May 2003 Newsletter
The
following articles are reproduced from the May 2003 newsletter, and
so any information within this page is correct only as of May 2003.
For the latest up-to-date information, please see the relevant campaigns as indicated by the buttons.
Long-Term Vision for Longsight
A team of researchers from Manchester FoE, FoE UK and the Hamilton Road Area Community Association have been working in the Longsight area of Manchester since September. Their aim was to work closely with the community to learn about their experiences of getting around. The wealth of experience documented by the researchers' work using Participatory Appraisal (PA) reveals problems with public transport, traffic and safety that now need to be addressed.
What is PA?
PA began life as a tool for working with people in developing countries and was brought to the UK by Brighton-based consultancy "Development Focus UK". It is an engaging alternative to public meetings and questionnaires. For areas like Longsight, in which a diverse mixture of ethnicities and languages co-exist, PA's visual and interactive nature reaches the parts that boring questionnaire forms can only dream of.
Central to the PA process is that the community are visited on their own turf, not expected to come to bureaucratic public meetings, and that they are involved throughout. Meetings typically involve colourful and creative use of stickers, flip-charts and post-it notes with an emphasis on combining words with pictures.
So what did we do?
Over 6 months we did a total of 27 PA sessions in various locations. Bus stops, shop windows, mothers and toddlers groups, Longsight library, Asian women's English language lessons, a Pakistani Centre, a Mosque and the Woodcraft Folk are a few examples.
We asked them about how they got around in Longsight and used the PA tools to get some examples of problems. The research was conducted in two phases, the first being very general, the second homing in on public transport, safety and traffic. These were the issues highlighted in phase 1.
Between the phases were Reference Groups. These involved representatives of Greater Manchester policy teams and Longsight community groups as well as local Councillors. Our work was well received.
So what's next?
Simon at FoE UK will be locked in his office day and night until he creatively and concisely summarises all the findings of the research and comes up proposed solutions. The report will be discussed with the Reference Groups and then the solutions will be promoted and assessed at a public event in Longsight. The final report should be published by August and will be used as a starting point for work with the Longsight Community. An exciting campaign lies ahead.
Take Action!
If you'd like to get involved please contact Graeme on the office phone (0161 834 8221), or by e-mail at graeme@manchesterfoe.org.uk. Please see the website for up-to-date information on meetings and events.
Runaway Runways
Irresponsible and unsustainable development of the aviation industry has to be stopped.
The Government is preparing a 30-year strategy for air travel and airports, which will be published in 2004. It has made clear that it supports more air travel growth and therefore, airport expansion, but it is not clear how it will deal with the effects of air travel.
The number of UK air passengers increased exponentially over the last 30 years and according to the forecasts this trend is likely to continue.
Meeting predicted demand will require the equivalent of a new airport the current size of Stansted every year for the next 30 years! This scale of growth is simple unsustainable and to promote it is hugely irresponsible.
Aviation and the economy
Few question that the aviation industry creates some economic benefit and supports some employment. But aviation contributes less than 2% of the UK's Gross National Product and employs less than 0.8% of the working population.
Furthermore, there is no evidence yet to show any link between the development of aviation and the performance of the economy. In 2000 the Oxford Economic Forecasting published a study where it tried to find a link between air transport and productivity growth in the UK economy. This study could not find a link, but went on to presume that there was a link.
Public subsidies for air travel
The aviation industry does not pay tax on aviation fuel, does not pay VAT on the purchase of planes or servicing or airfares and also does not pay for the environmental damages it causes. These indirect subsidies in form of tax exemptions for air transport were worth £7.5 billion in 2000.
The Department for Transport carried out a price sensitivity test and concludes that without airport tax exemptions, passenger demand in 2030 would be 225m instead of the predicted 500m. 500m passengers could not be accommodated within existing airport capacity, but 225m passengers could.
People with the highest incomes fly the most, so they get most benefit from the cheap flights made possible by the tax concessions. The poorest 10% hardly ever fly. Even on budget airlines 75% of the trips are made by people with higher incomes (Star UK Survey). The predicted increase in passenger numbers over the next 30 years will consist of the wealthiest 10% of the population who will go on short trips and weekend breaks abroad.
