I started the day in Brighton, headed up to London for an RSPB Council meeting and then back down to Brighton for a fringe meeting jointly organised by SERA and the RSPB.
Also speaking were Hilary Benn (the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - that's one SoS!), Frances O'Grady (Deputy General Secretary of the TUC), Ed Miliband (Secretary of State for Energy, and Climate Change - that's the second SoS!) and me!
This is the gist of what I said:
A year ago I sat next to Ed Miliband at a SERA fringe in Manchester and felt I got his attention from the moment I mentioned the fact that the RSPB has 1,057,000 members - we now have 1,060,000!
Many of those members will have approved of Hilary Benn's conference speech yesterday where he talked with conviction and enthusiasm about natural beauty - the importance of the natural world in our lives.
And the RSPB welcomes Hilary's announcement that he is setting up a review of the adequacy of the ecological network that exists for wildlife. The RSPB would like to play a full part in helping that review reach its conclusions as both a conservation practitioner and an organisation that has helped to shape current thinking on this subject.
At heart, many of the problems we face are environmental problems - and they are connected.
Take UK food security - this is the legitimate, domestic manifestation of the global food crisis. You can look at it as a problem caused by too high a human population but it is essentially a problem of how we harvest and harness environmental productivity sustainability.
Similarly, UK energy security is the legitimate, domestic manfestation of the global problem of climate change - how we produce our energy has implications on the whole planet - an environmental issue.
And our work to preserve more of the UK'sdomestic wildlife has to be seen as a contribution to reducing the magnitude of the Earth's sixth extinction crisis.
So what we do at home has, inevitably, consequences on these global issues.
But also these issues are all interlinked domestically and globally. How we feed the world has implications for biodiversity and greenhouse gases - more rainforest destruction to grow crops will affect greenhouse gas levels and the rate at which species go extinct.
Obviously we need to take account of the environmental consequences of all our actions. We need to find ways to feed the world and fuel the world without wrecking the world.
I won't attempt to summarise the other speakers' wise words but the evening was a good-natured one with the two SoSs pleading for access to the RSPB's large membership through our magazine! You RSPB voters out there - the politicians want to woo you! Make sure, whoever gets your vote, that they will do a good job for the environment and that they understand the environmental consequences of all their policies. Sounds like a Letter to the Future moment!
Hard not to pass abusive comments on political party that has put the country in a terrible mess and tries to keep telling us it is a global problem when we seem much worse than other countries.The country owes massive debt and only way out is to cut services they say when we need more as the population gets older.Didn't Brown even sell our gold off at a giveaway price.Find it hard to believe anyone can believe anything this government say's and I am sure that is true of there clever speeches on environment ,wildlife etc.They don't mean a word they say and say anything for a vote.
Sooty - I can't comment on some of that but the RSPB will work with any political party that has the ability to influence the environment and the future for wildlife. We don't take a party political line - we try to work with all parties to get a good outcome for the natural world that we love.
Have you signed the Letter to the Future? What do you think of that? If you want to strengthen nature's voice with politicians then that's one way you can helop us to help them listen.
Hello Mark and Sooty! Well, it feels like we 3 are in the Marie Celeste!
Mark, I think one big problem with deciding which party to vote for is who to actually believe! They all come out with fine words before the vote, but either don't deliver or change the policy after they've got the power! So many of us have become very cynical after recent events.
One area of energy production I've not heard mentioned is use of rivers. I don't mean big barrages on estuaries, but inland rivers, even larger streams. Now, I know nothing about the practical side of such things! But last week hubby and I were looking at an old water mill in operation, and discussing how efficient it was in providing power. (Don't have to wait for the wind to blow at the right strength, same water can be used over and over downstream, fairly simple technology etc) Has no-one really looked at this area, both large-scale and for more 'individual' use? I know places like eg Elan Valley have turbines built into the dams, but it just doesn't seem enough use made of a reliable source somehow!
Yes Taffy2 good idea about rivers as for centuries each river had a mill on it every 2 or 3 miles probably and now turbines are much more efficient than water wheels.
Mark I have no allegiance to any political party but this lot have made a spectacular mess that will look worse in years to come and almost bankrupted the country.
Didn't know anything about Letter to the Future,now signed probably Sweep will as well.
Taffy2 - it is, of course, up to you to decide whether to believe any politician. But I do think that the more that people like you, and I, ask politicians about their environmental policies the more they will become engaged in the issue. If the NHS or education were never mentioned then it wouldn't be surprising if politicians looked disengaged. One of the really good things about working for the RSPB is that we can do a lot - on our nature reserves, through reintroductions, working with landowners - without the politics being perfect, but it remains the case that getting big public policies right is one of the most powerful ways to protect nature.