For more info: www.campaigncc.org/climatejobscaravan or www.climate-change-jobs.org

Following the example of the Trans Africa Caravan of Hope, which carried the message of climate justice to the UN talks in Durban, the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group is organising a Climate Jobs Caravan here in Britain.

Based on the Million Climate Jobs report, produced with the assistance of the CWU, PCS, TSSA & UCU trade unions, the Caravan will highlight how creating climate jobs can help us tackle the twin crises of the economy and climate change. A video with more info can be found at http://www.campaigncc.org/greenjobs.

The Caravan will be touring simultaneously in the North and South of the UK. See below for dates:

Route 1

• 12 May – Glasgow
• 15 May – Leeds
• 16 May – Stoke-on-Trent
• 17 May – Chester
• 18 May – Sheffield
• 19 May – Liverpool
• 21 May – Bolton
• 22 May – Wigan
• 23 May – Blackpool
• 24 May – Lancaster
• 25 May – Manchester

Route 2

• 12 May – London
• 13 May – Coventry
• 14 May – Cardiff
• 15 May – Birmingham
• 16 May – Cambridge
• 17 May – Norwich
• 18 May – Oxford
• 19 May – Plymouth
• 21 May – Southampton
• 22 May – Portsmouth
• 23 May – Brighton
• 25 May – London

(NB Further locations may be added.)

The Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group is working very hard to get this show on the road – if you think you could help at all in your local area contact climatejobscaravan752@gmail.com

Could your trade union branch / association / region support the Climate Jobs Caravan? An example motion you could use can be downloaded from www.climate-change-jobs.org/caravan

If you are hungry for change in your community, your neighbourhood, your town or city, nationally, globally…

If you need to spend some time reflecting on what you are doing and learning, connect with other like-minded people, get some fresh inspiration…

…this workshop is for you!

Thursday 3rd May | 9.30am-4pm | Ebor Court, Leeds LS1

We live in an age, in the words of BBC correspondent Paul Mason, when ‘everything is kicking off’. New protest movements have suddenly emerged, with a new generation increasingly to the fore. In Britain – as elsewhere – this new, networked movement has proven to be dynamic, creative and tech-savvy.

But where can the lessons learned be captured for the next generation of activists?  And what about the lessons of the past, including recent history? Or lessons from other movements worldwide?  How can the optimism, energy and idealism unleashed by the global justice movement be sustained through setbacks and defeats?  Is it possible to create a new generation of activists and leaders with the skills, experience and self-knowledge for the long road ahead?

This workshop will explore these and related questions from a perspective gained from the ongoing Action Research of Chris Erskine. Chris has spent the last twenty years living and working within ‘issues of impossibility’. His particular interests lie within social movements, anarchic formulations, network praxis, and Lacanian incompleteness and contradiction.

Organised by T4P
Email mike[at]t4p.org.uk for further info or to book.

It’s time to take action against fuel poverty and energy company profiteering. On the 3rd of May, join the Climate Justice Collective and take to the streets of London to stand up against the Big Six.

Get in touch with Tidal if you’d like to travel down from Leeds: info[at]leedstidal.org

We’re getting the megabus down on Wednesday 2nd May at 13.30 and returning on Thursday 3rd at 18.00. Come along!

info from the Climate Justice Collective:

THE IDEA:
Climate Justice Collective takes to the streets to block the energy monopoly going on behind closed doors at the UK Energy Summit. Companies from the Big Six including EDF, Npower, EON and Scottish Power, as well as oil giants like Shell and BP are conspiring with government to line their pockets at the cost of climate crisis and millions of people locked in fuel poverty. The Big Six energy companies are an obstacle to a democratic energy system that could keep the sea levels down and get the heating on in fuel poverty homes. We want a socialised grid not a corporate monopoly – the UK Energy Summit cannot go ahead!

THE PLAN:
Be in Central London on Thursday 3rd May.

Be ready to go at 11am.

Keep an eye out on our Twitter (@CJ_Collective) for updates on meeting points and live and instant action plans.

UK Energy Summit website: http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/event/uk-energy-summit-2012/5964

THE REASONS:

1. People not profit
This conference is all about the people who should NOT be making decisions about our energy. It is about corporate elites, of which the government is now just one, colluding to make money, impose austerity, keep control and retain their privilege. We’re here to say that we see a different possibility: a world where people come first. We say that the needs of communities and the environment come before the needs of corporations.

