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A day of workshops to help us Act Local and Think Global
Saturday 22nd November 2008

FINAL REMINDER
Book now to avoid disappointment. Send an e-mail to register :-
 jonathan@sustainableredhill.org.uk

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WHAT IT'S ABOUT

Local community activists of all political flavours are preparing for massive social change and working hard to re-build community resilience in the face of Climate Change and economic meltdown.

Movers and shakers operating at the national level, in aid and development organisations, actively caring companies, government or non-government roles, are also experiencing turbulence and uncertainty.

In the workshops we will unpack some of the current influences in the ongoing discourse on Environment, Economy and Development, and the policy strategies that are being built.

Now is the time that things could go wonderfully right, or horribly wrong, and personal stress is at high levels. How do we stay positive ? How do we stay effective ? How do we keep on top of the demands on our time and energy ? How do we manage the flow of information ? How do we work together best ? How do we avoid burning out ?

These are some of the questions we shall raise on 22nd November 2008 at the annual OUDES-hosted day long workshop conference in London. How to keep activists active will be key to managing the challenges of social changes necessary to ward off Global Warming and economic upheaval.

In the next few years we will be seeing the emergence of transition and sustainable communities movements across Europe, with the emphasis on low Carbon transport, local food growing, Energy saving and community schemes for the sharing of skills and tools.

There will be a huge rise in such things as cooperative enterprises, community kitchens, traditional trades, bicycle transportation, Energy efficiency building work and low technology Energy solutions.

We need to prepare ourselves to be the directional, not hierarchical, leaders, giving guidance not commands, being examplars not preachers. And we need to be able to stay strong in ourselves and give human energy to everything we touch.

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ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

ORGANISATION : This is an open public meeting hosted by OUDES :  http://www.oudes.org

DATE AND TIME : 22 November 2008, 11am to 5pm

VENUE : St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace

ADDRESS : 78 Bishopsgate, LONDON EC2N 4AG

HOW TO GET HERE : From London Liverpool Street train station, make your way from the main concourse onto Bishopsgate and turn right. [ If you look behind you and you can see the station clock tower and the MacDonalds, you are on Liverpool Street, so turn left instead, and then right onto Bishopsgate. ] St Ethelburga's is tucked in between office buildings about 5 minutes walk south from the station, on the left hand side of the street, across several junctions, and is accessible by a narrow garden gate from the main street if the main door is locked.

MAP :  http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=EC2N+4AG&countryCode=GB

REGISTRATIONS : send an e-mail to :  jonathan@sustainableredhill.org.uk

INVITATION FLYER :  http://www.welwynhatfieldfairtrade.org.uk/oudes/OUDES_Event.pdf

FACILITATION : There are several groups who will be presenting and leading workshops at the OUDES Conference. There will be a couple of key speakers and facilitators available to help navigate the discussions throughout the day. OUDES is the Open University Development and Environment Society.

REFRESHMENTS : Bring your own lunch. Drinks and biscuits provided.

COST : Suggested contribution for the day : £6 [ £4 concession/members ]

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START HERE : Thinking Globally and Acting Locally
22 November 2008

POLICY ISSUES : Please read some of this briefing before the first workshop session.

(1) Credit Crunch : Economic collapse or opportunity for a "Green New Deal" ?

The Credit Crunch has been brewing for some time, as there were doubts that the world’s major economies could support high levels of debt.

Toxic debt has had an impact on every sector, and it has been shown that lending “easy” money into existence on the basis of traditional securities, such as property, causes over-inflated value, and is unsustainable.

The impacts include imploded pension funds, loss of economic growth and social turmoil from home repossessions, which indicates that home ownership is a failed policy.

Further collapse of value is expected throughout the economies. Since most funds moved to property, but there is no increasing value in that, or many other assets, the spiral of wealth creation is rapidly shrinking, even vanishing.

Some argue that, since mining and extraction industries are all facing a peak in production, that wealth-creation will now come from commodities.

Others argue that peaks, for example in hydrocarbons (where a combination of crude oil, coal natural gas will reach maximum production in less than 15 years), is an indicator that wealth-creation has also peaked.

The New Scientist published a chart in 2007 labelled “How long will it last ?” shows there are some real limits : copper (38 years), gold (36 years), platinum (42 years), uranium (19 years).

A Green New Deal is proposed as an alternative. This is planned to kick-start the economy through jobs that reduce our Carbon emissions and build sustainable communities.

Examples include insulation of all existing homes, massive installation of local community and household Renewable Energy, re-use rather than wasting what we throw away, and minimising the inputs to the waste stream, such as packaging, and planned obsolescence.

This idea follows the New Deal of Roosevelt that enabled the United States of America to overcome the Great Depression.

[ References : “The Coming First World Debt Crisis”, Ann Pettifor, 2006. New Scientist : “Earth Audit” : 23 May 2007 : Green New Deal :  http://www.neweconomics.org ]

(2) Ecotowns : Zero Carbon new homes or a Green New Deal retrofit for current stock ?

Ecotowns could be viewed as property development with added greenwash.

Is there a real need for so much new housing ? Probably yes, but only in large urban areas like London.

What about all the (around 1 million) empty homes and other unused empty properties ?

