tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64768684883968538242024-03-19T03:43:17.482+00:00Woodbrooke Good Lives BlogWorking on the social, community, psychological and spiritual dimensions of climate change, peak oil, and sustainability.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger153125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-76878563367890793102016-02-18T18:06:00.001+00:002016-02-18T18:06:54.701+00:00Volunteering with Kos Solidarity<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>This months blog post comes from Rachael Swancott Boon who shares this moving account of being led to and volunteering with Kos Solidarity.</b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When you are within the Quaker community you are not alone,
there is, for want of a better word, an army at your back ready with political
activism, shared enthusiasm, big ideas and the strength and will to implement
them. My name is Rachael Swancott Boon, I am a Quaker from Chorley meeting in
Pendle Area Meeting where I have worshipped my whole life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have just spent a stint volunteering on the Greek island
of Kos with a local refugee aid organisation there – <a href="http://kos-solidarity.com/" target="_blank">Kos Solidarity</a>. I was in
Kos town in November as well and have found both my trips to be greatly
enriching both spiritually and in many other ways, my Greek and my Arabic for
example are coming on a treat!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I, like most people became aware of the sheer size of the
refugee crisis with the news story about the bodies of Aylan and Galip Kurdi
washing up on a Turkish beach. I read an article about how a group of artists
had painted images of Aylan, some had depicted him with angel wings, others
surrounded by people but the one that stayed with me was a depiction of him in
a bed, seemingly asleep, the picture was titled ‘how the story should have
ended.’ Aylan and Galip were travelling
to Kos. I googled variations on ‘ways to help refugees’ and I typed various key
words into the Facebook search bar, which led me to many organisations all of
whom advised eager volunteers to sign up with an organisation and not to turn
up anywhere unannounced. I then waited for, essentially, some sort of sign.
About a week later ‘Kos Solidarity’ posted a request for volunteers on their
facebook page, I emailed them and 2 weeks later I was on a plane.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Opening myself up to all these channels of information,
regularly checking the news and social
media meant that I had a better understanding of what was needed ‘on the
ground’ and could make an educated decision about where my skill sets would be
most useful. I knew that I wanted to help because I am able physically and had the time. On the surface of it this felt like a ‘no brainer’ When you
look a little deeper, I wanted to help because I have been raised a Quaker and
have a strong sense of what I feel is the right thing to do but also I have a
strong sense of when I am being pulled or led to do something. I wouldn’t have
been moved to do so much research and act so quickly if it wasn’t a leading,
and all the pieces wouldn’t have fallen in to place so simply for my travels if
others hadn’t recognised that leading within me. Both my trips have been funded
predominantly by Quakers, the first time by supporting meetings and individuals
and the second time by Ffriends donating to my crowd funding page. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The arrivals in Kos while I was
there were sometimes none and sometimes 300 + and they will only increase as
the weather gets warmer. The crossing with the right weather and equipment is
not a perilous one, one of the reasons it is the chosen route is the relative
kindness of the sea. However the death toll continues to rise on a weekly
basis. There are few things as stressful as driving up and down a stretch of
beach trying to find a wrecked boat that may have survivors. However something
that I have seen surprise and confuse new volunteers regularly is the fact that
new arrivals are often not obviously traumatised and do not respond well to
saccharine sympathy! It turns out that
these refugees are people and respond to a stressful situation in their own
individual ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our tragedies and traumas do not
define us, the mark us yes, but define us? No. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tragedy does not strip us of our autonomy, individuality or
normality. Shelter, food, sex and sleep are not our basic needs. Familiarity
and comfort are basic; anger, music, make up and games are basic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To help someone mid high stress
is an acquired skill, it requires a practiced art. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Try not an approach of saviour<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> ‘you poor wretched thing, reach for my hand
and be healed for I have that of god in me’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Try instead <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Would you like a biscuit?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Have you heard this song?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Here, you can use my hairbrush.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Have a cigarette, here...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> “Would you like to help me sort these clothes?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And sometimes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“That’s really shit, I’m sorry
that happened to you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #141823;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It’s easy to think of
refugees as one body and in quite simple terms, 'those poor refugees' or 'those
bloody refugees' but actually and of course unsurprisingly, they are just
people, some of them are lovely, some are cynical, some beat their wives, some
are gay, some are wheeler dealers, some are doctors, some are Muslim, some are
Christian and they aren't all grateful but when they are it is lovely. You let
them take a selfie with you, you try to make them laugh and you remember their
names. People are people, it is what it is.<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">T<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #141823;">here is no doubt I will be back here in Kos to continue
helping with the good work this wonderful organisation does however I can’t
help but feel that<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="textexposedshow">there is always more and bigger things to be done.</span>
<span class="textexposedshow">Whether it’s in the news or not this problem isn't
going away and with added pressure on Greece to close their borders and the
mounting negative attitude to refugees of any sort in Europe I think it’s only
going to get bigger.</span> <span class="textexposedshow">It’s easy to feel small
and useless these days but my experience is testament to the fact that even the
smallest group of organised people can make a difference! I would encourage
anyone who is feeling led to make a small difference, to put their faith in to
action, to tell others about what you want to do and to go and do it.</span></span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-33364320362134733162016-01-06T15:31:00.002+00:002016-01-06T15:56:23.570+00:00Faith, Power and Peace<div class="MsoNormal">
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Friends - a short holiday from the more traditional theme of this blog as I wanted to share my experiences from some courses related to peace, non violence and militarism.</div>
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Last May Diana Francis gave the Swarthmore Lecture, an
annual lecture given at the national yearly meeting of Quakers in Britain. She
gave it on the theme, Faith, Power and Peace. You can listen to her lecture
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDqOHW-RQOg" target="_blank">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I sat and listened, and for me it was an experience that I
am struggling to find ways to describe – it felt like I was alone in a room and
Diana was talking directly to me, I remember it finishing and suddenly becoming
aware of this room filled to the edges with Friends. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I feel very blessed to have been able to support Diana
Francis and Steve Whiting from <a href="http://www.turning-the-tide.org/" target="_blank">Turning the Tide</a> as they put together 3 courses
for Woodbrooke building on the themes for the lecture. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Violence, Non Violence and the Power to
Transform</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">From Militarisation to Peace</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Speaking up Speaking Out.</span></li>
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There are quite a few upsides to my job, but these three
courses and the experience of watching Diana and Steve work together was one I
feel very lucky to have had. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Three courses gave us the opportunity to look at the themes
in some depth, and to build close relationships among participants; we had some
attend all three courses and some attend one or two.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I learnt a lot over these weekends, not just about what we
mean by peace and the dynamics of peace and power but I learnt about myself and
I learnt about groups and how they work. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One participant commented the preparation for these courses
was the lifetime witness of these Friends. This was so evident to me, they
shared some of their life and their ministry in peace making with us over these
courses. We do have an excellent opportunity at Woodbrooke for Friends to share
a little of their passion and love with us and I am full of gratitude.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>What will I take away
from these courses? What did I learn?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I learnt about the importance of process; of setting ground
rules and following them, of managing expectations but allowing for flexibility
and to be surprised by something. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I learnt that to look at peace ‘out there’ I must look at
peace inside of me; to acknowledge the way I am, the culture I have grown up
in, the power dynamics I am used to. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It was a reminder of how little I know about current
situations aside from what I hear from mainstream media, and acknowledging this
is only one part of the picture. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I kept on coming back to the need to unpick the dominant
narrative and to tackling the persistent untruths. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But perhaps the most
important message I could take was that these issues I care about, militarism,
climate change, economic justice – it’s not enough for me to say I care about
them, I need to do something about it. My response won’t be the same as yours,
we will all find our own way to speak and act in response to these issues but
these experiences of coming together to share, to learn, to listen and to find
ways of acting are precious. </div>
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These courses have reawakened my mind to the
rising tide of militarism in our society, perhaps for a world that is preparing
for a world in which resources are scarce and we feel we need to defend or
fight for access. If as Friends, our experience leads us to an understanding
that each ‘is unique, precious, a child of God’ then we need to do something. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The next event Woodbrooke is holding on Militarisation is in
February 2016 – looking at Militarisation in our schools, in the media and in
our community. If you would like to join us, details are <a href="https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=10496" target="_blank">here</a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-14654251010524339852015-11-16T23:13:00.001+00:002015-11-16T23:13:18.864+00:00My part in the pilgrimage to Paris.Reflections<br />
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<i>'Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.' </i><br />
George Fox 1656<br />
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This passage from George Fox is one of my favorites in Quaker Faith and Practice.<br />
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To walk cheerfully answering that of God in everyone. Well last week I set off with 44 other pilgrims from St Martin in the Field towards Paris. I had planned and prepared to walk for a few days. The first day was through London and into Surrey. We set off after a service and it felt like a celebration. <br />
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We passed the Houses of Parliament, crossed the river, and a mile or so down the road were cheered by staff from the Christian Aid offices. Another mile on and perhaps the most touching part of the day was hearing singing as we walked down the road, as we approached, students from a primary school were on the road singing us on our way and playing instruments. They walked down the road with us to their local church where we gathered on the street for a second service.<br />
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Walking through London was incredible, one minute you are passing Big Ben, then through estates, parks, past students and commuters on their way home. Some commented, this is modern pilgrimage. It's not about a nice walk in the countryside, this is life - its business parks as well as fields. There is no hiding, you walk through it all.<br />
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On the way we stopped at churches for lunch, afternoon break and then for sleep and this was a pattern to be repeated. So many offered so much time and hospitality and it all added to the community and sense of pilgrimage.<br />
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As we walked through London, I thought about something I had written in my first blog, that this was an organised pilgrimage because any walk could be a pilgrimage. I now feel that any walk can be but not every walk is, there is something about walking with others for a shared purpose. It is something else.<br />
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We woke up the following morning to the news of the attacks in Paris, suddenly Paris wasn't just the final destination or the the location of the climate change talks. Everything changed. It was a rainy day, and one of the longest walks. We set off after short prayers and after expressing sadness and shock, there wasn't much else anyone could say. We were informed that a decision would be made in the next few days about what would happen and how far we would go in terms of the pilgrimage. It was a head down and walk kind of a day.<br />
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I am home now, earlier than anticipated because on day 1 I managed to not notice a blister and it had popped before I knew it, I struggled to put my shoe on day 2 and so with tears welling behind my eyes said I had to withdraw. I could sense all those feelings that bubble up inside me, and inside I called myself a failure and then felt guilty for thinking that on such a day.<br />
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One of my personal challenges is to think less negatively about myself and not compare my efforts with others. I must do what love requires of me, and in this case love required me to walk and walk I did. Sometimes what love requires of us isn't what we can do or what we want to do, its what we have to do.<br />
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The experience will stay with me, although I feel inadequate to find words. A few lasting memories will be the sense of community, the feelings of embodying my witness, a talk on the Pope's Encyclical Laudato Si on the second evening and the sense of comfort and discomfort of following one of those nudges from God.<br />
<br />
My plan now is to give my foot some time to heal and then to continue and to do a walk every day of the pilgrimage to be with the group in heart and spirit.<br />
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Climate Change connects us all, affects us all. Those meeting at the UN talks need strength and encouragement to make the decisions the world needs and so whatever you do, I urge you to do something. I shall continue to walk, to attend local events and talks and to pray.<br />
<br />
My last morning I awoke early, I have never seen a cross appear as if out of nowhere, but this morning I saw a cross as light came through the drawn curtains. A cross with an extra line as if forming an arrow pointing in.<br />
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An arrow pointing inward towards Jesus, maybe it was just early in the morning but this felt like a clear sign. Keep listening, keep doing. The world needs both the comtemplatives and the prophetics amongst us.<br />
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To follow the pilgrims, search <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23pilgrimage2paris&src=typd" target="_blank">#pilgrimage2paris</a> on twitter, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNgYCSA53lVIEMEmWkiGL9Q" target="_blank">here for you tube videos from Operation Noah. </a><br />
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Thanks to everyone for your love support and encouragement. Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-90453944084935173512015-11-10T14:14:00.000+00:002015-11-10T14:14:19.745+00:00Packing and Preparing<br />
I have started to pack as we depart on Friday.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCPnuf7jeOEw8I9KWYCzz6_MZQZCEfoRMSkPkOMTcdFB-UDt_I65mXBU-4HUbw3DXt3hPPz0bw2R0Gc6GHi9OtjEzwD7TMCSpTpZ32MXYVlbAV9zufh8E3IcRE0Avj1LwkVrZpWHr_Nsk/s1600/IMG_20151109_153402.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCPnuf7jeOEw8I9KWYCzz6_MZQZCEfoRMSkPkOMTcdFB-UDt_I65mXBU-4HUbw3DXt3hPPz0bw2R0Gc6GHi9OtjEzwD7TMCSpTpZ32MXYVlbAV9zufh8E3IcRE0Avj1LwkVrZpWHr_Nsk/s200/IMG_20151109_153402.jpg" width="150" /></a>We have been sent a kit list which I have gone through, it doesn't all relate to me, as I won't be going through to Paris so I don't need to pack my passport. I have taken note of the need for waterproofs!<br />
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I am not sure if I feel ready, but perhaps that is just the way it goes. Are we ever fully prepared for anything? I have continued with my walking and swimming and I have looked for other kinds of resources to keep me going.<br />
<br />
On the <a href="http://peoplespilgrimage.org/" target="_blank">Peoples Pilgrimage</a> website I have found some prayers and spiritual statements which I plan on taking with me.<br />
<br />
One is from Thich Nhat Hanh<br />
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<i>Be aware of the contact between your feet and the Earth.</i><br />
<i>Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.</i><br />
<i>We have caused a lot of damage to the Earth.</i><br />
<i>Now it is time for us to take good care of her.</i><br />
<i>We bring peace and calm to the surface of the Earth and share the lesson of love. </i><br />
<i>We walk in the spirit.</i><br />
<br />
And so as the butterflys in my stomach heighten I shall depend on these kind of resources, and knowing that there will be people thinking of us all.<br />
<br />
I am looking forward to meeting others, to trying something new and to being one small part in the massive preparations ahead of the talks in Paris.<br />
<br />
If you would like to hear updates as we walk, I shall endeavour to tweet from <a href="https://twitter.com/maudward?lang=en" target="_blank">@maudward on twitter</a> . I shall also be on instagram under the same name. Otherwise I will write something here on my return.<br />
<br />
Please not that...<br />
<br />
If you are at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre ahead of and during the Climate Talks in Paris you can write a message of support and encouragement to those meeting and we will send those messages on.Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-40589740689368961722015-10-27T15:27:00.002+00:002015-10-27T15:27:52.565+00:00Under 3 weeks to go – Pilgrimage 2 Paris<div class="MsoNormal">
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Last week was what you might call a bad week, I have a
condition which can result in fatigue and pain, and last week it reminded me of
what it is capable of. I was out for the count, my legs wouldn’t work, my brain
was fuzzy, and the slightest movement was riddled with pain, like I said it was
a bad week. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Suffice to say I did not do much walking, other than from my
bed to the sofa and back to the bed again. Days like that are tough, they are
tough physically and they are tough mentally.
