The Paris Climate Change talks start on 30th November. We REALLY are, all in this together. Our Council and every one of us - needs to work towards changing our unsustainable life-styles; in order to protect areas and countries -that are vulnerable to flooding; and the whole eco-system overheating: a threat not just to people, but all living creatures. I am volunteering to co-ordinate 7-10 days, of focused activity in BANES: talks, debates, demonstrations, information-stalls,a Green Fair(?) and generally encouraging discussion and action plans - leading up to Bath Climate Change Day on Sunday 29th November. All groups who can relate to this aim - please contact me with ideas and offers of help. Children's involvement welcome - 'It's their planet'! (eg/ schools and clubs making animal masks of favourite animals that would be threatened by climate change (and it won't be just polar bears folks) - for a Chronicle photo-spread? There is also a need for child-friendly information; that is constructive and 'hopeful' - 'Scary' is a turn-off! I am co-ordinating an anti-clash diary, and posting the final diary of events - mid- November. I've booked a Climate Change information board at the Central Library - 2nd-7th November

Around 3pm on 4th September 2015 the Danish armed warship HDMS Knud Rasmussen entered Lerwick harbour and took the small boat Echo aboard before leaving for the Faroe islands half an hour later. The Echo had been seized from the Dutch-registered Sea Shepherd ship Sam Simon on 1 September by Lerwick police at the request of the Danish authorities, in response to a letter of request issued by the Faroese chief of police on 22August. The seizure followed the small boat’s involvement in the defense of 61 pilot whales at a grindadráp at Sandavágur on 12 August. On Thursday police informed Sea Shepherd’s lawyers that the Echo would be held for a week, giving the lawyers time to appeal the seizure but the Danish authorities fast tracked the extradition and the Scottish police released the boat to the Danish vessel. Insisting the small boat be returned to Lerwick at least until the appeal process is completed is an important signal to the Faroe Islands and their Danish protectors that they cannot ride roughshod over the justice system of another country without consequence.

Brighton now ranks 302nd out of 326 councils for its recycling record. Recent changes even reduced the number of items that can be recycled! Brighton residents pay handsomely for their council tax with the right systems in place green waste could be composted commercially and may even bring in some revenue. Other councils around the country can do it, why can't ours

The Blue Fin Tuna is one of the worlds most beautiful, large and yet endangered fish species. During August 2015 a shoal of upto 500 blue fin tuna was spotted off the coast of Cornwall.Due to their high demand as a good delicacy each fish could be worth over a million pounds. Current EU legislation whilst prohibiting UK fishermen from landing the Blue Fin Tuna permits French, Spanish and other European trawlers to land these fish. With warming of the worlds oceans the blue fin is being spotted more frequently in UK waters. Large industrial trawlers could decimate their numbers in hours. The UK government should push the EU to make UK waters a protected zone banning the fishing of blue fin. the will send a message to the world of the importance of marine conservation and that the UK and EU wish to make real progress in protecting the blue fin.

When an application for planning permission is refused by the local planning authority, an appeal can be made to the Secretary of State against the decision. However if planning permission is granted either by the local authority or by the Secretary of State (who has no local knowledge) there is no right of appeal. This blatant inequality needs to be removed. In our area there have been totally inappropriate speculative housing developments, granted to a big national builder, when the company appealed to the Secretary of state, after the local planning department deemed the development unsustainable. Currently a planning application for a large housing estate on the field similar to the one shown is going to appeal All we are asking is the same right of appeal for local people as is already given to developers, against a a planning decision with which they are not happy.

Evolution by natural selection is one of the most important scientific theories of all time. It explains how living organisms evolve over generations and create new species. Amazingly, not one but two British scientists had this idea roughly at the same time. They both had astounding adventures and suffered great hardship in their search for the truth and yet the contribution made by Wallace has largely been forgotten! It is time for that wrong to be righted by adding Wallace's portrait next to his friend and fellow adventurer, Charles Darwin. There is still time before the ten pound note is redesigned in 2017 and the belated addition would help educate the general public of the truth behind Evolution. London's Natural History Museum have had the vision to belatedly add a portrait of Wallace next to Darwin's statue so I hope the Bank of England will also have that same vision and courage to act. A wrong not righted becomes an injustice!

In 2006, the then Chancellor Gordon Brown put into place a plan that would ensure that by 2016, every home built in the UK would be carbon neutral. The plan, which had backing from homebuilders, architects and green campaigners alike, was scrapped by the government earlier this year. The viability of the plan has been demonstrated by architecture firms and homebuilders who have successfully built many carbon neutral homes already in an affordable and practical way. Scrapping this bill is a huge step backward on the UK’s target to live up to the requirements of the Climate Change Act that state that we, as a nation, must reduce our carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. Currently, the CO2 emissions from housing account for almost a third of all of the carbon emissions in the UK, and this figure is set to rise to more than 50% by 2050 if we don’t make drastic changes to the way in which we build our new homes. Homes in Britain are currently, according to an EU study, among the least efficient in Europe when it comes to heating. This means more fossil fuels being used and more greenhouse gases being emitted. If we could reinstate the zero carbon homes plan, we believe that we could make dramatic changes to this, reducing our carbon emissions by up to a third and getting us well on the way to meeting the target for 2050. If you agree, then sign this petition and hopefully with enough voices calling for the same change, the government will listen and see sense.

