Live G8

Apparently 26,000,000 people signed the petition yesterday. I sincerely hope they don't think that it ends there. Or that it ends with the protest in Edinburgh.

If people really want to make a difference in Africa and other countries, they're going to have to start actively re-educating themselves. They're going to have to confront the motto of George Monbiot's excellent site (see here): "Tell people something they know already, and they will thank you for it. Tell them something new, and they will hate you for it."

The fact is, there are a lot of uncomfortable truths out there waiting for individuals to find. Africa's biggest threat is climate change, so having glibly thought the five trees I paid to be planted would cover the carbon cost of our trip to the US, I was shocked to discover that those five trees covered my seat. Not the plane, not even the aisle, but my seat.

I'm a chocoholic, so imagine how I felt when I discovered that 99 per cent of the chocolate on the shelves is produced in such an intensive way to destroy habitat and make poor people poorer. Now I only eat fair trade chocolate, and organic chocolate whenever I can. Note the "whenever I can" bit - I still occasionally lapse, I'm still a hypocrite.

I still have much to learn, but I hope that when I am confronted with more of these uncomfortable truths I'll be able to act accordingly, and so I'll become less of a hypocrite over time. Our flight to Canada in September will be our last trans-atlantic flight for a long time, and I will feel uncomfortable even flying in Europe, especially if there are alternatives like the Eurostar to Paris, or ferries to Scandanavia, for example. Of course, I need to verify that they don't pollute as much before considering them...

But when it comes to Africa, I can't help feeling that Geldof and co have missed the point. Perhaps I'm too easily swayed by Monbiot's arguments (see here), but at least he's meticulous in backing up his arguments with sources. Read this, and you'll see that maybe the G8 will offer to cancel Africa's debt, but it won't do so without attaching a load of strings to it. And - especially if the US government gets its way - it won't do much about the environmental impact our lives has on Africa.