I began to doubt if participating in the organised pilgrimage to Paris
was the right decision, those doubts stay with me, although I have since got
back out there and done a few shorter walks to get myself back in the game. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Yesterday I was speaking to a dear friend, one of those
people who just turn up on the exact day you need them and say the words you
need to hear. She spoke of going on a pilgrimage recently, one of the many as a
part of <a href="http://peoplespilgrimage.org/" target="_blank">The People's Pilgrimage</a>. She spoke about the nature of a walk with purpose and the
joy she experienced as some joined their pilgrimage for the 2 days they walked
and others who joined for a few minutes or a few hours and how that natural ebb
and flow to her was as natural as the ebb and flow of our world. She helped me realise that all I need to do is walk, for however long I am able and so I will. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I will walk, and I will walk as long as I can. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the things I could do last week was peruse the
internet looking for bits and pieces to get me in the mood. I read about
<a href="http://www.foe.co.uk/page/paris-climate-change-talks-un-cop-21" target="_blank">Friends of the Earth</a> organising trains and accommodation for those going to Paris,
I saw articles on the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34489266" target="_blank">BBC</a> about the negotiations, I caught up on plans for a
<a href="http://www.timetoact2015.org/" target="_blank">march in London</a> during the talks and I was drawn to <a href="http://fortheloveof.org.uk/" target="_blank">for the love of </a>website where they are asking people to upload an image of what matters to you.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<i>'If you love it, share it' 'Climate Change threatens the things you love about the world. But if you give your heart to speak up for them, you will help to make a difference' <a href="http://fortheloveof.org.uk/">fortheloveof.org.uk</a></i><br />
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And so during the talks in Paris, we shall have hearts here at Woodbrooke for you to fill in and write a message, we can then uploads images of these to their website. You can also upload your images directly. Let us send a message of strength to be courageous to make the decisions and commitments we need for the future of people and planet.<br />
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And so, back to practice practice practice.<br />
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Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-35097510125371721612015-10-15T16:04:00.000+01:002015-10-15T16:08:23.912+01:00Pilgrimage to Paris - preparations begin. <div class="MsoNormal">
I have not written anything for a long time. I apologise. This will be the first of a few posts ahead of the UN Climate Talks in Paris. </div>
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In under a month I am going to be walking
my first pilgrimage, or perhaps I should say organised pilgrimage. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I have to say that having gone to a talk a few years ago on
pilgrimage where it was suggested every walk was a pilgrimage and I haven’t yet
thought that one through. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s called <a href="http://pilgrimage2paris.org.uk/" target="_blank">Pilgrimage 2 Paris</a>, and the pilgrimage will end up in Paris ahead of the <a href="http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/en" target="_blank">UN Climate Talks</a>. I am
only going to take part in the UK bit, from London to Newhaven. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It has been organised by The Church of England, Christian Aid,
CAFOD and Tearfund. It will begin on 13<sup>th</sup> November and complete on
the 27<sup>th</sup> November ahead of the talks. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I applied having heard about it during an ecumenical service
on a mass lobby of parliament on climate justice and I just couldn’t stop
thinking about it. Call it a nudge from a God if you like, I felt pushed by something
to go on the website and apply. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I spoke with one of the organisers and we talked through
some details, including that it would be approximately 12-15 miles a day. At
this, I paused a little. It’s been a few years since I have done a walk of this
length so I took a few days to think and to walk and see how it felt. I managed
10 miles and I was exhausted but I survived so I called back and said yes, I’ll
give it a go. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So I have been getting ready, taking the longer route to
work, walking around the area, popping out in my lunch break to walk around the
block and heading out at the weekends for longer walks with my husband. It occurred to me on a walk this morning, how
essential the preparation is, not just in terms of fitness and stamina but also
preparing my mind and spirit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This pilgrimage is about the UN talks in Paris, but nothing
is ever just one thing. This past year I have experienced some lows and whilst
I work out how if ever I can admit to the vulnerability and sadness I have
experienced, I am able to put one foot in front of the other and walk. And whilst I am walking I am letting my mind
wander, from the very personal to the international. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And so it’s doing a few things for me, walking is helping me
process some of my ‘stuff’. I am discovering there is a whole largely undiscovered
neighbourhood on my doorstep as I veer away from my usual routes and take a
different path. And I am embracing the opportunity to respond to my concerns about
climate justice in a different way. I’ve been to talks, I’ve read, watched and
shared. I’ve protested and prayed and I’ve organised. Now I am walking.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here are a couple of photos, taken out and about.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicv8E4z1mwLE2JOEg7ivcqn8vZ33LerFGQDPuAVPAdKl95b32oi9nC6ANs61iNjitbQZOoe0wJRqTohpaswHHYC8ZNNkAZJ8ihg9N-64E_us5mNHSg4x4MROvOozl5hbV3ZLsBDIzUaII/s1600/IMG_20151015_095150.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicv8E4z1mwLE2JOEg7ivcqn8vZ33LerFGQDPuAVPAdKl95b32oi9nC6ANs61iNjitbQZOoe0wJRqTohpaswHHYC8ZNNkAZJ8ihg9N-64E_us5mNHSg4x4MROvOozl5hbV3ZLsBDIzUaII/s320/IMG_20151015_095150.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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However you choose to respond to climate change, I urge you
to do something whether it’s to attend or organise a talk, to educate yourself,
to be a part of a vigil, to listen and support those who are very involved, to
make changes in your lives and the way you run your homes, by talking to your
MP. It is the issue of the time and it connects to everything. Ignoring it will
not make it go away. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So please stay posted, I will add updates as I prepare and
then during the pilgrimage I will do my best to keep you in touch with how we
are doing. <o:p></o:p></div>
Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-60891260158470873072014-09-17T13:22:00.000+01:002014-09-17T13:22:23.917+01:00Global Day of Action <span style="font-family: inherit;">This Sunday, the 21st September 2014, people are coming together from across the world to demonstrate their commitment to climate justice. A Global Day of Action. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A Day of Action because two days following, Heads of State will be meeting for a summit on the Climate. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I wanted to write 'yet another summit' but being cynical about it, won't change anything or make me feel any better. Perhaps it was a good time to read this <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamie350/to-those-of-you-who-care-but-probably-wonat-com-z2b2" target="_blank">article</a> calling for people to get to the march in New York. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am not going to go to New York, nor am I going to London. I shall be joining those in Birmingham. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the <a href="http://peoplesclimate.org/global" target="_blank">PeoplesClimate</a> website, I liked the following</span><br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e3f; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; text-align: center;">'We know that no single meeting or summit will “solve climate change” and in many ways this moment will not even really be </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3b3e3f; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; text-align: center;">about</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e3f; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; text-align: center;"> the summit. We want this moment to be about us – the people who are standing up in our communities, to organise, to build power, to confront the power of fossil fuels, and to shift power to a just, safe, peaceful world.'</span></span></i><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #3b3e3f; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></i>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I used to go on marches and actions a lot more than I do now. For health reasons recently I have not felt as confident but I am getting my confidence back. These marches or days of action changed me more than anything. They inspired me to keep going, to work together with others. I remember a vigil outside parliament during the vote on Trident and I had such an array of emotions; peace, powerful, powerlessness, frustration and hope among what I am sure were many more. At the end of the vigil I felt alive and refreshed, invigorated to do more. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There is something about bearing witness in the place witness needs to be born. This Sunday, for me, that is in Birmingham. For you, that might be in London, or where you live? Perhaps you will engage online with others that way. </span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In my mind, every day is a global action for day, we can change the world everyday through our interaction with others, through our choices and actions. Having said that I don't think it hurts to be a part of a global day of solidarity, to come together and to do something that says, here we are, bearing witness to our commitment to climate justice. That making changes in our own lives is vital but that being a part of a movement demanding systemic change is as vital. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
There are lots of websites that you can look at for more information about Sunday, here are a few<br />
<br />
<a href="http://quaker.org.uk/event/peoples-climate-march" target="_blank">Quakers in Britain</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://operationnoah.org/news-events/peoples-climate-multifaith-gathering/" target="_blank">Operation Noah</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.foe.co.uk/news/people-s-climate-march-21st-september" target="_blank">Friends of the Earth</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://peoplesclimate.org/march/" target="_blank">Peoples Climate</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/largest-climate-march-history-happening-weekend-here%E2%80%99s-how-get-involved-20140914" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.peaceoneday.org/" target="_blank">Peace One Day</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://secure.avaaz.org/en/event/climate/?slideshow" target="_blank">Avaaz</a><br />
<br />
There is a shared statement from Quaker groups - <a href="http://quaker.org.uk/facing-challenge-climate-change" target="_blank">Facing the Challenge of Climate Change</a><br />
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<br />Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-54158176904691579412014-03-13T12:08:00.002+00:002014-03-13T12:17:26.168+00:00There's more to a label than size and make - or is there?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 110%;">Last week, I met Edwina at the event - Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the System - here she showed me her article on sustainability and the fashion industry. What follows, is a short introduction and then her article. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 110%;"><i>I am a student
of textiles at Norwich University of Arts and a Member of Bury St Edmunds
Meeting. My work combines tradition with new technology, natural dyes with
digital print, hand stitch with resist and foil. Sustainability is an important
aspect of my practice and my inspiration is often the forest that surrounds my
home. The dyes are extracted from the plants and trees and my drawings are
developed into designs for digital print technology. The Kimono is proving to
be a good context for my work and while respecting its history I have developed
a range of designs which are intended for use as screens or hangings but can
always be worn and enjoyed. My research for this degree investigated the
ethical practice and sustainability of the Fashion Industry and part of the
research was to write an article for Quakers about the importance of
understanding what lies behind the label.</i></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 110%;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 110%;"><i>Edwina Hughes</i></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: inherit;">THERE’S MORE
TO A LABEL THAN SIZE AND MAKE – OR IS THERE?<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Clerk’s notes on the Canterbury Commitment asks
individual Friends ‘to keep informed about the work being done locally,
centrally and throughout the Quaker world and to educate themselves’ (<i>Religious Society of Friends 2011</i>) ) about our commitment to conserve the
earth’s resources and be responsible for one another. We have used the
Sustainability Toolkit to learn, to evaluate and to take action so that our
buildings, energy consumption, water usage, travel, product consumption and
waste are low carbon and sustainable.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="1"></a> There is practical
information for the investment and use of our money but there are many everyday
purchases where we do not have the information to make the best choice for the
Earth. Clothing constitutes a regular purchase for many people. In most cases
the label provides the main information but shows the brand, the size and
possibly country of origin but little else. By being informed the label CAN
tell us more!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Garment
labels became the focus of the world’s attention after the Rana Plaza fire as
they provided indisputable truth about the brands who were using this factory<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">The tragedy has forced
apparel retailers and brands to take a closer look at how, and where,
their products are made. There were discussions about making the label more
informative but little action. The Ethical trading Initiative (ETI) were
involved and this organisation aims to ensure that all products for the UK
market meet international standards for ethical practice. Members include
M&S, Monsoon, River Island and John Lewis and the full list of members can
be accessed on their web site ww.ethicaltrade.org/about-eti/our-members. The
Ethical Fashion Forum (EFF) set up in 2006 works in the same way but targets
the fashion industry and provides a ‘Global Platform for a Sustainable Fashion
Toolkit’ (</span><i style="line-height: 107%;">Ethical fashion Forum 2012)</i><span style="line-height: 107%;"> offering its members an in-depth evaluation
of best practice to achieve sustainable fashion. The attention of the media
often results in consumer pressure for ethical change.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">Sustainability
is an aspect of the fashion industry targeted by the World Fair Trade
Organisation (WFTO) and</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">
there are 10 principals that members have to adhere to achieve full membership.
WFTO does provide the customer with a search engine to access the list of
members who have a</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> ‘commitment to eradicate poverty
through sustainable economic development’ (<i>World
Fair Trade Organisation 2013</i>)</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">.
The FAIRTRADE Mark is known for its guarantee of sustainability which means
that clothing with this label (see fig 8) is made with 100% cotton grown and produced
where</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">
ethical and sustainable development are the central focus of trade. Their
research</span></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> shows that in 2011 ‘7 in 10 UK households
purchased a product carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark’ (<i>Fair Trade Foundation 2012</i>) and since the UK launch in 2005 the sale
of garments rose to 20 million in 2011. This seems to indicate a growing
awareness by the public of the importance of sustainability and there is a
growing trend to make the Fair Trade label available on the High Street.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;">Fig 8 Fair Trade label <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 107%;">The People Tree label have developed their brand
and have taken the ideals of the FAIRTRADE Mark a step further for the customer
by developing the first supply chain for organic cotton from farm to final retail
product. They have been working with Fair trade farmers to provide a ‘new kind
of sustainable fashion’ (<i>People Tree 2001</i>)
where the customer is guaranteed that all aspects of the garment have been
produced sustainably not just the cotton. Recent initiatives have led to designers
becoming involved resulting in People Tree labelled clothing being available in
the High Street stores of Laura Ashley and the Oxford Street branch of Topshop.
