History
Beginnings
One of the founders of the York group Nigel Mortimer recalls: "As regards what I can remember about the beginnings of FoE in York, it was started in 1975 or 1976. The main driving force was Edgar Newton who was the first local co-ordinator. One of the main topics of early campaigning was cycling in York and there were links with the local Cycle Touring Club". Linked with the cycling campaign was the founding of York Cycleworks, a local bicycle shop.
Nigel Mortimer recalls that another major concern was energy issues. This eventually evolved into an energy campaign mainly around nuclear power.
"In effect, we ran a dual approach; FoE covered the debate whilst another non-violent direct action group (separate from FoE) took part in actual demonstrations. The FoE energy campaign raised awareness and undertook education (films, lectures, debates, etc.) on nuclear power, energy efficiency and renewable energy". All of these issues are still highly topical.
"Apart from national campaign activity (which included anti-whaling and waste recycling work), we were also keen to do practical things locally. Hence, we ran a quite successful garden-sharing scheme which was fairly popular because of the then-shortage of allotments. The idea was to put people who wanted land for growing crops in contact with people who could not look after their own gardens. It developed into a something of a social activity (younger gardeners in regular contact with older people with gardens) but I think that it eventually declined as the allotment shortage eased."
"Interestingly, some campaigns split off and developed into specific activities (especially cycling and recycling). After Egdar, I was the local co-ordinator for about 1 year before I left to work in Sunderland in 1979."
Other early campaigns included a campaign for better protection for endangered species. At that time leopard skin fur coats were openly on sale in York. The campaign eventually led to rules restricting trade in endangered species - CITES - the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species.
The nuclear threat, acid rain and loss of tropical rainforests
Concern about the proliferation of nuclear weapons led some members to become heavily involved in CND, the campaign for Nuclear disarmament. In the early 1980s the group appears to have folded for a short time. We don't have any information about this at present.
Around 1987 the group was campaigning on acid rain and looking for signs of damage to local trees due to acid rain. The campaign was successful with major power stations such as Drax power station being fitted with flue-gas desulphurization equipment to significantly reduce their emissions of sulphur dioxide, the gas which leads to the production of acid rain.
In the late 1980s and the 1990s there were major campaigns on rainforests to try to get better protection for the forests and their inhabitants. Brazil's forests were being decimated by cattle ranchers and forests in Sarawak, Malaysia were being ruined by rampant logging and tribal people were being deprived of their ancestral lands. A giant inflatable chainsaw was taken around the country to try to make the major DIY stores stop selling timber from unsustainable sources. Eventually this led retailers to agree to sell timber from certified sources. Campaigners called for timber to be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as their criteria for sustainable forest management were the only ones considered to be credible. Most retailers now sell certified timber products, but not all of them use the FSC to certify their timber or timber products.
Mahogany
In 1992 Friends of the Earth launched a major campaign on mahogany. Most legal timber had been cut and timber was being stolen from Indian reserves and wildlife reserves. Indians in South America were being killed by loggers. We lobbied local shops not to stock mahogany and got more than 2000 names on a petition calling on the government to ban the importation of illegally obtained mahogany. (It was not illegal to sell stolen mahogany in the UK). We visited a local timberyard in order to hand over a piece of mahogany to the police and report it as stolen goods. Subsequent investigations by Greenpeace proved that the timber was indeed from illegal sources. A few years later imports of mahogany to the UK had fallen be 80% and Brazilian mahogany was placed on appendix II of CITES. This meant that any future trade had to be much more closely monitored for its legality.
Wildlife success
From 1995 onwards the group was involved in a campaign to get better protection for the country's best wildlife sites. Many local wildlife sites were under threat (often multiple threats) and we highlighted local threatened sites including Askam Bog (air pollution), the Bridestones (acid rain), Pocklington canal (sewage pollution) and many other sites. We had numerous articles in the local press, but it took a long time to persuade the government that new legislation was needed. Eventually we were successful and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (2000) became law. Now terrestrial wildlife sites are much better protected and their condition is slowly improving in most cases.
On TV
In 1996 after a hot dry summer, Yorkshire Water was heavily criticised for extracting too much water from rivers whilst losing more than a quarter of its water from leaking pipes. It also had plans to bring water to Yorkshire via a pipe network connecting the Kielder reservoir area to Yorkshire's rivers. We campaigned for the water company to mend its leaky pipes and had a meeting with the companies managers to discuss this. We also campaigned against the plans to transfer water between rivers. There was a risk of spreading the introduced American crayfish to Yorkshire rivers. As it was illegal to do anything to encourage the spread of this crayfish, we believed that Yorkshire Water's plans could be illegal. We had a report about this issue on Yorkshire TV. Subsequently Yorkshire Water did significantly improve its pipes. It did also build a connecting pipeline system between rivers, but the controversial links have not been used to date.
The truth about Esso
Also in the late 1990s we ran a long running campaign against ESSO. The company, known as Exxon in the USA, had been a leading member of The Global Climate Coalition, a group of companies lobbying governments not to take significant action to tackle the threat of serious climate change. ESSO also funded several climate skeptic groups and had a very strong influence on the American governments position on climate change. We staged numerous protests outside ESSO garages and urged the public to boycott ESSO. Eventually the Global Climate Coalition fell apart as the weight of scientific evidence made their position untenable. ESSO maintained a skeptical position and still invests little of its profits in renewable energy.
Union
Today our group is known as York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth. Ryedale refers to the area previously covered by Malton and Norton Friends of the Earth. This was previously as separate group which linked up with York FoE in 1998.
Launched in 1991, Malton and Norton's activities included campaigning against a proposed East Coast Motorway scheme, campaigning on peat and peat substitutes, mahogany, British wildlife sites, transport, energy efficiency, nuclear power and climate protection. The group submitted responses to local authority and rivers authority consultations and participated in a public enquiry (into a local sour gas energy plant). Other work included surveys, stalls, press releases, articles and letters to newspapers, talks to other groups, and participation in local environmental sustainability discussion forums. Subsequent to becoming part of York and Ryedale FoE local activities in the Ryedale area have included work on GM seeds, production of a local food directory and campaigning for a strong climate bill. The group has had many articles in the local papers and the organizer, Josie Downs, also had a regular column in the local newspaper.