Safety in Numbers?

Here's a thought, partly to mark the coming of Financial Fools Day tomorrow.

What if those of us still working and sharing a broad set of values to do with changing the world for the better withdrew £100-£10,000 each (depending on our means) per year from the casino economy and created our own safety net fund.

It would basically be there indefinitely for all members who fell on hard times or hit cashflow problems or just needed a cash loan to get something worthwhile going, or to retrain, or.... It would also be a self-help community in a much broader way, encouraging people to coach, teach and generally help each other out. It is the same principle that banking and insurance should be based upon (safety in numbers, supporting a community), but patently isn't.

You could see it as a kind of Medieval guild for the sustainability and social venture sector - something that would for instance tide people over when they were in that interminable stage close to getting their funding or going through a cash flow crisis. Or when they broke their foot or needed some time out. This is of course why many of us do have some savings, but who knows what they might be worth in ten years given a perfect storm of longterm recession, climate change, peak oil...

Where would we put the cash? Well patently not in the casino economy. We could buy something valuable which would also have some liquidity/income/asset value so that it would have the flexibility to pay out more or less in different years? Like if we bought a load of farms together and those who needed the profit most in different years could have it. Or something.

It would have to be for people who cared more about the community than their selfish interests. In a way it is a return to the spirit of the communards or similar. But it could also fulfil quite a similar role to a BUPA or Aviva without skimming off millions, or risking the money it holds in trust with speculative bubbles, offshore banking, investor dividends and other "Toxic Thinking" (I got this phrase from Nigel Kershaw of Big Issue fame who I bumped into yesterday)

It's just a thought experiment. But maybe we should try it and see. If there is a 'we'...?

To give a 'people's money project' of some sort a home (& following the principle that it is a bit like a guild) I have just bought us a nice little URL for a start: Guildery.com

Guildery is an archaic scottish word as far as I can find out & referred to guilds of tradesmen, crafts, burghers etc. If we don't use it for this I will use it for something community based, eg the website for my new book.

eg this from Hansard, 1947 referring to the governance of Scottish cities: "The question which has to be answered is what special significant features the Guildery and Trades have which give them the right, this blatantly undemocratic right, to a privileged position in the running of our municipal affairs."

EPA rule that CO2 is "endangerment"

This is the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency in the USA) ruling which is referred to below in my write up of Bill Beckker's speech. I hadnt realised how very recent it was. Full details in this Time article which the quotes below are borrowed from (mostly so that I can find them again):

Time, Monday, Mar. 23, 2009, Bryan Walsh

On March 20 the EPA sent what is called an "endangerment finding" to the White House, a proposal that means the agency found that there is a scientific case that man-made global warming poses a threat to human welfare. (Reporters found out about the EPA decision the following Monday, after it was posted on a government website.) The finding is a response to an April 2007 Supreme Court decision ordering the EPA to figure out how CO2 from cars should be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

Scientific staff in the George W. Bush–era EPA found that CO2 is a pollutant, but then administrator Stephen Johnson rejected the recommendation and delayed the process of regulating it, part of the Bush Administration's general obstructionism on climate change. When Lisa Jackson took over the EPA under the new President, however, she told Congress that one of her first acts would be to reevaluate her predecessor's decision, and she didn't drag her feet. "It's an exercise in leadership that takes the first step in regulating CO2 emissions from automobiles," says John Walke, the clean air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Is the G20 about the interests of the G or the 20?

The crowd says: we want action on unemployment, global poverty and global climate change.

Gordon Brown answers "We will respond to [the protest] at the G20 with measures that will help create jobs, stimulate business and get the economy moving," he said.

Are they even talking about the same thing?

Meanwhile one of the best manifestos circulating for what they probably should actually be talking about that I have seen is the Ubuntu Declaration which Tomorrows Company are circulating asking us to all sign our organisations up to. There are some chilling stats in there about the impact of all this on developing countries and poverty rates and of course readers of this blog will know the Stern argument linking economics and climate change; spend now or hell to pay (plus 5-20% of global GDP lost forever) later.

via BBC

More sign of the times genius via Boing Boing

These are remixes of genuine AIG commercials. Catch the originals and the spoofers here.

DiY Paranoia

via PSFK Cory at Boing Boing held a remix competition for the UK terrorist posters. Thanks to one of their readers you can now make your own in minutes here. So here's my one...

Green Expectations report

(Interesting new research from Carbon Trust, the following text is their press release, details here)



New research from the Carbon Trust Standard shows that consumers still want to buy green despite the current economic climate, with 62% of consumers saying environmental concerns influence their purchasing decisions ‘the same as a year ago’ and just over a quarter saying they influence them ‘even more’ than in 2008.

