Tuesday 10 November 2009

One Minute to Save the World

Apparently since 2000, the recycling rate in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has shot up from %8 to %25. And if you are the kind of person who doesn’t particularly care about recycling you maybe interested to know that H and F council spends an incredible £4m each year sending waste to landfill and landfill rates have doubled in the last two years. If the council were able to recycle twice as much as they already do, it would save 2m a year in landfill charges and mean lower council tax charges for us. It makes me angry that people can’t be bothered to put a can or some newspapers or a glass or bottles in the orange bags. It’s so easy.

On Sunday I was one of four or five member of Wecan . who watched about 50 shortlisted, one minute long films that had been entered for our film competition, One Minutcome to Save the World. The 50 had already been whittled down from 200 entries that have been entered from filmmakers all over the world. There were films from amateurs, professionals, companies and under eighteens. One of my favourites shows a little boy playing with a paper boat, flying it in the air as the earth has dried up and is barren and parched. We then see him dragging it along by a string. It is really poignant. We chose 27 which will now go to our panel of judges including Franny Armstrong, director of Age of Stupid and Bruce Parry. Some of them are brilliant, some charming and some very sad, but they all make an important impact. You can view at http://www.1minutetosavetheworld.com/ The winning entries will be shown at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December.

Is It Just Me Or Are Fad Diets a Waste of Time and Money?

I had lunch with a friend the other day. While I tucked into a substantial salad she sipped a sad black tea and boasted that she had lost 9...