I want you to award the country a CBE: a Clean British Energy revolution. It’s time to switch from dirty imported fossil fuels and develop clean British power from our wind, sun and water.

Your Electricity Market Reform plans must:

• Listen to what people want and tap into Britain’s wind and tidal resources – the best in Europe – and solar
• Ensure the UK isn’t locked into another generation of expensive, imported gas
• Close the door on expensive nuclear power, which is subsidised by the taxpayer and leaves a legacy of dangerous waste
• Reverse the domination of the power market by just a handful of big companies – so new, clean companies get a look-in
• Help millions of people around the country plug into affordable clean power and end the scandal of dangerously cold homes

Follow this link to send your copy of this and build the pressure on Davey:

http://foe.co.uk/what_we_do/clean_british_energy_switch_full_35921.html

Cardiff School of Planning and Geography have an excellent programme of free events on many topics of interest. See here:

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/cplan/events

I have just signed up for this one, for example:

SUSTAINABILITY WEEK: A Case for Red Tape

Andy Fryers, Greenprint Director, Hay Festival
Tuesday 30th October 2012 – 5:30pm
Committee Rooms 1&2, Glamorgan Building

Festivals, in common with all businesses, have a responsibility to both maximise the positive impacts and minimise their direct impacts on the environment. Whilst there has been environmental protection legislation in place for many years, climate change regulation is still in its infancy. The correct use of red tape will drive change and provide a solution. It is time for a level playing field.

Public lecture hosted by the Innovation & Engagement Unit.

Additional Information

Please note, as places are limited, you may only attend an event if you have registered your place. Registration required for all events featured. Event details are for guideline only and may be subject to change beyond our control.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yBRJGgIRSXE#!

I have come to know Josiah as we work together as members of the Green World Editorial Board, so I am happy to promote this great song on his behalf. (Andy)

This is his call out for us to do what we can to support the big march in London on the 20th.

It is my generation that have failed Josiah’s (and my sons’) generation so badly.

Josiah: “As a 19-year old student in York and a member of Unite, I wrote March in the hope of sharing some of the anger workers and young people feel about the coalitions failed austerity plans. There are too few modern political songs articulating a real spirit of resistance, so I hope this is a small contribution to rekindling that spirit. Please share it around!”

http://www.twitter.com/josiahmortimer

Check these out too:

The government’s austerity measures are biting hard. Hard pressed families are feeling the squeeze. One in seven children go without a hot meal and the only growth is in foodbanks. With pay cuts and rising bills many are unable to make their money last a month and in desperation are driven to take out pay-day loans. We need an alternative to austerity and cuts. We need a program of growth to build the economy. You can help send that message by joining us on 20th October.
http://www.unitetheunion.org

An assortment of the Co-ops finest Fairtrade wine and cheese are available to titillate your taste buds. Hopefully this will be an inspiration for the Fairtrade quiz which will follow with great prizes for the winners. Even the deputy mayor is getting in on the act: accepting the Fairtrade renewal certificate on behalf of Bridgend County.

Entry to the event will be £4, with all monies going to local charity Sustainable Wales.

The event will inform as well as entertain; with community project, Valley and Vale (V&V) giving a presentation on their ground-breaking project with the Ethiopian NGO, the Gemini Trust.

The Gemini Trust, based in the Addis Ababa slums, aims to help the families of twins. V&V have been working with them: visiting Ethiopia and utilising Skype to foster social, artistic and trading links between Addis Ababa and Bridgend County.

Dont miss the opportunity to be among the first in Wales to see the unique arts and crafts that are helping lift Addis Ababas slum dwellers out of poverty.

http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2012/10/09/green-party-guide-to-george-osbornes-autumn-conference-address/

The last point (no. 8) makes especially depressing reading for the Fractivist community.

Fellow fractivist, Vanessa Vine, points out:
“How blatant does it get?! Are we going to let them get away with this?!!! The Treasury is not even TRYING to hide endemic industry/government backhander-culture or their utter collective disregard of public opinion with this statement:

‘The consultation on shale gas will not be a formal one, but rather an “engagement with industry” [..] The government will engage with companies to ensure that the final structure of the regime is appropriately targeted while maintaining a fair return for the exchequer.’ ”

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth:
“The chancellor clearly isn’t listening to the increasingly vociferous warnings from leading politicians, businesses and climate experts about his reckless dash for gas. With a fossil-fuelled economic strategy firmly rooted in the 1970s, George Osborne is looking increasingly incapable of dealing with the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.”