The research shows that a business’s green credentials have a significant impact on consumer buying choices. Two thirds (66%) of consumers say it’s important to buy from environmentally responsible companies, with one in seven (14%) saying they have voted with their feet by deciding not to buy from a company based on their environmental reputation and almost a quarter based on a company’s ethical reputation.

YouGov surveyed nearly 2,000 UK adults in late February 2009 on behalf of the Carbon Trust Standard, the world’s first carbon award that requires an organisation to measure, manage and reduce its carbon footprint and actually make real reductions year-on-year.

As consumers increasingly scrutinise business actions on climate change, they want to see clearer, more credible information on what companies are doing to reduce their environmental impact. The research shows that 70% of consumers do not feel confident that they can clearly identify which companies are environmentally responsible. Six in ten consumers (59%) are sceptical about the environmental claims companies make, and 44% of consumers would like more information on what companies are actually doing to be environmentally responsible.

Harry Morrison, head of the Carbon Trust Standard, said:
“This research shows that consumer values do not change, even in a middle of a recession. They want companies to act and cut their carbon footprints, and provide transparent and accessible evidence of action. We believe companies that take real action will seize the dual benefits of immediate cost savings and a stronger reputation, which is good for business.”

Consumers look to a range of indicators to understand whether or not a company is environmentally responsible, but the most important criteria they rely on are what they read in the media (38%) and third party endorsement or accreditation (34%). The least popular factor consumers use to judge whether a company is behaving in an environmentally responsible manner is what advertising tells them (6%).

And it’s not just businesses that are under the spotlight, people also expect to see evidence of action from public sector organisations – 81% feel it is important that public sector organisations tackle climate change and cut carbon, compared to 62% who believe it is important for all businesses.

The centre cannot hold?

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."
William Butler Yates

A couple of word of mouth phenomena that loomed in the last few days

Firstly Daniel Hannan (Daniel who...?) the Tory MEP speech in Strasburg attacking Gordon Brown. It wasnt even covered by UK TV, but then blew up on YouTube - he's currently on their front page of most viewed videos. I actually came to see it via a link on a Twitter feed and passed it on to a mate who advises the Tory party who had never even heard of it either. By yesterday it was all over the American media, very timely for GB's trip over there.



Secondly the looming London protests for instance the climatecamp. It's really got people chatting. There is not so much online (blogs, twitter and facebook pages are hardly private) but there is a lot of buzz, even among the people you meet at business meetings. Reading around the blogs all sorts of tricksterish details jump out; that people wont necessarily find out the real climate camp venue until texting soon before - and the 'Four Horsemen' march - representing four crises in one symbolic demonstration.

Two complete extremes, one to the right and one to what used to be called the left. It's shaping up to be - who knows what? - but there is very little sense that the cosy consensus or the official media view of reality that always supported it) is holding. It is now part of a much broader discourse, thanks in part of course to new media.

The feeling around all of this is electric. It's a crowd feeling. The same feelings that were circulating around the Obama election/inauguration. Not a comfortable time to be 'in power' though.

2030 (not 2050)

Sir John Beddington the UK chief scientific adviser gave a speech last week at SDUK09 pointing to the potential perfect storm of falling food production, rising population and climate change. Some of his key points are below but actually the dateline of 2030 is interesting in itself. ie within most of our lifetimes.

Growing world population will cause a "perfect storm" of food, energy and water shortages by 2030, the UK government chief scientist has warned. By 2030 the demand for resources will create a crisis with dire consequences, Prof John Beddington said.
Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion, he told a conference in London. Climate change will exacerbate matters in unpredictable ways, he added.
'Complacent' "It's a perfect storm," Prof Beddington told the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference.
'Perfect storm' poses global threat, says Professor Beddington
"There's not going to be a complete collapse, but things will start getting really worrying if we don't tackle these problems."

