Earth Hour Gathering in Bath - And There's More on the Way

This year's Earth Hour - organised by WWF - saw up to 70 environmentally aware people of all ages and many different backgrounds gather together on the green in front of the Royal Crescent to celebrate the event. Earth Hour, in which people are invited to switch off all electrical devices between 8.30 and 9.30pm, is an international campaign to raise awareness about energy usage. It began in 2007 in Sydney, Austrailia and has since become a worldwide hour of action.

The event saw people from all over the city congregate en masse with candles, acoustic guitars and blankets. The combination of a growing sense of environmental awareness, good weather, and the great job undertaken by the people who organised the event were key factors in its success. Even residents of the Royal Crescent came down to the event. At the end of the evening several people did a litter pick and everyone took home a bag of rubbish, to ensure that Earth Hour stuck to its environmental principles.

Due to the success, there are now plans to make "Earth Saturday" a regular event, on the last Saturday of every month, with the next event scheduled for 26th April. Organisers say that if the weather is looking bad, the event will be moved to the following Saturday.

So come on down, this could be the start of something big!

Earth Saturday - Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/EarthSaturdayBath
Earth Saturday - April Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1486206851599754

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Visions for Change 2013 - Full Details Announced

Here's the latest press release from Bath People's Assembly on this Saturday's Visions for Change event - NOT TO BE MISSED!!!

After months of planning, Visions for Change 2013 will open its doors to the public at 11am Saturday 27^th April. More than just groups with stalls, this year’s event features talks and short films, as well as the opportunity to engage with various groups active in the Bath area, find out what they are doing to make the world a better place and to get involved.

Organised by Bath People’s Assembly, the independent democratic forum that all residents of Bath are welcome to attend the meetings of, the event promises to be an exciting one, with a diverse range of groups and speakers, from environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Green Vision, groups concerned with business and economics such as Avon Co-operative Development Agency, the Bath Oliver and Bath LETS, groups campaigning for peace and an end to poverty such as Bath StopWar Coalition, Bath Amnesty and Bath Oxfam, groups opposing government cuts and the current handling of the economy including Bath Against Cuts, Occupy Bath, 38 Degrees and BARF, and many others, including Bath Foodcycle, New Hope and directors of radical films.

Last year’s event was a huge success – the event was packed out and many groups met each other for the first time and have since worked together more closely. It also inspired a similar event in Norwich, and an organiser from Visions for Change Norwich will be speaking at the Bath event. This year the event will be held on two floors – on the ground floor will be stalls and a café run by South West Food Not Bombs, and in the basement will be talks, short films and a radical photography exhibition.

The event is free and is open to the public between 11am and 3pm,and is in the Friends’ Meeting House, York St., Bath, BA1 1NG. Up to date information can be found on the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/158627290953876/?fref=ts

The full list of groups attending this year is as follows:

Greenpeace
Bath Oxfam
Bath Against Cuts
Bath Amnesty
Energy Efficient Widcombe
38 Degrees
BARF (Bath Anarchists)
The Zeitgeist Movement
Occupy Bath
South West Against Nuclear
Bath Stop War Coalition
Bath Foodcycle
Frack Free Somerset
Bath People's Assembly
New Hope
Secret City
Bath Quakers
Bath Friends of Palestine
Bath Against the Badger Cull
Green Vision: The Bath Youth Climate Movement
Clevelands Pool Trust
Bath Green Drinks
Visions for Change Norwich
Forum Bath
Bath LETS
Bath Oliver
South West Food Not Bombs
Avon Co-operative Development Agency

UPDATE: Film director Ken Loach has now been confirmed as the guest speaker, between 11:30 and 12:00

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Fracking Debate to Take Place in Bath

With many people concerned about the impact that proposals for fracking in Keynsham and the Mendips will have on the hot springs of Bath, as well as the safety of our drinking water and the natural environmental, it is about time that the facts were laid bare in front of the public before anything happens.

Bath People's Assembly plan to do just that on 14th March, with a debate between UK Methane, the company who plan to do the fracking, and anti-frackers Frack Free Somerset, who have been campaigning against it. It's at 7.30-9pm in the Friends' Meeting House, near the Abbey. Tell everyone who might be affected to get on down there!

Let's just hope that people have their facts right and that this issue gets the full scrutiny it deserves. If the fracking goes wrong, I can't see it being an easy thing to fix. And I'd rather not have to worry about earth tremors like they had in Lancashire. If there's an issue then it shouldn't go ahead. Find out more at the debate.

There's more info in the Bath Chronicle, complete with quotes from the debaters: http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/Meeting-Bath-debate-fracking-UK-Methane-waits/story-18323821-detail/story.html

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