We ran a survey over June and July to find out what people in Camden think about environmental issues. We received 80 responses in total – from our website, email list, other community group email lists, Camden Green Fair and a stall at Parliament Hill farmer’s market.

Here’s some of the top level results from the survey (click to view bigger):

People were most concerned about climate change, resource consumption, waste and recycling, and transport.

Although people were most concerned about climate change, this was felt to be the area we can least influence locally. This is something our Get Serious about CO2 campaign aims to target, to encourage local councils to help businesses and individuals cut carbon emissions as well as reducing their own footprint.

People felt that incentives would help them live more sustainably. We also received many useful and suggestions, in particular comments on people’s eco bugbears, which help to highlight which issues people in Camden feel strongly about. We received many comments on concerns about recycling in Camden, and transport issues, which we are currently feeding back to the Council.

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Great news - Camden Council have just announced a seminar on cutting CO2 emissions across Camden by 40% in 2020 - the target of our Get Serious about CO2 campaign!

The event, “Cutting Camden’s CO2 by 2020: working together for a greener Camden“, will be held on Monday 6 September, 7-8pm, Council Chamber, Camden Town Hall, Judd Street WC1.

Chris Dunham of Carbon Descent will present Camden’s recently completed feasibility work on how Camden can achieve 40% CO2 reduction. They will focus on:

• which low carbon strategies and technologies are likely to have the biggest impact
• the probable challenges
• the role people in Camden can play in Camden’s low carbon transition

After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to discuss the feasibility work with Carbon Descent and members of Camden’s sustainability team.

It sounds like a great event and shows how successful our campaign has been so far, with the council putting effort and resources into seeing how we can achieve substantial CO2 reductions across the borough.

All are welcome to attend - please contact harold.garner@camden.gov.uk if you plan to go along.

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Cecil Sharp House in Regents Park Road was host to the wonderful London Permaculture Festival today, with talks, workshops, films and environmental groups from all over London joining in!

Sharat, Shiv and Susan had a successful day’s campaigning on Fix the Food Chain, getting over 100 postcards signed to persuade MPs to support the Sustainable Livestock Bill. Our ‘moo masks’ were popular with younger visitors and there were some great ideas added to our planet-friendly farming ideas tree…

“happier animals make tastier meat!”…”every council should provide subsidised veg + fruit growing lessons”…”family days on organic/permaculture farms”…”supermarkets to support local growers”

We also got a lot of interest for our upcoming 10/10/10 vegan banquet event (please save the date…more details on this to be announced soon!).

You can also take an online action to ask your MP to support the Sustainable Livestock Bill in its reading in Parliament in November.

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Thousands of premature death every year can be attributed to air pollution in London. More than 4000 only to fine particulate matter called PM2.5. This is 20 times more than road fatalities!
In this context, I worked on the data coming out of a study on PM2.5 commissioned by the Greater London Authority [June 2010 report]. The data tells us that:

• Camden is the second most polluted London Borough, after Westminster,
• More than 100 people in Camden die from PM2.5 pollution each year.

I designed a couple of maps to show the levels of pollution across London and across Camden. They highlight the contributions of Heathrow airport and of road traffic. On the Camden map, you can see hundreds of black dots representing the premature deaths attributable to PM2.5. The dots do not indicate an accurate location but their quantity is precisely matching the number of deaths by ward.

- - - - - - - - London Map - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Camden Map - - - - - - - -

If you believe things must change, please have a look at the draft London Air Quality Strategy. Consultation goes on until 13 August, 2010 - 17:00. Let’s together use this blog to discuss the Mayor’s strategy and prepare a collective input to the debate!

First, and in order to trigger a debate, the Mayor seems to believe in electric vehicles and in the possibility of a smoother traffic flow. Other cities go the other way round and invests in tramways, bus priority and pedestrianised streets. Which strategy is the best? Hard to tell… but which one would deliver a broad range of long term benefits across policy areas?

Alex

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