The US of A: Under New Management

I went to a brilliant presentation this morning by Bill Becker, a US policy adviser - head of the transition team task force - on environment. I'm hoping his slides will be up soon on ForceForGood (Tomorrow's Company's blog, who hosted the event). Meanwhile they do have his previous slideshow from a presentation in December here

Some of Bill's key messages were:
- climate change is real
- it is manmade
- it is doing irrevocable damage
- but what we make, we can still unmake
- forget 2050 it is really impacting our lives and economies today
- superstorms, forest fires, pine forests decimated by bugs, sea levels...
- not to invest now would lead to a much bigger debt and cost to future generations
- there is no possible excuse for doing too little or too late
- it's time for a transition, a tipping point, not incremental action
- there is a need to lead, to mobilise the public will
- the US adminstration is gearing up for this
- the cap and trade scheme is a first big step in this direction
- as is 12% of the stimulus package behind green energy and green jobs
- but the big push will probably come post copenhagen
- the era of silencing scientists and neutering the EPA is over
- already there are significant moves on CO2 being recognised as a pollutant
- and on public reporting and accountability of polluters
- politics is the art of compromise, but the climate isnt negotiating
- so we need a different politics that is stretching what is possible
- and to inspire with a vision of a better world to aim for, not just restriction

" If Obama was here what he would say is 'make us do this'."
"There is already a giant in the room and that giant is the public."

You had to be there though as always the communication was 50% content and 50% who was saying this and how he was saying it - and how inspiring those things were in themselves.

Anyway I couldn't find a video of Bill speaking, so here is a clip of his boss talking on the issue last November


Great too were Anthony Turner from Carbon Sense (the smartest people I have met on carbon analysis and carbon literacy) and Jo Fox from Sky who sponsored Bill coming over and talked about their ongoing 'Bigger Picture' initiative. Some of us were talking after about how great it was to hear a corporate sustainability head who REALLY gets it (Jo is ex environment agency) but is also working on the mass public education front with initiatives like the greening of TV show "Gladiators".

We20 Launches Today

Stop press. This is something I 'worked' on, along with about 20 other people including new economists, developers, artists, policy people, a lawyer called Paul who brought us together and has been banging on about e-democracy being the real killer app of social networks for about the last 5 years, and supported/hosted by Roland at NESTA.

Basically the idea is to hold your own G20 meeting ie meet with up to 20 others and come up with your own plan, then share it with the community.

We thought it was a better response for us to make than protest or culture jamming or petitioning. Do check it out at we20.org

Worldchanging Appeal from Alex Steffen

As anybody who is a Facebook friend of mine already knows, I've been supporting this as a cause. You can join up here

Do spread the blog love too.

Basically Worldchanging is a brilliant source of information and inspiration and we all need to dig deep to keep it that way. If we can crowd source enough pledges of $10 a month, a donor has pledged to give them another $100,000. Do read the letter which Alex posted today and think about getting behind this. These are good people and they wouldn't ask if they didn't need. Plus I am a big fan of the crowd-funding model as quite possibly the replacement for alienated & speculative shareholding.

MESSAGE FROM ALEX STEFFEN, FOUNDER OF WORLDCHANGING

------------

Dear readers, friends, allies,

I'm writing this letter because you are the most amazing community any group of writers could hope to be engaged with. Many of you have been with this project since we started. Some of you have only just discovered us. But all of you know that Worldchanging is something special.

You don't need to be told about the awards, the rave reviews, the impact in the media, or the testimonials from famous people. You already know what we do here - shine the light on new ways of thinking that just might save the planet - and you know we do it as well as anyone in the world.

Humanity needs a bright green future, a future that transforms our collapsing system through innovation, creativity and caring, and finds a new path towards democracy, peace and a sustainable prosperity that can be shared by all.

That future is not a pipe dream. That future is the last best hope of humanity. Seeking that future is what we do every day.

If Worldchanging was alone in seeking that future, things would be grim indeed. But we're not. We're part of an evolving ecosystem of thinkers, teachers, scientists, business people, journalists, designers, social entrepreneurs and public servants who are learning from each other as rapidly as possible how to thrive in the 21st century.

We're just one part of that ecosystem, but you've told us again and again that we're an essential part.

We are also an endangered part. We've been a very entrepreneurial nonprofit, finding ways to raise most of our money through writing and speaking. We've also kept our standards consistently high, eschewing press release journalism in favor of thoughtful, independent writing and never allowing advertisers to influence our content in any way. Precisely because of these things, we have found ourselves particularly vulnerable in this downturn.

I believe that the world needs Worldchanging now more than ever; that in times like these, good ideas are not a luxury, they're vital. If you agree, we need your help.

This is not like your average pledge drive. We have big plans for the next two years, including two more books, a revamped site and editorial plans for exploring the new generation of solutions with passion and intelligence. But I can tell you, honestly, that without your support, those plans will not come to pass. We won't disappear, but we'll have to scale back dramatically at the very moment when we're most needed.

As you know, we have one chance to do the amazing work we've planned: a huge fan of Worldchanging has put up $100,000 dollars as a challenge to our readers. If, with your help, we meet that challenge, we will fill enough of our budget gap to proceed with boldness. This is a one-time opportunity to show that you care, for real, about building a better future.