I know we have several dyslexic members in Bridgend Green Party and I would be keen to hear from them as to whether this font helps them. I am also keen to hear if people without dyslexia find this font off putting at all. Depending on the responses we get, we can look in to using as our default font for party communications and – if it works – on the blog too.

It is an open access font created to help dyslexic readers. Bottom heavy and unique character shapes help prevent letters and numbers from being confused.

OpenDyslexic by Abelardo Gonzalez is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

This means as long as you visibly give credit you can use this on your Ebook, Ebook reader, actual physical books, web sites etc.

You can load and install it very easily from here: http://www.dafont.com/open-dyslexic.font

OpenDyslexic is a new open sourced font created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia. The typefaces includes regular,bold,italic and bold-italic styles. It is being updated continually and improved based on input from dyslexic users. There are no restrictions on using OpenDyslexic outside of attribution.

Your brain can sometimes do funny things to letters. OpenDyslexic tries to help prevent some of these things from happening. Letters have heavy weighted bottoms to add a kind of “gravity” to each letter helping to keep your brain from rotating them around in ways that can make them look like other letters. Consistently weighted bottoms can also help reinforce the line of text. The unique shapes of each letter can help prevent flipping and swapping.

OpenDyslexic also takes a different approach to italic styles. It is generally recommended that italics be avoided in reading material for dyslexia. However instead of taking the normal approach of “slant x% for italic” OpenDyslexic’s italic style has been crafted to allow for its use for emphasis while maintaining readability.
(Source: http://dyslexicfonts.com/ )

So what do people think?

Andy

Attachments – document in this font:

MESSAGE from Lou:
Hello. 5 years ago yesterday my bravebig cousin Ed passed away. Next Sunday I will be a broken girl as I will (hopefully) have run the Cardiff Half Marathon to remember Ed while raising money for his charity.

I’ve been training bloody
Hard for this. I’ve run in the rain. I’ve run in the sun. I’ve almost lost a toe nail. It’s been no mean feat. PLEASEif you can spare a couple quidplease sponsor me. Money goes to Brain Tumour UK and Cancer Research Wales. I feel bad askin y’allbut they are great causes! Thanks x

http://www.justgiving.com/lou-evans

http://www.cardiffhalfmarathon.co.uk/

It also highlights the sorts of precautions that have not been taken over there, and are not likely to be taken here either due to the complete lack of bespoke regulation for this uniquely hazardous process. We need to heed her last sentence in particular!

Kim Triolo Feil; Arlington TX

Having experience here, I need investors and stakeholders in shale to reason with the industry, and so I need you to help me speak to them as they are not responsive to me.

I live at ground zero for urban drilling. We have about 60 padsites in our 99 sq mile town here in Arlington TX. The following requests wont cover public protections on the huge buildout and the associated human errors or accidents. We had a drill spill in Lake Arlington, our drinking source, a couple of years ago and have had maybe a dozen emission events over the last couple of years that I am aware of.

These are the items that our drilling ordinance lacks ..
1. Use electric (not diesel) rigs in urban areas.
2. Video tape ALL cement casing pours when it comes back up to the top through the annulus so that there is proof of an even pour and ensure all wells have electric bond log tests.
3. All drilling mud farming (private & commercial) is subject to open records of water & soil test results.
4. We need the industry to invent technology to keep the toxic, silica dust on the padsite-those pathetic pillow case looking socks arent getting the job done.
5. PLEASE ADD SCRUBBERS TO THE OPEN HATCH FLOWBACK TANKS.
6. We shouldnt have to wait 2.5 years for the EPA mandated Green Completions and allow venting or flaring in urban or rural areas.methane losses should be prevented-period.
7. The pipeline should be in place FIRST before fracturing so that flowback doesnt sit in the ground for months festering some unknown, man-made hydrogen sulfide-like stale water flowback.
8. The setback away from people should be substantial. Rural method drilling is not acceptable in urban areas. A doctor who is an environmental tester said that the health effects are being seen downwind from about 1,800 2,500 feet.
9. Zero tolerance for underinspected, or faked Waste Disposal Injection Well casing pressure tests which risks eventual migration of toxic fluids into our drinking supplies.

Lets elect officials that will ensure a protective Oil & Gas Drilling Ordinance. This is in our collective power so we must all become active to be proactive because reactive measures are too costly.

https://yalesurvey.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_2gzugIgVgCz3BiZ

If you need any help, let me know!!

Andy