It is often said that the business community requires aviation expansion. But according to the Department for Transport, business trips only make up 24% of journeys by plane. Even if the percentage of business trips did rise, existing airport capacity could easily accommodate them.
Expansion is solely to cater for leisure trips.
Impacts on rural economies
As airports and air travel import income they also export income (and therefore jobs) out of the UK and its regional economies.
One phenomenon is the tourism deficit, which was worth about £9 billion in 2000. This figure is the difference between the £18 billion a year taken out of the UK for leisure trips by UK citizens and the £9 billion brought into the UK by overseas visitors.
Furthermore most of the money that is brought into the UK by foreign tourists is spend in London, Oxford, Cambridge, York, or Edinburgh. For this reason most regional economies outside London and the South East rely on their tourist income from UK holiday makers. But more air travel makes it easier and cheaper for UK citizens to abandon traditional UK destinations for cheap flights to Florida or Malaga - this has a direct effect on already struggling rural and regional economies.
An accepted fact is that road congestion leads to economic damage. Manchester Airport for instance is responsible for 20% of the traffic on key congested links of the motorway system serving the airport (Consultation Document for the North of England). Aviation is therefore responsible for a proportion of the economic damage identified in national transport policy documents.
Additionally most people travel to airports by cars; even at the airports with improved public transport links such as Heathrow and Gatwick more than 50% still arrive by car and at most airports the proportion coming by car will remain at over 90%.
Cheap air travel makes it easier for cheap overseas goods and products to compete with home made goods. For example, the price of a New Zealand apple flown round the world will be less than a locally grown British apple. One reason for this is that the price of the New Zealand apple does not include tax on aviation fuel.
Job creation
Aviation growth and new airports certainly create some new jobs. But most large scale investment will create jobs. If the hidden subsidies spent on aviation were invested in less polluting parts of the economy, baking or brewing for instance, jobs could certainly be created in these sectors as well.
The Government proposed new airports in areas that already enjoy low unemployment, for instance a new four runway airport at Cliffe on the North Kent coast, which the Government says would create 79,000 jobs. But there are not enough local people seeking work. Therefore it is likely that most workers would be sucked in from across the south east and beyond adding to pressures for road building, housing on greenfield sites and the erosion of the countryside.
Aviation and the environment
Aviation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 3.5% of man-made climate change. Although technology decreases emissions per flight, the expansion in aviation traffic will exceed the savings made. Studies forecast that aviation alone will represent 10-28% (dependent on scenario) of total UK energy use in 2050.
Air and noise pollution
Aviation is a significant contributor to local air pollution around airports, as much from road traffic as the aircraft themselves. Noise levels around many airports are already unacceptable for most residents, but many airports can or do operate 24 hours a day, disturbing therefore people's sleep as well. One in eight of the population could be affected. Development in technology will again be negated by the sheer growth in traffic.
Aviation is linked to ill health: noise to stress related illnesses, including effects on performance and heart conditions; poor air quality to respiratory problems. Noise exposure levels at most airports already exceed World Health Organisation guidelines.
Habitat and wildlife
The Woodlands Trust estimates that up to 590 hectares of ancient woodland nationwide, would be under threat as a result of current aviation proposals. These woods soak up approximately 147 tons of carbon dioxide, they are home to 78 threatened species and are used as recreational sites.
Take Action!
If you'd like to get involved with our transport campaign, ring the office on 0161 834 8221, e-mail us at office@manchesterfoe.org.uk, or come along to one of our campaigns meetings.
Climate Change
Some experts predict that this year will be the hottest year on record with temperatures surpassing those in 1998. The Goddard Institute for Space Studies considers the likelihood of this to be very high. Last year was the second warmest year after 1998, with global temperatures averaging 0.56°C above the long-term average from 1880 to 2001. Last year was the 25th consecutive year of above-average temperatures. Surface temperatures have risen nearly 0.6°C over the past century, and the speed of warming has increased dramatically over the last 25 years, approaching 2°C per century.
