A Green Victory
9th May 2010, by Colin Inman, Editor
It has been a long time coming. The election of the first Green Party MP. But it has been worth the wait. The election of Caroline Lucas, Leader of the Green Party, is an historic event that marks the coming of age of the party.
The electors of Brighton have shown that real change can happen, and that a vote for the Green Party is not a wasted vote. The party has the potential to shift the traditional three party system of tribal politics that has dominated the UK for nearly a century, and this landmark victory in Brighton shows that it can be done if the strategy is right. Success in the other targeted constituences of Lewisham Depford and Norwich South would have been even better, but too much to ask for at at time when voters were trying to give a strong message and were not willing to take the risk of it being drowned out by a vote that might be "wasted".
The Green Party nearly broke through in 1989 at the time of the European elections in that year, when it gained 15% of the vote and suddenly it seemed that everyone was green. It was fashionable. People were concerned about the ozone layer, seals dying in the North Sea, and toxic waste being shipped around the world.
Twenty years on, and there is still a green awareness. Many of the issues have seen a step change in public consciousness. Recycling is now routine. People are more aware of global warming, Peak Oil, population growth, depleting resources. But this growth in awareness has not seen a similar rise of the Green Party.
Partly it is because the three main parties have shifted ground, and borrowed the Green Party's clothes, adopting a light green agenda. Partly it is because after 1989 the Green Party adopted the wrong strategy after 1989, for many years refusing to have a leader, a self-indulgent fantasy by the anarchist wing of the party that all leaders are bad, until a couple of years ago, when the realists finally won their case. Hence we have the Party leader, Caroline Lucas, as the first Green MP.
One can only speculate what might have been, if in 1989 a different strategy had been adopted, and the Party had chosen Jonathon Porritt or Sara Parkin as its leader, and capitalised on that 15% vote, rather than spectacularly missing a golden opportunity.
Brighton is not a typical city in the UK. It is bohemian, cosmopolitan, a gay city, at times hedonistic, a bustling London by the sea. If anywhere was going to be receptive to green ideas, a rainbow politics like the rainbow symbol chosen by the gay community, it was going to be Brighton. The challenge for the Party now is to show that it has relevance also for the down-trodden and marginalised estates of the inner cities and the leafy shires, a party for everyone rather than just the radicalised, a party for white van man, as much as the stereo-typed lentil eating, vegan pacifists. Time is short, and this time the Party must get it right.
The Green Party must now capitalise on its success in Brighton. It may already be too late to avert environmental catastrophe. That is the view of James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia hypothesis. We can only hope he is wrong, and that by changing our lifestyles at a rate that is revolutionary rather than gradual, we can make the transition from a consumer lifestyle to one that is sustainable. This means that Green Party members must challenge their own prejudices and inward-looking tendency, to transform the Party into a vehicle that has relevance for everyone, and not a cosy club for a marginalised fringe. We have to convince ordinary people that a Green Party vote is no longer a wasted vote, that the Party can win. Time is short.
A Big Year
31st January 2010, by Colin Inman, Editor
2010 is an important year for the environment movement in Britain and for the world generally. After the huge disappointment to achieve any meaningful progress at Copenhagen in December 2009, we will now see whether people continue to leave matters to the politicians, and keep voting for the same mainstream political parties, or start voting for the parties representing more radical policies. Or even decide to take matters into their own hands, through starting to transform their own lives or through direct action protests.
At the moment there is no clear sign that the wider population outside of the green movement is ready for real change. The opinion polls ahead of the General Election, now widely expected to be on 6th May, indicate the mainstream parties way ahead of the Green Party which is barely registering any increase in vote.
Clearly widespread anger over issues like the economy, the Iraq War, and MP’ expenses has failed to move people sufficiently to change their affiliation to Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat. Indeed such is the weight of the status quo, the inertia, that one wonders what it would take to get people to vote for a radical party.
