Well hello, forgot you were here…

So…bit awkward. I have been somewhat ignoring this blog for sometime now, pretty much for over a year. Always awkward coming back to something you’ve neglected. Knowingly. For a YEAR. Well, I blame Bertrand for making me write on this again and I would point you to his wonderful magazine.

And just so you know, it’s not down to watching these over and over again.

So, run down of my last year. As you know I bought a house. Admittedly, this took up a lot of my time up until early 2011. We (the royal ‘we’, or rather, if I’m being truthful my Dad, who is a builder) took a run down man flat and turned it into a pretty, warm, relatively low impact-ish place. We installed new double-glazing where there was none before, got a wonderful recycled kitchen via the amazing Sean, used low V.O.C paints (I would not go back to the other stuff it stinks!) and filled it with furniture from charity/secondhand shops and stuff people didn’t want no more. Now I live with Vicky & Jon and the house is often filled with merriment, laughter and after some weekends a few too many wine bottles. Which we recycle.

In January I started a new job with Groundwork North East, an environmental charity which focuses on environmental improvements in deprived areas as a means to achieve other aims – i.e better health and wellbeing, etc. This has been a great year for me in terms of doing practical work which you can see the instant benefit of, and my practical project management skills. Also, I have learnt lots from my colleagues about nature, the great outdoors (such as how to identify trees in winter with nee leaves on), and how to do fun natural crafts like willow weaving, green woodwork and felting. Actually, I’ll post a pic of my Christmas wreaths, beautiful, even if I do say so myself!

I also this year have:

• Met some amazing people. I joined couchsurfing and visited Edinburgh, the Lake District, & Paris and had some interesting people stay with me. Perhaps I will write more about this later – but it basically defined my year. I needed some more adventurous friends and some more exciting things to do and couchsurfing delivered to me many friends who I just hadn’t met yet, including indirectly & unexpectedly introducing me to a person who has definitely shaped at least the latter half in my year in a wholly positive & super-brilliant way.

• Rediscovered my soul. I trained as a John Muir Leader and through that volunteered for a 5 days up on the Isle of Rona – a tiny wild space, beautiful in the extreme which just swept my soul clear and made me feel more alive than I had in a long, long time. I felt like I was finally myself after a couple of years of struggling with too many plates in the air and losing some people close to me and dear to my heart. I had the first ‘hippy’ mood (an overwhelming feeling of how lucky I am, and happy to have such a life, such friends, such family, such chances, etc) in at least a couple of years which I used to have all the time. Funny how sometimes you don’t realise that you have been struggling a bit until you feel better again and think ‘oh yeah, I used to feel like this all the time!’. Thank you Rona. And to Sam & Bruce (& the girls) for sharing it with me.

• Realigned my focus. Or at least I’m in the difficult process of trying to do this. I was going to say I’d rediscovered my love of politics, but I don’t think that’s correct as I don’t love it at all. Involvement in politics continuously puts you in conflict with others, as prejudices cannot be overturned unless one speaks out = conflict, injustices cannot be corrected if one accepts the status quo = conflict, and important issues cannot be brought to the fore unless you are willing to bang on about it until someone listens = annoying = conflict. I do struggle with this a lot. It’s emotionally exhausting trying to get to grips with issues and motivate/pass info round/debate with people and alienating people is a real concern. Will try and get my head around this at a later stage too. Anyway, I’ve regained my thirst for knowledge of how and why crap stuff is crap, and wanting to figure out how we might be able to stop it. But I don’t know what it is. Or who the ‘we’ is. Yet.

 

Anyway. I just wanted to say hi.

I promise I’ll keep in touch more often. *

Gemma x

 

 

*No, really – I will. Promise.

My house…

Ok, so i’m home now, for the gossip on the rest of our trip round Europe take a look at Ian’s blog http://justfollowtheriver.wordpress.com/. I had a grrrreat time, even if I did share a bathroom with a scorpion one night.

