Green Party welcomes suspension of Shell’s arctic oil and gas exploration

The Green Party has welcomed the suspension of Shell’s Arctic oil and gas exploration saying the decision was a “reaction to low oil prices” and illustrates the importance of “renewable energy sources”

Royal Dutch Shell announced that they’ve stopped plans to extract fossil fuels from the polar region citing difficulties in finding sufficient amounts of oil and gas.

To huge cheers from delegates Natalie Bennett brought today party’s conference in Bournemouth to a close giving the delegates the news and stating that world leaders must make a commitment to keeping oil and gas reserves “in the ground”.

Natalie Bennett said:

Campaigners against dirty energy will breathe a sigh of relief today. The decision was clearly a reaction to low oil prices and reflected the growing importance of renewable energy sources.

Shell and other oil and gas companies do not have a good track record when it comes to environmental safety. As we head to the Paris climate change talks later this year, global leaders must make a commitment to ensuring that fossil fuel reserves are kept in the ground, as the science dictates. We cannot allow Shell and others to return to the Arctic.

WE DEMAND A BILL FOR PEOPLE AND THE PLANET, NOT FOR POLLUTING PROFITEERS

                     EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION

Wednesday 19th December 2012
5.30pm-7pm
Parliament Square
   
The Government is trying to sneak its disastrous Energy Bill through Parliament before Christmas with minimal attention.

Don't let them get away with it!

Come to Parliament Square on the day the Bill is debated to MAKE A NOISE for an energy system that serves people and planet.

Bring instruments, bring chants, bring Energy Bill-themed Christmas songs...

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/515534771803540/

WE DEMAND A BILL FOR PEOPLE AND THE PLANET, NOT FOR POLLUTING PROFITEERS

We are groups and individuals who have come together to highlight the deep flaws in the Energy Bill now going through Parliament. The Bill as written will take us further away from the urgent tasks of cutting down greenhouse gas emissions and helping people to heat and power their homes affordably.

The past year has revealed the dangers of climate change resulting from rising greenhouse gas emissions, caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels. A series of extreme weather events and a melting Arctic point to the future catastrophe we face as a result of a drastically changing climate, caused by the failure to control rising emissions.

Sections of the media and some politicians have framed the Bill as a threat to increase our energy bills to pay for low carbon renewable energy, but this argument is deeply flawed.

The Energy Bill in its current form would lock us into future dependence on fossil fuels - by encouraging a new dash for gas. Our energy bills would continue to shoot up as gas prices increase and we turn to environmentally-destructive fracking. 

The lack of a 2030 electricity decarbonisation target in the Bill makes this future dependence on fossil fuels more probable. This frightening omission only serves to line the pockets of Big Energy, instead of making the planet habitable for future generations. We should be empowering communities and individuals to generate their own renewable energy locally, and investing in energy efficiency and storage, to make energy bills affordable for struggling householders.

We call for an emergency demonstration outside Parliament at the second reading of the Bill, and will work to build a further demonstration and rally outside Parliament at the third reading of the Bill. 

We need an energy system that serves people and the planet, not Cameron and his cronies.

http://www.climatebloc.wordpress.com/

ARCTIC ICE CAP MELT - VITAL MEETING WEDNESDAY

London Public Meeting Wednesday 26th September  7pm

  Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, London WC1 (Great Portland Street, Warren Street or Goodge Street tubes) 

 With Professor Peter Wadhams, Head of the Polar Oceans Physics Group at Cambridge University and John Vidal, Guardian Environment Correspondent (just back from a trip on the Greenpeace ship to the Arctic) To be sure of a place you can now register in advance for this meeting HERE

 Organised by the Campaign against Climate Change with the Arctic Methane Emergency Group 

The Arctic ice cap is disappearing before our eyes: this is the first large scale unmistakable impact of climate change, clearly visible from space. The Arctic sea-ice broke an all time record for lowest ever extent on Friday 24th August (after breaking several other records according to other methodologies of measurement by other scientific institutions etc…). This was a bombshell because it was nearly a month before you would expect the ice to reach its seasonal minimum – it is still decreasing now and we can expect it to continue decreasing until around mid September. (so we should probably have a good idea of the absolute minimum by the time of this meeting). 

What does this mean for our estimates of when the Arctic will be completely ice-free at the end of the summer?

What will be the consequences when this happens?

How will it affect the Arctic biosphere, its animals its indigenous people? 

More to the point how will it affect the rest of the world, global weather patterns  and the agriculture and food supplies dependent on those? 

What about the melting of the permafrost? How fast will that happen and how much will that accelerate global warming? 

What about the methane hydrates under the Arctic ocean?. How suddenly might they be released? Are we looking at apocalypse tomorrow? 

Professor Wadhams is a leading expert on sea ice. Whilst the forecasts of the IPCC for instance have been left well behind he has been at the forefront of those in the scientific community predicting a rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice. In his own words : 

For 40 years I have been measuring sea ice thickness in the Arctic from UK submarines. I first detected substantial thinning in 1990, and since the most recent submarine voyage in 2007 I have been warning that the combination of sea ice retreat and a massive amount of thinning will lead to the disappearance of the summer sea ice by as early as 2015. Despite the fact that this is a simple extrapolation of a clear and measured trend I have been vilified by scientific colleagues for making such a seemingly radical prediction. I am pleased to see these same colleagues now jumping on the bandwagon and supporting my prediction

Come to this meeting to find out how significant what we are now seeing really is – and what the future might hold.