A greener London

According to a report in the Indy today, Boris Johnson has plans for a greener, cleaner London. He has launched a strategy to help the capital cope with climate change, which includes urban greening - more green spaces, tree planting and green roofs, addressing water loss by reducing pipe leakage and encouraging homes to become more water efficient and designing new buildings and adapting existing ones to reduce need for air conditioning. Johnson said that quality of life in the capital could be seriously threatened by climate change, especially extreme weather conditions bringing the increased risk of flooding. I recently read Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd, insightful and timely fiction for teens on how climate change might affect London. In the book the Thames barrier can't cope with the pressure of freak weather conditions and London floods leading to devastating circumstances. Despite this, it is an uplifting tale with a strong community thread running throughout the book. Worth a read even if your teenage years are but a distant memory.

100 months...

According to new research published recently by the New Economics Foundation we have just 100 months left before greenhouse gases reach tipping point. That's eight years and four months to solve the pressing problem of climate change. One hundred months is a dark count down calendar launched this week. At last count we have 2,950 days to go. The Green New Deal, a group, which includes Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth and Colin Hines of Greenpeace have joined forces to tackle the nasty trident of accelerating climate change, the credit crunch and escalating fuel prices. They believe that action is necessary at local, national and global levels and have the following recommendations:

• huge investment in renewables

• creation of 'green collar' jobs

• building relationships between environmentalists, industry and agriculture.

That doesn't sound very accessible to me so I thought we could put together a short list of maybe five actions to take, to work towards a low carbon society. Then each week we'll post them up here and we can all get handwashing our dirty socks and making solar ovens together. Well, obviously not together but in our own little corners of the world and hopefully sharing with our families and friends until we are a majority of gorgeous greenies with slightly grubby socks and a penchant for sun-cooked food. If you have any blindingly good ideas or quite smart ones, let me know and I'll add them to next week's list. First list coming up soon...

climate camp

Peaceful protest at Kingsnorth power station, Kent officially started today. Kicking off a week of workshops, speakers and meetings protesters began arriving on Thursday night to take part in The Camp for Climate Action (CCA). This is a place for anyone who wants to take action on climate change; for anyone who's worried that the small steps that they are taking aren't enough to affect real change. Visitors who want to get involved are invited to come along and either camp for the week or join in for an hour's workshop. The site at Kingsnorth has been chosen to try and stop the building of new coal fired power stations. Plans are afoot to build a new power station which will emit between 6 and 8 million tonnes of CO2 every year. And that's just the beginning - six other coal power stations are planned around the country, which collectively would emit 50 million tonnes of CO2 a year. Burning coal is responsible for around one quarter of our global carbon dioxide emissions. One of the aims of the camp is to discuss alternatives ways to live on our planet whilst leaving fossil fuels (coal and oil) in the ground. Whilst the phase 'clean coal' is touted by energy companies, it is unfortunately an oxymoron - new coal fired power stations ARE slightly more energy efficient than the old ones, but the bottom line is still the quarter of global emissions caused by burning coal. CCA are keen to highlight the alternatives in the form of renewables and in fact solar panels have already sprung up to heat showers at the camp and windmills are planned to power computers, necessary for some of the workshops. The workshop programme is especially impressive boasting speakers such as George Monbiot and Caroline Lucas and hands on sessions such as how to bake a vegan cake. A children's tent with activities and fun is on offer for the whole week and families are always welcome, although there is some concern over police response to the camp, so many parents may feel unsafe about involving their children in the event. It all looks really exciting nevertheless - a self sustainable world growing in a field in Kent, complete with kitchen serving three delicious meals a day - and a chance to meet likeminded folk and work on solutions for the future.