Green Creation 

Sometimes 'non-greenies' think that 'us greenies' want to 'deprive' people of the 'good things' and live in a cave... but that's *not* what it's about as this new report by the UN international Labour Organisation (ILO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP):

Palestinian/ English journalist Arwa Aburawa (a green Muslima living in Manchester) has written a nice article on how to green your wedding (disclosure: she asked me for the tips) on Green Prophet:

"The sun is shining and the days are long right now in the Middle East, which can only mean one thing- it’s wedding season! Invitations are flooding in and every night there seems to be wedding party going on into the small hours. Fireworks, food, fancy clothes and fights is how I would usually sum up an average Muslim wedding in the Middle East but is this leaving behind a trail of waste and carbon emissions?"

How green is your wedding?!

Some good news:

The Church of England has sold its shares in Vedanta, an Indian mining company, in protest over a controversial mining project in India that will destroy the livelihoods and spirituality of a mountain tribe. I wish all would invest more ethically, especially faith-based/ faith-inspired investors (note the Church's change of heart came about after a long campaign by locals in India and elsewhere).

A new website, Political Clean Up, is helping lift the lid of some of the 'too cosy' relations between our elected officials and private interests, especially some 'revolving door' appointments. Help them with positive need for change (disclosure: I do know one of the key people behind its initiation)!

With the UK's budget deficit being sky high and the opportunity to make the UK live more within our planetary means, it's an excellent suggestion from the Green Alliance that 12bn GBP can be saved by cutting subsidies on polluting activities (in simple terms: we're using our tax money to slowly and collectively kill ourselves... how obscene is that?)

Some bad news:

Another warning to always be alert as to who has paid for research and/ or any campaign... ask yourself: who's gaining? Oil companies are still paying climate change deniers....

The Muslim green message has some unlikely proponents of the eco-jihad (struggle for the environment)... PLEASE can mainstream, ordinary Muslims help take over ASAP or our beautiful religion will face another smear and backlash. Also, as guardians of Creation (see Quran, e.g. 10:14 and 6: 165) we can't leave things just to the environmentalists.

The bad news is just here to test us, see if we just shrug our shoulders (just like to be arm chair Muslims) or, as Prophet Muhammed said: "Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart - and that is the weakest of faith." (for some guidance on this hadeeth, saying of the Prophet)

According to article in The Independent, the Peruvian empire of the Nasca went down due to a self-inflicted wound of cutting down the huarango tree, exposing the land to floods and drought and subsequent soil erosion, turning the lush agricultural land into desert. We CAN save ourselves (by stopping the cutting of trees for monocultures), but do we want it?

According to an article in The Times, research by TerraChoice, a US marketing company, the amount of goods sold as 'green' in the UK, US, Canada and Australia has risen by an average of 79 per cent since 2007. It also found that 98 per cent of products being advertised as green had some environmental failings. Do we realise this? Do we care? We CAN do it (change this fakery and push for true sustainability), but do we want it?

In more positive news:

Solar power from Sahara is a step closer: the German-led Desertec initiative believes it can deliver power to Europe as early as 2015, according to an article in The Guardian (but I've read about it for quite a while now...technology is there, what's stopping it is will – those who would lose out from deserting nuclear, oil and gas.

And in more good news: The Maldives announce windfarm plan to provide 40% of island's electricityAs Mark Lynas sums it up in The Guardian: "If a middle-income country can cut its emissions by a quarter through standard commercial partnerships, the rich world has little excuse for saying that carbon reductions are too expensive."

In some 36 hours I was supposed to take the train to attend the Big Green Gathering (BGG). It was going to be my holiday, but I was also invited to speak twice: on women & environment and on community engagement in environment.... but yesterday the organisers were forced to cancel the event due to "serious concerns from Mendip District Council and emergency services about public safety and possible crime and disorder". Mendip Council had threatened BGG with a High Court injunction which BGG was bound to lose as it was on a technicality of not having road closure permit, which relevant authority had long promised was under control. BGG had a permit for the event itself since June.

But how strange is that as a reason: the event has taken place since 1994 without ever any problem, it is an event "for people who care about health, the environment, sustainability, our children's future and life in general" and just 15-20,000 people attending (while Glastonbury - which takes place 'next door' to BGG is the "largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world", had 134,000 people attend in 2008 and took place again just last month, with lots of drink and 24hr music, NOT the idea of family event like BGG).

It seems political reasons are a more accurate reason...read an article in The Times, The Guardian (plus a blog note from one of their editors and a contribution on 'Comment is free': "being green is no crime") or Weekly SchNEWS.

So: green (environmentalists), the new red (communists)? It's quite worrying (and disappointing).