What I was reading yesterday evening...

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Quote of the Day

"Our climate/environment leaders are not people located in Washington. The leaders are members of the public who understand the situation and have the courage to act on it."

- Climate Scientist, Jim Hansen.

Link of the Day

Follow the Leader.

Think global: Shop local!

Have you been to Harrow town centre lately? Make your festive shopping a bonus point in terms of sustainable transport by buying local and adding convenience as well as cutting down your carbon footprint.

If you're shopping for a few and are able to, take public transport as the town centre has excellent transport links to and from around the borough and beyond. If you need to do a lot of shopping, why not carshare with a friend who's also buying and halve the petrol cost and share a coffee?

The above photos were taken today during a casual stroll in the town centre and it's wonderful to see the festive lights and the shops buzzing with so much activity. Through shopping locally you not only support Harrow businesses but also are helping the environment through making less of a journey than if you travelled out of the borough. There are a wide variety of shops with something for everyone in Harrow so enjoy this period, think global and shop local!

Comic-Book Heroes

John Holmes of Calamity Comics

Calamity Comics based in Springfield Road, Harrow have been active supporters of Harrow’s travel awareness efforts over the years.

This year they have not only promoted and supported our ‘It’s Up to All of Us’ campaign but also European Mobility Week’s theme of ‘Cleaner air for all’ through displaying posters for our Breathe in Harrow website and now will be also having our I Move London newsletters on display for customers.

Calamity Comics is based in Springfield Road, Harrow near the St George’s Centre.

*on a separate note, since our Corey post is generating more comments than we can handle at present, we thought we'd mention that the Lost Boys comic 'Reign of Frogs' which ties in the original film and Lost Boys: The Tribe is available at Calamity Comics.

Corey Feldman Checks In

Hollywood star Corey Feldman (The Lost Boys, The Goonies, Stand By Me, The Birthday) visited the It's Up to All of Us blog recently and was touched at the response to one of his songs from his band Truth Movement's forthcoming CD about environmental issues.

The song, 'Green is the Colour' is available free to listen to on his website and has been well received by the online community with many describing it as 'the ultimate green anthem'.

Corey was touched by the response on the It's Up to All of Us blog about his work and he may even have a message for the campaign soon. To read his reaction to what he read on this blog as well as the reason his band is called Truth Movement, visit his official blog here.

The song 'Green is the Colour' is from Truth Movement's forthcoming CD Technology Analogy which is available online here.

Go Green with a Goonie

This weekend we were fortunate enough to meet former child star and Hollywood actor Corey Feldman (The Goonies, Stand By Me, the Lost Boys, Gremlins) who is quite an activist in issues close to his heart.

One of them is indeed the whole green agenda and he's even sung a song about the environment. Check out his song "Green is the colour" from his band Truth Movement's forthcoming album "Technology Analogy". Corey wrote the song and sings it too, it also features Pink Floyd's John Carin!

Hear the song FREE for a limited time, on his very own website.

Check it out here.

More details coming soon..

99 months and counting...

Last month a new awareness-raising initiative was launched in a bid to sound a final alarm about climate change. The campaign is called One Hundred Months, the name referring to there only being 100 months left (99 now) to make a difference and thereafter the tipping point has been reached.

100 months from 1 August 2008, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will begin to exceed a point whereby it is no longer likely we will be able to avert potentially irreversible climate change. 'Likely' in this context refers to the definition of risk used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to mean that, at that particular level of greenhouse gas concentration, there is only a 66 - 90 per cent chance of global average surface
temperatures stabilising at 2º Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Once this concentration is exceeded, it becomes more and more likely that we will overshoot a 2º C level of warming. This is the maximum acceptable level of temperature rise agreed by the European Union and others as necessary to retain reasonable confidence of preventing uncontrollable and ultimately catastrophic warming. This calculation is believed to be conservative.

Once a critical greenhouse concentration threshold is passed, even if human beings stop releasing additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, global warming is likely to continue. The Earth’s climate may shift into a different state (i.e. different ocean circulation, wind and rainfall patterns) with potentially catastrophic implications for life on Earth. Such a change in the state of the climate system is often referred to as irreversible climate change.

To stay informed of what you can do to help make a difference in the last 99 months before things change forever, sign up at onehundredmonths.org.

Hollywood Star Rallies for Tax Breaks for Hybrid Plug Ins

Hollywood actor Rob Lowe who portrays a member of Congress on television, recently promoted tax credits for people who add a plug-in feature to hybrid cars and trucks.

Not long ago he testified before a special House panel looking at energy and global warming issues. Later, he appeared at a demonstration featuring a Toyota Prius that had been converted to a plug-in hybrid.
Lowe said his interest in clean energy was not new. Recent events, he said, led him to become more active on the issue.

"The first money I ever made and was able to invest, I invested in an alternative energy company going back 25 years," he said.

He promoted plug-in hybrids, which have both electric and gasoline motors, plus a battery pack that can be recharged at home.

Lowe, who drives a converted PHEV from A123, said, "I have been driving this car around and I have to tell you, it did what my mother couldn't do. It did what my driving instructor couldn't do - it's made me a better driver," Lowe said.

To learn more about systems that can aid converting your current hybrid into plug ins visit http://www.a123systems.com/#/applications/phev/.