Selected stories from EC97, November/December 2005

Stop Climate Chaos
Crucial talks on Kyoto’s development post 2012 are scheduled to take place in Montreal at the end of November this year. UK targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions are off-track, and Friends of the Earth has revealed that the UK may not even meet its Kyoto target. Tony Blair is appearing to shift away from treaties and targets towards technological solutions. And then there was Hurricane Katrina... Never has it been so clear that climate action is needed right now.
To this end, eighteen campaign groups, including some of Britain’s best known organisations, have joined forces to launch the biggest climate change coalition this country has ever seen. 500 volunteers formed a giant human banner on London’s South Bank to mark the launch of the unique new movement in the beginning of September.
The Stop Climate Chaos coalition will mobilise its millions of members and supporters to put pressure on the government, whose plans to tackle climate change fall far short of what’s needed. The new coalition wants the government to slash the UK’s global warming gas emissions and make fighting climate change a key part of its plans to deal with global poverty.
One of its demands is for the UK government to make climate change a top international priority so that global warming is capped at a temperature rise of 2 deg. C above pre-industrial levels. This will require global emissions to have peaked and be irreversibly declining by 2015.
The National Federation of Women’s Institutes, Greenpeace, RSPB, Oxfam, Christian Aid, WWF, CAFOD, Friends and the Earth, the Wildlife Trusts, People & Planet and Tearfund are just some of the groups already committed to the new movement.
More information from Stop Climate Chaos on 0207 324 4750 or at www.stopclimatechaos.org
International demonstrations on climate change are planned for December 3rd, the Saturday midway through the next round of Kyoto climate talks. In the UK there will be demonstrations in London and Edinburgh. For more details and to see how you can help www.campaigncc.org
Meanwhile, Friends of the Earth is asking supporters to ask their MPs to support a new Climate Change Bill that FoE has drafted. The Bill proposes a 3% cut in carbon dioxide emissions every year from now on. Go to www.foe.co.uk to email your MP.


Nestle threat to Fairtrade Mark?
Leading campaigning organisations are warning of the risks of the Fairtrade Foundation having awarded a Fairtrade mark to Nestlé, the UK’s most boycotted company. Nestlé received a Fairtrade mark for a new brand of instant coffee called Partner’s Blend, which was launched in Britain in October.
According to Baby Milk Action which co-ordinates the Nestle boycott in the UK, the Fairtrade Foundation (FTF) says that companies must be committed to growing the overall market for Fairtrade, yet public statements from Nestlé demonstrate it is ideologically opposed to Fair Trade as anything other than a niche market. Its use of the mark, if awarded, will undoubtedly be used as part of the company’s public relations strategy to divert criticism.
Given the strength of feeling Nestlé abuses arouse in ethical shoppers, campaigners suggest that the Fairtrade mark will be devalued by association with the company, so hitting genuine Fair Trade companies and demotivating those who have been promoting Fair Trade, often as a parallel strategy to promoting the Nestlé boycott.
The FTF says in a statement: “Our vision for Fairtrade includes extending the benefits to as many disadvantaged producers in developing countries as possible. We would regard any approach by a major company wishing to enter this market as sign of success for all the dedicated shoppers, campaigners and companies who have worked hard to blaze the trail for Fairtrade over the past 11 years.”
Our best buys for instant coffee in our report in issue 93 where Clipper and Cafedirect. All Clipper’s instant coffees were both Fairtrade and organic. All of Cafedirect’s coffee is Fairtrade and the decaffeinated instant is organic. Check out the instant coffee ratings and the ground coffee ratings on www.ethiscore.org.
For more information about the Nestle campaign, contact Baby Milk Action at 34 Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1QY or phone: 01223 464420
Website: www.babymilkaction.org