For the customer understanding the brand policy behind the product is crucial
to recognising labels which offer sustainable clothing.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The results of the questionnaire (Appendix 2) into clothing
showed that the most used purchase mode across all groups is the High Street
stores. A majority of Quakers chose Marks & Spencer as their first choice. But
High Street stores do not always offer background information about their
garments as I found out when I visited some of the more popular shops. In
Debenhams, Gap and River Island the staff did not know if their garments had been
made ethically or anything about their policy on sustainability. In fact it was
only the staff in Topshop who were able to show me their organic range, their Made
in the UK range (see Fig 9) and were informative about their policy for ethical
standards. This first hand approach takes time but there are other ways to
discover retailers’ credibility.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIdB03JPSfSjazydpjxeLDKM5G10pKvJXaL77hK19SlbM3BCg28Q9pXpCXDRuo2AVDjsbG3i_qefG7nLn676o7R96oPJhcS_ttTW2j_YpO4hJv-y3f_0dARp8IULmNGiooMeLWcn1RJY/s1600/Topshop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIdB03JPSfSjazydpjxeLDKM5G10pKvJXaL77hK19SlbM3BCg28Q9pXpCXDRuo2AVDjsbG3i_qefG7nLn676o7R96oPJhcS_ttTW2j_YpO4hJv-y3f_0dARp8IULmNGiooMeLWcn1RJY/s1600/Topshop.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fig 9. Topshop
Made in UK label <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Organisations who evaluate the trading of retailers
and make that information available to the customer can be found online. My research
has enabled me to use these web sites and identify those large retailers who
are working towards a supply chain where ethical practice is inherent and
sustainability traceable from seed to product. Smaller traders who have these
ideals inherent in their business often rely on an online trading. Many of them
are listed on the web site of Style with Heart.
‘While there are many companies on the high street working hard to catch
up with the green and ethical agenda, the companies you will find listed here
were created with strong values from their inception’ (<i>Style with Heart 2014).</i> One of the most impressive brands on the
list, who opened their first shop in 2013, is Rapanui in Sandown, Isle of
Wight. All their leisure clothing and products are 100% traceable in other
words the customer can access detailed information from seed to manufacture to
shop and the labels (see Fig 10) they use grade the garment from organic,
ethical and sustainable through seven levels. But it does prove that online
information is vital for informed shopping.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdU_Oqb5AJ1bR-u0Dr_dK3HUEDyFE1xMuFihEOvF900yOAiVefJ-6KkPdIzD5GWSlc3sk31I5Ii1dlI_yLjE0ug2CN0kYxW3fwx6zXRdO4aBx26FbRe46pm1aVZvhq5gw5Cl8DNHgnfg/s1600/Rapanui.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdU_Oqb5AJ1bR-u0Dr_dK3HUEDyFE1xMuFihEOvF900yOAiVefJ-6KkPdIzD5GWSlc3sk31I5Ii1dlI_yLjE0ug2CN0kYxW3fwx6zXRdO4aBx26FbRe46pm1aVZvhq5gw5Cl8DNHgnfg/s1600/Rapanui.png" height="181" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_5" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" style="height: 174.75pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 309.75pt;" type="#_x0000_t75">
<v:imagedata o:title="" src="file:///C:\Users\MAUD~1.GRA\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image004.png">
</v:imagedata></v:shape>Fig 10 Rapanui label with grades <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Labour behind the Label (LbL) is the most active
organisation to address the level of ethical practice in the fashion industry.
Their Annual Report Let’s Clean Up Fashion (Label behind the Label 2013) produced
since 2006 looks at and
identifies retailers who are working to improve ethical
practice in their supply chains. They name brands such as Debenhams who
declined to give any information, retailers George at Asda, Clarks, Debenhams,
John Lewis, Laura Ashley and Sainsbury’s who ‘had not provided concrete
information about any plans to address the living wage issue’ (<i>Label behind the Label 2011</i><span style="color: #2e74b5;">) </span>and
Next, Monsoon and Marks & Spencer for their projects which do address
working conditions in their supply chains. The report also recognise the
improvements made by the retailer but overall they state that progress with all
retailers has been slow. This Report is an interesting source of information
for the customer who wants to know more about the ethical concerns of the High
Street fashion retailers.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
lack of information available to the customer on most labels in the fashion
industry must be addressed if we want to continue our quest to conserve the
earth’s resources and be responsible for one another. At Made in a Free World
they believe that ‘changing the world takes everyone … individuals, groups, and
businesses working together to disrupt slavery and make freedom go viral; … to get
slavery out of our system’ (<i>Made in a
Free World 2011</i>)<b><span style="color: #8eaadb; mso-themecolor: accent5; mso-themetint: 153;">. </span></b>Ethical
practice and sustainability is embedded in our Testimonies and continually
referred to in Quaker Faith and Practice so buying from the fashion industry
needs our attention.<b> </b>If the label does not help us to achieve this then the
onus is on the individual to take action by educating ourselves, by making a
choice where we shop and by understanding that there <b>is</b> more to a label
than brand, size and make.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-63013763633558991272014-02-18T14:40:00.001+00:002014-03-13T11:47:57.853+00:00UK Floods: This changes everything<h2 style="line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></h2>
<h2 style="line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This post comes from Tim Gee - a link to his regular blog is at the bottom of this post. </span></h2>
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<div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><b>UK Floods: This changes everything. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<h2 style="line-height: 21.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21pt;">This changes everything. Or at least it
should. Perhaps it should have done long before, when the hurricane hit Haiti,
or when a report revealed 400,000 people a year dying due to climate change, or
even when the first major UK campaign on climate change kicked off back in
1989. But we don’t live in the world as it should be. If we did, the floods </span><span style="color: #333333; font-weight: normal;">wouldn't</span><span style="color: #333333; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21pt;"> be happening in the way they are, and our climate would be
stabilising.</span></span></h2>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 15pt;">Nestled
behind the temporary safety of the Thames Barrier, my house </span><span style="line-height: 20px;">didn't</span><span style="line-height: 15pt;"> flood last
week. But reading the reports of the countryside underwater, my heart sank,
turning to anger at the pictures of politicians in wellington boots, trying
their best to look concerned in the midst of the problem they collectively
failed to solve and contributed to creating. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">They
say that when you drown your life flashes before your eyes. It may well be
true, because even reading about the floods made 15 years of climate activism
flash before mine. From the first inklings of environmental consciousness on
the residents’ march against the second runway at Manchester Airport to the present
fight against fracking. Every struggle has been about facing down different
ills – noise, harm to nature, local pollution. But sitting above them all is
the recognition that more dirty infrastructure leads to more climate change,
which in turn leads to the kinds of extreme weather events we're beginning to
see now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Of
course, the pedants can argue that it's difficult to prove that this flood here
was because of that pollution there. But that fact remains that the scientists
have consistently warned that more climate change will lead to more extreme
weather. It's a message we'll need to repeat again and again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">As
the memories keep flooding back, most of all I'm taken back to a conversation
with a stranger on a bus in Copenhagen on the final day of the 2009 climate
talks there. My arm in a sling - having been beaten by a police officer the
previous day – the stranger asked what we would do if the politicians failed to
stop climate change and the effects got worse. It wasn't a question I'd considered
before. I responded that we'd work for justice with the worst affected
communities, to stop the effects from hitting them so hard, and keep working to
stop the process of climate change intensifying. With the news this month - and
especially the many unreported tragedies outside of the wealthy South East - it
feels as though that time may now be up on us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Like
me, my grandfather was a lifetime activist, although his work was principally
for peace. But when the world descended into war, he didn't just step aside. As
many other Quakers did, he joined the Friends Ambulance Unit, committing to
practical tending of casualties on the ground. Some pacifists were critical,
calling it a process of clearing up the mess rather than tackling the causes,
and even seeing it as counterproductive, as it involved liaising with various
armies. But the experience served to strengthen - rather than water down – his
pacifist convictions, and the project was a factor in the Quakers being awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize a few years later. Many commentators have called our
current crisis a world war moment. If it is, then those of us skeptical of
authoritarian solutions need to ask what a transformative response should be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">And
that's why this changes everything, not for the media and politicians who will
continue to focus on the concerns of the rich, but for us. It is clear that the
onset of climate change even further demonstrates need for a radically
different form of politics and economics, but it also suggests the need for us –
the activists – to ask ourselves some difficult questions about how we get
there: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">Some
of us have learned how to work with our communities against site-based dirty
infrastructure, but how do we work differently when the effects are dispersed?
Some of us have learned how to block roads, but do we know how to unblock
drains? Some of us have suffered at the hands of the police, but can we reach
an understanding with the emergency services so that the maximum number of
people can be helped? And reflecting on the emotional distress that most people
encounter in the context of site-battles, how can we prepare ourselves inwardly
– even spiritually - for situations still more intense? And perhaps most
importantly of all, how can we work with people affected by extreme weather to
stand against the process of climate change which is magnifying the scale of
the weather events in the first place? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;">These
and more are questions we'll need to answer as a movement in the coming days
and weeks. No doubt the weather will drop from the headlines at some point, but
if the scientists are right - as they seem to have been so far – the climate
has already begun to change. Perhaps it is time for us to do so too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="hoenzb"><span style="color: #888888;">-- </span></span><span style="color: #888888;"><br />
<span class="hoenzb"><i>I blog <a href="http://www.newint.org/contributors/tim-gee/" target="_blank">here</a> </i></span></span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-52269374933480543762013-11-04T13:47:00.000+00:002013-11-04T14:41:28.247+00:00Divestment Campaign<br />
Last week I was at Birmingham University for the <a href="http://gofossilfree.org/europe/" target="_blank">Fossil Free Tour</a> - put together by <a href="http://350.org/">350.org</a>, People and Planet and Operation Noah. The Fossil Free Tour is travelling the world spreading the word to divest from fossil free companies.<br />
<br />
I went for a few reasons,<br />
<br />
- I went because of the <a href="http://quaker.org.uk/news/quakers-disinvest-fossil-fuels" target="_blank">recent decision by Quakers in Britain to divest from fossil fuels</a>.<br />
<br />
- I went because to be honest, I hadn't been to an event of this kind for a while and I wanted to hear more about the campaign and to see who else was there.<br />
<br />
- I went because I wanted to be inspired. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.billmckibben.com/" target="_blank">Bill Mckibben</a> was the draw, the headline speaker, the inspiration. He spoke about the international campaign to divest from fossil fuels. He spoke about <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719" target="_blank">'doing the math'</a>. That the share prices of fossil fuel companies are based on fuel that should never, can never be allowed to be extracted. To extract this fuel goes against even the most conservative of estimates.<br />
<br />
Bill Mckibben's words describe it far more eloquently.<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">'The divestment campaign is based on the belief that if we are to stay below 2<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">°C of warming, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">we cannot emit more than 565 gigatons of carbon dioxide in the future. Fossil fuel companies have more than five times that amount in coal, </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/oil" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from the Guardian on Oil">oil</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"> and gas reserves.'</span></span></i><br />
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/bill-mckibben-fossil-fuel-divestment-campaign-climate"><span style="font-family: inherit;">http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/bill-mckibben-fossil-fuel-divestment-campaign-climate</span></a><br />
<br />
A short trailer has been produced which can be seen here <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zfinOCgRQ0" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Bill Mckibben - Do the Math</a><br />
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What we need, Bill Mckibben said, was Energy Companies - not Fossil Fuel companies. And to this end we must divest, take away their financial and political power. As a Quaker I could feel the saying 'Speak Truth to Power' singing through my veins. He spoke about those who have already taken this step and as he mentioned Quakers in Britain - it felt to me like we were beginning to live up to our commitment to become a low carbon sustainable community. Bill McKibben said Quakers in Britain 'had put their money where their mouths are' I hope others will divest and that this campaign continues to build momentum.<br />
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He showed a number of images during the presentation, these are the two that have stayed with me. These photos are from the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/350org/" target="_blank">350 flickr photostream.</a><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEk5am1GeX4xjdj2qo5H3wATgmdJe6q-9LD_QI-suXyK-beqWXs6E8XVQ6PqX78bFhhdE4LpKJ2gA6VxQNcQTusupqzSkMvq9URxa7X70vevzmljoQVXJkOdiXxhCXf4j67oI6hsoZOSE/s1600/350jointhedotsHaiti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEk5am1GeX4xjdj2qo5H3wATgmdJe6q-9LD_QI-suXyK-beqWXs6E8XVQ6PqX78bFhhdE4LpKJ2gA6VxQNcQTusupqzSkMvq9URxa7X70vevzmljoQVXJkOdiXxhCXf4j67oI6hsoZOSE/s320/350jointhedotsHaiti.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">350.org (Join the Dots)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This first picture from Haiti was one that Bill McKibben made special mention to. The words on the paper say 'Your actions affect me' He repeated these words 'Your actions affect me'.<br />
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I can only hope that these words come true for the Divestment campaign. I hope our actions affect the Fossil Fuel companies.<br />
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We must remember this is not the first time divestment has been used, and we were reminded of these examples on the night. From groups who have divested to make a difference, and they did!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmjdQn0-dxIjwjMwsXpmZ7Aj5YTBhjnumV1u86Fp_Ke-YR-rWPuOixNy6wwCSyBItzx-OcNcXWddbh_IlIZXv1-tCKQRlTeZxJw00eu1a077_43WXGn14gbCPnETfOQ666W77V2X2CCJI/s1600/350JointhedotsKabul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmjdQn0-dxIjwjMwsXpmZ7Aj5YTBhjnumV1u86Fp_Ke-YR-rWPuOixNy6wwCSyBItzx-OcNcXWddbh_IlIZXv1-tCKQRlTeZxJw00eu1a077_43WXGn14gbCPnETfOQ666W77V2X2CCJI/s320/350JointhedotsKabul.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">350.org (Join the Dots)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This second image is the one I can't stop thinking about, and its because just as it came on screen, Bill Mckibben said something like, <i>'you'd have thought they have other things on their minds</i>'. I think that statement could be true for everyone. I am lucky in my personal circumstances however I still manage to fill my mind with all sorts of worries and thoughts but the dangers of climate change are ever present, I am constantly thinking about the future of our planet and of humanity. This campaign provides a focus, an opportunity for an effective international campaign. We must all take responsibility for our own lives and actions - but we must also speak truth to power. This is one way to do just that!<br />
<br />Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-11770092033915376602013-10-14T16:36:00.000+01:002013-10-14T16:36:04.991+01:00Quakers to disinvest from fossil fuels<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been a while since I posted, I apologise. This post is to let everyone know about the recent commitment Quakers made to disinvest from fossil fuels.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Below is a copy of the press release, this can also be found on the <a href="http://quaker.org.uk/news/quakers-disinvest-fossil-fuels" target="_blank">Quakers in Britain website</a>. Within the text is a link to the Quaker briefing 'Ending fossil fuel dependency'.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">News Release</strong></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">8 October 2013</span><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></strong><br />
<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quakers to disinvest from fossil fuels</span></strong><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Quakers in Britain today (8 October) took steps to disinvest from companies engaged in extracting fossil fuels. The decision was taken by their Investment Committee, under responsibilities devolved by the Trustees.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quakers say that investing in companies which are engaged in fossil fuel extraction is incompatible with their commitment made in 2011 to become a sustainable low-carbon community. Since then they have been speaking out to create pressure in the UK for an energy system and economy that does not rely on fossil fuels.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The decision follows the publication of a Quaker briefing<a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk/files/Fossil-fuels-anchor-briefing-FINAL.pdf" target="_blank"> <span style="color: #044491;">Ending fossil fuel dependency [new window]</span>.</a></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quakers have been praised by the environmental campaign group, Operation Noah, for being the first Christian denomination to divest from fossil fuel extraction. Operation Noah’s recent report, Bright Now, says “For the sake of humanity’s survival, we cannot afford to invest in fossil fuels any longer.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The move is backed by overwhelming support from Quakers all round the country who attended Quakers’ Meeting for Sufferings (their representative decision-making body) at the weekend. That meeting heard that Britain Yearly Meeting, as the body of Quakers is formally known, currently has about £21 million invested in the stock market, including in Statoil and BG Group. As at 30 September this year BG Group represents 2.73 percent of the portfolio by value, while Statoil accounted for 1.12 percent. Trustees, who oversee this investment, are to review their entire investment policy.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The minute of the meeting recording their wish to disinvest said: “We want to invest in renewable energy and energy-saving schemes. Action we will take as individuals, as meetings and as Britain Yearly Meeting Trustees should aim to minimise damage and strengthen our advocacy position.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">“We have expressed our difficulties, especially since we all depend in many ways on fossil fuels, but we need to make positive steps towards the change we want to see,” the minute concluded.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Local Quaker Meetings are being encouraged to engage in these issues, especially during Ethical Investment Week [13 to 19 October].</span><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></strong><br />
<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ends</span></strong><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></strong><br />
<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Notes to editors</span></strong><br />