Now i’m back, I’ve had a much needed rest after an exhilarating but enjoyable and life-changing year. Since Copenhagen I’ve found it really hard to get back into the swing of things, and some personal family-life things have made 2010 a rollercoaster ride of emotions. I feel ready now to slowly dip my toe back in the water.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been one to do things by half so my toe-dipping involves buying a run-down house, renovating it and making a lovely, warm, pretty nest. Therefore I introduce…. my new home:

I am going to fill it full of lovely warm insulation, get the double glazing in, get all energy efficient appliances and boilers and fill it full of treasure from charity shops, ebay, and car boot sales.

It will be amazing!

Phew! 400 miles in!

Ok, Its been a bit hard to update this as I have mostly been living in campsites for the past two weeks, but so far the trip has involved…

1 Ferry (fun and really comfortable)

20 Chocolate Croissants (approx)

50 mini bounty bars

Countless getting lost times!

2 Americans

Lots and lots of food

1 wing shape sun tan/burn on my back

Holland was AMAZING for cycling, we couldn’t get over how good it was. Cars even STOP for you, apparently they have this law that if there’s an accicdent its automatically the cars fault, which combined with the amazing cycle lane s lead to fun, no hassle cycling! Also I think that it helps that most drivers are cyclists too!

We decided to get the train down to the start of the Danube trail – or the DonauRadweg as it is called over here… as the Rhine was really insdustrial at the start, and, to be honest, all the flatness of Holland got a bit boring after a week! (I know – crazy eh?!)

We got the (very hot) night train down to Donauishingen which is just off the black forest and is beautiful. This is where the Donau begins and you can see it bubbling up through the rocks which is pretty cool. I’ll post pictures up when I can but I have not been allowed in internet cafes so far! We stayed in a pension (private house) and it was sooo good to sleep in a real bed and not have to pee outside in the middle of the night. Being away really makes you appriciate the luxuries of life!

The next day we met some American guys (melissa and russ) and I knew they were from that part of the world as they had their Crocs hanging off the back of their trailer! They were heading the same way so we have been hanging out for the last week or so. This has been really good as it has made me cycle father as I have been chatting away. It has also been sunny which is good, but is also bad because I get tired, faster.

The Donau route is soooooo pretty and the countryside and houses, castles and palaces we pass are amazing to be beside. We stayed in some really good campsites so far, with good views and cooked such wonders as chicken stirfry and spagbol! But tonight we have a day off in Ingolstadt and we are going out for a meal and some very large German beers!

Austria next, bring it on!

xxx

Highlight of the day so far…Going in to C&A with Melissa and trying on the German dresses (you know – the ones waitresses wear in the movies holding great big jugs of ale) Awesome! x

We’ll sing and dance and we’ll find romance, and we’ll cycle to the edge of the world (well, Europe)

Well, as you may have guessed, Copenhagen wasn’t very good. In fact, it was a pretty soul destroying, depressing sort of place. The city, well, that was wonderful (and the Tivoli Gardens were definately a highlight) but the actual conference itself was a big, chaotic mess. I wrote an article for a special edition of Globalizations Journal on Crisis which you can find here which sets out why I thought that it failed. Many thanks to Prof. Barry K. Gills for the opportunity to contribute to such an amazing journal.

Since then I have successively ignored what happened there, continued to be scared of driving, spoken at many, many places re: Copenhagen, and finally gotten round to writing my dissertation. Woo. I have also made a big decision. See this map?

Amsterdam to Istanbul, The river way.

 Well, you remember my stories about how properly crap I was at cycling? And how you have followed me in my journey through buying a bike, my first cycle to Newcastle (all of 5 miles), and then my epic Hadrians Wall cycle to raise funds for Copenhagen?

Apparently I now love cycling so much, that I have decided to cycle – all the way to Istanbul. Yes, Istanbul – you know, the one thats part-Europe-part-asia, on the Bosphorous, in Turkey, the one with the Blue Mosque?

Istanbul - The place where I will likely throw my bike into the sea.