So, please ask yourself how much value you've gotten from the work we do on Worldchanging, and how what you've read has improved your ideas, lifted your spirit, or inspired your work.

And then please figure out the most you could normally afford... and double it. The need is real. The opportunity is big. You are absolutely vital.

Here is our secure donations site:https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=12328

Thank you so much.

Alex

PS: If you've already given, please consider turning your gift into a recurring donation. Then ask your colleagues and friends.

Dressdown Tuesday

In advance of the likely protests against globalisation/banking/capitalism in general the Observer reports that "There are growing fears for the safety of people making their way to work on 1 and 2 April. A spokesman for the London Chamber of Commerce said: "Businesses might want to consider asking their staff not to dress in a suit and tie as a lot of the protesters say they're going to target bankers." To help city workers with their wardrobe choices lets take suggestions on alternative workwear. A balaclava perhaps? Or a natty protest t-shirt.

Lights out this saturday

(message from IKEA/WWF - NB this isnt the result of some greenwash through bloggers PR offensive, I actually saw this because we are signed up as customers on the 'IKEA family' mailing list)

Hej!

IKEA believes that climate change is a major threat to both the environment and people, and CO2 emissions need to be reduced rapidly to prevent irreversible damage to our climate. Therefore IKEA UK is proud to support WWF’s international campaign Earth Hour 2009 to support action on Climate Change.

WWF’s Earth Hour 2009 is aimed at motivating every individual, business and community to turn their lights off for one hour at 20:30 on Saturday 28th March 2009. WWF’s goal is to engage a billion people worldwide! All IKEA stores in the UK will be turning off the neon signs on the side of our buildings, turning off all non essential lights and where possible switching our lighting to minimum levels - while obviously maintaining a safe environment for co-workers and customers.

We are encouraging our co-workers and customers to sign up to WWF’s Earth Hour and to “switch back on” with low energy light bulbs. For every pack of SPARSAM energy saving light bulbs our customers buy on Saturday 28th March IKEA will donate 10% to WWF-UK.

You too can help to raise awareness of climate change and inspire people to get involved and take practical actions to reduce their own carbon footprint. To find out more and sign up, go to: www.wwf.org.uk/earthhour or text* EARTHHOUR to 84880 (*standard text rates apply).

By actively supporting Earth Hour, IKEA is joining a dramatic worldwide call for strong global action on climate change. You can find out more about Social and Environmental Responsibility at IKEA here

Age of Stupid

Opening weekend update (I think I will be going to Finchley Road Vue cinema Sunday if anyone local fancies joining whoever else I can rounds up)...

UPDATE

The People's Premiere went so well that another 12 cinemas have come on board for the opening weekend. The good news is obvious - loads more opportunities for people to see the film. The bad news is we've only got a couple of days to make sure these screenings get packed out... help!

[Cinema details now moved to comments]

Design is the Problem

Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable

In Design is the Problem, Nathan Shedroff examines how the endemic culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how designers can bake sustainability into their design processes in order to produce more sustainable solutions. Rosenfeld Media, 2009. Read More >

Just sticking this here mostly so I dont lose track of it. Am just starting a project to do with sustainable design and I wish Nathan Shedrof's book was already out just the contents page is a really helpful framing of the issues but at least there is a webinar next week. If you cant wait here is an interview.

The one thing I dont think he is covering (that I found his site while searching around) is the idea that design REALLY is the problem: innovation, the endless spewing of new fashions and designs. If there was only one mobile phone design (open source) allowed in the world:
1. parts, tooling and efficiency, not to mention costs would improve
2. no more fashion cycles, design for obsolescence
3. many people would customise their own artifact, to add personality
I guess what i just said was the idea behiond the Volkswagen. Does anybody have anything recent/interesting on this subject? Regulators could look at this - what is the environmental cost of having more than one phone design in the world? I've posted before on wartime economy standards in book production. I guess you would need a slightly more Maoist approach to regulation (not light touch).

