Monthly Archives: March 2014

Communicating Climate Change

Climate Action March

Climate Change week ran from 3rd to 9th March. Looking back, what did it achieve? Well, it’s always hard to say. Here in Hereford we had our display in All Saints Church, film evenings, a public meeting, a march through Hereford and we lobbied our MP. How any of this changes peoples thinking and behavior, or political policies, is very hard to say. It’s a cumulative and subtle process. Sometimes one person in an audience of a hundred is inspired to make some changes which over time are really significant and yet those of us in the room on the night may never be aware of how this pattern of change has unfolded. I guess for me the best thing to come out of it is that our MP, Jesse Norman, has agreed to meet on a regular basis with a small group of us to see how we can make progress on this agenda. That feels positive to me. Several people have come up to me in the street and said they have seen the photo and articles in the local papers, or watched John Llewellyn Perkins YouTube video of the demo. It’s all part of that cumulative and subtle process of change.

One of the key changes that we need is to improve the media coverage of climate change. Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, writing in the Telegraph has said “The debate isn’t whether global warming exists- it’s what to do about it.” Unfortunately much of our media still give credence to the barmy army of skeptics, which causes great confusion for many people, not least some of the journalists on our best selling newspapers. Vanessa Spedding, via 38 degrees, has an excellent petition to improve media coverage of the issue. This petition currently has 1,735 signatures. Please add yours now.

John Llewellyn Perkins video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9mJ3oAOSNE&list=PLBFFA4A153F976B23

Vanessa Spedding’s petition on media coverage of climate change https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/to-the-media-please-debate-the-constructive-responses-to-climate-change-not-its-existence

‘Transition’ to ‘Sustainability’?

The words ‘transition’ and ‘sustainability’ are very much words of the moment. At last week’s Hereford in Transition Alliance (HiTA) meeting Martin Kibblewhite asked the question ‘Transition from what, to what’. Most of those at the meeting have spent decades campaigning for myriad causes, projects and policies intended to secure a more ecologically sustainable and socially just future for humanity. Of course there are differences of opinion about what that future world might look like, and what kinds of calamities and collapses will precede the necessary changes… the necessary ‘transition’, if indeed we are ever to have a future that is better for humanity and the rest of the biosphere… a sustainable future…

My work over several years has been to try and articulate my own vision of what this potential future might look like, and how we might overcome some of the immense challenges facing humanity. For about seven years, on a very on and off basis, I’ve tried to write a book, out of which developed this blog and a lot of one off talks and evening classes, and several other projects. I’ll next be speaking about this vision at the Hay Spring Fair on Saturday 12th April. I look forward to meeting some of you there: do come up and say hello and give me some face to face feedback on what you think about this blog.

Annie Leonard has a new video and in just 9 minutes manages to convey the kinds of changes we all want to see in the world. Do watch it. It’s inspirational. She hardly mentions the actual words ‘transition’ or ‘sustainability’, yet it is the best simple, quick and upbeat synopsis of the transition to a sustainable future that so many millions of us are working our socks off to help achieve!

Hay Spring Fair http://www.hayspringfair.co.uk/ and see the talks and debates section http://www.hayspringfair.co.uk/talks-and-debates/

Annie Leonard’s story of solutions video http://storyofstuff.org/movies/the-story-of-solutions/