<ul style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.90625px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://quaker.org.uk/sites/all/themes/quaker/images/squares/sunset-square.png); margin: 0px 0px 0px 2.4em; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quakers are known formally as the Religious Society of Friends.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.90625px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://quaker.org.uk/sites/all/themes/quaker/images/squares/sunset-square.png); margin: 0px 0px 0px 2.4em; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Around 23,000 people attend nearly 475 Quaker meetings in Britain. Their commitment to equality, justice, peace, simplicity and truth challenges them to seek positive social and legislative change.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.90625px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="list-style-image: url(http://quaker.org.uk/sites/all/themes/quaker/images/squares/sunset-square.png); margin: 0px 0px 0px 2.4em; padding: 0px 0px 0.2em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Read more on Quaker work to end fossil fuel dependency on <a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk/speak-out" style="color: #044491; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">www.quaker.org.uk/speak-out</a></span></li>
</ul>
Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-59392862726206910712013-05-28T16:08:00.000+01:002013-05-28T17:03:41.730+01:00Resilience - our resilience and that of our community<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b><u><span style="font-family: inherit;">Personal Resilience<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sometimes you see people click, the conversation flows, they
are animated and engaged, their faces smile. Human interaction, when it is
positive fills me with joy, people are happy and I am seeing before me glimmers
of the grace of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But it’s not always good, sometimes, often, interaction is
negative – people get hurt, or worse. In the past I wanted to face this
straight on, I determinedly set out to prove how much good there was in the
world, for every negative experience I would aim to build more friendships,
more dialogue, more campaigns, and more petitions against injustice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I feel like human interaction is at the core of all, if we
valued the human, would we live in a way that was detrimental to others, would
we drive gas guzzling vehicles knowing that it was creating a world where
millions would suffer the adverse effects of climate change, would we continue
to eat foods that were high carbon, out of season, food that had travelled
across the world, food that was handpicked because it looked the right colour
or the right shape whilst food with so called imperfections are discarded. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">These days I feel like I am walking a tightrope, sometimes I
want to close my door as it gives me the illusion of feeling safe. The reality
is I don’t feel safe, I won’t feel safe unless I fight for the world I want to
live in. This week, that world includes one where legal aid isn’t cut, where we
save the artic, where people don’t incite racial hatred, where the richer don’t
get richer and the poorer don’t get poorer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I need to be a part of the positive human interaction
because I need to be filled with at least a few glimmers of the grace of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: inherit;">Community
Resilience<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At work, <a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/" target="_blank">Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre</a>, where I am the Faith in Action Tutor, we have been talking about resilience, how resilient
do we feel? Are we a part of resilient communities? I think my answer to this
question, would have to begin with the consideration of whether or not I belong
to a community and if I do – which ones and how involved I am in each. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you feel a part of a community, I believe you can feel
empowered to do all sorts of things, perhaps we feel a little braver, more adventurous,
willing to take risks knowing that we are not acting alone. Perhaps we feel we
can achieve change when working together. If I consider taking action on
Climate Change, I might feel like my actions have no impact – but if I consider
my actions along with others in my communities and those taking action on
Climate Change then suddenly my impact becomes part of a bigger picture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">If we don’t feel a part of a community, or that the
community does not feel resilient to hold us – then what? Do we become
isolated? Detached? Are we less likely to take action as we don’t feel
supported by one another? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">However working within community is a challenge in itself, communities
aren’t places where we all think the same and would be led to the same action.
There is always a need to communicate with one another, to be clear in our own
convictions without drowning out the ideas of others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is only the very beginning of this conversation. Resilience is going to be a theme for some of our Woodbrooke <a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/pages/courses.html" target="_blank">courses</a> in 2014 (in particular), if you are interested – please get in
touch. The brochure for 2014 will be available late autumn. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-65654760428325257202013-04-03T12:02:00.000+01:002013-04-03T12:02:22.457+01:00Low Carbon and Minute 36<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the final guest blog from John Gray, in a series exploring British Quakers’ “Minute 36” commitment to become a low carbon sustainable community </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk/creating-just-and-sustainable-world" target="_blank">www.quaker.org.uk/creating- just-and-sustainable-world.</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Previous postings addressed Community, and Sustainable; this third article takes a look at Low carbon. John attends Friargate Quaker meeting in York.<br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Carbon matters because of our addiction to finite fossil fuels, and because of the significant influence of greenhouse gases on climate change. Going low carbon tackles these two related issues: a low carbon economy and behaviours increase energy security and help to mitigate the effects of climate change.<br /><br />There’s no measurable number in “Low”, so the emphasis at this early stage in the Minute 36 or Canterbury Commitment must first be lower carbon: let’s make a start on what we can do, without worrying too much about exactly how we need to reduce by.<br /><br />Back in the heady days of December 2009, at the time of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, there were still hopes of holding the increase in global average temperature below 2 °C or 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. That now looks increasingly unlikely: see, for example, <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n1/full/nclimate1783.html">http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n1/full/nclimate1783.html</a><br /><br />I remember in 2010 waking up one morning and thinking, We’re not going to make that 2 ⁰C limit. That realisation wasn’t a place of inward despair, but rather it felt like an acceptance of an unwelcome but real truth: from now on I would view a rise above 2 ⁰C as part of the context within which we are now living - with all its desperately serious consequences. As the journal article referenced above coldly notes: “We find that current emission trends continue to track scenarios that lead to the highest temperature increases.”<br /><br />It’s important to keep hold of hope. This Vaclav Havel quote keeps me going:<br /><br />" I understand [hope] above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world … Hope is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed."<br /><br />Or try Paul Hawken’s Commencement Address to the University of Portland Class of 2009:<br /><br />“When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.”<br /><br />In the face of the probability of a 2 ⁰C rise, and given increasing globalisation and its climate consequences, it’s no wonder people wonder why they should bother taking action.<br /><br />But there are many logical as well as spiritual justifications, and here are a few:<br /><br />If we learn how to live lower carbon lifestyles at an individual level, then that makes action more likely and more possible within families, and within our local communities (such as neighbourhoods or our Quaker meetings), and then in the organisations we support or work in, in wider societies, in governments, and in countries. It’s like a ladder: if we don’t take the step of acting individually, the other steps are far less likely to happen.<br /><br />Continuing the step image: to imagine a world without weapons, what would be the penultimate step we'd have to take before we achieved that world? And what would be the step before that?, and before that?, back to where we stand today. Similarly, if we imagine a truly self-sufficient world, we are not able now to leap straight to it, but we can imagine the step of individual action as being an important part of reaching it – and as that is achieved, like stepping stones, the next step becomes possible to reach.<br /><br />There’s a parallel from the earliest Friends’ internal debates about slave-holding and slave-trading. Two key arguments were the Golden Rule (do to others as you would like to be done to yourself), and that the slave trade depended on violence and was thus contrary to Friends’ peace testimony.<br /><br />The same arguments could be applied today: we would not wish ourselves to experience the consequences of significant global warming, yet many around the world are already doing so (300,000 deaths a year, and 3 million people affected each year attributed to climate change, according to research by Kofi Annan’s Global Humanitarian Forum – and that was a study in 2009). And there’s no doubting the violence endemic in our profit-driven globalised economy.<br /><br />The change we seek within Minute 36 will take time, and many more people of course than just the Quakers. It’s less than two years since the Commitment was made and we need not to default into a “let’s beat ourselves up” mindset – though action is still urgently needed. After all, it took Quakers in America a hundred and one years from when in 1657 George Fox first wrote about slavery in the colonies, to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1758 making slave-trading an enforceable breach of Quaker discipline.<br /><br />Statistics and scientific predictions can reduce us to guilt-ridden despair. It seems essential to me that we ground any action not in fear, obligation, or from a place of separation from people and planet; but to act out of love, joy, and connection to people and planet. It’s why books such as Keith Farnish’s Time’s Up encourages us to start by nurturing that deep connection. Acting as though people and planet matter is effectively a spiritual practice.<br /><br />As a part of that spiritual practice, we can “practise giving up”, as Pam Lunn puts it in Costing Not Less Than Everything. We can usefully get used to doing with less, and so build our own and others’ resilience, in anticipation of disruption to infrastructure and services. When roads are closed because of the weather; when we can’t fly because of volcanic ash; when in the face of all protests a post office is closed and fewer services are available locally – “treat this as practice” for the future. When the British winter went on and on - and on! - earlier this year, and newspapers carried reports of the country about to run out of heating gas, there was an opportunity to practice self-rationing gas usage (if you missed it, other opportunities to practice will arise).The island of Eigg community, which has its own electricity grid and at times needs everyone on the island to self-regulate their usage, shows what is possible when people really get the link between the availability of resources and their use.<br /><br />So I’m full of hope – for the future, and for Minute 36. I do not doubt the importance of action, and the centrality of Minute 36 to modern Quaker practice and values. Perhaps one day Quakers will be as well-known for their sustaining of and relationship with the planet we live on, as they are currently celebrated for their abolitionist past.</span>Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-21869176453768485762013-03-27T10:53:00.001+00:002013-03-27T11:52:23.345+00:00Sustainability and Minute 36<span style="background-color: white;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the second guest blog from John Gray, in a series exploring <span style="color: black;">British Quakers’</span><span style="color: black;">“Minute 36” commitment to become a low carbon sustainable community</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"></span><span style="color: blue;"><u><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk/creating-just-and-sustainable-world" target="_blank">www.quaker.org.uk/creating- just-and-sustainable-world</a></span></u></span><span style="color: black;">.</span><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">This article explores the second element of the commitment: sustainability.</span><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sustainability</span></h2>
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What does sustainability mean in the context of Minute 36? What are we doing or would like to do that we can call sustainable? </span><br />
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Out in the wider world, sustainable is often used by organisations or governments to describe environmentally-friendly practice. This sometimes means “We’re using less energy than we did before” or “We’re trying to do less harm than we did before”, or even “We’re trying to mitigate some of the harm that we nevertheless choose to continue to do.” </span><br />
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A more sophisticated use of the word is to describe the conversion of economies or behaviours towards the targets needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. As we would need at least three planets for everyone to live a UK-equivalent lifestyle, the steps that humankind is currently taking are nowhere near big enough to justify calling them sustainable. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Is there a better definition? </span></h3>
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To my mind, sustainability has a very pure meaning: if something is sustainable, it has the capacity to adapt and continue indefinitely. </span><br />
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The 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission, defined sustainable development as: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”</span></div>
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This definition describes a pattern of behaviour which in theory could continue forever. However this definition views the earth and its resources from a human point of view: resources must be conserved because we need them for future (human) generations. In reality, though, we are part of the ecosystem, and one of many species. The definition makes no reference to the web of life of which we are part; it implies that resources are available primarily to keep our way of life going, at the expense of other species if necessary.<span style="color: black;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">A more recent definition of sustainable development feels to me to be a step forward: “D</span><span style="color: black;">evelopment that meets the needs of the present while safeguarding Earth’s life-support system, on which the welfare of current and future generations depends” (1) - though I’m still wary of that word “generations” if it’s only about humans.</span><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Sustainable lifestyles </span></h3>
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Whether or not these definitions are adequate, my sense is that they are weakened if we use sustainable for anything less than that which can exist or continue indefinitely. It is certainly weakened if it is used as greenwash or to imply that something is being done when in reality not enough is being done. </span><br />
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So what do I say instead of sustainability when describing human economic or environmental activity? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
The closest I’ve got so far is the phrase ‘responsible practice’. By this I mean practice which takes into account the effect of our behaviours on people and planet. Essentially, this means how we use, process and dispose of the earth’s resources; but it also includes the impacts on biodiversity and on other human beings in relation to dignity, human rights and aspiration. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
We cannot halt immediately the damage that is being done, nor repair what is irreparable. But we can learn as much as we can about our impact – in human as well as ecological terms – and we can take as big steps as we possibly can, as quickly as we possibly can, to reduce and ultimately avoid those impacts. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
That for me is responsible behaviour from a global standpoint. It doesn’t rescue us in anyway – it leads us into evaluating and negotiating our practice, especially if we’re part of a community working out sustainability together; the conversations explored in last week’s article are inevitable and ultimately provide the way through. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Another sustainability? </span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
To sustain something has another meaning too: to nourish or enliven something. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
Rather than thinking of sustainability as forever enabling us to consume resources, I hope one day we may use “sustainable” to describe human practice which truly nourishes and enlivens the earth. After all we have drawn from the planet, the time I think has come for more sustaining in return. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
(1) <span style="color: blue;"><u>http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/redefining-sustainable-development-by-david-griggs</u></span></span></div>
Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-43247927855746451292013-03-20T09:11:00.000+00:002013-03-27T11:44:27.005+00:00Community and Minute 36<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This post is the first of 3 guest posts. Before we begin, John Gray tells us a little more about his background and I leave you to his words. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>I was
brought up a Quaker, and I am an attender at Friargate meeting in York. I originally qualified as a solicitor, and since leaving the law in 1994 I’ve worked and
volunteered in the not-for-profit sector, including at the Quaker UN Office in
Geneva and with local Friends caught up in the ethnic-political conflict in
Burundi. For the last twelve years I have been a freelance organisational
consultant and coach, specialising in organisational and individual change, and
inquiry approaches into ethical and environmentally responsible practice</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the summer of 2011,
Britain’s Quakers at their Yearly Meeting Gathering, the <span style="background-color: white;">business
assembly of Friends in Britain, </span>made an
historical<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">corporate
commitment to become a low carbon sustainable community </span><a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk/creating-just-and-sustainable-world" target="_blank">www.quaker.org.uk/creating- just-and-sustainable-world</a>
The commitment has since become known as the Minute 36 Commitment, or the
Canterbury Commitment, drawing the name from where the Yearly Meeting Gathering
took place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">These three guest blogs on
the Good Lives blog explore in turn the three elements of the Minute 36
Commitment: community, sustainable, and low carbon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Community and Minute 36<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For me the greatest challenge
and opportunity in the Minute 36 Commitment are not the aspirations to
sustainability or low-carbon, but rather that we aspire to these things as a <i>community</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Even as we sat in the Yearly
Meeting Gathering session, it was clear that for some Friends the aspects of
targets and accountability were problematic, and for some, the words baselines and frameworks were in themselves
contradictory to the concept of community. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Recent articles and
correspondence in The Friend echo this. What does it mean if some members of
the community are not the least interested in committing to become a low-carbon
community? If I’m in community with someone who has different views, do I
ignore them? Tolerate them? Try to influence them? Will Minute 36 remain a
silent topic? What is our response to the work of Quaker Peace and Social
Witness, Woodbrooke and others in enabling us to live this commitment in
practice?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">My guess is that within any
typical Quaker meeting there will be a range of views about the Canterbury
Commitment. There will be those who regard the Commitment as central, perhaps
the most significant, aspect of their Quaker witness in the world today. There
will be a few who do not regard human-made climate change as an established
fact and thus requiring no action. There will be another group, perhaps larger
in number, who are accepting of the evidence but who do not believe that
changes in behaviour individually or as a meeting are appropriate responses.
