Super Sunday

1. I am quite a fan of this new band, Friends, partly because the name choice is hilarious and will reclaim the word from the decade-long sitcom, but mostly because the song is rahlly good.

2. The East London Green Jobs Alliance has funding for the next year! Woop!

3. I downloaded Summer Camp’s debut album, Welcome to Condale. It is brilliant, is inspired by 80s bratpack films and teenage angst, and has a song on it called Brian Krakow. WHAT COULD BE BETTER?

4. I am back in the saddle again. This morning I cycled in London for the first time in well over a year. Cycling and walking around Brighton has been a bit of a luxury this past year, so today I decided to investigate the quieter cycle paths around my new house and I reckon that I can piece together a nice long, chilled pootle to my offices. Image from weheartit.

5. Massive win this week for the No Keystone XL Pipeline campaign over in the states! The proposed pipeline would have been a huge boon to the very environmentally destructive Canadian tar sands industry. It was basically a done deal, but 3 months of incredible campaigning has resulted in Obama delaying the decision – yay! You can read more about it here.

“Yes, the Spice Girls were created to cash in on “feminism” and “girl power,” at a time when those things were popular. Yes, the “Girl Power” slogan ripped off Riot Grrrl—although, actually, the Spice Girls ripped off girl groups like Salt-N-Pepa or TLC far more than they did Pacific Northwestern indie culture. But do you know what it looks like when someone “rips off” girls being empowered? Well… it sort of looks like… girls being empowered.”

6. Great great great post – In Defense of the Spice Girls. Now I don’t feel so bad about going to see them when I was 14!

7. I am feeling a bit depressed about the fact that it looks like I’m intolerant not only to dairy, caffeine and alcohol, but also wheat. It’s hard to be a good baker when you can’t use wheat or dairy! It would be SUPER if anyone could point me to any good recipes / websites / or cookbooks that are friendly to a positively MONKish dietary requirement, and that actually taste good. Thank you!

hanna ♥

Tar Sands Action

This amazing photo is of the tar sands sit-in that is happening right now outside the White House, protesting against the planned Keystone XL pipeline which would pump tar sands oil from Canada into the States. The sit-in started on August 20th, is planned to continue until September 3rd, and so far 381 people have been arrested. I’m really grateful for the men and women who have been brave enough to take this step, as the Keystone XL pipeline would spell disaster if built.

Extracting and burning the oil in the Canadian tar sands alone would release enough carbon emissions to tip the world into runaway climate change, plus the development is pushing indigenous peoples out of their native lands and having incredibly harmful impacts on local communities’ health. You can read more about it here - http://www.tarsandsaction.org/.

Photo credit – Milan Ilnyckyj

Ah, yes, I’m afraid we did

Right. Before I head off on Saturday, I have to write another 4000 words on the tar sands. I already have a lot to prepare for and finish up this week, so tonight is going to be a loooong night. I wanted to share this quote with you first though, that I found on my tar-sands-researching travels…

The very unethical Ezra Levant

I have to get this off my chest.

I’m currently writing an essay on the tar sands, inspired by a quote from the Canadian environment minister which claims that it is “ethical oil”. It is a pretty extraordinary claim, coined first by Ezra Levant, author of Ethical Oil: The case for Canada’s oilsands. Levant is quite an influential man – a Canadian right-wing “personality” who has worked as a political organiser and aide, writes regular columns and makes appearances on tv and radio. I was unaware of all of this however, when he interrupted a twitter exchange I was having with Ed Gillespie from Futerra:

Now see watch and see what Ezra does…

He only goes and edits my tweet to look like I’m saying the complete opposite of what I meant. I react accordingly…

Rude… and oh, yeah, completely UNETHICAL.

CETA and the tar sands

Excellent video of a No Tar Sands action that happened earlier this week. I haven’t done much tar sands stuff for a while, but throwing myself back into it with an essay and a presentation this term. Hoping to spread the word about this to the rest of my classmates, because when you start reading about it, you just can not believe it is happening.

Does this mean I can have a baby shower?