 Now I know my credentials aren’t great (remember that I failed my cycling proficiency test twice), but I figured, why the hell not? I have time to spare, not much money, and I would like to get fitter after eating endless amounts of junk food whilst writing my dissertation (four Tunnocks Tea Cakes last night – FOUR!).

I would like to spend the summer outside, with no worries except pedalling and finding a good camp spot, and lots and lots of time to see all the wonderful places that lie between Amsterdam and Istanbul. Ok, not all of the wonderful places, but some…well, at least the ones that don’t lie at the top of big hills anyway.

The last year has been pretty stressful, so a bit of nomadic lifestyle is just what i’m craving right now. And I can’t bloody wait! Two weeks tomorrow…

Bike – Check.

Panniers - Check.

Tent - Check.

Sleeping Bag - Check.

The guts to cycle 2,000 miles – errr check? 30 miles a day – thats do-able right?

Big Love.

xxx

P.S. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

Episode 4

I’m at the UN!

To follow me and my wonderful team, please go to our website for a multi-media extravaganza – video’s, blogs, vlogs, alogs, pictures, tweets and all kinds of scrummy insider gossip!

Big Love,

Gemma xxx

Something I have done…and something you can do!

All Flashdanced Out

Something I have done

I just have to tell you about Powershift. It was 3 of the most inspiring days of my life, I met 350 amazing young people, who were all passionate about creating a wonderful, clean, safe and happy future and we took part in eye-opening workshops and got trained up in the techniques designed by Marshall Gantz, who led Obama’s grassroots campaign to be President.

To top off the weekend, we took part in a huge ‘flashmob’ (where you pretend like you dont know whats going on, then break out into ‘spontaneous action) outside of the London Eye. It was so successful, that we decided to show our solidarity with the Greenpeace protestors who had taken residence of the roof of the Houses of Parliament the day before, and we took our dance to Parliament Square. It. Was. Awesome!

But see it for yourself here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBxbrXA4pIg&feature=player_embedded and read the article in The Guardian (yes, the Guardian – who say that Politicians “could learn a lot from UK Youth Climate Coalition”) here http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/oct/12/climate-change-dancers-parliament there’s also a good blog about it here http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/10/12/youths-in-the-uk-dance-in-front-of-the-british-parliament/.

Cool eh?

Something you can do

350 - Remember it!

A week tomorrow, on Saturday 24th October, is the Global 350 day of action. What is 350? It is the most important number in the world. 350 parts per million is the safe level of C02 in the atmosphere. 350 is what the scientists say will keep global warming under 2 degrees – which is necessary to stop runaway climate change. Yes, it all sounds a bit sciency but all you need to remember is 350.  See this lovely explanation below.

The sciency bit

Great! So, Gemma – why the campaign? Globally, politicians are refusing to commit to a target of 350. Currently, we are at 390ppm of C02 concentrations in the atmosphere. We need to reduce this down to 350, and we will be safe. Politicians currently want us to aim for a target of 450ppm. Which is just crazy. 450 only gives us, as individuals, as nations and as a world, only a 50% chance of avoiding runaway climate change.

Would you get on a plane if it only had a 50% chance of landing safely? Would you put your children on a plane if they only had a 50% chance of landing safely? I didn’t think so. Politicians are currently telling us that we will be safe, whilst herding us and our children onto a flight path which gives us a 50/50 chance of survival.

Not good enough? No, it isn’t, but there is something we can do about it. Saturday the 24th October calls on people to do something to draw attention to 350. From the simplest of actions – taking a picture of yourself on your mobile phone with a sign with 350 on it – to getting your family, work and friends to making a human 350.

Go to http://350.org/quick for ideas on how you can do a really fun, exciting and creative action, even though there’s only a week left. There are currently 3,003 actions taking place around the whole world, from Dehli to the Maldives – where President Nasheed is holding a cabinet meeting underwater (seriously!). I’m going to do my bit.

Can you do your bit too?

I did it! Happy happy post!

This is what happens to me when I cycle up hills.

