokes would have been taking time out of a busy schedule to play the climate gig, but why not postpone the Doncaster gig and send out the right message?
Last Friday’s (London) Evening Standard featured a “Green Issue” of it’s magazine in which there was a selection of ten “eco-friendly” holidays. All but one of the holidays featured was outside of Europe*. Am I naive to think that most readers will notice what is wrong with that, or do people actually not realise the impact that flights have on the climate?
One of the reasons I was angry about Blair’s pro-nuclear change of direction was it will do nothing to mitigate the rise in emissions caused by transport, including air which is still free from fuel tax. There are almost no electric-powered cars, and certainly no electric planes or ships.
Many flights are unneccessary, and just ten years ago would never have taken place. We need to treat frequent-flyers to the same disdain we give to gas-guzzling drivers.
*The whole magazine was pretty lightweight, with former Tory leader Michael Howard included in a list of ten eco-heroes (due to the fact that he has bought an electric car).
climate, climate change, emissions, one earth, transport
