Review of news, views and action - June

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It's great to be able to report some good news this issue, after last month's sorry episode of the Liberal Democrat's failing to back a decarbonisation target within the Energy Bill. That is the Coalition Government's positive response to pressure to protect our bees.  At our Bees Summit last Friday they agreed to introduce a national pollinator strategy - the Bee Action Plan we were calling for. Hurrah.

Here at Friends of the Earth we are mighty proud of the role our Bee Cause campaign had in achieving this breakthrough. But we also know that it was a team effort, so hurrah also for all those businesses, researchers, MPs and other civil society groups that piled on the pressure.

We're also not naive enough to believe this is job done. There's a word of difference between a good national pollinator strategy and a bad one - especially if you're a bee. So over the next year we'll be pushing hard to ensure that strategy is robust and leads to real change. This will be tough. There are many vested interests which will resist change. But if we all work together we can succeed.

This is a winnable campaign.  Please help us win it.

We want your big ideas

This month also saw the launch of our Big Ideas project. We aim to identify the 25-30 big ideas that could humanity on course to deliver well-being for people everywhere and well-being for the planet.

We're doing this by looking at 10 topics, starting with cities. On our beautiful new web pages you can hear Ken Livingstone's thoughts, watch a presentation on our emerging thinking on cities, and delve into our first big idea on 'autonomy and the city'. Most importantly we want our ideas tested and people to share their ideas. So please do share your thoughts.

Turkey stuffing?

The Eating Better for a fair green healthy future campaign also launched this month. Alongside Friends of the Earth in this coalition is the UK Health Forum, Oxfam, RSPB and others. My colleague Clare Oxborrow outlines the reasons for this campaign in her blog, suffice to say that unless we change our diets we're as stuffed as the proverbial turkey.

That's why we're also working with the National Union of Students on a Get Gobby competition for ideas on how to get people eating less meat. Jannat Hossain & Aaron Parr of Queen Mary, University of London were the winners. You can read more here.    

Climate change hits the headlines

Meanwhile, as the summer starts to get hot, climate change is in the news.

President Obama made his big speech on how he was going to take climate change seriously, and you can read Friends of the Earth USA's analysis here, as well our challenge to David Cameron to step up to the plate to talk and act big on climate change.

Estimates of shale gas reserves in the UK are said to be vast. But within the context to cut carbon pollution fast the cheerleading for fracking is bizarre, to say the least, as Tony Bosworth explains.

Are we really going to be stupid enough to hunt out and burn every bit of fossil fuels on the planet? Answers on a postcard please.

Fortunately our top-notch regional campaigners and fair transition team have been working hard to train local campaigners who want to fight for clean, green energy, including in the new planning rules for wind-farms. The latest event was a Yes in my Backyard training event in Bristol. Our international campaigners moved on from the Bonn climate talks to a global training day for activists fighting against coal and other dirty energy projects around the planet.

It was great to see the London Array opened. It's the world's largest offshore wind-farm and Friends of the Earth campaigned hard to get it the planning permission it needed. Hurrah for Friends of the Earth. Hurrah to London Array.

What's up with Owen Patterson?

If anyone needs a bit of environmental training it's our Environment Secretary Owen Patterson. He went hyperbolic over his love for GM earlier in the month. We responded with a press release and briefing questioning the evidence for his claims.  Channel 4 also waded in with a fact check. Poor chap, he must have eaten something funny.

Also earlier in the month we released some testing that showed there were traces of the weed killer glyphosate in the urine of people across Europe. This snapshot raised concerns and called for governments to investigate further possible risks to human health and impacts on wildlife. Campaign groups play an important role in raising the alert on issues like this that need looking at seriously, as this Guardian article points out..

And in other news...

We've also published press releases on these and other issues, which you can see here, as well as briefings. In you want to know what our Northern Ireland colleagues thought about the G8 leaders strutting their stuff in their backyard you can read about it here.

Or if you want to know what Friends of the Earth Cymru think of George Osborne's climate-wrecking, habitat-trashing, £1 billion road scheme through the Gwent levels you can read it here (clue: they don't like it).

The classic song 'Summertime' said the living is easy. It sure doesn't feel like it here at Friends of the Earth. That said, there won't be a review next month as I'll be on holidays!