Kimberly-Clark logging in Canadian old growth forests
Vegetarian and Vegan Foundation hit back against the BBC
Fish stocks in decline
The Ethical Consumer Reader
Peace tours to Israel and Palestine
and more
Call
for £20 C-charge on gas guzzlersCampaigners against so-called 'Chelsea tractors' are calling for the London congestion charge to be raised to £20 for gas-guzzling cars.
In February, hundreds of members of Greenpeace and the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s lobbied Londoners on the new proposal, while the groups hung a huge banner across Marylebone High street that said: “CHARGE 4x4s £20”.
We will be covering the subject in more detail in our Cars report in the next issue of the magazine. Until then, for more information contact Greenpeace and the Alliance on 0207 865 8255 / 07801 212967, or download the spoof parking tickets for urban 4x4s.
Kimberly-Clark wiping away our ancient forests
Kimberly-Clark is the largest tissue product company in the world, making brands such as Kleenex. But every time you flush a piece of Kleenex toilet paper you’re also flushing away Canada’s oldest forests. Calling on the maker of well-known tissue paper brand Kleenex to stop destroying ancient forests, Greenpeace Canada have launched an international campaign against Kimberly-Clark, and its Kleenex brand, for its role in destroying Canada’s ancient boreal forest.
Kimberly-Clark’s own documents show that it is logging intact forests in the Canadian boreal, containing trees that are upwards of 180 years old. The boreal forest is the largest ancient forest left in North America and the habitat of species such as grizzly and black bears, woodland caribou, wolves, bald eagles, and boreal owls.
These forests are predominantly logged in clearcuts - a devastating form of logging where most if not all trees are removed from an area of forest. What’s left behind is a barren landscape that can no longer support wildlife species.
Tissue products containing high amounts of recycled and FSC-certified fibres are of comparable quality and price to virgin fibre products - despite Kimberly-Clark’s claims to the contrary.
Greenpeace suggests two of the most important actions that concerned consumers can take:
• Stop buying Kimberly-Clark products including Kleenex brand products and start buying forest friendly alternatives, and
• Let Kimberly-Clark know that you want them to stop clearcutting ancient forests like Canada’s boreal.
For more information and details on how to contact Kleenex, see www.kleercut.net
Vegan childrean are healthy
The BBC is failing in its supposed role as a public service broadcaster, says the Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation (VVF), after giving widespread publicity to a report claiming that vegan children risk damaging their health by excluding meat. The claim, made by Lindsay Allen of the US Agricultural Research Service, was given prominent billing by BBC News on-line and featured on the Jeremy Vine show and Ken Bruce shows on BBC Radio 2. It concerned Paul McCartney so much that he made a rare phone-in to the Jeremy Vine show.
“One...study on 544 malnourished children raised chiefly on a starchy, low-nutrition corn and bean diet has no relevance to children in the West,” says Tony Wardle, Associate Director of the VVF. “Yet it commands major media coverage with almost no counterview, despite having been made by the organization which supports and promotes the mass factory farming of animals. This is not good journalism and it is extremely bad public service broadcasting. The VVF reports regularly on the growing volume of science showing the link between animal products and the collapsing health of our children and is largely ignored.”
More information from Viva! tel: 0117 970 5190.
Fish Stocks “Going, Going, Gone?”
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) published its latest list of Fish to Avoid and Fish to Eat in February. MCS is advising consumers to avoid vulnerable and overfished species such as shark and deepwater fish, while retailers should source traditional favourites such as cod and haddock from sustainable fisheries using the FISHonline website. Not all fish is off the menu and MCS recommends that the most environmentally sound seafood includes mussels, oysters, Alaskan salmon and sustainably harvested scallops (diver-caught rather than dredged).
A wallet-sized Pocket Guide to the Fish to Eat and Fish to Avoid is available free of charge at the website www.FISHonline.org, or from Marine Conservation Society, Unit 3, Wolf Business Park, Alton Road, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire HR9 5NB. Alternatively call 01989 566017 or email info@mcsuk.org. 2nd or 1st class SAE or postage costs required for multiple copies.
Ethical Consumer book
In April, the academic publisher Sage will publish ‘The Ethical Consumer’ - a book which tries to understand the rise of ethical consumption in contemporary society. There are 13 chapters from a range of authors who include: campaigners (from ECRA); academics (from the UK, USA and Australia); and professionals (from the Co-operative Bank and MORI).
One of Ethical Consumer magazine’s own editors has been one of three people involved in designing and putting together the work. Subjects addressed include: philosophy, economics, history, pressure groups, information provision, campaign effectiveness, case studies of individual consumers, focus groups, surveys, corporate disclosure and ethical marketing.
