Join us on Thursday 8 December for a public meeting on ‘Why Noise Matters‘
with guest speaker environmental campaigner and author John Stewart
at the Marchmont Street Community Centre, WC1N 1AB from 7pm

The author and environmental activist John Stewart will be speaking on the impact everyday noise can have on us and what we can or should be doing about it.

Is noise the most neglected green issue of our age? Find out about noise as a social, cultural, environmental and health issue and how we can act to build a more peaceful world.

View and download the poster for the event here.
For more details please email camdenfoe@gmail.com

Do you have ideas about making Camden greener? Come along to our workshop and share your thoughts!

Camden council are creating a Green Camden resource to help people who live in Camden to be more eco friendly and to take environmental action. Join our workshop with the Camden Sustainability team on Tuesday to help feed into and develop ideas for this resource.

When - 7pm on Tuesday 8 November
Where - the Pirate Castle, Oval Rd, NW1 7EA

If you’re interested in joining the workshop please email camdenfoe@gmail.com so we know how much space we need. All are welcome (you don’t need to have been to a Camden FoE meeting before)

Our Camden up Close Treasure Trail is featured in this week’s Ham & High newspaper (Thursday 29 September).

A photo and short article on page 2 detail the activities at the Belsize green fair and our treasure hunt.

The article says:

Camden Friends of the Earth hosted an eco-friendly treasure hunt across the borough.

Enthusiastic treasure seekers used only sustainable transport to hunt out clues, beginning at Camden Market and ending at the urban farm festival.

Photo: Camden treasure hunters Rosa and Ashley with trail organiser Natasha Clayton, of Camden Friends of the Earth

Click the images to view the article in full.

Want to try out the treasure trail for yourself?

If you’d like to try out the treasure trail in your own time, you can download the Camden up Close Treasure Trail directions (pdf).

*** UPDATE ***

Thanks to everyone who took part - it was a great day and lovely weather for it - we hope you enjoyed exploring Camden as much as we did!

• You can now view the full Camden up Close Treasure Trail directions (pdf) to download and explore Camden at your leisure!
• Check the treasure trail answers 24/09/2011: Treasure hunt questions & answers (pdf)
• See photos taken on the route: Facebook photo album

If you have any photos to add or comments on the trail please email us!

* * * *

On Saturday 24 September Camden Friends of the Earth will host a treasure hunt using sustainable transport to explore Camden.

• discover unique local shops, cafes and pubs
• experience different forms of public or active transport
• explore key sights and hidden green places
• follow clues to collect ‘treasure’ along the way

The treasure trail will start at Camden Lock and will end at the Belsize Green Fair, near Belsize Park tube station. It will take about 2 hours.

All are welcome to join in on the day!

To take part, pick up your treasure trail map and instructions from our stall at Camden Lock, outside Lock 17, between 10am and 12 noon on Saturday 24 September.

All treasure trail participants will be entered into a prize draw to win a £25 voucher for the New Internationalist shop and a stack of goodies from Bulldog natural skin care.

To keep updated on this event you can sign up to our Facebook event.

View the treasure trail poster below or download the PDF poster:

For more info email us at camdenfoe@gmail.com

This event is organised as part of the 350.org Moving Planet day of action.

If you were at the Brunswick Centre last Wednesday afternoon (13 July) you might have seen something just a little bit different: ‘Save the Diva’, a new street opera with a green theme.

An artistic collaboration between award-winning touring opera company The Opera Group and Friends of the Earth, the street opera has been performed guerilla-style out on the streets of five UK cities this summer. The production explores environmental themes of climate change and consumerism and attracted a lot of attention at the Brunswick Centre!

Camden FoE members handed out ‘Don’t be a Diva‘ leaflets to the crowd who gathered to watch, which gave tips on how to ’save energy and save the planet’. We had some really positive feedback from passers-by who stopped to watch! You can watch the video of the performance below:

You can read more about the opera performances on the Friends of the Earth website.