Writing the piece for Call4 this week on UKYCC‘s Adopt an MP campaign reminded me that I had yet to get my act together and adopt mine. So, having confirmed that my new MP was indeed Caroline Lucas from the Green Party (inner cheer!) I looked up when her surgeries were and lo and behold, within a few hours I was sitting opposite her and her aide, chatting about climate action and the coalition government.

Things you might like to know:

- She is very lovely. And her staff are very nice too (bonus points).

- I asked her about Chris Huhne’s battle with the Treasury to save DECC and to what extent any cuts (or the scrapping of it entirely) would affect the UK’s ability to keep on track with our climate commitments. She responded that in light of George Monbiot’s recent article (which basically says that all current and previous attempts to curb climate change have failed) perhaps we need to scrap DECC and see climate change for the national security issue it is – moving its whole remit into the MOD. She was only half-serious, but I see her point. She predicted however that it wouldn’t end up getting scrapped, as it is such a symbolic department – but it might get hollowed out.

- Much more of a serious issue to Caroline was the scrapping of the Sustainable Development Commission earlier this year, which had been carrying out valuable environmental auditing work. Caroline told me that the SDC had saved the government £300m through their work, over the 10 years that they had existed. The cost of running the commission? £4m per year. So scrapping it…. kind of didn’t make any sense on any level. She also made a very good point – how can the coalition ever deliver on their promise to be the “greenest government ever”, when they no longer have any auditors to tell them whether or not they have achieved that aim?

- Other things we touched on briefly were those who were doing their environmental bit in parliament (Chris Huhne, Peter Ainsworth *applause*); how, through green job creation, we can have an economic recovery and tackle climate change at the same time; how our government is getting sidetracked by nuclear; and how she wanted to learn more about the Canadian tar sands and might put forward some parliamentary questions about them (yay!).

So that was my first meeting with Caroline Lucas! I have an enviable job on my hands – tracking an MP who basically thinks a lot of what I think, where no persuasion or lobbying might be needed. What I would like to provide though is a boost, links or contacts where I can and one more voice cheering her on when she stands up in parliament. I’m looking forward to the next few months!

Josie Long & Otesha meet Climate Camp

This is cross-posted from The Otesha Project UK blog

Ta da!! Here is our first foray into film with our patron, comedian Josie Long! Over the next few months, we will be showcasing some of the coolest and best aspects of the social and environmental justice movement here in the UK and relating it back to our daily lives.

This month, we went to Climate Camp in Edinburgh. A thousand activists camping outside RBS headquarters and protesting against their investment in fossil fuels and destructive projects like the tar sands may not seem relevant to a lot of us, but when you think that the bank is 84% owned by the UK taxpayer, it makes you wonder where your money is going.

So this month, we’re not necessarily asking you to siege your local bank branch (although, that of course, is your individual choice). We are asking you to put your money where your ethics are, pester your parents about their pension and above all, be honourable. That’s the title of Josie’s current show (nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award!), which is about trying to act in line with your beliefs, saying goodbye to complacency and just being aware that there are people out there fighting for a cleaner, greener, fairer world. Sounds pretty good to us.

You’ll have to excuse some of the poor sound and light quality in the video – it was me, Josie, a flip cam and a bike light running around in the dark! The next one will be more fancy.

Shake Your Money Maker

I made this video earlier in the year in support of a week of action against the tar sands. Loads of people have no idea that their own money is being invested in shitty projects like that. The deal is, if your bank doesn’t have an ethical policy, it means that they have a legal obligation to make as much money as they can for their shareholders. Unfortunately, the most money is generally to be found in fossil fuel extraction and the arms trade. So, put simply, your bank is legally obliged to invest in climate change and war. Put simply, it’s completely mental.

BUT – we can change that! By switching to an ethical account. If you got your A Level results today and are off to uni this autumn, you could think about getting an ethical student account. If only because when people get really smug about their gap yahs, you can double smug them with your understanding of worldly issues and individual impacts. Yah, yah.

