Islington Friends of the Earth

Join us at our next meeting

Nate — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:49:01 +0000

Our next meeting will take place on WEDNESDAY 15th February 2012

Meeting details:
Our meetings start at 8.00pm. Please arrive a little beforehand so we can start on time.

If you are new to the group, please contact our coordinator beforehand so we can bring you up to speed about our current campaigns before you arrive.

This month’s meeting will be upstairs at ‘The Hanbury Arms’, 33 Linton Street London N1 7DU. It is a short walk down from Angel underground station or Essex Road Railway Station. Buses 38, 73 stop on Essex Road which is not far away [map].

You can contact our co-ordinator Ellie Virk on 07812243608 or ellievfoe@gmail.com . So come and find out what we’re about, then stay for a drink and a chat!

Final demand, time for change

Nate — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:30:32 +0000

The energy company rip-off is a national scandal. The Big Six supply 99% of households and make billions in profits by keeping us hooked on expensive dirty fuels. And they have the Government wrapped around their little fingers. It’s time for our leaders to stand up to the Big Six and give us energy we can all afford. Friends of the Earth needs 100,000 signatures by march to get a public enquiry. Sign it and get a better deal for all.

Angel Canal Festival 2011

Nate — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 23:18:42 +0000

In September we held a stall at the Angel Canal Festival. We asked people to write to their MP telling them to vote for stronger changes to the Energy Bill. We also spoke to people about all kinds of energy issues and gave advice on the many energy-saving measures available to Islington residents.

Secure changes to Energy Bill

Nate — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:04:30 +0000

The Government’s Energy Bill is an important opportunity to drive the transition to a low-carbon economy, and the debate on the Government’s energy-saving plans has reached a crucial stage.

Thousands of supporters like you have helped convince MPs to propose important changes to the Bill. We still need your help to secure these changes and radically strengthen the Bill. Click here to lobby your MP. It wont take long to do. Please help to make a difference.

For more information please see Department of Energy and Climate Change

Climate Change Day of Action

Duncan — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 22:27:33 +0000

After a weak agreement at the Copenhagen climate change summit last year, we’d like to make sure this December’s global summit has a more positive result. To show our government how important this is on Saturday 4th Dec 2010 we’ll be joining a march on parliment to demand action. The timetable for the day is:

10:30am – Protest Bike ride assembles at Lincoln’s Inn Fields
12:00 noon – Assemble on North Carriage Drive west of Speaker’s Corner, Hyde Park
12:00 – 1:00 pm – Spell out a message for Zero Carbon by 2030 – with hundreds of people in a photo taken from above in Hyde Park.
1pm -2:30pm – March to parliament (via Park Lane, Hyde Park Corner, Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, Lower Regent Street, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall)
2:30pm – Rally (including speeches from 3 MPs and the director for Friends of the Earth UK)

If you haven’t attended a demonstration before but feel like you need to do something, or if you’d just like someone to come along with please call me, Duncan, on 07533 488 935.

There will be synchronised demonstrations in over 100 cities, for more information see the Global Climate Change Campaign and Campaign Against Climate Change websites.

Launch of Home Energy Efficiency Campaign

Duncan — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:13:00 +0000

Last Saturday we kicked of the our Home Energy Efficiency campaign with a quick stall on Upper St. We were giving out free energy saving light bulbs between 12 and 1pm. We got the chance to speak to about 40 local residents about energy efficiency in their homes and hear about the kind of problems they have; from the students how wait up uncomfortably hot on November mornings but they can’t turn the heating off to the pensioner who spend all day in the same room to try save gas in case she is hit with huge heating bills.

The council has made some big improvements with the Decent Homes programme but many of the residents we spoke were (like over a quarter of people in Islington) living in private rented housing.
The average dwelling in the private sector produces 5.15 tonnes of CO2 per year while in Islington council homes that figure is just 4.0 tonnes. At the same time almost a quarter of households in private rented housing spend at least one pound in every ten pounds of income on fuel bills.

Our campaign will be targeting these houses to help everyone tackle climate change and energy bills. To find out more, or to help out with the campaign, contact Duncan on 07533 488 935 / duncanfoe [at] gmail.com

Water on tap?

Stephen — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:18:00 +0000

Should restaurants and bars serve water on tap instead of bottled water?

Islington Friends of the Earth are launching a new campaign to highlight the perils of bottled water:

Bottled water is more expensive than tap water
The bottled water industry generates around 33,200 tonnes of CO2 a year
2 gallons of water are used to produce one gallon of bottled water
Only 15% of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles are recycled
PET takes up to 450 years to break down in landfill

We have started our campaign by researching which restaurants and bars on Upper Street serve tap water. The good news is that we discovered that most of them do. We visited over 50 venues and nearly 85% said they served tap water. However only one restuarant – Youngs Chinese restuarant – said they served it automatically. In all the others you would have to ask.

For more on the campaign, visit again soon…

Getting Serious part II

Stephen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:41:00 +0000

We presented over 100 Get Serious postcards to the leader of Islington, Cllr Terry Stacy, at the October Council Meeting. Islington Council are already doing a great deal to combat climate change, but there is more that needs to be done. We would like them to pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020, and produce a plan saying how they will do it.

We will be continuing the campaign over the next few months.

Getting Serious about Climate Change

Stephen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:16:00 +0000

Last year Friends of the Earth scored a massive success with the Climate Change Law which commits the government to year on year cuts in CO2 emissions. Now the real work begins – actually making those cuts. Our new campaign, Get Serious about CO2, is all about getting local authorities to take action.

Nationally councils can have a big influence on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. They have an annual spend of £10billion, they employ 2 million staff and they provide 3.5 million homes.

Action on climate change will create green jobs, slash energy bills and boost Islington’s economy. Inaction will lead to increased flooding and droughts, rising food prices and continued economic instability across the UK and the rest of the world. It would leave billions of the world’s poorest homeless within our lifetime.

Islington Council is already a bit of a pioneer when it comes to tackling greenhouse gases. They have set up the Climate Change Partnership, working with other organisations committed to cutting CO2, and they have recently joined the 10:10 pledge – to cut CO2 emissions by 10% by the end of 2010.

However, our campaign is calling for them go further and make cuts of 40% by 2020. It’s a big ask but we know it is possible. That’s why we have been out on the streets asking people to sign up to our Get Serious Campaign.

Islington FOE at the Angel Canal Festival

Stephen — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Islington Friends of the Earth were enjoying the sunshine and persuading passersby to sign up to the Get Serious Campaign at the Angel Canal Festival in September