For everyone, there will be levels of comparative ignorance or misunderstanding
of the evidence, and emotional response to the Minute 36 commitment which at
their strongest could include passion, fear, anger (at themselves or at other
people), resignation or despair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This range of responses is
also likely to be found in Quakers in their other meetings –committees, special
interest groups and Quaker-led organisations. I mention these because the
Commitment refers to corporate as well as individual action, so wherever any
Friends are meeting or working together in the expression of their Quakerism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The strength of the wider public
debate on environmental issues – its critical language and vehemence, the blame-culture
and vested interests (on both sides) - is unlikely to embolden Friends who are
wondering how on earth to begin the conversations with their fellow Quakers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is because of all this
that the word Community in the Commitment, 'a low-carbon community', is for me
the way forward. Friends have over 350 years' experience of trying to live in
community with each other. We began as a gathered body of people, and although
the foundation of our religious experience is 'What canst thou say?', our
spiritual practice is of corporate worship, not individual meditation. When
James Naylor rode on a donkey into Bristol in 1656 in apparent imitation of
Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, early Quakers’ response led in part to the
establishing of processes – still in use today – of testing concerns as a way
of moderating and guiding spiritually-grounded action in the world, This aspect
of community, establishing norms and expectations and a willingness to support
Friends in living their witness, still serves us well in our collective
discernment of right ordering.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So back to those troubling
words in Minute 36, accountability and baselines. My view is that
accountability is the very nature of being in community with other people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If I have views on other's
behaviour, what am I do with those views? Is it OK to fly for work? Is it OK to
fly to visit family in far-flung places of the world? Is it OK to install a
hot-tub in my back garden? Is it better to buy locally-grown produce or support
fairtrade producers in the developing
world? if I have a larger carbon footprint than you, can we negotiate a sharing
– rationing – of carbon usage?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are no right and wrong
answers to these questions – it seems to me that it is for each community to
find answers together. And a starting point is to dare to name the questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It seems no coincidence that the
sections in community and on conflict, in Chapter 10 of <i>Quaker Faith and Practice</i>, are next to each other. To be in
relationship with others is encounter difference, and that may lead to
conflict, and that conflict may be a negative destructive experience or an affirming
deepening process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">These two quotations from
QF&P might serve as useful starting points for Friends wishing to explore,
in relationship with the Friends around them, what being a community of
sustainable, low-carbon users might entail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Our shared experience of waiting for God’s guidance in
our meetings for worship and for church affairs, together with careful
listening and gentleness of heart, forms the basis on which we can live out a
life of love with and for each other and for those outside our community</i> (from 10.03, QF&P)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">And from 10.24: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">In our desire to be kind to everybody, to appear
united in spirit, to have no majorities and minorities, we minimise our
divisions and draw a veil over our doubts. We fail to recognise that tension is
not only inescapable, however much hidden, but when brought into the open is a
positive good.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">John Gray</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">07986 016804<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">john@johngray.org.uk <span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-74801095372566346122013-02-26T14:05:00.000+00:002013-03-27T11:46:13.349+00:00Visiting my MP<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The first time I met my MP was for a school project and at
the time I was in awe of them thinking surely if they sit in Parliament they
must have had some level of specialist training. Realising they were just like
the rest of us was a shock, I had been convinced there must be an MP
qualification. It was also an eye opener, any of us could be MPs!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The second time I met my MP was whilst working for
Birmingham Friends of the Earth and it was part of my job – I went to visit an
MP not my MP but from a constituency where we had members and I was
representing the organisation. I was a
bundle of nerves; I had read all the briefing papers and had them all at the
ready so that I could appear more professional through my ability to quote
facts and figures. Needless to say it was neither good nor effective. As in all
things what I needed was to go in with integrity and to say how I felt, had I
been the MP sat across the table I would have rather listened to someone speak
from the heart rather than listen to someone fumble through papers and mutter
facts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There seems to be at any one time a number of concerns I
could visit or write to my MP or Councillor about, so I find myself picking and
choosing. Sometimes it’s an issue that I feel led to bring up with them – most
recently these have included concerns over the gritting of pavements in icy and
snowy conditions, the sales of weapons and most recently the Energy Bill. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Energy Bill was one of the topics on the agenda at the
Central England Quakers Sustainability Forum I attended last week. Chris Walker
from Quaker Peace and Social Witness came to speak to us about some of the
issues associated with the Bill and highlighted 3 areas in which the Bill could
be strengthened.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
- An amendment to commit now to decarbonise the power sector by 2030</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
- An amendment to enable energy efficiency incentives to be introduced to the bill</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
- Take action to tackle fuel poverty</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">More information and links to briefing papers are available
<a href="http://quaker.org.uk/speak-out" target="_blank">here</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Towards the end of his talk Chris spoke about how we could
talk to our MPs, reminding me that we can speak from a place of belief and values, as a people of faith. I don’t need to know the percentages involved to
know how I feel about something. These
days I don’t need to be an expert in all things as there so many excellent
briefing papers around to help me come to an understanding of the key issues
involved. In this instance there is an excellent briefing paper, available <a href="http://quaker.org.uk/files/Decarbonising-our-power-sector-Jan2013.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Another resource I regularly use is the website, <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/" target="_blank">theyworkforyou</a>. You can find out who your MP is and sign up to alerts about
what they have said and the questions they ask in public debates and you can
track their voting record on bills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Woodbrooke is running a course in December 2013 around
<a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=7921" target="_blank">Quakers and Politics</a> if you would like to engage with this further. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-53682008165355169522013-01-11T13:40:00.001+00:002013-03-27T13:38:57.053+00:00Introducing Maud<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Hello! </span>I’m Maud. When my colleague, Pam Lunn retired at the end of 2012, I was tasked
with continuing this blog that she created and nurtured. I thought my
first post had better be an introductory one. So here goes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">If you have
been to Woodbrooke in the last couple of years you may have met me, as I began
working as the Faith in Action tutor 2 years ago. I came to Woodbrooke
from <a href="http://www.birminghamfoe.org.uk/" target="_blank">Birmingham Friends of the Earth</a> (BFoE), a fantastic organisation, where I
learnt a vast amount about grassroots campaigning, and experienced many a cold
day trying to engage the public - asking people to sign up for campaigns and to
play a more proactive role in their neighbourhood. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">I learnt at
Birmingham Friends of the Earth that if we are going to create change we need
to listen to one another, and really listen without trying to provide a generic
answer. One size doesn't fit all
especially in the areas of Climate Change, Peak Oil, Sustainability, and
Environmental Justice. With friends and colleagues I established Faith
and Climate Change. This project lived
within BFoE and was designed to forge relationships with faith communities, -
to listen to their needs, concerns and ideas, and then to design a package to
help them move forward. I wanted to work with faith communities because
when I asked myself why I felt called to work in this sector, it always came
back to being a Quaker and my Quakerism. I wanted to spend my days
talking to people of faith about these issues. I discovered for some,
that the financial rewards of running a sustainable community centre attached
to their place of worship was their motivator, for others it was Scripture, for
some it was the chance for interfaith dialogue around a particular issue.
For almost everyone, the reason was different and the project was small
enough to be as responsive as we needed it to be. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Eventually I
wanted to spend more time exploring these issues within my faith community and
so I ended up at Woodbrooke, looking not just at Sustainability but at a range
of issues that Quakers are concerned with. My first experience of Good
Lives was the course, ‘Because we’re worth it’. I loved the course, it took me to a place
where I could name the values that underpinned my life choices: it also made for great marriage preparation
as I came with my now husband, but that was a happy coincidence! I then went on to meet with the Good Lives
on-going group, a group of Good Lives participants who had attended all or
almost all of the courses and wanted to explore these issues further and
together. It was great to be part of a group where we prioritised sharing our stories
with one another. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><b>What next? </b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">One question
for Woodbrooke is how to continue the work begun by the Good Lives project. In
2011 Quakers made a corporate commitment to become a low carbon sustainable
community. To realise this as a community, not as a collection of
individuals, but as a community – what does this mean for us? Are our
communities resilient enough for the task, and when the task might be different
for us all, how can we do it and how can we measure it to know we are being
effective? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">These are only some of the
questions I have… I would be really interested to hear from you, and hope this
blog can serve as way to keep the conversation going. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Some of the courses we offer at Woodbrooke may answer
a few of your questions – in 2013 we have the following courses that may speak
to you</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=7780" target="_blank">Becoming a Low Carbon Meeting</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=7794" target="_blank">Creating Quaker Gardens</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=7821" target="_blank">Sustainable Medicine</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=7826" target="_blank">Global Restorative Climate Justice - what might it look like?</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=7861" target="_blank">Faithful Frugality</a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=8038" target="_blank">Politics of Protest</a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=8090" target="_blank">A Spiritual basis for Sustainable Living</a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=7884" target="_blank">Nature as Monastery Nature as Sanctuary</a></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=7912" target="_blank">Quakers and Social Justice</a></span></div>
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Maud Graingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16166757159381582921noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-23060485449994160842012-12-18T17:04:00.001+00:002012-12-18T17:04:11.694+00:00Passing on the batonThe eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the photo that's appeared in the sidebar - of my colleague Maud Grainger - and the caption that says Maud will take over this blog when I retire.<br />
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I've been posting here for three-and-a-bit years, mostly weekly, and this is the last one I shall do as the Good Lives Programme Leader at Woodbrooke. This is my last day at work, and I'm 'retiring' (whatever that turns out to mean) . . . Maud will take over the blog from the New Year. I may, of course, appear occasionally on a 'guest post', and I shall certainly carry on as an Associate Tutor for Woodbrooke (look out for <a href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/courses.php?action=course&id=7826" target="_blank">'Global Restorative Climate Justice'</a> in June 2013).<br />
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I thought I'd leave you with something heartwarming and inspiring to look at. I wrote <a href="http://woodbrookegoodlives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/do-we-love-things-not-enough-rather.html" target="_blank">two weeks ago</a> about materialism and simplicity and re-using the Earth's wealth, not squandering it. Below is a link to a YouTube clip of joy, creativity, talent, work, discipline and ingenuity. They call themselves a 'recycled orchestra' but 'upcycled' would be better (see <a href="http://woodbrookegoodlives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/do-we-love-things-not-enough-rather.html" target="_blank">explanation two weeks ago</a>).<br />
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So, here to inspire you is <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXynrsrTKbI" target="_blank">Landfill Harmonic</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-82784177794775862822012-12-12T11:02:00.000+00:002012-12-12T11:02:23.108+00:00Preparing for a Changed World<br />
<em>I posted a </em><a href="http://woodbrookegoodlives.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/occupyxmas-and-current-climate-talks-in.html" target="_blank"><em>couple of weeks ago</em></a><em> about the recent Woodbrooke course, 'Good Lives: Preparing for a Changed World', and mentioned the talk on the Saturday morning of that event, given by </em><a href="http://www.quno.org/aboutUs/staff-Geneva.htm" target="_blank"><em>Oliver Robertson from QUNO Geneva</em></a><em>. Here is the text of the talk he gave us.</em><br />
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The way the world will change in the future is a big subject, so this post will focus just on a couple of areas – climate change and the movement of people, and climate change and peace and conflict. Moreover, everything about the future in this post is guesswork. Educated guesses perhaps, but guesses all the same. When people’s guesses turn out to be correct, they get called a savant and if they’re wrong, they get called an idiot. So you may have over 1,500 words of pure idiocy coming at you. <br />
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Possibly the most important thing to say is this: most of the changes that will likely be caused by climate change will not be new. The types of things that will happen have already happened, are already happening, which means, critically, that we also have many of the solutions. <br />
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<h3>
Climate change and the movement of people</h3>
You may have heard of ‘climate refugees’. It’s a phrase which is, on the face of it, self-explanatory: people who have been forced to move because of the impacts of climate change. However, when you look at it you do realise that it’s more complicated than it may seem at first blush. <br />
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For a start, there’s the numbers. A few years ago there was a rash of reports highlighting the issue and giving estimates of the likely scale of the situation. The numbers of affected people ranged from 25 million to one billion (though this large number was people affected rather than people moving). There are some methodological issues with this and many of the different numbers can be traced back to the same one or two sources, and nowadays researchers tend not to predict numbers but just to look at likely effects and impacts. <br />
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Secondly, there’s the difference between slow-onset and sudden-onset situations. Slow-onset impacts are gradual environmental changes such as sea level rise, regions becoming unbearably warm, desertification and salinisation; sudden-onset impacts are hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. These are very different issues requiring very different responses. Sudden-onset is easier to see, though there is an expectation that slow-onset changes will affect more people. <br />
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Thirdly, there is the causation issue – how can we know that this Superstorm or that sea level rise would not have happened without climate change? And if a farmer’s crops fail, is this because of climate change or because she’s a bad farmer? If she can build an irrigation system, what then? The causation issue becomes a particular sticking point when you are trying to create legal obligations to help, such as creating a group of ‘climate refugees’ that governments should support. In addition, the phrase ‘climate refugee’ is disliked around the UN because in international law a refugee is something quite specific. It is someone who has crossed an international border and sought protection due to a well-founded fear of persecution on the grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. The environment doesn’t persecute in the same way, and politically there is a lot of fear about trying to redefine what a refugee is because it could well lead to a weakening of existing protection. <br />