Virtual Christmas presents
Don’t forget to check out our ethiscore website before you go Christmas shopping this year. You can create a shopping list on the website with all the most ethical brands of wine, toys, chocolates, perfumes, MP3 players and other festive gifts. Or give a subscription to the ethiscore website as a virtual gift. It combines low impact on the environment with high impact on spending habits. A years subscription costs only £25. Check it out at www.ethiscore.org
Other virtual Christmas presents are offered by the likes of Good Gifts, Traidcraft, Oxfam and FARM Africa where you can buy gifts for people in need, either in the UK or in developing countries, on behalf of your friends and relatives. Gifts include a pair of comfy slippers for an old person, goats, chickens, organic seeds, storage for crops, text books and school dinners for children or even a rocket launcher that will be turned into farm implements and school bells. Check them out at www.goodgifts.org, www.giftsforlife.org, www.oxfamunwrapped.com and www.farmfriends.org.uk
Or to spread a bit of goodwill at Christmas, you could give your time as a gift. As part of the ‘Give a billion minutes’ campaign, you can pledge your time at www.yearofthevolunteer.org where you can find ideas for everything from visiting an elderly neighbour who’s alone at Christmas (30 minutes) to singing carols in a hospital (120 minutes) to preparing Christmas dinner at a homeless shelter (180 minutes).
Visit our www.ethiscore.org website at the end of October for our Top 10 Christmas tips.


Anti-dairy ad
A giant billboard featuring a well-dressed businessman drinking milk straight from a startled cow appeared in London in September to kick off a seven city tour of Britain. Bearing the slogan ‘Cut Out the Middleman. Milk - still think it’s natural?’, the ad aims to turn heads - and possibly a few stomachs - by highlighting the reality of milk consumption.
“Drinking milk isn’t just cruel, it’s unnatural!”, says Viva!’s Senior Campaigner Toni Vernelli. “Cows produce milk to feed their babies, just like human mothers do. Our bizarre habit of drinking milk from a different species not only deprives calves of their rightful food, but also leads to a myriad of human illnesses. Drinking cow’s milk is no more natural than drinking badger’s milk or cat’s milk.”
The new ad, which will visit London, Coventry, Manchester, Leeds, Exeter, Cardiff and Bristol, is part of an anti-dairy campaign launched this month by animal campaign group Viva! The Dark Side of Dairy, the group’s shocking new report and video, exposes the crippling lameness, painful udder infections and physical exhaustion which plague Britain’s two million dairy cows. It also reveals the gruesome fate of unwanted male calves - every year up to 200,000 are shot just hours after birth.
For more information contact Viva! on 0117 944 1000 or see www.milkmyths.org.uk.

Non-plastic toys
Paperpod, an East Sussex based company, is launching an imaginative range of toys and furniture produced from recycled, corrugated cardboard. Eight designs feature in the current Paperpod range. These include adult and toddler chairs, a toy fort, rocket, dolls house, play house and ‘paperpod’. The toys provide a blank canvas for children to play, create and decorate. Furthermore, all Paperpod products can be folded flat for easy storage.
Paperpod’s range of products can be purchased from www.paperpod.co.uk, by calling 0845 124 9509, or through various shops and mail order catalogues. Prices start at £6.95.

Polypland
One of our cartoonists, Polyp, is currently having an exhibition in Manchester at The Basement on Lever Street. As well as the usual ‘pictures on walls’ there are lots of interactive, 3D elements. The central piece will be a human sized version of the Rat Race cartoon, plus a ‘US scapegoat carnival shooting gallery’, a ‘draw the last frame’ interactive wall, plus original artwork and animated projections. The exhibition runs until 16th December.

2 minutes of silence
On 11th November 2005, a US network of social activists is calling on people to observe two minutes of silence in honour of all innocent victims of terrorism, including those killed in the war against terrorism. You can commit to two minutes of silence on the Adbusters website at www.adbusters.org

Spray-on mud
Further confirmation, if any were needed, that our consumer culture is insane, comes with news of a product specifically designed for people embarrassed about owning an urban 4x4. Spray on mud, retailing for just £7.95 a bottle, will make neighbours think that they’ve actually been off-roading rather than driving the kids down the road to school on the way to Harvey Nicks.

Shark ahoy
The chance of a lifetime is being offered by The Wildlife Trusts. One lucky person will win the opportunity spend a week aboard a survey yacht, to help search for basking sharks.
The competition winner will spend one week aboard the yacht between May to September 2006. The yacht sails around the western coast of the UK, from Devon in the English Channel to the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, while the survey team conducts their vital research work.
To enter the competition by 30th November, go to http://baskingsharks.wildlifetrusts.org/

Angela Hale
Angela Hale, a co-founder of Women Working Worldwide, died on September 6th aged 59. In the late 1990s, she helped set up - and was a central presence in - Labour Behind the Label and the ETI. Angela also contributed to, and collaborated with, Ethical Consumer for many years. Her persistence has ensured that codes of conduct for producers and retailers, initially in the garment industry and, later, with Kenyan flowers (see News, issue 95), were rewritten to reflect the interests of women workers.