Filed under: democracy, environment, peak oil, politics | Tags: activism, bills, bp, campaign, compass, economy, gas, injustice, oil, petition, profits, renewables, uk
Compass starts a very sensible campaign - read more here and sign the petition…
Rising energy and fuel prices are affecting everyone but its the poorest and those on fixed incomes who are paying the heaviest price. The warm summer weather will not mask the anxiety and anger at dramatically rising bills for the essentials of life - light and heat. We believe that the moment is right for the government to levy a sensible one off windfall tax to guarantee social and environmental justice both now and in the future. This is why.
The average annual spend on domestic energy per household has now breached £1200. Since 2000 we have faced gas price rises of 100% and electricity price rises of 61% - with further increases including British Gas raising its gas bills by a record 35%. Simultaneously the main energy providers have seen their profits rise from £557 million in 2003 to now over £3 billion. This alongside the recent news of profits made by oil companies - BP is now making £37 million a day with a 23% increase in profits to £6.7 billion for the first 6 months of 2008.
Filed under: democracy, digital revolution, documentary, environment, film, politics | Tags: chile, documentary, indigenous, lumber, police
The Chilean documentary filmmaker Elena Varela López has been arrested and is currently being held in Rancagua Prison in central Chile. Over the last four years she has been researching and filming a documentary on the conflict between lumber companies and Chiles Mapuche Indigenous people, over the use of land
Filed under: film
monsanto are the real criminals…
Filed under: children, digital revolution, ethical consumerism, politics | Tags: bbc, ethical consumerism, india, panorama, primark
Labour Behind the Label is calling on Primark to reverse its decision to cut and run from three Indian suppliers in advance of a BBC Panorama investigation. Panorama has reportedly uncovered the widespread use of subcontracting in the manufacture of embroidered goods, including the employment of home workers under extremely bad conditions and possible instances of child labour.
Filed under: film
Time we wake up to cheap clothes…
Filed under: film
we have so much to learn. This talk is incredibly inspiring….
Filed under: environment, politics | Tags: biofuels, brazil, london, rainforest, transport
Which is more important - biofuels or the rainforest being protected? well a few people (corporations) are opting for the first - at the detriment to the world. This is the problem, unless we understand our personal impact on the rest of the world we will never truly understand what we can do as individuals about climate change. Unless we understand that our lifestyle has to evolve and change and that means we have to think globally and act locally. Biofuels have the potential to ruin what is left of the incredible breathing lungs of the world - the rainforest, and without that - we are all on a sure path to serious climate catastrophes…
Personally i gave up my car last year - which was easy for me as i live in a city, and amazingly i haven’t missed it, i can always call a cab, get public transport, or cycle to my destination. Cycling is great, and would be miles better if there were less polluting vehicles on the road, and if the roads were more bike-friendly. So i live in hope that our new mayor Boris will commit to some eco-actions in London…
George Monbiot article here…
Along with its innocent victims, the US government has locked itself into this system. As the Justice Department has argued, these prisoners cannot be released in case they describe the “alternative interrogation methods” the euphemism it uses for torture the CIA used on them, which could “reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage.” Like almost everything Bush has done, this programme promises to backfire. George Bush will be remembered not only for the lives he has broken, but also for smashing everything he claimed to defend.
Filed under: film
This is unimaginable. I am really scared about what we are creating by continuing this war…
Filed under: film
a glimpse of a fascinating lifestyle - i think i could aspire to!
Filed under: film
this is the second time i have posted this - but it’s worth watching lots of times. especially the last 10 minutes…
Filed under: film
this Bitch Magazine article sheds some light…however i am sure there is still more to add starting today. why is there so much degradation for women all over the world, still? this is a theme that doesn’t go away…
Filed under: film
amazing talk - so inspiring…
Filed under: democracy, digital revolution, politics | Tags: human_rights, politics, uk
As many of you will know, the government’s proposal to increase the pre-charge detention limit to 42 days - six weeks - has scraped through parliament by a majority of nine. Not that the politics is important to us, but it means that it only passed with the votes of the Ulster Unionists.
This is bad news for human rights. The government didn’t make a convincing case that this would make anyone safer and in fact, by further alienating the Muslim community with measures that will inevitably affect them most, it may make things worse. This is a lesson that should have been learned from Northern Ireland, and clearly hasn’t been.
The ‘concessions’ that have been granted are basically meaningless: parliamentary scrutiny won’t be any use as MPs won’t have any detailed information on individual cases. The judicial safeguards that have been put in place are nowhere near strong enough.
The Bill now has to go before the Lords - and as it only scraped through by nine votes in the Commons, they may well be inclined to ’savage’ it. That’s where we’ll be focusing our attention now and you’ll be hearing a lot more from us soon.
As unsubscribers, Amnesty will be getting our view across on phone-ins, message board and blog posts. The public is being robbed of its basic human rights and we need to make sure that everyone knows what is at stake.
BTW: you don’t have to be a member of Amnesty International to unsubscribe from human rights abuses in the ‘war on terror’ but you might want to join them
