South Wiltshire Agenda 21

Cycle your way to Wilton Carnival

Cycling in Wiltshire / Photo: Chris Neal

As part of this year’s Wilton Carnival, South Wiltshire Agenda 21 will be joining with the Cycling Opportunities Group Salisbury (COGS) to promote cycling and biodiversity. Activities include freshwater minibeasts, reptiles and bees…

Saturday 4 July 2009

Procession followed by events in Castle Meadows for all the family.

Cycle ride from Alderbury to Wilton along the proposed Sustrans Connect 2 route.

More details on the COGS website http://www.cogsbike.org.uk/

Action on climate change in Wiltshire – talk

Change of wind in Wiltshire? / Photo: Andrew Dennes

As part of our 2009 focus on global and local responses to climate change, our forthcoming November meeting will be a talk and discussion, led by Ariane Crampton, Climate Change officer for Wiltshire Council.

Come and listen to Ariane talk about how our county plans to lead on the issue of climate change and reduce Wiltshire’s carbon footprint.

Date: Thursday 12 November 2009
Venue: TBC

Keep visiting this site to find out details of venue and time, to be confirmed. And in the meantime, find out more on how our local representatives are tackling the causes of climate change.

Wiltshire Council signs Nottingham Declaration
Environment and Sustainable Development in Wiltshire
South West Climate Change Impacts Partnership
Fair Shares, Fair Choice campaign by Sustainability South West

The Age of Stupid – film showing in Salisbury

I defy anyone coming out not to feel like they’ve got to make a difference

Caroline Lucas MEP

As part of SWA21’s emphasis this year on looking at all the issues, big and small, related to climate change and how we respond to it, we will be hosting a special film showing of The Age of Stupid.

Date: Thursday 3 September 2009
Venue: Studio Theatre, Ashley Road, Salisbury (Google map location) (Yahoo map location)
Time: 7.30 pm start. Bar open from 6.45 pm with displays in the foyer.

The Age of Stupid: final trailer, Feb 2009 HD from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

From the makers of McLibel, a Spanner Films production, this film tackles the elephant in the room, and confronts the relationship between oil and climate change. Starring Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, it uses ‘archive’ footage from 2007 and asks, why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Age of Stupid website with making of and reviews

Age of Stupid SWA21 film showing poster. Please download for display or circulation.

Time for change… a message from our Secretary

Everyone can voice their own individual views but we also need to speak with one voice on issues which are important to us.

New directions / Photo: Frank Da Silva

As we say goodbye to Salisbury District Council, we in South Wiltshire Agenda 21 are moving into the unknown, along with everyone else in Wiltshire. For the past 12 years we have worked quite closely in partnership with the District Council on Recycling, Fair Trade City status, walking maps and cycle routes, school travel, Green Business Award and a draft Climate Change Strategy. We are now seeking to find a niche for ourselves in the new local government structure, to find out how we can continue to put our ideas forward and influence the Wiltshire Council, Area Boards and Community Partnerships? The two most likely arenas of influence for groups like Agenda 21are through the new Environmental Alliance at County level and the Community Area Partnerships locally. We already have an Agenda 21 representative on the Salisbury Community Partnership steering group.

South Wiltshire Agenda 21 will continue to be a network of individuals and groups in this part of Wiltshire. Everyone can voice their own individual views but we also need to speak with one voice on issues which are important to us. This website will be developed so that it can become a vehicle for exchanging ideas and stories, both good news and bad. So let us have your stories………………………………….

Pam Rouquette
Secretary South Wiltshire Agenda 21

A day at the bank

It values its relationships with customers and the community and is totally transparent.

Piggy bank / Photo: _ES

A group of people from Salisbury had a great day out in Bristol at the AGM of Triodos Bank (yes, a bank !). The second surprise is the title of the day, “The financial crisis and other opportunities”. We heard how the bank has had a very successful year, with a considerable increase both in deposits and loans. This probably sounds like a fairy tale when financial news all around is so dire, but those of us who have banked with Triodos for some time, including South Wilts Agenda 21 feel like saying “we told you so.”

Scrumping harvest?

Organised food swaps are becoming popular across the country as a way of beating the credit crunch

Raspberry harvest / Photo: Tony Newell

Several good ideas to increase the amount of locally grown fruit and veg available to the public have emerged recently.

Last year the award winning deli in West Street Wilton started offering to buy surplus vegetables from gardens and allotments, which are then either used in their own brand of home made foods or sold directly to deli customers. This offer had a very good response and it allows a daily supply of fresh locally grown veg for sale.

Salisbury LETS (Local Exchange and Trade Scheme) also deals in fresh produce and several offers have appeared recently on Freecycle.
Read more on Scrumping harvest?

Year one success for wind energy in Wiltshire

Eighteen potential sites have been identified, with volunteer Site Champions undertaking to investigate their potential, establish ownership, and make an initial approach to the landowner, to gauge interest.

The future of wind in Wiltshire / Photo: Rachel Ross

Wiltshire Community Wind Energy group held its first AGM in Salisbury on April 21 2009.

The group has made good progress since it was started last year by Jack Mason of Trowbridge, attracting local supporters of wind energy from backgrounds ranging from flood defence, archaeology, IT, energy efficiency, aviation technology and education.

Saving my money and energy

The scale of the waste finally became obvious to me after cheap domestic energy monitors appeared on the market.

Wasting energy / Photo: Simon Banton

I run a small computing business from my home in rural south Wiltshire. My home computer network has gradually been growing in size from a single computer and a dialup modem over a decade ago into a large collection of various beige boxes, network equipment and trailing extension leads.

For the techies reading this, there’s a Linux DNS and mailserver, a music server, a couple of Windows boxes for checking website designs work in Internet Explorer, the list goes on…

None of these are of a particularly high specification, being largely salvaged, low-end old machines that aren’t called upon for demanding tasks and don’t need to be blisteringly fast. However, although not everything is always switched on and in use, these machines have been quietly consuming between 60-110W – the same as keeping a traditional lightbulb on day in, day out.

Thinking about pesticides in 2009

Our best route as consumers who care about the health of the countryside and ourselves is to keep organic farmers in business.

Organic spinach / Photo Ian-S

The European Union (EU) has done extensive research throughout Europe into the presence of traces of pesticides in our food. Findings show that 49% of fruit , vegetables and cereals have residues in or on them i.e. almost half of our food. Deep concern, particularly in mainland Europe, led to the proposed banning, in January, of a large range of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides which are in common use in ‘conventional’ agriculture and horticulture.

Farmers in the UK are outraged, saying that crop yields will fall dramatically without the use of these chemicals. But it is well known that many of these substances (especially used in combination) can be very injurious to human health, being carcinogenic, mutagenic and hormone-disrupting.

Countdown to CO2penhagen

Time to make a difference

Sewing the seeds of self reliance in Africa / Photo: Self Help Africa

In December 2009 world leaders will meet in Copenhagen for crucial international talks about a strong new climate deal. This must insist on sharp cuts in carbon emissions from rich countries and include ways of financing clean development in poor communities. It mustn’t just mean relying on individuals to make lifestyle changes. The rich world cannot expect Southern delegations to accept blanket targets for emissions cuts. World leaders need to agree targets according to a country’s responsibility for emitting – and their capability to deal with the problem

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