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So instead the international approach is to look at soft law – non-binding standards which are frameworks of how to deal with environmental displacement. This is what was done with internal displacement and is the way things are going with other human rights or humanitarian issues. Last year the Norwegian government proposed a set of ‘Nansen Principles’ on displacement in situations of natural disasters, but they didn’t generate the hoped-for interest. So now, together with the Swiss, they have a Nansen Initiative, which is conducting research on the environmental displacement, and may later produce some recommendations based on these findings. <br />
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But why try to create a new category of ‘climate displaced persons’ at all? I think one of the reasons is that people want to move environmentally displaced persons from the category of ‘bad’ migrants (people moving to get a better job or lifestyle) to ‘good’ migrants (like refugees, though even they get a bad press these days). But it creates its own problems – what if that farmer I mentioned before had lost their crops because they’re a bad farmer? Are they not equally desperate? Are they any less deserving, any less worthy? (That is a slightly open question.) I think we’ll continue having these difficulties while we continue to categorise people into deserving and undeserving, rather than needy and unneedy. When I was in Oslo at the meeting where the Nansen Principles were created, the most interesting thing I found out was that after the first world war, when the Norwegian Fritdjof Nansen was the first high commissioner for refugees under the old League of Nations, a refugee was anyone in humanitarian need. I think this is one reason for the disconnect between the public perception of a refugee (people fleeing and in need) and the lawyers’ understanding (people meeting the Refugee Convention requirements), but it’s also a very helpful rebuttal to anyone who tells you that ‘we can’t change things and this is the way things are’. Not always they weren’t. <br />
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While most migration-related issues will not be new, one which might be is what are commonly called sinking islands, though a more accurate phrase is drowning islands. There are a number of nation-states, including the Maldives and Tuvalu, which are expected to completely lose all their land in the coming decades, and as one of the traditional features of a country is that it has land, this is could cause legal and well as human problems. There are some ideas about ways to circumvent this issue, such as buying up other land/islands (I understand that the Maldives has been speaking to India about this) or claiming that a country’s underwater continental shelf means it still has land. Politically, there is a feeling in some quarters that the world won’t be so vicious as to tell people who’ve just lost all their land that they no longer exist as a nation. But this could be a situation that gets ignored when it could be solved, where because we don’t have to deal with it yet, we won’t. <br />
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It can be easy in this issue to focus on the politics not the people. On the low-lying islands, people will have left before the last rock disappears under the waves permanently. Where to? That depends, and is an issue beyond small islands. The consensus is that most people will not come ‘flooding’ to Europe but will instead move a short distance. Particularly when there are sudden-onset disasters, people may return home, and displacement (whether for sudden-onset or slow-onset reasons) isn’t always permanent – some areas may be unable to support a population year-round, so circular or seasonal migration could be a more sustainable response. <br />
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It can be easy to consider the people who are moving, but it is also important to consider those who remain behind and the existing residents of host communities. People who stay behind may want to leave but be unable to do so. Often it is the poorest and most vulnerable who are left – think of Hurricane Katrina and who was left behind in New Orleans. Other times people may not want to leave – I remember hearing about one man who said “I can’t leave this island: this is where my father is buried”. At the other side, considering the hosts, who will also have needs, rights and concerns, will hopefully help to reduce levels of conflict and ensure a better outcome for everyone. <br />
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<h3>
Climate change, conflict and cooperation</h3>
The other issue we have looked at is what often gets called ‘climate change and conflict’, the idea that the impacts of climate change, such as reductions in availability of natural resources like water, food or land, will cause more conflict. There have been retrospective studies about whether one or more wars were caused, ultimately, by the environment – Darfur was the one that received the most attention. However, one of the most significant differences between the study which found that the environment was to blame for Africa’s wars and the one that found the opposite was that they gave different weightings and importance to different factors when creating their computer models. Each thought that different things were important in predicting conflict. More generally, I think that the link between climate change and a particular conflict will probably never be drawn with certainty, not least because that won’t be the stated reason for the conflict: I think there will always be something more proximate, more immediate. “They have all the best land” might be a way of whipping up tension and encouraging violent conflict, but “Their economic and industrial policies have resulted in the gradual reduction of our soil quality” probably isn’t. <br />
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However, like the stoking of concerns about the ‘floods’ of climate refugees coming to Britain, warnings of ‘water wars’ have not gone unnoticed and climate change is on the radars of militaries in various countries, including in the UK’s 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. At the Quaker United Nations Office we have tried to break this idea of a straight line going from climate change to conflict, and have looked at what has actually happened in the past. There are plenty of places in the world with existing resource scarcity, where there is – to use the issue we explored – limited water, but actually in reality not all of them are in conflict. Researchers in the University of Oregon looked at over 1,800 international water events and found that only 28% of them involved any conflict at all, most of which was verbal rather than physical. The only recorded water war in history was between the city-states of Lagash and Umma around 2500 BCE. However, there is a school of thought that because water is so crucial to life, it may be too important to fight over. Also, we have been looking at the international situation and at the regional or community level things may be very different. Colleagues of mine are looking into this right now, so this is not yet resolved. <br />
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This issue of environment and peace is one which has sparked the interest of many Quakers. In fact, I think that you are particularly likely to find Quakers working on the climate change and peace issue, because it’s at the meeting point between an issue of longstanding Quaker concern (peace) and an emerging one (climate change). <br />
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To be clear, I am not saying that bad things will not happen, and I am not saying that things won’t get worse. But I am saying that the human impacts of climate change depend in part on human actions and choices. I am saying that we have many of the answers to these problems already. And I am saying that even if we don’t stop climate change from happening, it doesn’t mean we’re powerless in the face of its consequences. <br />
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<em>Many thanks to Oliver for sharing this text.</em><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-66664304844345239712012-12-05T21:57:00.002+00:002012-12-31T16:06:09.396+00:00Do we love ‘things’ not enough, rather than too much?<br />
The usual criticism of materialism, whether from an environmental or a spiritual point of view, is that we are too much in love with material ‘stuff’; and either that is bad for the planet, or it’s bad for our souls – or both.<br />
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But perhaps the problem is really the opposite – we don’t love our things enough. We pick them up and discard them, we throw them away and get a new one, we don’t like the colour or the style any more. We buy too much food and then throw it away because it’s gone off – only people who have never gone hungry can do that so carelessly.<br />
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We used to have students from developing countries spending three months at a time at Woodbrooke. Those who came from the tropics and sub-tropics would be warned to bring warm clothes, but if they were coming in our winter they had no idea what ‘cold’ meant. So we would take them to the Oxfam shop to get warm sweaters and coats. They were curious about our charity shops – why had people given away these perfectly good clothes? Well, we would reply, perhaps they don’t fit any more, or they’ve gone out of fashion, or . . . and we would see the expression on their faces and start to feel the obscenity of our throw-away culture.<br />
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There’s a song by Randy Newman called <em>I Think it's Going to Rain Today</em> that contains the words:<br />
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Tin can at my feet<br />
Think I'll kick it down the street<br />
That's the way to treat a friend<br />
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If we loved our things, we would see not only the object in front of us but also the minerals or metals mined out of the Earth; the wood or fibre grown in the Earth’s soil; the insects and birds that lived in the trees when they were growing; the wind and the sun and the rain; the billions of years old dead flora and fauna that make up our plastics and our dye-stuffs, as well as providing the energy that fuels the extraction, processing, manufacturing and transporting of our goods. We would also see the labour of our fellow humans who mined and dug and tended and felled and machined and packed . . . we would see that every object contains the whole world.<br />
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If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heartbeat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.<br />
George Eliot, <em>Middlemarch</em></blockquote>
If we practised mindfulness about all our things, if we were truly thankful for every thing, we would not lightly discard the labour of our sisters and brothers around the world, the material gifts of our Mother Earth.<br />
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So let’s go back to that old but serviceable mantra: reduce, re-use, recycle – and expand it a bit.<br />
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Before ‘reduce’ comes REFUSE: refuse to buy what you don’t need; refuse the seduction of the advertisers telling you, ‘it’s new, it’s better, you want it, you need it’. Don’t buy goods with excessive and unnecessary packaging – this includes reducing our consumption of processed, packaged food, instead buying raw ingredients and cooking properly.<br />
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Then comes REDUCE: even those things that you do truly need – food, clothes – reduce the waste, the excess; cherish each thing, see the whole world in every item.<br />
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Then there’s one that doesn’t start with an ‘R’: take care of what you’ve got. Polish your shoes to make them last longer, wash your clothes carefully, be mindful not to break things carelessly.<br />
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Next comes RE-USE: re-use something you have, rather than getting something new; and if you don’t need it any more, give it to someone who will use it – that way the labour and raw materials that went into its making are respected. Give it to a friend or to charity shop, preferably one in your local community, rather than putting it in one of the endless plastic collection bags that come through the letterbox; or sign up to your local <a href="http://www.uk.freecycle.org/" target="_blank">Freecycle</a> or <a href="http://www.ilovefreegle.org/" target="_blank">Freegle</a>. <br />
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If something is beyond re-use, there’s a step before recycle: REPAIR. Repairing brings something back into use rather than rendering it back to its components and raw materials. It’s patching and darning and mending clothes, it’s having your shoes repaired, it’s learning how to mend and fix things, skills that many of us have never learned – time to start.<br />
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And there’s yet one more before recycling: UPCYCLING – this is using something no longer needed to make something useful. The traditional craft of patchwork is a good example. So is making a garden shed out of old doors picked up at the dump.<br />
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And if it’s really beyond all of these, take it to a recycling centre (or put it in your Council's kerbside collection) from where it will be reduced to its component materials and re-manufactured into something new. If it’s organic it will be composted and ‘made’ into new growing plants.<br />
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And if you must buy something (apart from food, that is): first try to buy second-hand, or make a request on Freegle or Freecycle. Or, if suitable, see if you can borrow it via one of the exchange sites set up to do this, such as <a href="http://www.streetbank.com/splash" target="_blank">Streetbank</a> if it exists in your area. Second-hand or borrowed reduces the total embodied carbon (the CO2 emissions that went into the making of the item) that your life is responsible for. If it has to be new, then apply as many as possible of the <a href="http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk/loaf-principles.htm" target="_blank">LOAF</a> principles: Local, Organic, Animal-friendly, Fairly-traded.<br />
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This all starts to seem like a lot of complicated rules (and we could dream up a whole lot more) but really it all goes back to mindfulness and loving the whole-world-in-every-thing.<br />
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<strong>Other resources:</strong><br />
- If you haven’t already seen it a million times, watch the short (20 minutes) video of Annie Leonard’s <a href="http://www.storyofstuff.org/movies-all/story-of-stuff/" target="_blank"><em>Story of Stuff</em></a>; if you’ve only seen it once or twice, it’s worth watching again to be reminded <br />
- Download the free pamphlet by Andrew Simms and Ruth Potts called <a href="http://www.thenewmaterialism.org/" target="_blank"><em>The New Materialism</em></a> <br />
- For an institutional/economic bigger picture see the article by <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/terry-slavin" target="_blank">Terry Slavin</a>, in <em>The Guardian</em>: <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/sustainability-roundtable-interface" target="_blank">Time to turn capitalism 'inside out'</a></span><br />
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The seasonal message, of course, is: and apply all this to Christmas! And what better New Year’s resolution could there be than to expand our practice of mindfulness?<br />
..........<br />
PS: Addition a few days later: for another slant on all this, see George Monbiot's trenchant and angry piece in <em>The Guardian</em> of 11 December - <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/10/on-12th-day-christmas-present-junk" target="_blank">On the 12th day of Christmas ... your gift will just be junk</a><b>: ‘</b></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Every year we splurge on pointless, planet-trashing products, most of which are not wanted. Why not just bake them a cake?’<b><span style="mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-33004261033981049932012-11-27T12:19:00.004+00:002012-11-28T11:28:06.869+00:00OccupyXmas and the current climate talks in DohaWe've just finished a Good Lives weekend course at Woodbrooke, the last of the current Good Lives Project, that has been running for the past four years.<br />
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The event was called 'Good Lives - preparing for a changed world'. The main speakers were two British Quakers in the early stages of their respective careers, each with enormous contributions to make in relation to these difficult issues. On Saturday morning, <a href="http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/staff/academic/profile/index.html?staffId=481" target="_blank">Ruth Wood</a>, a research fellow at the <a href="http://www.tyndall.manchester.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Tyndall Centre</a> of Manchester University gave us a lucid and helpful trip around the current state of understanding of climate change. <a href="http://www.quno.org/aboutUs/staff-Geneva.htm" target="_blank">Oliver Robertson</a>, Associate Representative at the <a href="http://www.quno.org/" target="_blank">Quaker United Nations Office</a> in Geneva then helped us consider the implications of climate change for the movement of populations and 'climate migration'.<br />
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In the afternoon, Ruth's option group led people through an interactive online tool that lets you look at energy futures for Britain - if we insulate our houses, build windfarms, reduce our transport miles . . . and so on - how much contribution will that make to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decarbonisation" target="_blank">decarbonising</a> of Britain that we need to achieve? The tool was created by David MacKay and is based on the same data that you can find in his book, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><em>Sustainable Energy – without the hot air</em>; the printed book may be bought in the usual way but it is also available as a <a href="http://www.withouthotair.com/" target="_blank">free download</a></span>. If you want to try the tool for yourself you can find the <a href="http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/tackling/2050/calculator_on/calculator_on.aspx" target="_blank">description and explanation</a> (including a video of David MacKay explaining it) and also the <a href="http://2050-calculator-tool.decc.gov.uk/pathways/1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111/primary_energy_chart" target="_blank">interactive tool</a> itself.<br />
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Oliver's option group led people through a kind of reverse 'balloon debate' - you know the kind of thing: you have six famous historical figures in a hot-air baloon that's losing height; who do you jettison and who is important to keep? Oliver had scenarios of people wishing to immigrate to Britain - we can't take everyone in, so who do you let in, and why?</div>
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My option group was about practical preparations now for a world in which governments aren't going to do enough, soon enough, so we all need to anticipate interruptions in our normal supply of energy, goods and services. How do we prepare? It's quite possible that electricity supply could start to become unreliable in the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/keeping-britains-lights-on-7876681.html" target="_blank">next five to seven years</a>.</div>
