All three main political parties have downgraded their commitment to the environment over the last year, accordng to a new report Fit for the Future by the UK's major green groups said today.
The study, which analysed the green performance of all three parties over the past year, said many politicians believed the economic downturn made action on the environment less of a priority.
Over the last year, all three main parties had "retreated from the environmental agenda", said the report, which was drawn up by a coalition including the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), Friends of the Earth, Green Alliance, Greenpeace, National Trust, RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust and WWF.
The only way out of the downturn was an ambitious climate change strategy that addressed energy, transport, and management, housing and the economy, the second annual review of the parties' performance said.
People should have at least one meat-free day a week if they want to make a personal and effective sacrifice that would help tackle climate change, according to Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and one of the world's leading authorities on global warming.
Jurors at Maidstone Crown Court have cleared the Greenpeace activists who shut down Kingsnorth Power Station, accepting the defence that the protest was lawful because it aimed to prevent damaging emissions.
This was the first case where preventing property damage caused by climate change has been used as part of a "lawful excuse" defence in court. It is now expected to be used widely by environment groups.
The court had heard from Prof James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, that the 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted daily by Kingsnorth could be responsible for the extinction of up to 400 species.
The first episode of The Climate Wars, shown on BBC2 on Sunday, proved to be a fascinating story of what appeared to be conflicting science, but in reality turned out to be a change of opinion based on improving knowledge.
The title of the first show is 'The Battle Begins' and showed the early history of climate change science.
In the first episode Iain Stewart covers the early mistaken predictions of a new ice age, the work done by David Keeling accumulating CO2 data from the atmosphere, the report put together by the 'Jason' group of scientists on Global Warming and towards the end of the epsisode James Hansen is seen giving his outspoken speech to the US government. Probably the most amazing part of the episode, were the words spoken by Margret Thatcher about Global Warming in one of her speeches.
All in all the first episode was a good show, the question is, will the final two episodes be as balanced as the first?
If you missed the first episode, then you can still watch it via iPlayer:
Plans for some 14,000 homes, the building of offices and shops, is being planned by Portsmouth City Council. Such large scale developments have an impact on environmental issues, including emissions, flooding risks etc.
Leaflets are available at Libraries and at the Civic Offices.
For more information and to make comments on the environmental impacts visit the City Council page at:
