Borough’s on an emission mission

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Local press coverage

Letter to Sutton Guardian- Apple festival in Carshalton

Dear Editor

How much I agree with Mrs Nash who wrote in to praise the English Apple festival at Country Harvest greengrocers, Carshalton in lasts week’s issue. It’s such a refreshing change to have genuine local produce, variety, taste and difference in our midst, as well as supporting the beleaguered English apple grower. This initiative trumps the farmers’ markets where sadly much of the food on offer isn’t really all that local.

Although some supermarkets are slowly responding to consumer demand for variety, the fact is that supermarkets have stitched up food producers over many years with unreasonable demands on size, appearance and cost, and are largely responsible for the dismal situation today where nearly all our apples are the same two or three types, and almost all imported. This is the economics of the madhouse of course, and is replicated across pretty much the whole food industry. So let’s strike a blow for tasty local produce free of a massive food miles footprint by supporting the remaining independent shops like Country Harvest.

Sincerely

Bob Steel

Chair, Sutton & Croydon Green Party

November Meeting

The next meeting of the Sutton and Croydon Green Party will be on Tuesday 14th November at 8pm at the Centre for Environmental Initiatives Carshalton, map here.

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Tags sutton,croydon, greenparty

Press release climate change march

Press Release – Climate Change March.

Members of the Sutton and Croydon Green Party joined thousands of others in the biggest climate change rally in the UK on 4th November. Local Greens joined other campaigners outside the US Embassy to listen to speakers, including Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucus. She commented that: “Failure to act to tackle climate change is costing lives – and threatens the
very future of human civilisation as we know it”.

Campaigners carrying banners and placards then marched from the US Embassy to Trafalgar Square, where they joined thousands of others who had congregated for more speeches and a concert. Performers included Razorlight and KT Tunstall.
Local spokesperson Shasha Khan said, “The Stern report has made it clearer than ever that we need urgent global action if we are to prevent the worst impacts of devastating climate change. All around the world national governments are spending too much time highlighting the failings of other national governments in combating global warming. What we need is governments, national and local, to become part of the solution and not part of the problem.” Ends.

Climate Change March

Brussels visit

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Brussels trip for Green party man
The treasurer of the Sutton and Croydon Green Party, Shasha Khan, visited Brussels to meet with London's Green MEP Jean Lambert.

The meeting earlier this month tackled issues such as air quality and the use of household chemicals.

Mr Khan said: "Despite being based in Brussels and Strasbourg, London's Green MEP has been at the forefront of defending the rights and welfare of the people of Sutton."

continued...
Ms Lambert recently opposed a European Parliament report that sought to loosen restrictions on EU air quality standards.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) calculates that air pollution reduces the life of the average European by 8.6 months.

EU plans to cut pollution by 2010 should on average save 2.3 months of life for each European.

On the use of household chemicals, Ms Lambert pushed forward the REACH directive, the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals, which was adopted this October.

The REACH directive gives consumers increased access to information about the ingredients of household products as well as ensuring that the most toxic chemicals are replaced with safer alternatives.

Safety testing involving animal experiments have also been scrapped.

Carbon emissions

Comment made to Sutton Guardian in response to the Liberal Democrats claim that on carbon emissions, only they have "put forward firm plans to help is change our behaviour".

"For the Liberal Democrats to claim that they are the only party to "put forward firm plans" is laughable.

Sir Nicholas Stern's report, commissioned by The Chancellor of The Exchequer, reveals the apocalyptic cost of global warming if the issue is not tackled within a decade.

Since it's formation in 1973, when it was called the Ecology Party, the Green Party has continuously offered policy solutions to this impending global catastrophe, through its Manifesto for a Sustainable Society. The other parties, including the Liberal Democrats, are living in cloud cuckoo land if they think taxation is the only way to combat climate change. Yes, taxation is useful tool in tackling climate change but it must be used alongside regulation, legislation and public investment.

In the last General Election the Green Party's policy was, and still is, to abolish VAT and replace it with less environmentally damaging green taxes. VAT is a regressive tax which does not take into account the environmental impact of goods and services. However, taxation alone cannot reduce the UK's ecological footprint - legislation must be used, too. In Germany, the government has passed a law which guarantees a higher rate for commercial and domestic suppliers of renewable power. The result has been a boom in wind and solar power in that country. "