This conference is an attempt to keep the status quo of high energy prices, soaring profits, dependant consumers, growing climate insecurity and disaster capitalism. This conference is a classic 1% stitch up. This conference is the wrong people asking the wrong questions and proposing the wrong solutions.

2. Climate justice
Climate change is already affecting millions of people around the world, as weather patterns become more unpredictable and natural disasters become more frequent and severe.

The self-serving agendas of rich corporations and governments, as represented in the UK Energy Summit, perpetuate and exacerbate climate change, whilst preventing any meaningful attempts to stop it, and those least responsible for causing the crisis suffer most as a result of it.

3. Energy democracy
This summit exemplifies how putting profit before people will only cause ongoing chaos. There is a positive solution to these problems, and it is a community-controlled energy system.

Together, we can organize a new, democratic, decentralised, social and renewable energy system. Because access to clean energy is a right, not a commodity. Clean energy and a liveable world for all are possible if energy is taken out of corporate control.

For more info on the Big Six Energy Bash: www.climatejusticecollective.org

To find out about Fuel Poverty in Leeds see http://www.leedstidal.org/initiatives/fuel-poverty-campaign/

email Tidal (info[at]leedstidal.org) if you’d like to join a group traveling down from Leeds

Saturday 28th April is the Roundhay Environmental Action Project’s (REAP) first ever Roundhay Green Day, opening up Roundhay residents’ houses so you can see what others have done and what you can do in your house to reduce your energy bills and earn money from renewable technologies.

On Green Day, Roundhay residents will be able to visit homes where solar PV, solar heating, biomass boilers, insulation (roof, floor, cavity wall, solid wall etc), ground source heat pumps, wood burning stoves and other environmentally friendly products have been installed.  Find out about the cost, fuel savings and any issues associated with the technologies.

Talk to those who have already installed the technologies and see the benefits and costs as well as find out how to save energy in your house.

Registration and directions at 37 The Drive, Roundhay LS8 1JQ from 10.00am

For further information, contact REAP by email at greenday[at]reap-leeds.org.uk
OR see the website:  www.reap-leeds.org.uk
OR register your interest with Nigel Jones: nigel.jonesrcs[at]ntldworld.com.

Leeds Community Organising is a new city-wide organisation building the power of communities in the city through relationships with each other to act together on areas of common interest.

Leeds Community Organising builds on the tradition of broad-based community organising (as developed in the USA and now run in other UK cities and elsewhere in the world). This public launch event will be an opportunity to find out more about LCO, gain deeper insight into key principles of Community Organising, and hear stories of success through Organising in other cities.

After the invite-only sign up event for new members  (11am-3pm) there will be a public talk and discussion with Lord Maurice Glasman (key thinker and activist behind London Citizens) and Leeds Community Organising from 4-6pm.

For more info visit www.leedscommunityorganising.org.uk, call 07579965227 or email leedscommunityorg[at]gmail.com

Whatever your perspective – business, community or government, academic, student or activist – Green Drinks Leeds is a great way to make new contacts, catch up with friends or just hangout with people who share your values.

This month: Politics and the Environment -  a Question Time panel
Tuesday 24th April | 6-10pm | The Lounge Bar & Grill, Leeds LS2 8JE

• Can Politicians help deliver the change we need to reduce our impact on the environment?

• How can we get the leadership and commitment required to make positive changes in the UK’s second largest local authority?

These are just a couple of questions up for discussion. It’s a topical issue, with the Local Council Elections coming up on May 3rd and a referendum on if Leeds should have an elected Mayor. We will be running an interactive ‘Question Time’ style panel with a panel from across the political spectrum including:

Conservative: Councillor Barry Anderson is the Councillor for Adel & Wharfedale Ward
Greens: Chris Foren is the Green Party candidate for Headingley Ward, and a long time Green Party campaigner
Labour: Councillor Neil Walshaw is Councillor for Headingley Ward and a Transport Planner
Elected Mayor: Samuel Fisher is leader of the campaign for a “Yes” vote for an Elected Mayor in Leeds and has set up a campaigning website: http://leedsmayor.org
+ possible Liberal Democrat representative

Mingling from 6pm, panel discussion starts around 7.15pm, flowing conversation til around 10pm.

