There’s been much discussion on this site of the problems with fracking. These petitions need 20,000 signatures. The frackingfreeireland.org website is a good source of information on the situation in Ireland.
Petition 1 (Northern Ireland only) Petition 2 Petition 3…
Caroline Lucas, Brighton’s Green MP, has submitted a private member’s bill promoting a land value tax. You can read more about it in the New Statesman.…
You can sign 350.org’s #forwardonclimate petition at act.350.org/letter/Obama_ForwardonClimate/. It asks President Obama to take “strong, decisive action on climate change and reject the Keystone XL pipeline.”…
A group of environmental NGOs has organised a campaign to scrap the EU’s ETS on the basis that it is too badly flawed to be workable. Since its implementation, emissions have actually increased due to the poor design of international offsetting schemes, and large energy companies have enjoyed massive windfall profits. Members of Feasta and other analysts have identified serious problems with it from the start. Instead, we advocate a Cap-and-Share-type approach which sets an upstream cap on emissions and is designed around the principle that the atmosphere is a commons, belonging to everyone. Read more about the scrap-the-ETS campaign …
A number of Feasta members, including director Anne Ryan, are involved with the new organisation Basic Income Ireland. They will be holding an free introductory meeting featuring Erik Olin Wright as a guest speaker on Thursday March 7th, at NUI Maynooth, 7-9pm. Mike Sandler has made another post in the Huffington Post on different kinds of money and their relationship to sustainability. He draws on the work of Richard Douthwaite and Graham Barnes among others.…
There’s a good discussion by Mike Sandler on the Huffington Post of the controversy over the trillion dollar coin; it’s encouraging that the debate over money creation is becoming so mainstream in the US. “Be on the lookout for debt-free, interest-free money, coming soon to a country-needlessly-plunged-into-recession-by-austerity near you.” Some useful comments also. Read the post.…
Much useful information and commentary on subjects ranging from the problems with EU emissions trading to greening CAP payments can be found on a new website launched by the Institute of International and European Affairs. You can take a look at http://www.iiea.com/environmentnexus/home.…
“For those new to ‘cap and share’ Sharing for survival is a good place to become acquainted, and to learn what its application would mean for agriculture, an industry where the use of oil in industrialised farming systems is so pervasive that Professor Albert Bartlett wrote as long ago as 1978 that modern agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food.” …
There is interesting commentary and many good links, on fracking in the latest ODAC newsleter. Claims that fracking could slash energy prices in the UK don’t stand up to close scrutiny. …
Feasta is badly in need of funding at present. Early in 2013 we will lose a sizable proportion of our core funding owing to the winding down of a trust fund that has been supporting Feasta for many years. Joining Feasta, making a donation or buying one of our books are much-appreciated gestures of support towards an organisation with a well-established track record of researching, debating and promoting the much-needed switch to a sustainable and just economic paradigm. 
Feasta and Sensible Money are organising a one day conference in Dublin on Friday 31st May to explore the consequences of our malfunctioning money system and some of the proposals for its reform, replacement or supplement. The morning session will explore the repercussions of the way in which money is currently created while the afternoon session will focus on responses, including some Irish initiatives. 
Environmental activists and anyone with an interest in environmental law are cordially invited to a weekend seminar organised by FEASTA and WinACC (Winchester Action on Climate Change). The seminar will consider fresh approaches to tackling climate change and how they might be put into action. It will appeal to those who like to hear alternative perspectives, challenge conventional thinking, and explore ideas through discussion with others. Saturday June 29th – Sunday June 30th 2013. 
Richard Douthwaite, co-founder of Feasta and much-loved colleague and friend, died on November 14th 2011 after a long illness. We will miss his unique and far-ranging intellect, the clarity of his thought and writing, his warmth and his laughter. Tributes to him have come in from around the world and you can read them here. 
Feasta’s Autumn conference examined measures that this country could adopt to secure its economic future which would not leave it reliant on external factors largely outside of its control. Scenarios explored included the potential collapse of the eurozone. The conference featured prominent international and Irish economists and was aimed at economists, politicians, policy-makers, business people, social partners, and other key decision-makers.
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