So my aptly named ‘Hadrians Wall Sponsored Cycle’ was last weekend (3&4Oct) and with Ian Mc Farlane and Andy Kelly (and the amazing van-driving skills of Sean Evenett) we completed the 100 miles from Bowness on Solway to Wallsend – i.e. the entire length of Hadrians Wall. In lycra (I know, I know, but it really is needed on such a long and ardous journey .

Things started well, on Friday night Sean drove us to Bowness with me and Ian sliding around in the back like loose turnips. We set up our tents, then sat in the back of the Van,  heated up my delicious, nutritious and heartwarming stew (which looked a bit like sick), spent too long playing the ‘moron test’ and laughed along with the van (you had to be there). Good fun and spirits were high.

Then the wind started. 50mph, howling winds. It was SO loud. I was scared the trees were going to blow over! Safe to say I spent most of the night awake and terrified about cycling in that weather, but not wanting to cancel the cycle and let people down. Woke up in the morning, ummed and ahhhed a bit about the weather and hid again in the van to eat porridge. I did not want to cycle.

But, by the time I summoned the courage up and we got started, the rain had dried up, the sun came out and, best of all, the wind was directly behind us and ended up pushing us along most of the way!!! Woohoo! Really enjoyed day one due to weather, scenery and many opportunities for house perving.

Hadrians Walls gradient goes like this:_____________>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>____________ so the first day was flat till lunchtime (easy peasy), very hilly after lunch (really hard) then back to our lovely B&B, Oakey Knowe Farm in Haltwhistle (which, by the way I was very impressed by because I managed to pick the only B&B there which involved going up 2 extra steep hills to get in and out of). Day 2 was very hilly in the morning (and painful because I managed to cut all my calf on the pedal 2minutes after I left B&B) and very long and flat in the afternoon (hard because I was tired, grumpy and hungry).

We got back to Segedunum in Wallsend at about 5pm on the Sunday and I got that lovely feeling of emotional elation you get when you are absolutely worn-out but really feel like you have achieved something. Considering my last post about cycling I feel like I have come a long, long way (about 100 miles in fact and really pushed myself! It’s a good feeling.

I haven’t totted up how much we’ve raised towards the Delegations yet, but there is lots of time to donate still. You can do this online at http://act.ukycc.org and select Gemma Bone as the Honoree or email me gemma@ukycc.org if you’d like to give me the money personally. If you can donate, please just give as much as you can afford, every pound counts!!!

Thank you especially to Ian, Andy and Sean, without whom I couldn’t have done it. And thank you so much to all of you kind people who have donated. Your support is what made me get up and get on my bike on Saturday morning, and I promise that we will make you so proud at Copenhagen.

Peace out x

P.S. More good news! There will not be a new coal fired Powerstation at Kingsnorth. E-on have announced they have scrapped the plans due to the UK’s lower energy usage (and the huge public campaign I suspect had no small role to play!). This is a huge success. Well done to all the campaigners and the UK for using less energy. Proof that turning stuff off and changing your lightbulbs does make a difference

After every down, there’s an up!

Hi again,

I know you think I’ve probably forgotten you, as it’s been a while – but I haven’t. I have been mega busy though but thats no excuse. Quick round up, in as short a time as I can:

*Had 2nd Delegation training weekend, very good and really getting down to the nitty gritty of what we want to achieve, how we’re going to do it, and all those easy questions like that :p. And met the Head negotiators at the Department for Energy and Climate Change with 10 of the Delegation, and totally kicked ass regarding the Royal Bank of Sustainability (the negotiator went from ‘no thats too complicated’ to ‘oh, er…you’ve got a really good argument there’!)

*Came back home and tried to organise my life, bought a new bed, have started trying to organise my notes and the gazillion articles and books I want to read before I go to Copenhagen. I haven’t got very far yet although things are starting to look like they’re in slightly more organised piles. Finalized plans for fundraising and the next delegation training weekend (to be in Newcastle – hurrah!) with a fundraising club night at World Headquarters! All good.