Last year there was a severe heat wave during May and June across southwestern Asia, with temperatures reaching as high as 50°C, resulting in more than 1,000 deaths. Other extreme events included torrential rains and flooding in Asia and Central Europe, some of the worst smog ever to hit China and Hong Kong, and scores of forest fires in Russia, the U.S., and Australia, which came close to igniting the cities of Moscow, Denver, and Sydney. Most recently, the worst drought to afflict Australia in nearly a century has been linked to the warming trend.
There is an unprecedented rate of ice melt on Mt. Kilimanjaro, whose glaciers are expected to disappear by 2020. In the Himalayas, the Alps and Alaska, thousands of glaciers are rapidly continue, Glacier National Park in Montana is expected to be entirely glacier-free within 50 years. The global temperature data masks even more significant warming in specific areas such as in the polar regions. The loss of ice sheets and glaciers is expected to have very damaging effects in terms of global sea level rise, flooding, and the loss of freshwater supplies in many parts of the world. Millions of people could be displaced, losing homes and livelihoods. Diseases are expected to spread greatly both due to sea level rise and higher temperatures which are also putting crops and ecosystems at risk.
The largest, single, known change over the past century is from the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), mainly from the burning of fossil fuel. This exaggerates the "Greenhouse Effect" where heat from the sun in the form of short wave radiation passes through the atmosphere to the earth and is converted to long wave radiation which is trapped by CO2 on reflection from the ground. The net result is a gradual increase in average global temperature. The burning of fossil fuels for electricity and heat, in vehicles and planes are the main producers of greenhouse gases, along with forest burning for land clearance in threatened areas such as the Amazon.
The Kyoto Protocol has been a worldwide step towards limiting greenhouse gas emissions. But the prevented this being ratified by backing out of it, instead allowing their industries to pollute more heavily by discouraging heavy limiting of vehicle emissions. Exxon Mobil (Esso) lobbied Bush hard to back out of the Kyoto agreement to protect their vested interests in the motor industry. Friends of the Earth are part of a worldwide movement to boycott Esso. However, Shell have heavily criticised Bush and are researching renewable energy. Battery cars with excellent performance, running hundreds of miles on one charge, are already in use.
We have the technology to power the entire world with renewable energy, especially solar, wind and wave. The UK has the potential to profit from its offshore wind and wave capacity and could even export energy to Europe in the long term. Such energy produces no greenhouse gases and does away with the need for dangerous nuclear plants. The Government must invest strongly in renewable energy.
If renewable energy was in widespread use globally, the world security would be far more stable as many countries conflict over fossil fuel access.
Take Action!
You can switch to green electricity. The national Friends of the Earth website compares the best providers.
Goodbye Nuclear, Hello Wind
At the end of February, the Government finally published the long-awaited Energy White Paper. Environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth (FoE) were "pleased" to see the paper accept that a 60% reduction is needed in carbon dioxide emissions (from the 1990 levels, by 2050), as recommended by the Royal Commission for Environmental Policy (RCEP). The reductions will be through using renewable power and being more efficient with our energy use - not by building any additional nuclear power stations.
Friends of the Earth claim this means the end of the nuclear dream and celebrated their hard fought 30-year victory by laying a "RIP" wreath at Calder Hall (the world's first nuclear-powered electricity generator) which also closed in February. Bryony Worthington, FoE's energy campaigner, said, "The White Paper is a crucial landmark in moving towards a more sustainable, low carbon economy."
Unfortunately the Energy White Paper didn't introduce any new measures to cut emissions from road vehicles nor from aviation - the latter being excluded from the UK's Kyoto obligation. FoE also believe the White Paper needs clear timetables and investment to be effective.
Tony Blair has expressed his support for technological solutions (such as hydrogen), particularly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, saying: "Economic growth and protecting the environment can be compatible, but we need a step change in our understanding of the science and technology capable of doing it."
Friends of the Earth Energy Campaign will be tracking policy discussions on renewables and the planning and emissions trading, as well as continuing work to oppose the Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline and on the Stop Esso campaign.