In terms of people making changes to their own lives, while there has been a growth in awareness about some environmental issues, this has mainly been of the pale green variety around changing light-bulbs and doing a bit of recycling, rather than making an significant change. The great majority of the population would prefer to carry on much as usual. Similarly with direct action, while the Climate Camps and similar have mounted spectacular one-off protests, it seems far more likely that the action on the streets will be that of the far right, through the rise of the BNP and other nationalist groups.
The very best the Green Party can hope for in May would be three MPs, the first Green Party MPs to be elected in England, in Norwich South, Brighton Pavilion, and Lewisham, London. While in theory the Green Party could finally make this breakthrough into Westminster politics, even to get one MP would be quite an achievement for the Party. Given the scale of the challenge one Green MP, or even three, is not in itself a game-changing event, but it would get a message to the other parties, and the wider electorate, that real change is happening.
However is equally possible that the electorates of these three constituencies fail to seize their historic opportunity and stick with the mainstream parties with their stale and redundant policies for infinite growth on a finite planet. This would be a disappointment equal to that of Copenhagen, if not so significant.
The suicidal sleepwalker
On Sunday, October 30, 1938, millions of American radio listeners were shocked when radio news alerts announced the arrival of Martians. They panicked when they learned of the Martians' ferocious and seemingly unstoppable attack on Earth. Many ran out of their homes screaming while others packed up their cars and fled. Though what the radio listeners heard was a portion of Orson Welles' adaptation of the well-known book, “War of the Worlds” by H. G. Wells, many of the listeners believed what they heard on the radio was real. This demonstrates our reaction to an external threat, at least a perceived one. If we thought that Martians really were trying to destroy our planet, would recognize the threat immediately, react with urgency, and do something about it. Nations around the world would mobilise and unite with a sense of common purpose. We would fight back, resist, make sacrifices to defend a planet we cherish.
Contrast the response to an external threat, to one we have created ourselves. Our seas are turning acid, glaciers and icecaps are melting, sea levels are rising, forest are cut down and burnt, species banished to extinction. The crisis is staring us in the face, but the response of 95% of the population is to carry on as normal. We get in our cars, we fly in planes, we buy luxury goods that have been transported around the world, we consume at a rate that would require several planets to support our appetites. It seems as though virtually no-one is making any attempt at change or sacrifice. Previous generations gave their lives in a struggle they believed in during two World Wars, the second fought against the evil of Nazism. However the majority of present generation seems unwilling to make even the slightest sacrifice for the benefit of future generations.
As a result of our inaction we are sleepwalking into an ecological crisis that will make the economic crisis and credit crunch seem like a tea party, as we are overwhelmed by crop failures, flooding, storms, droughts and starvation. We are taking part in a suicide pact on an enormous scale, one which many people are not even aware they are involved in.
What is remarkable also, is the lack of connections being made by mainstream politicians between the two crises. There is a link between the fact that we are up against the limits of what our planet can provide the human race in terms of crop yields,and the harvest of the seas. Natural feedbacks are telling us the Earth’s capacity has been reached and that has played a role in halting the mirage of never-ending economic growth that traditional economics relies on.
We can chop down the remaining forests if we choose, but we will flood coastlines as the icecaps melt and sea levels rise, and cause climate disruption that cuts crop yields. We are approaching Peak Oil, indeed the peak of many resources. A rapidly growing population just means smaller shares for everyone, of land, food and human dignity. You cannot have infinite growth in a finite system.
The only way out is to create something out of nothing, and until scientists master nuclear fusion and the alchemy of elements we have to learn to live within the limits ature has imposed.
The Times are Changing -
Is Obama our last hope?
6th November 2008
Colin Inman, Editor
The election of Barack Obama as the first black President of the United States of America is a remarkable event. America is making a clear break with its past, and showing a belief in a multi-ethnic future led by a new generation, a rejection of the unpopular foreign policies of the Bush regime. Possibly also a condemnation of Bush's rejection of the Kyoto treaty and measures to protect the global environment. That remains to be seen, as green issues were little discussed on the campaign trail.
