The World March for Peace takes place from 2nd October 2009 to 2nd January 2010.

You can find out the latest news on the march at the official website or you can join the Google group to stay informed about the UK leg here.

The Green Party will launch its General Election Campaign at a public meeting to be held at Ryedale Community House, Wentworth Street, Malton at 7.00pm next Tuesday 22nd September.

The Green party prospective candidate, Chris Newsam, will speak on the subject ‘Green Politics – building caring and sharing community’. Chris is expected to call for a new vision for a new age and to discuss the link between tackling climate change and building a fairer and more equal society.

Members of the local party can obtain the minutes from last month's regional Green Party meeting held at the excellent Mitre Inn by contacting the Harrogate & District Green Party's Communications Officer. See contacts page for details.

Meeting to address the decline in wildlife in the Harrogate area, and to initiate a sub group of the Harrogate and District Action for the Environment group specifically focusing on biodiversity. Meet at 5.30pm at the Council Offices, Crescent Gardens, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 2SG (map).

Tesco's planning application for a "Class A1 superstore" on Harrogate's Skipton Road is now available to read online on this page of the Council's website.

Tesco and other large supermarket chains have a huge negative impact upon both the environment and the ability of independent local shops to survive. You can read about these and other issues, including conditions for workers in Tesco's suppliers' factories, at the Tescopoly website, run by an alliance of organisations concerned with the negative impacts of supermarket power.

To have your say on the Harrogate store, click the Submit Comments button near the top of the Skipton Road application page.

Green Party supporter and radical satirist extraordinaire Mark Thomas comes to Harrogate on his national It's the stupid economy tour. Read more and book tickets on the Harrogate Theatre website. Plus Mark interviews Caroline Lucas in this mp3.

Local demonstration organised by the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, with Clare Short (Independent MP for Birmingham Ladywood) and Rukiya Dadhiwala (Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK).

Thank you for voting Green in the European Elections - Sunday's Harrogate count saw the Green Party take fourth place locally with the following results:

Con: 17,876
Lib Dem: 9,336
UKIP: 7807

Greens: 3845

Lab: 2394
BNP: 1887
Eng Dem: 717
Christian: 612
Jury: 455
No2EU: 442
Soc: 268
Pro Dem: 243

The Sikh Federation in the UK has issued a statement in support of Green votes to stop the BNP in the North West, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions.

The Federation works for a stronger political voice for Sikhs and is also registered as the first ever Sikh political party in the United Kingdom. To read the Federation's statement on stopping the BNP by voting Green, click here.

Green euro candidate Leslie Rowe, who leads the Green Party in Richmond & Hambleton in North Yorkshire, is to meet with the National Farmers Union later this week.



The meeting will take place on Thursday 28th May as another step in the busy run-up to the elections on 4th June. More news soon.

Dear Sir, Many thanks to John Gordon for his excellent letters bringing us back to concentrate on the real issues which should concern Ripon. Predictably the only correspondent to take the bait was David Winpenny of the Civic Society in his feature page on May 1st.

Professor John Whitelegg
Inaugural Lecture
18th May 2009
PL/001 (Physics Lecture Theatre)
University of York
5.30pm


"Energy and equity: a beginner’s guide to designing a zero carbon transport system"

Abstract:

Currently there are about 750 million vehicles on the planet. A prominent German forecasting organisation has predicted this will rise to 2.3 billion by 2030. Ivan Illich wrote “Energy and Equity” in 1974 and demonstrated the absurdity of our dependence on oil for routine daily trips and the illogicality of human behaviour devoting 1600 hours each year to service the demands of the car in order to travel 7500 miles at an average speed of 5mph. 25 years later the absurdities noted by Illich are now global and intensifying with very large year on year increases in car ownership and use in India and China. Each day our global mobility requires 5.8 million tonnes of oil and kills 3000 mainly poor and non-motorised citizens. This is expensive and requires very large public subsidy and is intimately linked with poor health outcomes ranging from obesity to hospital admissions as a result of poor air quality. This inaugural lecture explores the intimate geography of oil dependent transport, its global trends, its links with climate change and peak oil and explains its grip on society and decision makers and charts a new transport revolution that at a low cost will deliver socially just accessibility to our destinations at a zero carbon cost.

Today the Green Party launches its European election manifesto titled: "It's the economy, stupid."

The manifesto promises to rapidly create a million jobs through a Green New Deal. It stresses the need to make Britain's economy work differently in order to protect and improve public services, to create a fairer society and to tackle the climate crisis and impending problems like peak oil - as well as the immediate problem of the recession.

Harrogate and District Greens are supporting calls to stop the loss of 600 jobs at Vestas' wind turbine factory. Sign the petition here.



Martin Deane, Hull says:

Do you support renewable energy and want to protect British jobs? Would you be interested in signing this petition? If so would you tell as many as possible?

The UK has virtually no wind turbine production and that what we do have is shutting down. 600 jobs are going in Newport, Isle of Wight at Vestas who are the largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world.

"Closure of turbine factory takes the wind out of Britain's low-carbon sails" (The Guardian)

"Vestas to cut 600 jobs in Britain as wind turbine market is becalmed in Northern Europe" (The Times)

On Sunday the Green Party launched the North Yorkshire leg of their European Elections campaign. In glorious sunshine the popular Ripon Continental Market formed a colourful backdrop for candidates Shan Oakes, from Beverley and Leslie Rowe, from Richmondshire. They circulated amongst the shoppers and sightseers, accompanied by Ripon based Green Party members and three young student sympathisers interested in becoming Young Greens.

Greens across the region are commemorating Europe Day on Saturday, 9th May, during the anniversary week of the creation of the European Union. They will celebrate the European Union's fundamental values of peace and solidarity.

In the UK the Green Party recognises the original goal of the European Union: to remove the threat of another war between European states. It is important that we remember the reason the European Union was set up. By standing up against the far-right and their politics of hate, we are giving a clear message that there is no place for fascists in the Europe we belong to.

From Green Party press office, 020 7561 0282.

Published and promoted by Spencer Fitz-Gibbon for the Green Party of England & Wales, both at 1a Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ.

Entries are now being accepted for Harrogate's 2009 BAFTERS Awards (Best Action For The Environment Road Show), the biennial environmental awards scheme, open to all schools and community groups in the Harrogate District. So get nominating!