Who are Friends of the Earth?

Chepstow Friends of the Earth’s local transport campaign

For over forty years Friends of the Earth has been one of the UK’s leading environmental pressure groups. At the heart of all our campaigning are the concepts of:

sustainability – being able to meet the essential material needs of all the world’s citizens without over consuming the planet’s finite resources.

environmental justice – everyone has the right to a decent quality of life and no one has the right to cause more pollution and other environmental damage than anyone else.

Friends of the Earth offers constructive solutions to environmental problems and via our campaigns seeks to persuade the public and politicians that what we propose is necessary and achievable. Our greatest success in recent years has been the Climate Change law which commits the present and future governments to making year-on-year reductions in our emissions of carbon dioxide and other climate-changing gases.

A “bottom up” approach

Think globally, act locally, has always been our motto. Local branches campaign on local issues, but always bearing in mind the bigger picture. Atmospheric pollution is worse in some places than others but it is a worldwide problem.

Current local issues

Pollution on Hardwick Hill is still an issue in Chepstow. We are represented on Monmouthshire County Council’s action group seeking solutions to this problem, solutions which don’t involve shifting the problem somewhere else.

We sent a detailed response to the Welsh Government’s consultation paper on building a new motorway on the Gwent Levels. We pointed out some weaknesses in the Government’s case and suggested alternatives to the new road.

Via a street campaign we have created awareness of the danger to our bee population posed by loss of habitat and the use of certain insecticides

To get in touch

For details of our meetings and campaigns, please contact Clive Shakesheff, Tel: 01291 625816, e-mail address: rcshakesheff@googlemail.com