:J

The End of the Party

Check this out for the crowdsourcing principles of the Obama campaign turned on their head. In this case its a call for ordinary people to put themselves forward as MEP candidates (on part of the site you can put yourself forward - although so far no-one has yet in London) and community voting as selection. "Launched in mid March 2009, the Jury Team was founded for those people who believe in democracy, but who have observed how the current party political system has turned the United Kingdom's Parliament and Government into the creatures of a small and increasingly distant group of oligarchical politicians." On digging I've found it is backed by some real political figures including Paul Judge (ex director general of the conservative party) and Martin Bell rather than pranksters or worse. Should be an interesting one to watch. They certainly put some thought into the marketing - it's got a very good website, plus they have released a book (free download or buy it on amazon) :J

Age of Stupid interview

Pete Postlethwaite on the film, climate change deniers etc.
The Guardian site wont let me embed their videos so you'll have to view it there

Community Spirit

Own up who would have predicted that Red Nose Day would raise more this year (the worst financial meltdown since blah blah) than ever before? There seems to be a new readiness to engage in public spirited stuff and community fun - witness also the snow day. Picture is Cosmo and I's Snowbear with a topical red nose added for today.

Copenhagen Scientists Meeting (from Guardian)

12th March
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/12/copenhagen-summary

Scientists at the international congress in Copenhagen have prepared a summary statement of their findings for policy makers. This was handed today to the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in December he will formally hand this statement over to officials and heads of state at the conference. The full conclusions from the 2,500 scientific delegates from 80 countries that have attended the three-day meeting this week will be published in full in June 2009. The congress was conceived as an update of the science of global warming ahead of the UN summit in December. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published in 2007 is now three to four years out of date.

The scientists' six key messages are:

1) Climatic trends

Recent observations confirm that, given high rates of observed emissions, the worst-case IPCC scenario projections (or even worse) are being realised. For many key parameters, the climate is already moving beyond the patterns of natural variability within which our society and economy have developed and thrived. These parameters include global mean surface temperature, sea-level rise, ocean and ice sheet dynamics, ocean acidification, and extreme climatic events. There is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts.

2) Social disruption

The research community is providing much more information to support discussions on "dangerous climate change". Recent observations show that societies are highly vulnerable to even modest levels of climate change, with poor nations and communities particularly at risk. Temperature rises above 2C will be very difficult for countries to cope with, and will increase the level of climate disruption through the rest of the century.

3) Long-term strategy

Rapid, sustained, and effective mitigation based on coordinated global and regional action is required to avoid "dangerous climate change" regardless of how it is defined. Weaker targets for 2020 increase the risk of crossing tipping points and make the task of meeting 2050 targets more difficult. Delay in initiating effective mitigation actions increases significantly the long-term social and economic costs of both adaptation and mitigation.

4) Equity dimensions

Climate change is having, and will have, strongly differential effects on people within and between countries and regions, on this generation and future generations, and on human societies and the natural world. An effective, well-funded adaptation safety net is required for those people least capable of coping with climate change impacts, and a common but differentiated mitigation strategy is needed to protect the poor and most vulnerable.

5) Inaction is inexcusable

There is no excuse for inaction. We already have many tools and approaches — economic, technological, behavioural, management — to deal effectively with the climate change challenge. But they must be vigorously and widely implemented to achieve the societal transformation required to decarbonise economies. A wide range of benefits will flow from a concerted effort to alter our energy economy now, including sustainable energy job growth, reductions in the health and economic costs of climate change, and the restoration of ecosystems and revitalisation of ecosystem services.

6) Meeting the challenge

To achieve the societal transformation required to meet the climate change challenge, we must overcome a number of significant constraints and seize critical opportunities. These include reducing inertia in social and economic systems; building on a growing public desire for governments to act on climate change; removing implicit and explicit subsidies; reducing the influence of vested interests that increase emissions and reduce resilience; enabling the shifts from ineffective governance and weak institutions to innovative leadership in government, the private sector and civil society; and engaging society in the transition to norms and practices that foster sustainability.

Meanwhile in the Real Economy

Quantitative Easing - what could possibly go wrong with that? Well at least it is a great time for 18th century style satirical cartoons such as these from the Independent...



It's interesting to see what is actually expected in the economy this year from a GDP point of view

It's probably not the best time to bring it up, but measuring economic health through GDP is itself pretty odd though. Pavan Sukhdev is leading a study into valuing biodiversity for the EU, which is one example of an asset which society does not track, and hence depreciates carelessly. Here's a little video of Pavan explaining this



Pavan points out that GDP was only recently invented during WW2 to track wartime industrial production. As a measurement of activity it only gives you a very limited read on the state of things - it is like measuring your lifetime solely by looking at the number of paces taken. Of course it does report on the levels of activity indicating growing or shrinking in available work. But also also pushes you to a type of myopic economic policy which is fixated on this output rather than more rounded measures. GDP would do very well for instance if you dropped the minimum wage and attracted race for the bottom sweatshop factories. Or if you adopted light touch regulation (ie feel free to profiteer and to hell with any risk, the taxpayer will pick that up) which builds your position as a major banking centre and hence creates jobs and high spending domiciles.

