Just a quick note about the Nobel Peace Prize. Today they announced that the winner for the 2009 prize will be Barack Obama a president of the USA who has been in post for less than a year and was only in office for two months before he was nominated.

This is an interesting choice for the Nobel Committee, not mostly because he is so unproven. The committee has a history of awarding prizes soon after the event and has been criticized for acting too quickly and partisan.

I think that the comments in the Guardian today sum up some of the sentiment:

Michael Cox, a North America expert at the Chatham House thinktank, said: "It is difficult to see why it would be awarded to him at this stage in his presidency. There are problems in the Middle East and an ongoing war in Afghanistan. You could say it is a little bit premature. It is certainly a very interesting choice.

Time have even suggested that winning the prize may heart Obama burdening him in the years to come with an expectation that he can not, [or does not want to] achieve.

Looking forward to Obama in the next year has the committee spoken too soon. We are already starting to see how the US and other western states is using its power to manipulate the Climate Change Negotiations. John Vidal describes how these countries are ""fundamentally sabotage" the Kyoto protocol" in a statement from China and the G77 in Bangkok.

This is potentially very damaging, not only are we looking at the US taking the west off to separate negations which it can manipulate. The Obama administration is causing a schism between the West, led by the USA and the Global South led by China. This will do anything but increase world security.

But lets look at a more local level, because health care, social security in the USA is, in my view, just as important in creating culture of peace than a global politician gallivanting around the world espousing the virtues of the UN whilst sending his cronies to scupper international negotiations in Bangkok.

Here Obama seems to be trying to make headway, but the package which is slowly being riped to shreds the plans started out as less ambitions as Hillary Clinton's plans in the 90s when her husband was in power.

Now for all this, Obama has in the past done some inspirations things. In Chicago, his work on the ground (as we learnt in CR last week level 3 work) has made some real changes to communities and the lives of young and old people alike. This is the problem, the Nobel committee dont mention any of that work in thir citation but the international globe trotting.

The say that Obama is worthy for his commitment to the UN, for his passion to get people around the table and talk, effectively for being an effective statesman. So he manages to negation on level 1 well, not fantastically but well. Iran is still producing more nuclear fuel and potentially weapons, Israel and Palestine has moved forward but there is little sign of peace right now and as i said before China is still spitting feathers at the USA.

So all in all a strange and maybe regrettable choice - maybe lets hope I am wrong!

Labels: china, climate change, International Politics, Israel, Palestine, Peace Studies

University of Sussex Students' Union held the national gathering of students for Climate Change and the Student Movement this weekend. The meeting was really an achievement for a students' union to hold such an event.

The speakers on the days where really great. I was totally impressed in how Sussex had managed to get a range of speakers on the left and climate change activists. We need to gather a radical range of student activities to make sure that we as a student movement make progress on this issue.

I was really taken by the way in which the speakers in the first session spoke about communicating the message well. David Wasdell provided an interested account of how we need to grasp the nettle. On some quick research David's background and style is contested by some. I however am cautious to just take the word of the Internet, so often used by the right to discredit our comrades.

I do not think that the message should be discarded, other scientists at the conference seem to agree on the basic science and i think that although his back ground may be "dodgy" as some bloggers have tard him as having this should be put to one side.

The message was clear and agreed, we need action.

Labels: climate change, National Union of Students, Universy of Bradford Union

The Climate Mobile had been launched, It's great and everyone visiting the "face your elephant" tent at galstonbary will be able to download a version on to their phone.

The Climate:Mobile calculator will estimate the annual greenhouse emissions using a series of twenty youth life style questions divided into sections such as the home, transport, flights, food and general consumption. The aim of the application is to help young people understand their contribution to climate change and encourage them to reduce it. Once the user has answered all of the questions they will be given top tips on reducing their carbon footprint that uses data from The Centre for Alternative Technology’s carbon calculator – a tool that is highly regarded by major sustainability organizations. The Climate:Mobile has been funded by the Pilkingtons Energy Efficiency Fund (PEET) which gives financial support to energy efficiency research, testing or evaluation projects for the built-environment.

It is possible to find out more about the climate mobile and c-change project that is being run the Woodcraft folk in partnership with others at http://www.switchonswitchoff.org/act/calc_your_carb have a go on line if you cant download it on your mobile by texting CLIMATE to 80010

The other week I went to Hebden Bridge to make the elephants for the tent, why two elephants I hear you ask well two elephants (average 10 tonns) is the same weight that the average British person produces in carbon every year. The global fair share should be 2 tonnes so we got a lot of cutting to do and soon.

Another thing that the C-Change gang is doing is running a battle of the bands competition and a party for the planet event.


I wrote to woodcraft groups yesterday reminding people to vote.

C-Change voting has only 5 days left. Make sure that you vote for your favourite band.

The top 5 bands will be playing at party for the planet in Clapham common. So make sure that you vote for the ones that you like, a good range
would be good I guess.

If you don't know any of them a good suggestion would be to vote for Just Norris!!!
http://www.switchonswitchoff.org/go/battle/bands/just_norris

They are a band made up of woodies and the music ain't bad either, it would be nice to have them there but to do so we need you voting.

Whoever you vote for please remember to vote to make C-change gig a success by voting today.

Vote by going here, where you can also listen to the entries. http://www.switchonswitchoff.org/go/battle

I recommend that people vote, I don't want to have to listen to a load of old crap on the day.

Labels: c-change, climate change, Woodcraft Folk