This article was reproduced from the "Networking Newsletter" which is Manchester's main guide to all things green. The newsletter can be found on the web at http://www.networkingnewsletter.org.uk or ring Michael on 0161 226 9321 and ask for a free copy.
Scale Up For Trade Justice
The Trade Justice Movement (TJM) is a coalition of organisations including Friends of the Earth campaigning to make trade fair for people and the environment. Following on from the success of the mass lobby of Parliament last year TJM is now bringing the campaign to the MPs in their own constituencies.
The marathon lobby will start at 12 noon on Friday 27th June and aims to lobby every one of the UK's 659 MPs over a 24 hour period, culminating with a "weigh in for trade justice", a mass act of solidarity where campaigners stand together in silence holding up sets of scales.
Campaigners will be asking their MP to put pressure on the government to take at lead at the World Trade Organisation meeting this September in Mexico so that trade rules are rewritten to benefit poor people and the environment.
Take Action!
Arrange to meet
with your MP on 27th or 28th June - visit the TJM website (www.tradejusticemovement.org.uk)
for an action guide.
Tell Greater
Manchester TJM that you are seeing your MP (e-mail liz4tradejustice@fish.co.uk)
Join the Manchester
celebrations in St Ann's Square at 12 noon on Saturday 28th June 2003
(more info from Polly Taylor, Christian Aid, 0161 273 3647).
Going... going... gone!
On Thursday 13 March, members of Manchester campaigns groups Friends of the Earth, World Development Movement and People and Planet staged elaborate street theatre in the centre of Manchester to draw shopper's attention to the great "GATS Sale of the Century".
Members of the public looked on aghast as the health, postal and water services were auctioned off to big-business fat cats with no regulations attached, for knock down prices. The street theatre included an auctioneer with lectern and gavel selling a MFoE member dressed as a giant tap (water services), a giant letter (postal services), a large suitcase with holiday clothes (tourism) and another MFoE member dressed as a doctor (health services). Despite "the people", one dressed in sack cloth, wanting to keep these services they were sold to actors in "Fat Cat" suits.
The action was part of a European-wide day of protest about the controversial WTO negotiations with actions taking place outside every UK Regional Government Office. In Manchester, the campaigners also handed over a letter to the Director of the Government Office at Sunley Tower, expressing their concerns about the implications of GATS.
Liz Chater of Manchester Friends of the Earth commented:
"The UK Government is backing this World Trade Organisation agreement that will threaten public services and poor people around the world at the expense of offering a bargain basement deal to big business. We all rely on basic services such as clean water, health, education and public transport. But for people in the poorest countries they make the daily difference between life and death. This agreement could harm these basic services here and abroad because like our auction it is rigged in favour of multinational companies who care more about profits than people and the environment. This agreement is undemocratic. We elect councillors and MPs to make decisions about how local public services are provided, not groups of international lawyers and trade negotiators in Switzerland. It is time to put people before profit and call a halt to GATS."
Doorstep Recycling "Victory"
We've won!!! Labour has promised a doorstep recycling service to every home by 2010!! Just one problem - the promise only covers Scotland, and we haven't actually been campaigning there (though FOE Scotland have of course). Yes, Scottish Labour has promised in its manifesto for the Scottish Parliament elections that they will provide a doorstep recycling service to every home by 2010.
To help us get the same here in England, we need to let as many MPs know as possible that we are now the poor relations, and that Labour is being inconsistent. It would therefore be extremely helpful if we could get as many signatures as possible on parliamentary motions (called Early Day Motions or EDMs) highlighting this inconsistency which have been tabled by the various parties at Westminster.
Take Action!
Please write to your MP saying you think the Government in England should match the promise made by Labour in Scotland to provide doorstep recycling for all and:
- If you have a Labour MP, please ask them to sign EDM 1079 - "Doorstep recycling for all households";
- If you have a Conservative MP, ask them to sign EDM 1074 - "Doorstep recycling";
- If you have a Lib Dem MP they haven't tabled an EDM yet but are bound to do so - just ask them to sign their "doorstep recycling" EDM.