If we valued the true assets of an economy - the education and health of its people, the services provided free of charge by nature, even its culture (London continuing being a creative place has a definite future value) - then you would see a very different league table of nations. Scandinavia would perhaps even outstrip the USA and China over time as it is sparsely populated, has huge forests, and is likely to improve climactically when most of the rest of Europe is facing desertification, has great welfare and human capital for instance the skills level and education in areas like IT is the best in the world. And a very constructive, collectivist culture. Brazil too although it has a more mixed picture on human capital, the amazon should be priced (in its services to mankind) more expensive than Mayfair. Another thing you could value is the degree of self-sufficiency, in energy, water, food and so on. This because when there are crises of supply, the countries which import these have to pay very high prices and/or go without, leading to disruption of the economy and hardships.

Imagine a world where Swedes and the Brazilians were what everyone aspired to become. I quite like the sound of that, personally.

New Article for Mediacat Magazine

It’s Time to Help People Understand

I’ve been reading with great interest about Turkey going green this year. It seems like things are really starting to move over there. And that’s my feeling with my contacts in other parts of the world; that we are in a year when things are really shifting again and green issues, climate change especially, are getting fresh interest and attention.

I was particularly happy to read that Turkey has now ratified the Kyoto agreement and will hence be playing a full role in the new global carbon talks in Copenhagen in December. This will also of course have big effects within Turkey; there will be new opportunities and new green jobs as reducing emissions will mean huge cleantech investments and initiatives in transport, agriculture, manufacturing, energy. There will be lots of opportunities for citizens to do their bit too, often in ways that will benefit them as well, like saving money and energy through home insulation, getting fit through Paris-style bike sharing schemes (I read you now have one in Konya) and of course buying eco products and services; from energy efficient home appliances, to staying in green hotels.

All of this comes down to one thing really; the public will. If large numbers of people want something then politicians, marketers and others are only too keen to comply. This means that if like me you are keen to see this all develop, and to perhaps take a lead with your company or brands, then it is vital that we make this the year when we consolidate public understanding and motivation.

I’ve recently been doing focus groups across the country for the UK government. Public education on climate change I’ve found is quite poor, certainly in my country. Everyone has heard of climate change. But very few actually ‘get it’. The thing is that it has been presented in a way which is very intangible. Ice caps and polar bears. Weather and seasons. Imperceptibly gradual change. It’s the sort of issue it is very hard to integrate in those terms. People either don’t truly believe it is really happening. Or that it wont really affect their region much (because they don’t live at the North Pole or sub-Saharan Africa). Or that it probably wont really have much effect for 50 or 100 years. Some have picked up what the media often say (and which is totally untrue by the way) which is that scientists disagree over whether it is really happening. And they fundamentally don’t see it as something which their own behaviour could be contributing to all that much.

We really need to be creative about helping people understand climate change. It’s not a ‘news task’ (if you don’t understand an issue, then news updates simply aren’t integrated). We need powerful public education campaigns, from the government or quite possibly from leading household brands. Here is what we need people to ‘get’:

1. climate change will affect all of us, it is already affecting us in fact; through higher food and energy prices, massive insurance and banking losses (destructive storms and flooding are increasing at an alarming rate) and so on

2. looked at economically the situation is a bit like a leaking pipe. To fix it now could cost us a bit of money and effort (1-2% of GDP according to Economist Nicholas Stern). But if we leave it, then the damage it can do – when ‘the ceiling falls in’ - will cost us more in prices, insurance losses, economic disruption, jobs. (Stern estimated these losses as 5-20% of GDP, every year, permanently).

3. It isn’t a distant issue, only a tragedy for polar bears and poor farmers. For instance the polar ice cap reflects away heat from the sun equivalent to 70% of all the CO2. If we lose this ice permanently, as looks likely, global warming will accelerate quite sharply. There are other such factors that mean we could get into a ‘runaway climate change’ scenario. That’s why we need to act fast. Put the brakes on now before the slope gets too steep, and we are skidding out of control.

4. Consumer behaviour has everything to do with climate change. For instance the motor car accounts for 12% of all CO2 emissions in society. Cars are responsible for more emissions than vans, trucks, trains, buses, airplanes, ships added together. If people use their car less, or share lifts, it would have a HUGE impact. So would insulating their home as space heating (and cooling) is another big contributor. So would buying organic, as new studies show that with organic agriculture the soil is able to act as a carbon sink (on top of the fact that pesticides and fertilisers mostly come from petrochemicals).

