The Green News Network is free monthly news update from the Gloucestershire Green party of key stories and news items. For the full stories, blog updates and this months letters and news releases see elsewhere in this website.

- Details of other Gloucestershire Green party meetings can be got from John Marjoram on 01453 751189.
Don't forget regular Stroud District Green party business meetings are now on the first Wednesday of the month at Star Anise cafe.
- Details of the coffee house discussions incl the last two on media and water at:
http://www.glosgreenparty.org.uk/coffeehouse
Next discussion 28th September: Is Capitalism Sustainable?

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CONTENTS
1. GREEN NEWS THIS MONTH
2. NEW ON BLOGS
3. QUOTES OF THE MONTH
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1. GREEN NEWS THIS MONTH

Oldbury nuclear power station has the most corroded core in the world of it's type - there have been many Green quotes across the region about this 39 year old dinosaur as it slipped from one controversy to the next:
- on the fire at the plant after a reactor was started after 2 years of problems - we warned restarting was risky,
- we also warned that there are risks attached to the company that takes over management of the plant as they have never run a nuclear power station before,
- The Independent on Sunday picked up the story due to a persistent Glos Green phoning them - they gained info gained under the Freedom of Information Act that showed cautions were overruled when the plant was restarted - our comments on this info were again picked up by local and regional press.
The plant is being started again - this is an outrageous disregard for safety - we also had a letter in the SNJ responding to claims that nuclear is the answer.

Dave Cockcroft gave evidence at Josh Richards trial re attempting to stop US bombers leave RAF Fairford to attack Iraq - he was found not guilty. Meanwhile as the largest AIr Show in the world starts in 2 weeks at Fairford Martin Whiteside comments on the arms industry sponsorship and the glorification of war while Iraqis still die.

West Glos Greens have been getting regular coverage in their local papers: Lydney is to be enlarged by 40% - see James Greenwood's comments: "The entire proposal smacks of 20th Century thinking and design when we face 21st Century threats and opportunities." Plus rejection of the Severn Barrage.

Local mental health services are being looked at by a Panel for the Secretary of State for Health: see Stroud District Green comments submitted on Weavers Croft.

Staverton Airport (which is owned by Gloucester and Cheltenham Councils)has been continuing to promote its expansion plans: see latest Green letter from Philip Booth: "The article claims this expansion will benefit our local businesses and economy yet responsible businesses are looking to reduce their flying by video conferencing and other methods. Why are local councils even considering supporting irresponsible businesses? They are signed up to cut emissions - it is time they took that seriously...why should this airport be allowed to increase its CO2 emissions, when every other business in Gloucestershire is being told to cut theirs significantly?  The science is clear. We cannot countenance any further expansion of aviation."

Dursley supermarket gets the go-ahead after 18 years! See the astonishing story about how our Council ignored 2 local opinion polls, failed to consider alternatives to a supermarket to regenerate Dursley and were naive to say the least in their negotiations with Tesco.

See other news releases and letters on: Country schools fingerprinting our children, 'pay as you throw' schemes are a sign of failure, the need to listen to electorate on Elmbridge Court, Caroline Lucas being voted ahead of Blair and Cameron as Politician of the Year, call for changes to the prison system after problems at two Glos prisons, comments on Gordon Brown's plan for 100,000 new environmentally friendly homes, John Marjoram's full page in yesterdays Business Citizen Supplement (on Stroud, arts and Peak Oil) and plans for Slad road flats were condemned.

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2. NEW ON BLOGS

On Ruscombe Green: http://ruscombegreen.blogspot.com/

Philip Booth covers a huge range of items - use search facility to find topics: this months highlights include lots of reports and stuff on Peak Oil from Prof Richard Heinbergs visit and the Transition Network conference. Plus various meetings at council incl Scrutiny and the Draft Climate Change Bill. There is also a song donated to the Green party and another on water fluoridation that is now listed with a University Protest Song archive. Comments are on whether it is really news that country walks reduce depression, G8, new planning laws, planning and mobile phone masts, why join the Greens, Demeter baby foods banned for being too natural, a phone call from Australia on Colony Collapse Disorder, Terminator maybe dead but beware of Zombie GM and time for a Living Wage.

Plus local issues like the Ruscombe Brook latest, local woods, Sustainable Urban Drainage and meetings with Highways Officer re white lines, 20 mph (Portsmouth is the first City to go 20 mph) and more. And this month lots of comments and photos of art incl Open Studios visits, Stroud College Art, Anthony Gormley and international artist Patrick Dougherty. Plus who are the top 20 Philip Booths if you google the name???

On Gaian economics: http://gaianeconomics.blogspot.com/

Molly Scott Cato makes Green Economics sound interesting and fun - see her musings and writings on a whole range of topics. This month includes "the just market" (with buying a shawl for £15 when someone else was offered it for £5), experiences at a recent conference re Transition Towns (humour is a carbon-free resource) and a permaculture course plus what is trade really for?

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3. QUOTES OF THE MONTH

"Be optimistic. It feels better."
The Dalai Lama

"We are the environment."
Charles Panati

"All the resources we will need arise out of our interactions, as we commit ourselves to a common intent for our common fate. As parts self-organise into a larger whole, capacities emerge which could never have been predicted, and which individual parts did not possess. The weaving of new connections brings new responses and new possibilities into play."
Joanna Macy, author of "Coming Back to Life"

"The borders are inside us and in our everyday lives. We have to deny the G8 in our heads. They are a mere façade of democracy. Who gave them the power to make decisions for the rest of the world?"
Vandana Shiva at the close of the alternative summit

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. "
 Dwight D. Eisenhower

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More details about the Gloucestershire Green party, how to join and meeting times can be got from our website or John Marjoram on 01453 751189. This Green news service first established on 13th November 2001. To subscribe or unsubscribe visit the Gloucestershire Green party website and to contribute to this news service contact the editor Philip Booth on  press@glosgreenparty.org.uk