Our native woodlands are in danger: imported trees pose a biosecurity risk. They may be infected with pests and diseases and if so they will contaminate UK grown trees, in tree nurseries and out in the woodlands. There are 700 pests and diseases on the Forestry Commission's Risk Register. We need to keep these out of the country. Remove the risk; DO NOT PLANT IMPORTED TREES

Currently the big 5 supermarkets control the price paid for farmers production where once dozens of small dairies, abattoirs, butchers and other small businesses bought at a fair price to the farmer of 50% of the end price. Now the supermarkets buyers control that price, and profiteer pushing farmers to the brink of bankruptcy. The marvellous countryside of the UK is cared for largely by farmers if we do not support them, our countryside will cease to be a vibrant place Our lambs here in the Scottish Border hills sold for £80 at this time last year are now down to under £60 - the supermarket price is nearly unaltered

Last month the government slashed and axed green energy subsidies because no money was left. But now the government is pushing full steam ahead with £17 BILLION subsidies for untested nuclear reactor at Hinkley. How can there be on rule for green energy and another for nuclear energy? If there is no money for green energy how can there be BILLIONS for nuclear? If there’s no money left why are we committing to subsidising a deal that’s been called as “economically insane” by city analysts and “one of the worst deals ever for British households and British industry” by Lord Howell, the pro-nuclear’ former Tory Energy Secretary. Agree with me that paying billions of pounds for nuclear energy is wrong? Please sign the petition now. There have been safety concerns over Hinkley. Two plants in Finland and France which use the same design, have been plagued with construction delays, spiralling costs and design flaws. Hinkley is under attack from not just from campaigners and community but also from one of our biggest banks. A report from HSBC on 2nd August 2015 warned that the massive cost was the new nuclear power plant was ‘becoming harder to justify.’ HSBC concluded: ‘We see ample reason for the UK Government to delay or cancel the project.’ The Hinkley deal is so outrageous and over-subsidised (£17 Billion), that ten green energy firms from Germany and Austria launched a legal challenge against it last month. Let’s not lavish the nuclear energy with billions of pounds while we’re cutting back from renewable energy because apparently the piggy bank is empty. The chorus of disapproval growing and if 38 Degrees members add our voice we could force the government to bin this bonkers plan.

The NHS and government constantly whine about how there's not enough public money for high quality health care, so why not instigate positive change by eliminating unnecessary waste? Big Pharma wastes billions from the national purse by making disposable medical implements. In their paradigm, waste and inefficiency makes their profits soar and grows their business because the public can always be relied upon to foot the bill. A simple way to stop the NHS hemorrhaging money is to curb this inefficiency. Too often we read reports about life saving operations that cannot be performed or expensive medicine that is withheld to suffering patients because of limited NHS funds, but the truth is that this will not stop until it pays Big Pharma to become efficient. Asthma sufferers are a good case in point. They literally cannot survive without regular use of their inhalers but are forced to discard its expensive delivery mechanism. Prior to the 90's the inhalers used to be smaller, cheaper and reusable but Big Pharma actively plotted and lobbied to make them much more expensive (see article) http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/10/heres-why-your-asthma-inhaler-costs-so-damn-much If we succeed in instigating this simple common sense initiative, the principle can be applied across the board. This will benefit all but the monopolists that don't seem to care less whether the 99% live or die.

This endless pressure being placed upon the dairy farmers of the UK is about to implode and will bring down the dairy industry that is unique and of tremendous value to the UK , the industry supports thousands of jobs in the rural communities across the UK for every dairy farmer and employee there are over 35 people employed in the service industries that support them, not to mention banking , insurance etc. the usual service industries we all use. The knock on effect to other agricultural sectors will also have major impacts on our economy, environment and the whole infrastructure of the UK countryside. All sectors of the food producing industry are under pressure from world prices, we are unique as a country in that we are able to produce almost 100% of our food requirements if we were allowed to, we also have growing export markets in food and food producing machinery , our produce is seen as the best and safest produced world wide. This export market will also be threatened if the home market is not maintained. UK farmers will turn their backs on food production as we can now grow crops and utilise land for renewable energy production with profitable secure long term income. This would put UK food security under great pressure and we would have a greater reliance upon imports with unreliability of supply and a lack of traceability of our food supply. If you want our unique to the UK, fresh dairy produce, fully traceable farm assured wholesome produce sign this petition and buy 'Red Tractor' assured produce when you next do your shopping. BUT if you want UHT or POWDERED milk on your breakfast and your children's breakfasts tomorrow move on.