But you say, the title of this post is ‘After every down, there’s an up’ – Why? This is because, after meeting the Negotiators I suffered from a week of severe climate change  related depression. Don’t get me wrong, the meeting was positive overall, but I found out 2 things which scared the crap outta me.

*Arrrrrrrrgh number 1: The science they are going off in Copenhagen was collected in 2005 (for the IPCC’s 2007 report) so in Copenhagen they’ll be arguing for a deal which goes off nearly 5 year old science.  So the Negotiators will not be arguing for 350, even though thats what the science says we need. http://350.org

*Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh number 2: Climate Change is the biggest threat to human security and the prosperity/survival of the whole planet and our politicians think that it is acceptable to delegate their responsibility to (albeit very nice, clever and experienced) civil servants. Now, I know they are very good at their job, but they are given a remit and are not supposed to argue outside of it. We need a political surge so that all countries know the political will is there to make a deal that works.

This made me feel very sad, and I got what Kirsty calls ‘The Fear’. This is the big one, where you feel that all your efforts are for naught and that, without a lack of a better phrase ‘The Man’ will win once again and the right thing to do will be lost under all the usual wrong things such as greed, money and selfishness because they are too self-involved to see the damage they are doing. And we will all suffer because of it.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt like that in my life. My mum always told me I could do anything that I put my mind to and I have always been a positive person, strong in the belief that the average person has a lot of power, and that if we would only realise this, we can make the world a better place. But for that one week, I felt weak, that I had no power, I literally thought ‘what is the point in me – a normal person – giving up all my free weekends and holidays from work to lobby politicians and try and get other ‘normal people’ motivated to do what they can too – when ‘The Man’ who has all the money, influence and power and will stop all my efforts with a well aimed advertising campaign, or another venomous, lie-ridden diatribe in the Daily Mail?

I sat in my room, and I cried. I cried for the billions of people living in horrific poverty, that live and die and suffer in soul-destroying conditions every single day. I cried because I am so rich because they are so poor. I cried because the people who have the power to change this don’t change it. I cried because I want to forget about all of this and I can’t, because then I would be one of them. I cried because I feel like the world is on my shoulders, and I can’t carry it on my own.

Wow. Depressing. I know. I couldn’t shake these feelings off. So I just kept on going, and I went to Chester and met some great people at Climate Squad training(http://climatesquad.org.uk/) and I re-remembered that other people feel like I do, and are doing amazing things.  I started to feel the weight on my shoulders get a bit lighter, as I saw that other people are sharing the load, not just in Chester, but all over the UK, and all over the world. I saw how much my wonderful friends do to support me, and I really love them for it. Then Gordon Brown annouced he will be going to Copenhagen – which is a start, and the IPCC’s head Scientist announced that he supported the 350 target. Things were definately looking up. And I remembered Ghandi said:

“Be the Change you want to see in the world”

Feeling much more perky, I gave the Climate Squad guys a good Powershift pitch which led to me becoming Powershifter of the week http://powershift.ukycc.org/2009/09/20/and-our-power-shifter-of-the-week-is/ - and hopefully I’ll be seeing them again in less than 2weeks.

Which leads me to Powershift – this will be the best thing that young people in the UK can do in the run-up to Copenhagen.

This is entirely organised by young volunteers, and aims to get 500 to 1,000 young people together over the weekend of 9-12th October to make a real difference on climate change (and to also have lots of fun and a massive party on the Saturday night). We will be joined during the day’s by the Deputy editor of the Guardian, and recieve training from the amazing Marshall Gantz. He campaigned with Martin Luther King. He organised President Obama’s grassroots campaign, and he wants to work with us. He is inspired by Powershift. Oh. My. God. The up just keeps going up!

The Monday will culminate in a huge day of action and a flashdance in central London which should be something like this – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S2T5vPHjS8. Mint, I know!

Powershift makes me feel hopeful again. It shows me that money and influence can not achieve as much as pure passion and committment to making the world a better place. I cannot wait to be part of this movement.

