October 2011 update

This month - apple day, tree planting at the Sure Start centre, Druridge Bay beach clean - pretty much your standard environmental stash.


1. Apple day at the Bullfield community orchard

On Sunday 23rd October - 10am-3pm (setting up from 9am) thousands of apples will be chopped and pressed to make fresh apple juice and cider. We don't have many apples in the orchard yet, so please bring along your spare apples to add to the pot and screw top containers to take home some juice and store the cider. Windfalls welcome! We'll be fermenting some of the juice so that we can hold an orchard Christmas event – so we want as many apples as we can get hold of. Everyone welcome, whether you have apples to spare or not. There will be apple themed games and a table of shared food and drink. Bring something to add to the shared picnic table or a packed lunch for yourself, as well as anything else for the weather. Chairs, chopping boards, kitchen knives and waterproofs recommended!

If you or someone you know can't attend but have spare apples to donate, let us know.

We are also on the lookout for additional equipment to borrow for the day – so if you have a generator, shredder or apple press, camping toilet and tent, please get in touch. Please also bring along camping tables and chairs if you have them.

Finally, we need people to take on particular responsibilities on the day. If you'd be prepared to help with any of the following:

• Coordinate apple themed games, eg apple bobbing, longest apple peel
• Oversee food and drink table, camping stove, crockery and cutlery
• Erect and dismantle tents/gazebos
• Collect / set up / pack up pressing equipment
• Collect apples from those who can't attend
• Anything else!

Please contact  Rachael Roberts on  01665 605812 as soon as possible. The orchard can be found adjacent to Glovers Green, behind Arkle Court and with Weavers Way at the far end. If you plan to arrive by car, please park with consideration for residents.

2. Druridge bay beach clean

Our final beach clean of the year takes place at Druridge Bay on Sunday 30th October. We meet at Cresswell on the beach at 10.30am. And Friends of the Earth want to film us doing it, strangely. All something to do with the 40th year of Friends of the Earth and, more importantly, the celebrated defeat by earlier local FoE groups of plans by Magnox Energy to build a nuclear power station there. Were you involved in that campaign?

3. Tree planting

On 12th and 13th November, we'll be planting 105 small trees (a mix of hawthorn, elder, crabapple, hazel and dog rose) for the Sure Start Centre on Howling Lane in Alnwick. We'll be starting at around 10.30am and carrying on until we're finished. As this sounds like a lot we would really appreciate any help people can offer. We've have some gloves and tools, but it's always better if you can bring your own, in case. And some warm clothing! Didn't it start snowing around mid-November last year?

4. Events  

The challenge of sustainability

18th October, 5.30pm @ Newcastle University

Richard Zare - Free admission

Living with floods: shared experiences from the North of England
30th November, 10.30am to 3.30pm @ Great North Museum in Newcastle.

Young people and other members of communities from areas affected by flooding, together with members of the scientific and educational communities, with the aim of improving communication on how to respond better to future floods.

Reclaiming our futures: people, science and environmental change
14th November, 16.00-20.00 @ Collingwood College, Durham University
Free attendance - but please book in advance via website.

5. Actions

And if you didn't sign last month ... please support the National Trust's petition against the current planning reforms.

Also send an email via the site to your MP. Don't believe the c&*p about how this is supporting young people or people on low incomes. If this was the case, the coalition would be specifically promoting affordable homes. They're not. It isn't.

6. Other stuff

Renewables supplied 9.6% of UK electricity in Spring 2011 - a new UK record.

BUT

Is it too late to stop dangerous climate change? In 3 reports, Friends of the Earth conclude that the UK cannot carry out its share of carbon reductions to keep the temperature increase below 1.5 degrees without using technologies such as reforestation, biochar, artificial trees and, er, sucking carbon out of the air and storing it in caverns. Some of these technologies are sort-of embryonic.

Not only will the UK government miss Friends of the Earth's targets, it will also miss its own, according to Cambridge Econometrics' forecasting.

Climate check. The delivery of the government's delivery of its low carbon commitments - the Green Alliance assess how the coalition's climate policy is faring. OK, until George Osborne opened his mouth.

Wedges reaffirmed. No, not an endorsement of pulling your pants up too high. Princeton professor Rob Socolow returns to the concept of the 7 wedges, the big changes we needed to make in order to head off dangerous climate change. There are 9 now.

7. Endpiece

.. and then they found the market place in Alnwick.

The next Alnwick Area Friends of the Earth meeting is Tuesday 1st November at 8pm.