5. In answer to the ‘what’s the point in us acting when China is growing so fast?’ question, I think it is important that people know about COP15, the meeting in December where it is very likely that (unlike Kyoto) the USA and China will sign up. We all need to act together and 181 countries are coming together to try to agree a global limit, then reduction, of CO2. The citizens of the world really ought to know this is happening; it’s a much more significant global event than for instance the Olympics and it will have much more effect on the economy and people’s lives than the recession which is what leaders seem to focus on more.

There is a new cinema film just out called “The Age of Stupid” which I think stands a really good chance of bringing home to people, in an emotional sense, the dangers of letting climate change run out of control. I’d urge you to try to watch this, you can order the DVD online soon and arrange a screening if it doesn’t make it to your local cinema. But films and pop concerts and rousing causes are still no substitute for helping people truly understand – not just to feel threatened, but to fully incorporate these issues, so that it just makes common sense. As the French say an uninformed person is a subject, only an informed individual is a citizen. And that’s our job – we are the storytellers.

The other thing I discovered from my recent focus groups is that people really do want to know about this. They know they are hazy on the details but yet they can sense it must be a vital topic from the amount of news it gets. I don’t think I have ever seen an issue where people are so hungry to learn. The tragedy (at least in my country) is that we have been shielding people from the full truth. Hopefully this year we can start changing that.

Age of Stupid - out in 2 weeks

From the age of stupid website:

"The opening weekend of the 20th, 21st and 22nd of March is monstrously important to the whole future of The Age of Stupid. The length and breadth of the UK theatrical run will literally be determined by the number of bums on seats in cinemas during this opening weekend. The box-office success of these three days is crucial to the overall success of everything that happens after this point; overseas cinema groups, TV deals and DVD distribution will all take their lead from what happens during this pivotal weekend. Please please please come on at least one of these days - and bring ten friends along with you too. It's really impossible to overstate how much depends on these 72 short hours."

Its on in Kilburn tricycle theatre not far up the road from here, I'd certainly be up for it one of those evenings - probably the sunday - & will try to get some local mates along. But main thing is everyone sympathetic with a blog, a facebook friends list etc. - do pass this on :J

The Co-operative's Plan Bee

Ten-point Plan Bee announced by the Uk retailer the Co-Operative (via Treehugger):

1. The Co-operative Food will temporarily prohibit the use of neonicotinoid-based pesticides on own-brand fresh produce. These are Acetamiprid, Clothianidin, Dinotefuran, Fipronil, Imidacloprid, Nitenpyram, Thiacloprid and Thiamethoxam.

2. £150,000 will be made available to support research into the demise of the honeybee, with a particular focus on UK farming, pesticides and gene-diversity. The largest ever private contribution to bee research in the UK.

3. Over three years, The Co-operative Farms will trial a new wildflower seed mix that will be planted alongside crops on its farms across the UK. The Co-operative Farms is the UK's largest farmer with more than 25,000 hectares of land under management.

4. Co-operative Farms will invite beekeepers to establish hives on all Co-operative Farms in the UK.

5. The Co-operative will engage its three million members in a campaign to protect and nurture the bee population in the UK, with advice and tips featuring on its website.

6. Members will be invited to attend one of forty screenings of a special preview from a forthcoming film that addresses the decline of the worldwide bee population and the significance of the bee in food production. In addition, The Co-operative has also commissioned a new bespoke documentary on the decline of the bee population in the UK.

7. The Co-operative will partner with RSPB's "Homes for Wildlife" Team and empower members to garden in ways that are honeybee-friendly.

8. An initial 20,000 packets of wildflower seed mix will be made available to members free of charge.

9. Bee boxes are being sourced and made available to Co-operative members at discounted prices.

10. The Co-operative will support its members and colleagues to find out more about amateur beekeeping and will encourage links between local beekeepers and members.

Checkered Flag for Earth Car

That iconic global symbol of the confusion and conflicts inherent in the green marketing boom of 06/07 is (presumably) no more. Honda announced in december that they are quitting F1 racing for financial reasons and yesterday said they had reached a deal to sell their F1 Team to the former manager. Probably just as well - I never knew what to make of this, but it wasnt really a great ad for the company that is about to launch its own super hybrid, The Insight (complete with glowing lights in the steering wheel telling you how eco your driving is at any given moment).

