Planet Festival – Saturday 5th September 2015

Planet Festival
Saturday 5th September 2015
From 1pm to 4pm
In Greenhead Park, Huddersfield

Come and support the Planet Festival in Greenhead Park. Huddersfield Friends of the Earth have organised a fun-packed afternoon with lots to see, hear, learn and enjoy. There will be over 20 stalls, including Growing Newsome, plus music, short films, dance, children’s activities and a speakers corner. Have a look at the Planet Festival Programme (PDF) for more details.

Visit our Growing Newsome stall:

• Find out how to get involved with community food growing in Newsome
• Pick up tips on eco-friendly food growing
• Choose from our freshly made seasonal preserves – all home grown and home made, with fruit and vegetables donated by our volunteers and friends
• Hear about our volunteering opportunities

You’ll find us in the field below the model railway from 1pm to 4pm.

Also look out for opportunities to support climate campaigns through petitions and local activism.

Check out the Planet Festival Programme (PDF) for details of where to find all the activities on the day.

 

Here’s why Huddersfield Friends of the Earth have organised this fantastic festival:

Now more than ever we need to stand up for the climate. For nearly 30 years we have been told we have to decrease carbon emissions to limit global temperature increases to under 20C. This has not happened and we are now on track to global temperature increases of 40C + by the end of the century, causing more and more extreme weather events such as flooding, storms, sea level rise, droughts, food shortages.

Find out more on the Huddersfield Friends of the Earth blog

 

“This Changes Everything” Film Festival – Saturday 4th July 2015

“This Changes Everything”  Film Festival
Saturday 4th July 2015
From 11am to 6pm (three sessions)

The Red and Green Club, 42 Bankwell Road, Milnsbridge, Huddersfield HD3 4LU

A festival of over a dozen short films exploring environmental and social justice.

Free: Donations welcome, with all proceeds to The Red & Green Club.
Drinks available from bar (please feel free to bring your own pack lunch).

11am to 1.45pm – Land, Air, Water: Extreme energy & community alternatives

Taking on Tarmageddon (53 min)

Banking while Borneo Burns (14 min)

Wind turbine school (13 min)

Wind of Change (15 min)

Sisters on the Planet: Sahena (Bangladesh) & Martina (Uganda) (14 min)

Shaking the Tree (4 min)

Followed by discussion

1.45pm to 3.30pm – An Economy for the People: Past, present, future…

March 4 Homes (11 min)

12 Bar Club Occupation (14 min)

Camden Council: Pay Living Wage! (8 min)

Alternative Economies (5 min)

With Banners Held High (31 min)

Followed by discussion

3.30pm to 6pm – False solutions vs Real solutions

Biomass Emergency (25 min)

Voices from the Gasfields (61 min)

One Million Climate Jobs (33 min)

Followed by discussion

Feel free to join us for entire sessions or to turn up for particular films.

Organised by Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change.

More information:

“This Changes Everything” Film Festival – Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change

“This Changes Everything” Film Festival poster (pdf)

Clean British Energy / Green is Working lobby

Saturday 24th November 2012
Huddersfield Town Hall, Ramsden Street

An action from the Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change to say that the government’s Energy Bill must build the green economy.

Did you know?

• Last year 1/3 of UK economic growth came from green businesses.
• The renewable electricity industry already employs 110, 000 people with the potential to employ tens of thousands more people.
• Developing the green economy would reduce the UK’s balance of payments by reducing our imports of fossil fuels.
• Green energy would help regional economies grow across the UK.

The Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change are calling on the government to:

Decarbonise Electricity by 2030 and
Keep Aviation and Shipping in the Climate Act

11.45 am Photo stunt (Please wear something green)

12 noon to 12.30pm Lobby of Jason McCartney, MP for the Colne Valley. Please note: This meeting is by prior arrangement so if you would like to attend please email kirkleesccc@hotmail.co.uk by Wednesday 21st November 2012.

For more information see:

Green is Working – Stop Climate Chaos

Clean British Energy – Kirklees Campaign Against Climate Change

Green is Working poster (pdf)

Free climate course in Berry Brow – starts 10th October

Interested in climate issues and energy saving? Groundwork are running free courses in household energy.

Gain new skills and enhance your CV and employment prospects!

This course is for unemployed adults (18+) living in Kirklees, who do not have a similar or higher qualification.

The course starts on Wednesday 10th October 2012 and runs every Wednesday and Friday morning from 9.30am to 12.30pm, until Friday 2nd November at:

Newsome South Methodist Church, Birch Road, Berry Brow, Huddersfield, HD4 7LP

You will work towards the City and Guilds Level 1 Award Introduction to Household Energy Efficiency which covers:

• Fuel consumption in the home
• Renewable electricity
• Renewable heat
• Heat loss and insulation
• Space and water heating

Free lunch included.

Interested?

Contact Leah Black to find out more or to book a place:

Tel. 0113 238 0601 / 07730 765555
email: leah.black@groundwork.org.uk

www.groundwork.org.uk/leeds

Groundwork can also run this course free for local groups. Please contact Leah if your group are interested.

Climate Change Course – Newsome (pdf)

Interested in climate issues and energy? Free course…

Interested in climate issues and energy saving? Groundwork are running free courses in household energy.

Gain new skills and enhance your CV and employment prospects!

This course is for unemployed adults (18+) living in Kirklees, who do not have a similar or higher qualification. The course takes 8 to 12 weeks to complete, so you can study at your own pace.