(The Ethical Consumer - Harrison, Newholm and Shaw. Sage 2005 ISBN: 1-4129-0353-X)
Palestine & Israel tours
Olive Co-operative, a group promoting responsible tourism, trade and
education in the Middle East, has announced its schedule of tours to
Palestine/Israel for summer and a utumn 2005. The first tour starts
on 23rd July. As well as the usual itineraries, which allow people to
see the reality of Palestinian life and to experience the richness of
Palestinian hospitality and culture, specialist tours this year focus
on:
• music and culture, including the Jerusalem World Music Festival
and visual art groups;
• women-only tour, including meetings with women’s peace groups
and women-only production co-operatives;
• health sector tour, looking at the impacts of the Occupation
on health in Palestine and Israel and including special clinic visits
with Physicians for Human Rights and the UPMRC;
• food and drink tour, including witnessing the olive harvest and
production of olive and olive oil, visits to Cremisan wineries in Beit
Jala, to Taybeh, site of Palestine’s only brewery, and to fair
trade producers in the Galilee.
All itineraries include visits to Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem and Tel
Aviv. Some also feature time in Nablus, Ramallah, the Galilee and the
Negev.
For more information, details or booking forms email,
call +44 (0)161 273 1970 or 0845 456 1472 (UK local rate), or visit
www.olivecoop.com
TOTALitarian oil
A new global campaign against French
oil company TOTAL has just been launched by the Burma Campaign UK. The
campaign is backed by a new report, ‘Totalitarian Oil – TOTAL
Oil: Fuelling the oppression in Burma’, exposing how oil giant
TOTAL plays a crucial role in funding and protecting Burma’s brutal
military dictatorship.
“TOTAL has done more than any other company to help prop up the
regime in Burma,” says John Jackson, Director of the Burma Campaign
UK. “The French government is protecting TOTAL’s interests
in Burma by blocking tough EU sanctions against the dictatorship. The
consequence of TOTAL’s Burma operation is that the regime knows
it is safe from any tough EU action.” In 2004 France vetoed a proposed
EU ban on new investment in Burma’s oil and gas sectors in order
to protect TOTAL’s investment in the country. The USA banned new
investment in 1997.
You can read the report online or download a pdf at www.burmacampaign.org.uk
or ring 020 7324 4710
Eco-Living 2005
Bristol’s Alternative Homes and Gardens Fair takes place on 14
May 2005, 10 am - 4 pm. Visitors will be able to climb inside an electric
car, examine solar panels, find out how to make their house more energy
efficient, and buy a wide range of natural, fair trade and organic products
for inside the home and out. Admission is free.
CREATE Centre, Smeaton Road, Bristol BS1 6XN Tel: 0117 925 0505 www.bristol-city.gov.uk/create
For further information contact: Christine Davis, Event Manager, christine_davis@bristol-city.gov.uk
A good life
Printed on 100% recycled paper, using
vegetable inks that don’t expose printers to toxins, and produced
in the UK so that no unnecessary transportation miles are involved,
Leo Hickman’s ‘A Good Life’ was published in March.
Hickman has spent the past year trying to live an environmentally and
socially responsible life, and written about the experience in a column
for the Guardian. A Good Life is a practical reference guide that offers
all the relevant information, addresses and websites for anyone deciding
to follow in his footsteps. It includes a list of best buys compiled
by Ethical Consumer.
(Eden Books from Transworld, p/b, 304 pages, £15, ISBN: 1903919592)
Green council cleaning contract
Maidstone is one of the first councils in the country to sign up to
an environmentally friendly cleaning contract.
In future the council’s cleaning contractors, Ridge Crest Cleaning
Limited, will use only environmentally friendly and biodegradable cleaning
products. Every bin liner will be biodegradable and the council’s
paper towels and toilet rolls will be manufactured from 100% post-consumer
recycled and chlorine-free products.
Frances Brown, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, said: “There
is a huge difference in the products because all the raw materials should
be free from animal byproducts and no raw materials or finished products
should be tested on animals. And where possible, all the raw materials
should be obtained from renewable sources. It is really great news for
the environment because if we can do it, everyone else can and it hasn’t
cost us a penny extra. So we are clean, green and prudent.”
For more information about Maidstone’s new cleaning contract contact
Jae Mather on 01622 602504 or email jaemather@maidstone.gov.uk.
Make poverty history
In 2005, the UK will host G7 Finance Ministers’ meetings in February
and June, the G8 summit in Scotland in July, and take on presidency
of the European Union.
MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is an alliance of campaigning groups, charities,
unions, faith communities and celebrities. Together, they are seeking
to use this opportunity to persuade governments to drop the debt, end
injustice in international trade, and deliver more and more effective
aid.
The symbol of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty is a white band,
which can be worn as a wristband, or used in symbolic actions throughout
2005. Global ‘White Band Days’ have been declared on 1 July,
just before the G8 summit, and 13th September. You can find out more
about the campaign, order a wristband online, or take action at www.makepovertyhistory.org
A Global Week of Action for trade justice with events and activities
in more than 70 countries across the world will be the biggest mobilisation
yet on trade. It is taking place 10-16 April. For more information see
www.april2005.org
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