And then I chundered EVERYwah.

hanna ♥

Super Sunday

This is the first installment of the weekly Super Sunday feature! Doesn’t it sound… super? I’m aiming to introduce a couple of features over the coming weeks. If there is anything you are just dying for me to write about on a regular basis, just let me know in the comments below! So back to the matter at hand, Super Sunday is all about looking back over the week and picking out those things (one for every day) that make me happy and that I think are super. Simple. Simple Super Sundays.

1. I love Nan Lawson’s illustrations. This one bears an uncanny resemblance to me here dontcha think? I want it!

2. I went to see Earthquakes in London at the National with my friend Robin on Friday night. It covered climate change, the coalition government, burlesque and time travel. I thought it was brilliant (apart from some sketchy futuristic cheesiness at the end), incredibly well-staged and so well acted. Especially Bryony Hannah in the role of Peter.

3. My new espadrilles. It’s like wearing slippers outside.

4. The monthly Market Days craft fair that happens here in Stoke Newington is seriously super. I just realised I will have moved by the next one! Oh.

5. I found this picture here yesterday, apparently it’s from a 70′s sanitary towel advert. The expression on her face makes me laugh hysterically. The slogan on her tshirt makes me laugh in that bitter way that old people do when they ruefully shake their heads and tell you you’re going to hell in a handcart. LOL.

6. In honour of number 2 on my 4 simple goals list I’ve been collecting inspiration for my new flat. I love this photo, apparently the sign cost less than £20 to make and is made of cardboard, paint and stickers. Amaze.

7. The man at the front of the picture is Clayton. He is an amazing activist from the Mathais Colomb Cree Nation in Canada, who works as the Tar Sands Campaign organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, amongst a gazillion other things. I made a short film featuring him last year in Copenhagen, and was lucky enough to meet him earlier this year. He is truly inspirational. This weekend, he and others from indigenous communities around Canada who are being affected by the tar sands, took part in a Healing Walk in Fort McMurray, home to the Athabasca oil sands. They are suffering from highly elevated cancer rates, disruption of traditional ways of living, the threat of relocation and yet they still have the strength to stand up in the face of massive corporations and of all things, heal. Superheroes.

p.s photo copyright of Stop the Tar Sands

Party at the Pumps 2

This is cross-posted from The Multicultural Politic

A couple of years (or even a year) ago, I would never have dreamed that I would have taken over the forecourt of a petrol station, dancing to samba as the police looked on. To year-ago me, it would have seemed a bit: mad, hippy, reckless, stupid, pointless, illegal (delete as appropriate).

What made me change my mind, and what made me get involved with groups such as the UK Tar Sands Network which facilitated the recent Party at the Pumps actions? Well, it was a few things. Over the past few months I’ve been privileged to meet those from first nations communities who are being affected by the tar sands in Alberta, Canada – dubbed the most destructive project on earth. The tar sands are destroying their lands, their way of life, contaminating the water and food so much that cancer rates have been found to be 30% higher than expected. So many people from these communities are dying that they no longer call the tar sands a “dirty oil” project, they call it “bloody oil”.

Add in to the mix the fact that the tar sands are so energy intensive that they could cause runway climate change all on their own if left to continue, and we have a problem. Companies like Shell and BP must be held accountable for these social and environmental disasters, and it’s our job to do that. Obama is insisting that BP pick up the paycheck for the recent oil spill, but if BP just use that as an excuse to limit offshore drilling and move further in to the tar sands, do you want to bet that Obama will continue the finger-pointing?

It is up to us to pile on the pressure, and if that means partying in a petrol station forecourt then bring it on! It was a brilliant day, with a samba band, bike-powered sound system and free cake (mmm cake). It was also a great way of talking to interested passers-by about why we were doing it and so invigorating to find that we had swathes of public support. As one guy said “It’s not a violent protest, not destroying property, they’re making their point, it’s how most social change has happened since the civil rights movement, you have to do what you have to do”.

And that’s why I’m doing stuff like this now. Change happens. Is it mad? Maybe. Is it hippy? Getting less so! Is it illegal? Umm…

Is it important, essential, vital? Yes.