I will be there, will you?

“Clean” Coal?

Suzanne made a really good point a few months ago (which I now always think of in energy debates) when she said this:

“I was watching Back to the Future the other day, and Doc was rifling through Marty’s bin and put bananas, coke and other rubbish into THE car, and I got thinking to myself – where did that go? Back in the 1980′s and 90′s we had this progressive vision of the future – that we’d have flying cars and hoverboards, and that we’d have the technology to power our cars from our waste”.

She was spot on. Now, the politicians and big business think they are being progressive by going back to Victorian age technology. Fine, I say, check out carbon capture, but don’t let it be the all consuming, make or break technology that will decide whether the world will collapse under the weight of our own consumption or just about save the day. Those are two very different extremes, and really the only two outcomes of CCS (carbon capture and storage) it will work – or it will kill us all. 

Why aren’t we looking at microgeneration – where each house/community have solar panels, small turbines, ground heatpumps, etc, to create their own energy, they would never have huge bills and could even sell unused energy back to the grid -imagine, energy companies paying YOU!! Small businesses would spring up everywhere to make, install and maintain community microgeneration and create thousands of jobs and everyone would be better off, rather than the oil, coal and gas companies creaming of billions of pounds worth of profits every year.This isn’t some namby pamby wishy washy idea, but one that could easily work and drive the new green economy if it had some real effort and investment. In light of this I wrote the following to Mr Miliband (based on letter from WDM):

“Dear Mr Miliband

Individual response to the framework for the development of clean coal

I am 24 years old, in 2050 I will be 65 years old. I will hopefully be thinking of retiring after an enjoyable life, having seen the complete ‘greening’ of the economy and energy production. At the moment however, I do not feel that this is a likely outcome. I am terrified that we are not taking climate change seriously enough yet, and that when we do, it’ll be too late.

I applaud the steps that the Government has taken such as the Climate Change Bill, and setting out our proposals for the coming Copenhagen conference. We have not gone far enough though, letting Vestas close, allowing the Royal Bank of Scotland to continue to be the “oil, coal and gas bank” despite being a majority shareholder, and the possibility of allowing a new dirty coal power station to be built at Kingsnorth.

World Development Movement predicts that just the new station at Kingsnorth would create 20,000 climate refugees, leave 100,000  without water in the dry season and cause 50,000 to be left hungry. These are the kind of impacts which new dirty coal would have, on real people, on families and children. I would rather go without electricity than be responsible for such widespread devastation.

I understand the arguments for developing carbon capture, that it will help developing countries such as China and India move to ‘cleaner’ energy production. But I think that we are stuck in the same square box – why can’t we be researching new, truly renewable energy sources to transfer to developing countries that we strive to make affordable and accessible. New technologies are always expensive whether wind, wave or coal.

The difference between wind, solar, tidal, (and osmosis as was on last nights coast on BBC1) energy is that they do not have the environmental risks and impacts that coal has. What if it doesn’t work? What if the capture works but that the carbon leaks out of the storage – and massive amounts of C02 is released into the atmosphere, completely and irreversably leading to runaway climate change.

There is NO SUCH THING AS CLEAN COAL. Therefore, I call on you to:

1) Only allow coal power stations to be built now in demonstration projects if they fully use carbon capture and storage technology from the start. If carbon capture and storage is not proven to be technically, economically and environmentally viable by 2020, there is a risk the UK will continue to burn coal, destroying our ability to reduce emissions as needed to tackle climate change.

2) Provide a safety net that all coal power stations have to fully install carbon capture and storage in the early 2020s, or shut down. Carbon capture and storage needs to be proven to work environmentally.

3) Make a life cycle analysis of emissions, such as methane from coal mines, part of the carbon capture demonstration process. Do not fund, and introduce regulations to prevent, carbon storage being used to enhance recovery of oil.

I look forward to seeing my thoughts taken on board.

Many thanks,

Gemma Bone

Youth Delegate to Copenhagen”