World-Books

Last thursday was 'world book day' in the UK and ireland. Somewhat confusingly the rest of the world celebrates world book day in April though. The book is a great format for sharing and storing ideas and the publishing process is a proven one for ensuring some sort of quality threshold and also gives access to distribution, a bit of marketing support and so on. I'm about to start work soon on a new book and every time I do so I remind myself of the impact that it does make on the environment. It still seems like ebook readers are too early stage and that most people still print off things to read rather than use their laptops. And also my books dont really sell so many copies. Here are a few figures I found:

a single average book has a carbon footprint of 4kg CO2- ecolibris
that means if my next book sold 10,000-20,000 copies it could double my carbon footprint
I would have to hope that companies or sets of individuals acting on the book might make a bigger cut though

"the paper industry is the third or fourth largest source of industrial greenhouse gas emissions in most developed countries" - green press initative
the key impacts include lost of forest, manufacture and the fact that many books end up in landfill, decomposing

waterless printing is a good way to reduce the environmental impact, on top of recycled paper and good inks
I certainly aim to ensure we are minimising the impact of the physical book in carbon and other terms
In addition to the production I want to start a scheme whereby one copy gets shared among a number of readers
(we did this last time with the books given free at the booklaunch)

Anybody else got any good ideas? (do comment or drop me a mail if interested). While we are on the subject of books.

Green Custard Incident

More breaking news apparently the protester in question has now been arrested, which according to the BBC the police are not obliged to do unless there was an official complaint. Which turns Plane Stupid and Leila the activist from pranksters into oppressed heroes, you would think?

Behaviour change

Andy at DoTheGreenThing posted this week on the vexed topic of consumerism (taking the line "buy less sh** or we are f***ed"). I was chatting with Naresh also of DTGT about this yesterday. Naresh is worried that people might come to associate living well with less with the horrible impending experience of recession, worry, mass unemployment and so on. So that they couldn't wait to get back to where we were at the first opportunity. I wondered if it might also be like the post war austerity generation who learned a kind of caution - always having something put by because you never know if you'd have enough next week. Plus of course there are plenty of serious people in banking and economics who simply dont see "a corner". On this view we've had our glut and are now into centuries of managing the overshoot in population, materialism, energy, complexity, lack of resilience... If we are lucky this slowdown might just have come in time to take the edge off climate change. The peak oil view is hard to argue with long term, but many think that a food crisis (a crisis of affordability as well as supply) is the real breaking point at the moment. The Chinese gov just announced it is pumping money into the rural economy, which in some ways does seem a better stimulation package than pumping it into banking.

I'm right in the middle of a load of focus groups with people about behaviour change and personal transport and its interesting that the recession isn't really looking like the main 'driver' anyway (vs fuel prices did have an immediate effect last year). I'm also pretty much in shock reading James Lovelock's latest book (on the basis that it's worth looking over the precipice at least once a year) and where I've been turning in my thinking is the phased approach to part time vegetarianism suggested by Pachauri of the IPCC (Phil at the DfT reminded me of this yesterday and I think NEF have been highlighting it this week). I was a veggie for over 10 years at some point, but I ate loads of dairy which probably made it just as climate useless as eating beef. I do really like things like roasted veg and falafel and spaghetthi with pesto and I think I could certainly make my diet 'easier on the meet' as dothegreenthing put it.

Anyway it's all very current for me, as it's one of those times (researching a new book) when I am rethinking everything, less certain about anything and at least testing old positions with new research. The line I am supposed to be taking with the new book is about collective, co-operative, systemic solutions anyway and another way of looking at food would be that we waste over half of it already, between farm and fork. Plus good farming can have a positive impact on climate, soil health being a particular sort of panacea, I've been reading.

Where has everyone else got to, I'm wondering? More of the same? Any changes of heart?

Cadbury goes fairtrade

Announced yesterday
"Fair Trade certification of all Cadbury's Milk Chocolate is set to be achieved by the end of summer 2009. "

Declaration of interest my friends Lea and Asi have been working on this. Which only makes it even more interesting.

This Year's Must Read

Am just a chapter in myself although as usual skimmed ahead. It's at least as shocking as the Revenge of Gaia, beautifully written, controversial and while very grim in places, also humane and uplifting too. Mainly we all do need a big dose of smelling salts every once in a while - this isnt a career it's about a world careering out of control. Also puts any idea that 'the recession' is a real problem in perspective. And this book is a real kick up the backside to get on with whatever could or can be done, whether you agree with Lovelock that we are already over the edge, or just on the brink. It helps peel away levels of change resistance (eg I have been wondering if what he means by business as usual might better simply be described as 'business' ) Now all I need to do is make sure the new book treatment that I am working on lives up to this sort of magnitude of challenge! :J