This promises to be a fascinating discussion, so please sign up on Eventbrite:

http://greendrinksleedsapril2012.eventbrite.co.uk/

This event has been sponsored by PeopleProfitPlanet – the environmental sustainability consultants who help organise Green Drinks Leeds.

Visit the website for more info on Green Drinks: www.greendrinks.org/Yorkshire/Leeds

To subscribe to the mailing list, please enter your details on the following site:  http://eepurl.com/OiMF

Thursday 19th April | 5.30-8pm | Ebor Court, Leeds LS1

This event will look at how we as a city can meet our emissions targets through increased local food growing and how we can be more coordinated in our approach to food growing. We will be hearing from local food growing projects and local government, giving you an opportunity to find out what’s out there.

Food comes pretty much top of the essentials of life for everyone. After water to drink we all need to eat. Food growing has become increasingly topical: featuring in cooking programmes, playing a role in healthy eating drives and is being promoted by supermarkets. On a more local level food growing reduces the distance food has to travel before arriving on your plate and can be beneficial to health and wellbeing. In Leeds there are many small groups working on food production but not much in the way of linking them up.

As well as local food growing groups, we will also be hearing from Cllr Adam Ogilvie and Leeds City Council Parks and Countryside service about their exciting new plans to work with groups on encouraging local food growing and potentially opening up some of their land for food growing initiatives.

Booking is essential.

For more info and to book:

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2968461749?utm_source=Environment+Forum+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=dc7c67382a-March_5th_20122_20_2012&utm_medium=email&ebtv=C

Thursday 19th-Monday 23rd & Saturday 28th-Monday 30th April | All day | nr Hebden Bridge

For more info, or to let them know you’re coming call 07733 784795. Note, this number may not be the number to call on the day – please call in advance if you can.

For more info on Treespnsibility: http://www.treesponsibility.com/

On Thursday 3rd May, join the Climate Justice Collective and take to the streets to protest against profiteering by the Big Six energy companies.

*There will be a group travelling down from Leeds, getting the megabus at 1.30pm on 2nd May, returning 6m on 3rd May. Email info[at]leedstidal.org for more info*

THE IDEA:
=======================
Climate Justice Collective takes to the streets to block the energy monopoly going on behind closed doors at the UK Energy Summit. Companies from the Big Six including EDF, Npower, EON and Scottish Power, as well as oil giants like Shell and BP are conspiring with government to line their pockets at the cost of climate crisis and millions of people locked in fuel poverty. The Big Six energy companies are an obstacle to a democratic energy system that could keep the sea levels down and get the heating on in fuel poverty homes. We want a socialised grid not a corporate monopoly – the UK Energy Summit cannot go ahead!

http://climatejusticecollective.org/

THE PLAN:
========================
Be in Central London on Thursday 3rd May.

Be ready to go at 11am.

Keep an eye out on our Twitter (@CJ_Collective) for updates on meeting points and live and instant action plans.

UK Energy Summit website: http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/event/uk-energy-summit-2012/5964

THE REASONS:
========================

1. People not profit
————————–
This conference is all about the people who should NOT be making decisions about our energy. It is about corporate elites, of which the government is now just one, colluding to make money, impose austerity, keep control and retain their privilege. We’re here to say that we see a different possibility: a world where people come first. We say that the needs of communities and the environment come before the needs of corporations.

This conference is an attempt to keep the status quo of high energy prices, soaring profits, dependant consumers, growing climate insecurity and disaster capitalism. This conference is a classic 1% stitch up. This conference is the wrong people asking the wrong questions and proposing the wrong solutions.

2. Climate justice
————————–

Climate change is already affecting millions of people around the world, as weather patterns become more unpredictable and natural disasters become more frequent and severe.

The self-serving agendas of rich corporations and governments, as represented in the UK Energy Summit, perpetuate and exacerbate climate change, whilst preventing any meaningful attempts to stop it, and those least responsible for causing the crisis suffer most as a result of it.

3. Energy democracy
————————–

This summit exemplifies how putting profit before people will only cause ongoing chaos. There is a positive solution to these problems, and it is a community-controlled energy system.

Together, we can organize a new, democratic, decentralised, social and renewable energy system. Because access to clean energy is a right, not a commodity. Clean energy and a liveable world for all are possible if energy is taken out of corporate control.