Camden Friends of the Earth braved the cold weather to join in with the March for a Zero Carbon Britain on Saturday 4 December 2010, organised by the Campaign against Climate Change.

The day started with a protest cycle ride from Lincoln’s Inn Fields, followed by a giant aerial photo in Hyde Park spelling out ‘2030′ with a giant zero to illustrate the call for a Zero Carbon Britain by 2030 (if you look very closely you might spot Maria and Susan at the bottom of the final zero!). The march then made its way from Hyde Park, culminating in a rally by the Houses of Parliament, where we heard speakers including Andy Atkins, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth and MP Caroline Lucas (see video below).

To end an inspiring (but cold!) day, Jess sang at the after party, held at the Enterprise pub in Holborn.

Hungry for Change?

Join us for the Screening of Academy Award Nominee Best Documentary Feature
“FOOD, INC.” at Inspiral Cafe, Camden, Tuesday 7 December 2010
Screening to start at 7.30pm. Entry by donation (£2 suggested)

Download the event flyer here

Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become and where we are going from here.

There will be a Q&A/discussion after the film with guest speakers including Friends of the Earth food campaigners and Transition Belsize.

Sign up to our Facebook event page for the film screening and please invite your friends!

Thank you to everyone who attended our fundraising vegan banquet for the 350 Global Day of Doing on 10/10/10. The grand total raised for Friends of the Earth is an amazing £1130.64!

Read a report of the evening on the Friends of the Earth website, or see a selection of photos below:

PLEASE NOTE: We are sorry to announce that our Vegan Banquet is now full to capacity (although we are absolutely chuffed about the positive response!) As we don’t like to stop people coming, we will have room for more after 9pm for the after-dinner entertainment for which we are asking £5 donation. If you can’t make it and would like to make a donation anyway - please do! It’s all for an excellent and important cause. Thank you.

Surely the most pleasurable way to voice concerns about the environment must be to tuck into good healthy low carbon fare! As you may know, we’re organising a 3 course vegan banquet and swap shop at the Pirate Castle on Oval Road to celebrate the 10/10/10 Global Day of Doing on the 10th of October. It will be one of 5978 events taking place around the world.

We are all aware that modern commercial animal husbandry is a major contributor to global greenhouse emissions. As the organisation that ran ‘The Big Ask’, the campaign that brought about our Climate Change law, we’re keen that people understand that the food choices that they make have a direct impact on the size of their carbon footprint.

An International menu, including superb desserts and wine, a swap shop to exchange your oldies for someone else’s oldies, and live entertainment awaits attendees! The evening promises to be one of much merriment coupled with participating in a powerful International day of climate campaigning and awareness.

A minimum donation of £10 is requested, all proceeds to Friends of the Earth. Places can be booked and donations can be made at:
http://www.justgiving.com/veganbanquet

We look forward to seeing you there!

We were out and about last Saturday 25 September campaigning on Fix the Food Chain with stalls at two fairs on one day.

At the Belsize Green Fair, organised by Transition Belsize, we were surrounded by locally-grown fresh fruit & veg stalls, farmyard animals in the street, and greenhouse-making from old plastic bottles (see photos here). The Festival of Life in Holborn attracted people from all across the country to find out about creating a healthy future, including nutrition, yoga and conscious partying, so we got quite a varied audience for our campaigning. Joe even did a spot of cow-mask-modelling, as you can see in the photo!

We got over 100 postcards signed in total to send to MPs to ask them to support a Sustainable Livestock Bill, which is being read in Parliament on November 12. Hopefully we will get lots more MPs on board as a result! We also got lots of interest in our upcoming Vegan banquet on Sunday 10 October. Thanks to everyone who came along and helped to make our stalls such a success!

We’re off to another green fair this week, at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Bloomsbury, 12-2pm on Wednesday 6 October. If you’re free to help out please get in touch!