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All this was very timely as Oliver had to leave Woodbrooke mid-morning on Sunday to join <a href="http://www.quno.org/aboutUs/staff-Geneva.htm" target="_blank">Jonathan Woolley</a> (Director of QUNO Geneva) in Doha, Qatar, for the <a href="http://unfccc.int/meetings/doha_nov_2012/meeting/6815.php" target="_blank">current round of climate talks</a>. This is the first time that QUNO has had a formal presence at any of the climate summits. Oliver asked us to uphold the talks, the negotiators and the Quaker presence there.</div>
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It's also very timely in terms of UK politics around climate change. <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/" target="_blank">Greenpeace</a> has recently released a secretly recorded film demonstrating apparent attempts by senior government figures to dismantle UK renewable energy commitments, and undermine the <a href="http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/legislation/cc_act_08/cc_act_08.aspx" target="_blank">2008 Climate Change Act</a>. You can <a href="http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/secret_energy_film_will_destroy_confidence_in_solar?utm_source=Solar+Power+Portal&utm_campaign=3786b1b53a-solar_power_portal_newsletter15_11_2012&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">read the press release and watch the short video</a>.</div>
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In amongst all these conversations at the weekend, the phenomenon of <a href="http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupyxmas-kicks-nov-2526.html" target="_blank">OccupyXmas</a> was mentioned. This starts from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)" target="_blank">Black Friday</a> in the USA - the day after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(United_States)" target="_blank">Thanksgiving</a>, the day that Christmas shopping begins in earnest, the day that retailers say their accounts go from the red into the black (so this is black as a 'good' thing!). Anti-consumerism campaigners have chosen Black Friday to target as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buy_Nothing_Day" target="_blank">Buy Nothing Day</a>. There's been a campaign this year to extend this to target the whole of the excessive consumerism of Christmas, and it's acquired the name of OccupyXmas.</div>
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So, everyone, here's a suggestion for an OccupyXmas action for next Saturday (1 December): that day will be the middle of the two weeks of the climate talks in Doha; so how about a vigil in your local shopping centre with explanatory posters and leaflets that say:</div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><strong>Buy Less</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><strong>Save carbon</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><strong>Pray for the climate talks</strong></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-8356762850445138472012-11-16T16:06:00.002+00:002012-11-16T16:06:05.174+00:00The whole story in one minuteTwo aspects of my Swarthmore that a lot of people have commented on, to me, are the images of the Earth from space, and the sense of an enlarged time-span that I wanted to help make real to us all.<br />
<br />
For this week's post, I just want to give you a link to a one-minute video that I hope you'll make the time to watch. It comes from <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/" target="_blank">NASA</a> and was posted on their <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html" target="_blank">APOD</a> site. APOD stands for <strong>A</strong> <strong>P</strong>icture <strong>A</strong> <strong>D</strong>ay; it's a free public engagement initiative from NASA, and they post one picture a day - seven days a week, 365 days a year - of some space or astronomical or atmospheric or weather phenomenon. Some of the images are really beautiful, some are of technical interest, some manage to be both; some are stills, some are short videos. You can get it sent to you computer or phone via an RSS feed.<br />
<br />
On 14 November they posted <a href="http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121114.html" target="_blank">Our Story in One Minute</a> - from the big bang to the present day. It's great - I urge you to watch it and give yourself a 60-second treat.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-24592035716117824322012-11-01T16:22:00.000+00:002012-11-01T16:22:14.029+00:00The ten most influential . . .Over the past few months, <em><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/" target="_blank">New Scientist</a></em> magazine has been conducting a poll of its readers to find the ten most influential popular science books. They <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/10/top-10-most-influential-popular-science-books.html" target="_blank">published the results</a> a few weeks ago, printing them in rank order of the voting. I'm going to list them here chronologically by date of first publication, which I think is more illuminating - I give the rank ordering in square brackets next to the title:<br />
<br />
[9] <em>An Essay on the Principle of Population</em> by Thomas Malthus (1798) <br />
This highly controversial work examined the possibility of humans outstripping natural resources.<br />
<br />
[1] <em>On the Origin of Species</em> by Charles Darwin (1859)<br />
Darwin's hugely influential book, which introduced what Richard Dawkins dubbed "arguably the most important idea ever", was selected by more than 90 per cent of voters.<br />
<br />
[5] <em>Silent Spring</em> by Rachel Carson (1962)<br />
Fifty years on, Carson's exposé of the impact of chemical pesticides continues to have a profound impact.<br />
<br />
[6] <em>The Naked Ape</em> by Desmond Morris (1967)<br />
One of the first books to portray humans as the animals that we are, The Naked Ape caused quite a stir when it was first released.<br />
<br />
[4] <em>The Double Helix</em> by James Watson (1968)<br />
An account of the discovery of DNA's double helix by one of the Nobel winners behind the breakthrough.<br />
<br />
[10] <em>The Ascent of Man</em> by Jacob Bronowski (1973)<br />
The work celebrates human ingenuity, from the early use of tools to breakthroughs in modern science.<br />
<br />
[3] <em>The Selfish Gene</em> by Richard Dawkins (1976)<br />
Taking evolutionary theory to a new level, Dawkins argued that individual organisms are "survival machines" for the genes that they carry. The book also introduced a now familiar cultural idea: the meme.<br />
<br />
[8] <em>Gaia</em> by James Lovelock (1979)<br />
Lovelock's book introduced the Gaia hypothesis - that everything on and of the Earth is an interconnected, evolving and self-regulating system.<br />
<br />
[7] <em>Chaos</em> by James Gleick (1987) <br />
This finalist for the Pulitzer prize was the first popular science book to tackle the emerging field of chaos theory, and helped kick-start the subject across many fields.<br />
<br />
[2] <em>A Brief History of Time</em> by Stephen Hawking (1988)<br />
Perhaps the world's best known book on cosmology - by its best known physicist - this modern classic tackles the big questions of the universe.<br />
<br />
I didn't take part in the poll, but I agree with the 'wisdom of the crowd' that came up with these ten books. The earliest, by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthus" target="_blank">Thomas Malthus</a>, is still cited today in concerns about global population. Darwin's theory of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution" target="_blank">evolution</a> changed fundamentally the way we understand ourselves as part of the natural world. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_carson" target="_blank">Rachel Carson's</a> book, published when I was a teenager, had an impact within the span of my young adulthood . . . and so on.<br />
<br />
This list has set me thinking about what would be the ten most important books about sustainability? I'm thinking of a reading list - ten books you should read if you want to get your head around the wider sustainability agenda.<br />
<br />
And in fact, I'd start with one from the <em>New Scientist</em> list - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock" target="_blank">James Lovelock</a>'s <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis" target="_blank">Gaia</a></em>. This is key to understanding to deep interdependence of all life on Earth - everything we do affects everything else.<br />
<br />
Then I'd go for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond" target="_blank">Jared Diamond</a>'s book, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed" target="_blank"><em>Collapse</em></a><em> - </em>a historical survey and analysis of societal collapses to which environmental problems contribute.<br />
<br />
And then <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_gore" target="_blank">Al Gore</a>'s work <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth" target="_blank">An Inconvenient Truth</a></em> - either the book or the film (<a href="http://vimeo.com/16335777" target="_blank">watch online</a>). It's not perfect, but it sets the issues out clearly and understandably.<br />
<br />
Something from the Transition movement - maybe the first Transition movie (<em><a href="http://vimeo.com/8029815" target="_blank">In Transition 1.0</a></em>) or the <em><a href="http://transitionculture.org/shop/the-transition-handbook/" target="_blank">Transition Handbook</a>.</em><br />
<br />
The list needs something on economics - maybe several somethings.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.skidelskyr.com/" target="_blank">Robert Skidelsky</a> and <a href="http://socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/sociology/staff/skidelsky/biog.php" target="_blank">Edward Skidelsky</a>, <em>How Much is Enough? The Love of Money and the Case for the Good Life</em>. The story of how we 'came to be ensnared by the dream of progress without purpose, riches without end.'<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Jackson_(economist)" target="_blank">Tim Jackson</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_Without_Growth" target="_blank"><em>Prosperity without Growth</em></a> (available in paperback or as a <a href="http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php?id=914" target="_blank">free downloadable PDF</a>)<em>. </em><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Arguing that ‘prosperity – in any meaningful sense of the word – transcends material concerns’, the book summarises the evidence showing that, beyond a certain point, growth does not increase human well-being.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">And we need something that goes beyond the technical, that takes human, social, psychological, spiritual concerns into account. <a href="http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/" target="_blank">Alastair McIntosh</a>'s book <a href="http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/hellandhighwater.htm" target="_blank"><em>Hell and High Water: <span class="ftitle2">climate change, hope and the human condition</span></em><o:p></o:p></a>.</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Only three more to go - the choices are difficult now. </span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We need to look at solutions as well as analysis of problems, so something on </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">permaculture</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. The big, technical manual is <span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="http://www.patrickwhitefield.co.uk/" target="_blank">Patrick Whitefield</a>’s <em><a href="http://www.patrickwhitefield.co.uk/books.htm" target="_blank">Earth Care Manual: a permaculture</a></em><span class="ftitle2"><em><a href="http://www.patrickwhitefield.co.uk/books.htm" target="_blank"> handbook for </a></em></span></span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span class="ftitle2"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><em><a href="http://www.patrickwhitefield.co.uk/books.htm" target="_blank">Britain</a></em></span></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="ftitle2"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><em><a href="http://www.patrickwhitefield.co.uk/books.htm" target="_blank"> and other temperate climates</a>. </em>If you'd prefer to start with something more immediately accessible, try <a href="http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/010806979/permaculture-people-looby-macnamara" target="_blank">Looby Macnamara</a>’s <em><a href="http://www.spiralsofabundance.com/people-and-permaculture-book-p-372.html" target="_blank">People and permaculture</a></em><span class="ftitle2"><em><a href="http://www.spiralsofabundance.com/people-and-permaculture-book-p-372.html" target="_blank">: caring and designing for ourselves, each other and the planet</a>.</em> (I'm offering these as alternative ways into permaculture, so I'm counting them as only one choice in my ten!)</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span class="ftitle2"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span class="ftitle2"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Probably good to have a human-scale personal account of living with less - how to start to inhabit the interstices of our present society in a new way. There are several of these around now. Try </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Boyle_(Moneyless_Man)" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mark Boyle</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">'s <span class="fTitle2"><em>The Moneyless Man: a year of freeconomic living</em>. <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The book documents his first moneyless year, including many of the practical and philosophical challenges he faced. The author’s proceeds go to the Freeconomy Trust, towards purchasing land for the foundation of the <a href="http://justfortheloveofit.org/" target="_blank">Freeconomy Community</a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span class="ftitle2"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span class="ftitle2"><span class="fTitle2"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And this leads me to my tenth recommendation, and it's a novel . . . or to be more precise, it's a trilogy of novels . . . well, I made this rule of ten, so I can choose to stretch it! It's the <em>Science in the Capital</em> trilogy by </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kim Stanley Robinson</span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. The three books are <i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Forty Signs of Rain</span></i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> (2004), <i>Fifty Degrees Below</i> (2005), and <i>Sixty Days and Counting</i> (2007). Set in Washington DC in the very near future, the series explores the consequences of climate change, both on a global level and as it affects the main characters. Buddhist philosophy s an approach to adverse change is a recurring theme in the trilogy, as are issues of economic justice for the urban poor in our affluent societies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-3333214190718464212012-10-23T19:03:00.002+01:002012-10-24T09:37:29.845+01:00Energy saving &/or the nuclear option<span style="color: black;">In April last year, I posted a <a href="http://woodbrookegoodlives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/energy-savings-potential-continues-to.html" target="_blank">guest article about energy saving</a>, written by Paul Parrish of <a href="http://www.qcea.org/" target="_blank">QCEA</a>. He was writing in response to an <a href="http://woodbrookegoodlives.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/nuclear-challenge-in-japan-and.html" target="_blank">earlier post of mine about the then current state of the nuclear debate</a>. </span><span style="color: black;">I posted a comment in response to him, writing: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I don't, of course, disagree with anything that Paul says here. All of this is obviously <em>necessary</em>. The question is: is it <em>sufficient</em>? Sufficient, that is, to enable an orderly transition to a low/zero carbon world, and not a chaotic collapse of the present order. There's more interesting discussion of all this on the <a href="http://politicalclimate.net/2011/04/18/going-nuclear/#more-915" target="_blank">Political Climate blog</a>. </blockquote>
......................<br />
<br />
Paul had planned to post a response to my comment, but there were technical problems . . . anyway, he's now sent me a piece, and I'm happy to post it here. It's also a 'farewell and best wishes' to Paul, whose position at QCEA ends in a few days' time.<br />
<br />
Paul writes:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Second-order change: energy savings & social efficacy</span></strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">It's a good question, thank you for your comment. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">First of all, rationally, and as far as I am aware, even with 80% energy efficiency globally, we will still have to make difficult lifestyle choices elsewhere – making it a really difficult task, on the back of an incredibly big ask. So yes, by implication, you are correct. But if this vision looks implausible, consider the alternatives; we simply can not go on living beyond our means.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">While it's true there is no silver bullet to meet our energy needs, there are also definitely a number of duds that we need to remove from further consideration as soon as possible. [Once again, and at the risk of repeating myself, there are faster, cheaper, and less environmentally damaging ways of realising our sustainable energy potential than by embracing nuclear.] By doing so, and grasping with both hands the genuinely sustainable energy solutions with the greatest potential (at the lowest cost!), we also bring the sufficiency threshold closer, making it easier to obtain.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">It is also imperative that we avoid the self-fulfilling premise that energy savings and efficiency can't help to meet Europe's energy requirements. As long as the conventional wisdom remains that efficiency savings will be no more than a marginal contributor to our sustainable energy solution in the foreseeable future, policy-makers, private investors and members of the public will be less inclined to take the moon-shot that would allow truly sustainable energy to achieve its full potential.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">For me, our supply of energy does not primarily depend on the availability of "natural resources", but on the awareness and the human potential we have at our disposal. First of all, we should recognise and counter the tendency in society to belittle and ‘fence in’ the change required – a tendency promoted so that people can carry on life as normal. Secondly, we need to actively counter the undermining effect of low self- or social-efficacy – the belief that nothing can be done. Research shows that where self-efficacy is low people do not adopt ambitious goals and give up easily when they encounter setbacks in pursuing them. This is, for example, the case with addicts who do not believe that they can maintain sustained control over their habit.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">More importantly, as long as problems are seen as merely <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">transactional </span>decisions, and we continue to devote most of our resources to technological solutions, rather than scaling up human-change processes, we will only manage first-order change. That is to say, we will only manage the minor tweaks and the improvements at the margins of our existing cognitive, behavioural, social, and institutional systems that leave the basic goals, structures and – most importantly – outcomes of those systems in tact. Change that gets results – second-order change – is needed. Resembling a social alchemy of sorts, second-order change results in authentically transformative shifts in values, beliefs, and thought processes that produce fundamentally different types of behaviours, practices, institutions, technologies and policies. The challenge being, second-order change does happen(!), but principally through major crisis(!!).</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">And that is why this is a Quaker issue. Genuine sufficiency not only depends critically on our approach to risk, but also our inward transformation. While I agree, it is absolutely crucial to foster scientifically informed, evidence-based sufficiency policies, frankly, none of us yet has a convincing account of how humanity can get out of this mess, because no forecast, scenario or 'roadmap' is ever going to give a sufficiently correct prediction of our mutual future. Which is unfortunately anathema to a political class eager to believe that nature’s complexity has been mastered. But more significantly, because Quakers have distinctive gifts that the World needs, namely:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">• our listening spirituality;</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">• our approach to discerning the greater good; and</span><br />
