No-fly holidays

Time for a post on a more cheerful theme. Frankly, if you think too much about climate change and environmental destruction, you will definitely need a holiday. Since flying less is generally agreed to be one of the best ways of cutting the carbon footprint, it's a good thing that there are lots of other possibilities. Here is a quick selection of websites I've collected.

The king here is without doubt The Man in Seat 61. If you haven't already, visit his website and marvel at the definitive one-man guide to going absolutely anywhere by train.
50 'best no-fly holidays' from The Observer last year
More Holidays without flying from Responsible Travel
Low fly zone - less practical advice, and more general encouragement
http://www.loco2travel.com/ - with a list of trains to European festivals, one for the young and trendy
The latest deals from Eurostar
A blog on Slow Travel

(NB I'm not endorsing the commercial websites in any way.)

In fact, finding no-fly holiday options seems to me to be the easy part. Many would-be greenies find it much more difficult to persuade their partner whose heart is set on somewhere long-haul, or on cheap deal minibreaks. And is there a non-friendship-breaking way of telling a friend or colleague that they should change their holiday habits? Answers on a postcard please.

Buying our way out of trouble

Despite all the fanfare on the UK government's plans for renewables, they've been keeping rather quieter about negotiations in Brussels where they've been busy trying to water down an EU directive on renewable energy. The Guardian carried the story on its front page today, and Friends of the Earth is currently asking people to email John Hutton. One of the main ways the government wants to avoid meeting the EU target of 15% of energy from renewable sources by 2020 is to buy credits from elsewhere. If other European countries can meet the target without fiddling the figures, why can't we?

Elsewhere in the same paper, a piece by George Monbiot about a loophole in the Climate Change Bill allowing credits to be bought from abroad to meet emissions reductions targets. I'm starting to spot a theme here. Incidentally, the final stages of the Climate Change Bill in the House of Commons will now not be until October or November - plenty of time for lobbying your MP

G8 climate change challenge

So, the G8 summit is in full swing. Will the world leaders rise to the challenge of setting targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, while incorporating a coherent response to food and economic crises? On past record it's unlikely, but watch this space.

If you've ever wished you could influence the leaders of other countries as well as your own, writing a letter is always a possibility, but if you fancy something more in tune with the information age, as well as strength in numbers, you could sign up to campaign alerts from Avaaz. They are a global campaigning organisation with around 3.2 million people signed up. While climate change isn't the only issue they campaign on, there are few (if any?) other means of mobilising from 100,000 to a million people internationally to sign up for petitions or donate money at short notice. Check out their website to see what they are doing at the G8 summit.