You can start ANY TUESDAY between now and Tuesday 18th September 2012. The course is at Voluntary Action Kirklees, Lord Street, Huddersfield from 1pm to 4.30pm each Tuesday.

You will work towards the City and Guilds Level 1 Award Introduction to Household Energy Efficiency which covers:

• Fuel consumption in the home
• Renewable electricity
• Renewable heat
• Heat loss and insulation
• Space and water heating

Interested?

Contact Leah Black to find out more or to book a place:

Tel. 0113 238 0601 / 07730 765555
email: leah.black@groundwork.org.uk

www.groundwork.org.uk/leeds

Groundwork can also run this course free for local groups, on either Wednesdays or Fridays at a place of your choice. Please contact Leah if your group are interested.

Climate course leaflet (pdf)

The Rio Connection

This summer, 20 years on from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, government representatives will meet at a ‘Rio+20’ summit to discuss sustainable development.

Join the Rio Connection this summer to make sure our Government doesn’t go backwards on climate change. Here’s a great introductory video…

Local networks will be holding events that connect global and national sustainability issues with people in their community, inspire new people to talk about sustainability, and encourage our politicians to sign up to a sustainable future by supporting the ‘Rio Declaration’:

“The UK should lead the world in the transition to a fair and green economy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, protecting biodiversity and creating jobs and opportunities to reduce poverty and inequality here and overseas. The Rio+20 summit is an important milestone for this ambition, and the UK should engage constructively, with a view to uniting governments across the world behind a vision for a global green and fair economy which benefits all people.

We must lead by example at home by delivering on the commitments in our groundbreaking Climate Change Act whilst showing international leadership to increase the EU’s 2020 climate targets. At the same time we must help the world’s poorest communities adapt to the effects of climate change, invest in getting clean energy to all people, and protect rainforests.”

In Kirklees activities will be focused on a participatory arts project called the Rio +20 Timeline. The timeline will include events in the world, in Kirklees and in the planet over the past twenty years. Members of the public will be encouraged to include events in their own lives in order to make connections between events in our lives, our communities, our nation and our planet. There will also be an eco-themed poetry event in Marsden as part of the ‘Write Out Loud’ programme and an audio event listening to a lecture on ‘Eradicating Ecocide’ by the barrister and campaigner, Polly Higgins.

• Saturday 16th June from 11am to 1pm – Rio +20 Timeline at the Green Fair, Methodist Church, Slaithwaite (including meeting with Jason McCartney MP).
• Saturday 16th June from 2pm to 4pm – Rio +20 Timeline at the Oxfam Bookshop, Huddersfield Road, Holmfirth.
• Wednesday 20th June from 7.30pm – ‘Planet Rio’ poetry event at Write Out Loud, Marsden Library.
• Thursday 21st June from 6.15pm – Rio +20 Timeline and audio event : Polly Higgings lecture on ‘Eradicating Ecocide’, Coffeevolution, Huddersfield.

The Rio Connection poster (pdf)

from:
Kirklees Campaign against Climate Change

 

In Transition 2.0 film screening – 2nd February 2012

Thursday 2nd February at 7.30pm
The Watershed, Bridge Street, Slaithwaite (on the road behind Monsoon)

Our friends at MASTT (Marsden and Slaithwaite Transition Towns) are excited to announce their premier screening of the new film ‘In Transition 2.0’ – the 2nd Transition Town film. This film features Slaithwaite’s very own The Handmade Bakery and Green Valley Grocer as two of the success stories that have grown from the Transition Town movement, created in 2007 by Rob Hopkins.

This is a free film screening with light refreshments. It will be followed by a live link-up with Rob Hopkins who will be in Totnes answering people’s questions on the film. MASTT will also be recording your responses to the film, which will be used to promote the film when it is released to the public.

Please show your support and join MASTT on 2nd February. Here’s a sneak preview of the film…

Food Expert says: “We are Nine Meals from Anarchy”

Dr Martin Caraher

Dr Martin Caraher, a food expert from City University, says we have only three days food in the UK to feed us during a crisis. Speaking at a meeting in Huddersfield (sponsored by Kirklees Environment Partnership), Dr Caraher challenged the audience to estimate the food stocks held by the UK. He suggested that most food supplied to supermarkets, where most of our food is now bought, is delivered “just in time”. As a result we hold little in reserve stores or in warehouses and are vulnerable to disruptions such as oil shortages. Food that is grown locally would be more secure.

Dr Caraher also challenged the audience on which form of retailing is most effective for investing in local areas – local and regional shops, or the large supermarkets. Recent research in this area by the New Economics Foundation, an independent think tank, has confirmed that £10 spent at local shops is worth £24 to the local economy – since local takings, wages and so on are then spent locally. For international supermarkets, however, the value is only £14. Furthermore, “For every 20 jobs created by the ‘big five’ supermarkets – 30 jobs are lost!” said Dr Caraher.

At a second meeting organized by Kirklees Environment Partnership, Dr Caraher listened intently as 18 members of various local food groups across Kirklees described their work and the issues they face. Members of the Growing Newsome group took part in the discussion. There was a rich sharing of ideas and achievements including the development of Food Co-ops in Batley, a Local Bakery in Marsden, a Fruit and Veg Co-operative shop in Slaithwaite and the prospect of local small-holdings to supply local shops.

Dr Martin Caraher is Reader in Food and Health Policy: Department of Health Management and Food Policy at City University, London. He works extensively on issues of food poverty, cooking skills, local sustainable food supplies, the role of markets and co-ops in promoting health, farmers’ markets, food deserts and food access, retail concentration and globalisation. He is an active grower of fruit and veg!