It would use less money, Carbon and material resources to retrofit existing empty dwellings, before we resort to building so many new homes.

Also, with the huge economic slowdown, should we instead focus on building the social housing required, led by government (the new Housing and Communities Agency) and communities (Housing Cooperatives) ?

House building, like car manufacture, has been regarded as one of the key pillars of the economy, but both are under threat from the downturn.

Can we re-skill these industries to roll out a Green New Deal that improves existing homes, provides Renewable Energy, and creates replacement employment through Energy and Efficiency services ?

On a much broader scale, public anxiety about development and resistance to planning, not just Ecotowns, but such things as proposed new nuclear power plants, coal-fired power stations, supermarkets and wind farms, demonstrates a lack of a fully-functioning democracy, an issue which needs to be addressed for future social stability.

[ References : Ecotowns Report, BioRegional/CABE 2008, Empty Homes Agency ]

(3) Security or Sustainability First ? "Shock Doctrine" versus Sustainable Communities

Naomi Klein suggests in her book “The Shock Doctrine” that governments have used fear to impose policies that are not in the overall interests of society.

For example, the Credit Crunch has been hyped up out of all proportion in order to create the appearance of a "shock", which has permitted governments to bail out the private financial institutions using public money.

This is "socialisation of risk, privatisation of profit", and takes away the guarantee of finance for essential social services.

Klein uses deliberately rousing language to shock her readers into reflecting on the damage caused by decades of struggle between "small government" and "social provision".

Deregulating and privatising government responsibilities was intended to make national and local authority budgets smaller and more efficient.

However, there are many examples where market economics have made government spending unaccountable, for example the Public/Private Finance Initiative and the issue of Post Office closure, and there are many cases of overshooting budgets.

The Sustainable Communities Act (2008) gives new powers to local councils and communities.

It provides a mechanism for local councils and communities to challenge central government where development is making communities less sustainable.

You can encourage your council to “opt in”, if it has not already done so.

For more details see :  http://www.localworks.org

All the local strategies for Sustainable Communities include provision for "economic development", but this is expected to be achieved by large retail players, that could actually prevent local wealth creation.

These strategies could accentuate social inequality, as wealth is progressively concentrated in the hands of a few large corporates : the “bulging middle-man” phenomenon, augmented by Mergers and Acquisitions stemming from market chaos.

(4) Climate Safety : Climate Change Bill : what does the science require ?

The world is warming and changing faster than predicted even only a few years ago.

It seems highly likely that the Arctic Ocean will be completely ice-free most of the Summer by 2013, and this will have severe knock-on effects in the surrounding area, causing permafrost and tundra to unfreeze, which will then give off extra greenhouse gases, causing a local doubled warming effect that could permanently melt the Greenland ice cap.

The Arctic started to freeze millions of years ago, a process which has been undone by the warming of just 30 to 60 years.

James Hansen, the NASA scientist, and other colleagues around the world, take the view that we should aim for less than 350 parts per million of Carbon Dioxide in the Earth's Atmosphere, which means that we should slow down our emissions very rapidly, and even use technologies and techniques to capture Carbon Dioxide out of the air, and store it safely elsewhere.

Zero Carbon Britain, the 2007 report from the Centre for Alternative Technology, reasoned by data that a United Kingdom that is self-sufficient in energy and food is both possible and also achievable.

Zero Carbon Britain takes two complementary policies and weaves them together.

The first is power-down : to address peak oil, and act quickly on Climate Change, our response must be demand-led, through Energy Quotas, or rationing.

Only with this demand reduction can we react quickly enough and bring down energy demand to a level that can be supplied sustainably within the UK.

The second aspect is to power-up Renewables. The government target of 15% by 2020 should instead be 100% by 2027.

This is possible through massive investment now, even in the context of recession/deflation, and by halving the total generation capacity required, by reducing demand.

[ References : Climate Safety :  http://www.climatesafety.org : Zero Carbon Britain :  http://www.zerocarbonbritain.com ]

(5) International Aid impacts : Environmental Disasters : Millenium Development Goals

The aid and development agencies are reporting that natural weather-related disasters are increasing, both in frequency and intensity.

The campaigns to eradicate "odious" debt worldwide have not fully relieved those countries most affected by environmental disasters such as storms, flooding, drought and heat stress.

Climate Change takes achievement of the Millenium Development Goals farther out of reach.

Added to increasing demands for disaster donations, the financial worries of the developed world risk "charity fatigue", an increasing threat to international aid efforts.

Owing to the unequal nature of the risks from Climate Change, the United Nations recognises that the Developed Minority nations owe a "development debt" to the Developing Majority World nations, in order to aid them in Mitigation and Adaptation measures.

In the key Climate Change framework proposals, there are plans to increase the transfer of technology (and the funds for it) from North to South : including Contraction and Convergence (Global Commons Institute) and Greenhouse Development Rights (EcoEquity).

However, there has been a deceleration of cancelling Majority World debt, which is necessary for any other measures to make long-term sense.

[ References : GCI : “The Carbon Countdown” :  http://www.gci.org.uk/kite/Carbon_Countdown.pdf ]

[ This briefing was co-written by colleagues of OUDES. For the full briefing :  jo_abbess@hotmail.com ]