<span style="color: black;">• our experience of striving to live according to that discernment, even when it cuts against societal norms.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">And thus, in the spirit of the radical Quaker tradition, by highlighting the tremendous potential and underutilisation of energy savings in our sustainable energy challenge, my purpose is to make hope possible, rather than despair (nuclear power) convincing.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<em>Thanks to Paul for this post.</em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6476868488396853824.post-33123966572964104042012-10-10T16:04:00.001+01:002012-10-10T16:04:15.858+01:00Why we find it so hard to act against climate change<span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">Last week I commented on the fact that we know what we should be doing about climate change - the question is: why aren't we doing it?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">This week's guest post comes from George Marshall who wrote this article for <em><a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-action/climate-action" target="_blank">Climate Action</a></em>, the Winter 2010 issue of <em>YES! Magazine</em>. Unlike the science, which evolves as we gather new data, the human behavioural conundrums are are pretty much unchanged in the almost three years since George first wrote this.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfHJBms-xmXijjFoQrTegvrYVIuRNYVb_tBroXlioK5jDBUFE0hPggFKbi7mJpySE4FOS227r5xY1zrSURjfvtPqWFYX9s46VhGrPF3Kr_utGNiGpUgGrnPGItiIfa3fJ9-t26tX01LLA/s1600/george+marshall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfHJBms-xmXijjFoQrTegvrYVIuRNYVb_tBroXlioK5jDBUFE0hPggFKbi7mJpySE4FOS227r5xY1zrSURjfvtPqWFYX9s46VhGrPF3Kr_utGNiGpUgGrnPGItiIfa3fJ9-t26tX01LLA/s1600/george+marshall.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black;">George is founder of the <a href="http://coinet.org.uk/" target="_blank">Climate Outreach and Information Network</a> (COIN). He is the author of <em><a href="http://carbondetox.org/" target="_blank">Carbon Detox: Your Step by Step Guide to Getting Real About Climate Change</a></em> and posts articles on the <a href="http://climatedenial.org/" target="_blank">psychology of climate change</a>.</span> <br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">So, with many thanks to George for his permission to use this text, here is his take on:</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black;"></span><span style="color: black;"><strong>Solving the <em>'It’s Not My Problem'</em> problem: a psychologist's view on what keeps us from coming to terms with the climate crisis. </strong></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtKONhQUmmAkkbGw_v6_mEfUMy-dwhoaouBQqcDwW7zcjkfz7GxhJtW31EkkeWud7hzUj4GpSacBYUvN5PnHDoAlLVRQWG1ZuAPONzYqSFAV3NRuHPaK76SI-27nQzXxyxl-snSCnBHCk/s1600/speech+bubble+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" nea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtKONhQUmmAkkbGw_v6_mEfUMy-dwhoaouBQqcDwW7zcjkfz7GxhJtW31EkkeWud7hzUj4GpSacBYUvN5PnHDoAlLVRQWG1ZuAPONzYqSFAV3NRuHPaK76SI-27nQzXxyxl-snSCnBHCk/s1600/speech+bubble+1.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="color: black;">It should be easy to deal with climate change. There is a <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-action/climate-action-what-will-it-take-to-avert-disastrous-climate-change" target="_blank">strong scientific consensus</a> supported by very sound data; consensus across much of the religious and political spectrum and among businesses including the largest corporations in the world. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">The <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-action/public-attitudes-knowledge-and-values-about-the-climate" target="_blank">vast majority of people claim to be concerned</a>. The targets are challenging, but they are achievable with existing technologies, and there would be plentiful profits and employment available for those who took up the challenge.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">So why has so little happened? Why do people who claim to be very concerned about climate change continue their high-carbon lifestyles? And why, as the warnings become ever louder, do increasing numbers of people reject the arguments of scientists and the evidence of their own eyes?</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">These, I believe, will be the key questions for future historians of the unfurling climate disaster, just as historians of the Holocaust now ask: 'How could so many good and moral people know what was happening and yet do so little?'</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">This comparison with mass human rights abuses is a surprisingly useful place to find some answers to these questions. In <em><a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745623924" target="_blank">States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering</a></em>, <a href="http://www2.lse.ac.uk/researchAndExpertise/Experts/profile.aspx?KeyValue=s.cohen@lse.ac.uk" target="_blank">Stanley Cohen</a> studies how people living under repressive regimes resolve the conflict they feel between the moral imperative to intervene and the need to protect themselves and their families. He found that people deliberately maintain a level of ignorance so that they can claim they know less than they do. They exaggerate their own powerlessness and wait indefinitely for someone else to act first—a phenomenon that psychologists call the passive bystander effect. Both strategies lie below the surface of most of the commonly held attitudes to climate change.</span><span style="color: black;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">But most interesting is Cohen’s observation that societies also negotiate collective strategies to avoid action. He writes: </span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">'Without being told what to think about (or what not to think about) societies arrive at unwritten agreements about what can be publicly remembered and acknowledged.' </span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black;">Dr. Kari Marie Norgaard of the University of California reaches a very similar conclusion, and argues that 'denial of global warming is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_constructionism" target="_blank">socially constructed</a>'. She observes that most people are deeply conflicted about climate change and manage their anxiety and guilt by excluding it from the cultural norms defining what they should pay attention to and think about—what she calls their 'norms of attention'.</span><span style="color: black;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black;">According to Norgaard, most people have tacitly agreed that it is socially inappropriate to pay attention to climate change. It does not come up in conversations, or as an issue in voting, consumption, or career choices. We are like a committee that has decided to avoid a thorny problem by conspiring to make sure that it never makes it onto the agenda of any meeting.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">There are many different ways that the proximity of climate change could force itself onto our agendas. We already feel the impacts in our immediate environment. Scientists and politicians urge us to act. The impacts directly threaten our personal and local livelihoods. And, above all, it is our <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-action/annie-leonard-on-life-after-stuff" target="_blank">consumption and affluence</a> that is causing it.</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">However, people have decided that they can keep climate change outside their <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_perception" target="_blank">'norms of attention'</a> through a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences)" target="_blank">selective framing</a> that creates the maximum distance. In opinion poll research the majority of people will define it as far away ('it’s a global problem, not a local problem') or far in the future ('it’s a huge problem for future generations'). They embrace the tiny cluster of skeptics as evidence that 'it’s only a theory', and that 'there is still a debate'. And they strategically shift the causes as far away as possible: 'I’m not the problem—it’s the Chinese/rich people/corporations'. Here in Europe we routinely blame the Americans.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">In all of these examples, people have selected, isolated, and then exaggerated the aspects of climate change that best enable their detachment. And, ironically, focus-group research suggests that people are able to create the <em>most</em> distance when climate change is categorized as an 'environmental' problem.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">If we take a step back we can see that the impacts of climate change are so wide-ranging that it could equally well be defined as a major economic, military, agricultural, or social rights issue. But its causes (mainly pollution from burning fossil fuels) led it to be bundled with the global 'environmental' issues during the <a href="http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/Agenda21.pdf" target="_blank">United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992</a>. From that point on it has been dealt with by environment ministers and environment departments, and talked about in the media by environmental reporters.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">The issue was then championed by environmental campaigners who stamped it indelibly with the images of global wildlife and language of self abnegation that spoke to their own concerns. The current messaging of climate change—the polar bears, burning forests, calls to 'live simply so others may simply live' and 'go green to save the planet'—has been filtered through a minority ideology and worldview.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">Thus, within a few years, the issue had been burdened with a set of associations and metaphors that allowed the general public to exclude it from their primary concerns ('I’m not an environmentalist'), as could senior politicians ('environment is important but jobs and defense are my priority').</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">Progressive civil society organizations also avoided the issue because of its environmental connotations. Two years ago I challenged a senior campaigner with <a href="http://amnesty.org.uk/" target="_blank">Amnesty International</a>, the world’s largest human rights organization, to explain why Amnesty did not mention climate change anywhere on its website. He agreed that it is an important issue but felt that Amnesty 'doesn’t really do environmental issues'. In other words it was outside their 'norms of attention'.</span> <br />
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<span style="color: black;">Far more aggressive responses that stigmatize environmentalists create further distance. In a 2007 interview, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O'Leary_(businessman)" target="_blank">Michael O’Leary</a>, CEO of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair" target="_blank">Ryanair</a>, the world’s largest budget airline, said: </span><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">'The environmentalists are like the peace nutters in the 1970s. You can’t change the world by putting on a pair of dungarees or sandals. I listen to all this drivel about turning down the central heating, going back to candles, returning to the dark ages. It just panders to your middle-class, middle-aged angst and guilt. It is just another way of stealing things from hard-pressed consumers.' </span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: black;">O’Leary’s diatribe—which could be echoed by any number of right-wing commentators in the United States—plays further on the cultural norms theme. By defining climate change as an environmental issue that can be placed firmly in the domain of self-righteous killjoys who want to take away working people’s hard-earned luxuries, his message is clear: 'People like us don’t believe this rubbish.'</span><span style="color: black;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black;">But, as is so often the case with climate change, O’Leary is speaking to far more complex metaphors about freedom and choice. Climate change is invariably presented as an overwhelming threat requiring unprecedented restraint, sacrifice, and government intervention. The metaphors it invokes are poisonous to people who feel rewarded by free market capitalism and distrust government interference. It is hardly surprising that an <a href="http://www.ecoamerica.org/docs/ecoAmerica_ACVS_Summary.pdf" target="_blank">October 2008 American Climate Values Survey</a> showed that three times more Republicans than Democrats believe that 'too much fuss is made about global warming'. Another poll by the Canadian firm <a href="http://www.haddock-research.com/" target="_blank">Haddock Research</a> showed half of Republicans refuse to believe that it is caused by humans.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">This political polarization is occurring across the developed world and is a worrying trend. If a disbelief in climate change becomes a mark of someone’s political identity, it is far more likely to be shared between people who know and trust each other, becoming ever more entrenched and resistant to external argument.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">This being said, climate change is a fast-moving field. Increasingly severe climate impacts will reinforce the theoretical warnings of scientists with far more tangible and immediate evidence. And looking back at history there are plentiful examples of times when public attitudes have changed suddenly in the wake of traumatic events—as with the U.S. entry into both world wars.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">In the meantime there is an urgent need to increase both the level and quality of public engagement. To date most information has either been in the form of very dry top-down presentations and reports by experts or emotive, apocalyptic warnings by campaign groups and the media. The film An Inconvenient Truth, which sat somewhere between the two approaches, reinforced the existing avoidance strategies: that this was a huge and intractable global issue. The film was carried by the charm and authority of Al Gore, but this reliance on powerful celebrities also removes power from individuals who are, let us remember, all too willing to agree that there is no useful role they can play.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">It is strange that climate communications seem to be so deeply embedded in this 19th-century public lecture format, especially in America, which leads the world in the study of personal motivation. Al Gore, after all, lost a political campaign against a far less qualified opponent whose advisors really understood the psychology of the American public.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><strong>How people get involved</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">How can we energize people and prevent them from passively standing by?</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">We must remember that people will only accept a challenging message if it speaks to their own language and values and comes from a trusted communicator. For every audience these will be different: The language and values of a Lubbock Christian will be very different from those of a Berkeley Liberal. The priority for environmentalists and scientists should be to step back and enable a much wider diversity of voices and speakers.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">We must recognize that the most trusted conveyors of new ideas are not experts or celebrities but the people we already know. Enabling <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-action/annie-leonard-on-life-after-stuff" target="_blank">ordinary people</a> to take personal ownership of the issue and talk to each other in their own words is not just the best way to convince people, it is the best way to force climate change back into people’s “norms of attention.”</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">And finally we need to recognize that people are best motivated to start a journey by a positive vision of their destination—in this case by understanding the real and <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-action/10-ways-to-change-your-life" target="_blank">personal benefits</a> that could come from a low-carbon world. However, it is not enough to prepare a slide show and glossy report vision that just creates more distance and plays to the dominant prejudice against environmental fantasists. People must see the <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-action/towns-rush-to-make-low-carbon-transition" target="_blank">necessary change being made all around them</a>: buildings in entire neighbourhoods being insulated and remodeled, electric cars in the driveway, and everywhere the physical adaptations we need to manage for the new weather conditions. If the U.S. government has one strategy, it should be to create such a ubiquity of visible change that the transition is not just desirable but inevitable. We need to emphasize that this is not some distant and intractable global warming, but a very local and rapid climate change, and we need to proclaim it from every solar-panel-clad rooftop.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0