The 2009 G8 Summit is to be held in L’Aquila, Italy — the country that currently holds the G8 Presidency — from 8 to 10 July.  The G8 group’s member countries are Canada, the Russian Federation, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, together with the European Union represented by the European Council’s duty President and by the President of the European Commission.

The annual Leaders’ Summit is the highest-profile and most important event in the G8 process, but that process does in fact cover the whole year, with meetings at the ministerial and ranking functionary levels.  The main issues on the Italian Presidency’s agenda are:  a response to the global economic and financial crisis; the restoration of grassroots confidence and a boost to growth on a more solid and balanced basis, also through the definition of new, shared ground rules for economic activities; a focus on the social aspect of employment, to help the weaker sectors of society both in the industrially advanced countries and in the poorer countries; the struggle against protectionism and the deregulation of world trade for everyone’s benefit; the resolution of regional crises; food security and safety; and the struggle against climate changes.

To debate these issues, the Italian Presidency has organized a G8 Summit which will be unique in terms of the number of countries attending, comprising as it will both the emerging countries, Africa and the main International Organizations.  Some 90% of the world’s economy will be represented at the Summit in the expanded working sessions.

 If you want to find out more about the summit please go to http://delicious.com/MissTomitaka/Italy09 for collection of articles related to the G8 2009 summit in Italy.

If you want to see more pictures from the J8 competition 2009 click on the photo below.

 The Age of Stupid is a film by Franny Armstrong, director of McLibel, and John Battsek, producer of One Day in September. The film is a drama-documentary-animation hybrid which stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching archive footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

If you would like to know more go to:

http://www.ageofstupid.net/

and

www.foe.co.uk/resource/action_guides/age_of_stupid.pdf

The Age of Stupid: final trailer Feb 2009 from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

According to Play.com this film is released on DVD on 2nd of June so I will order this for future classroom/club viewings

The 11th Hour is the last moment when change is possible.

This film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment – how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course. Featuring ongoing dialogues of experts from all over the world, including former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, renowned scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolsey and sustainable design experts William McDonough and Bruce Mau in addition to over 50 leading scientists, thinkers and leaders who discuss the most important issues that face our planet and people.

Produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, and written and directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, The 11th Hour is produced by Leila Conners Petersen, Brian Gerber and Chuck Castleberry.

This lunch time club is for everyone who is interested in global issues such as poverty, inequality, trade and the environment to mention just a few.