Not since Kennedy has there been such an inspirational orator. Obama will carry a weighty burden of expectation among the dispossessed poor. The challenge he faces could hardly be greater, as he will be taking power as America faces its worst financial crisis and recession in 70 years which will severely limit his scope for social change. Four million American families face losing their homes. Worse still, but below the popular radar, the environmental crisis escalates by the day, as greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere soar, and the global assault on the natural world continues to accelerate.
A massive financial debt has been built up by America, and that is matched by an environmental debt of a nation addicted to the motor car, and consuming resources like there is no tomorrow, which will likely be the case unless Barack Obama can deliver swift and effective policies for environmental as well as social change.
It is a time for tough choices, for sacrifices, and for inspirational leadership. America is the world's worst polluter and its only superpower. If Obama's actions on green issues can match his rhetorical skills, he could just be our last hope.
Time to end the phoney war
Colin Inman, Editor
All around us is evidence that, in the face of climate change, the greatest threat humanity faces, the majority of the population are in denial.
There is no sense of urgency. Most people are carrying on burning fossil fuels as usual. If anything there is a pressure to burn more fuel by subsidising gas and electricity, or cutting fuel taxes. Only a tiny percentage of the population have reduced or cut out flying. For all the difference it is making everyone might as well carry on as normal.
There are a number of natural reactions to change. The first is shock and denial that change is necessary, swiftly followed by anger. This is often followed by depression, finally by a coming to terms with the new situation.
This is the sequence the British population is in at present. Most people grasp enough of the science of global warming to know there is a problem (although I suspect few realise quite how serious the problem is), but they are in the shock and denial stage. Hence the phoney war, during which everyone carries on driving round in their cars, and flying on their foreign holidays, until mainstream politicians have the guts to tell them the truth. This current stage is like the phoney war, a lull before the storm really hits. Then comes the anger. Already the anger stage has bubbled to the surface a few times, as people have turned on the Greens as the bearers of bad news.
Next for many will come depression, as they realise that either due to recession and galloping inflation, or carbon rationing, they will be unable to carry on as normal. Finally everyone will get over it, come to terms with their grief, and realise that we may be able to adapt and survive.
First however, we need some leading politicians to break ranks and tell people how serious manmade global warming actually is. After all, people have never rioted for austerity. Without politicians who can show some old-fashioned leadership, the phoney war will continue, and the longer it does, the more serious the damage to the life-sustaining environment on our planet will be.
The Great Slowdown
From around the world comes news that the global economy is running out of steam, as commodities become more expensive. Everything from food and fuel, to raw materials like iron and copper. To conserve fuel it is reported that planes are flying more slowly, motorists are cutting back on journeys, and train drivers are being encouraged to coast downhill.
There is growing inflation, and fears of recession as banks are forced to raise interest rates. Everywhere there are signs of the squeeze on peoples' finances, from the falling price of houses and second-hand cars, the theft of oil from rural homes and lorries, the pilfering of copper cable from railway signals, and the trend towards shopping at the bargain-basement supermarkets.
Harvests are being hit by floods and droughts, forests and fish-stocks are dwindling. We have come up against the limits to growth, hit the buffers in spectacular fashion, and are now faced with a period of painful adjustment to the new world order.
There is a huge transfer of wealth underway to the new oil economies and the super-charged developing economies of India and China. America, the global superpower, faces a crumbling empire, unable to support its energy needs, having over-reached itself in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Britain, once the owner of a proud empire, and having squandered its North sea oil bonanza on private cars and foreign holidays, now faces sliding behind in the prosperity stakes, as other nations that have adapted better to this new world order, overtake us.
The juggernaut of growth that has propelled the world to ever increasing consumption for the past 50 years is being forced to put the brakes on. With its over-inflated house prices now tumbling, and our huge level of personal debt, Britain is going to feel the pinch more than most.
House prices down, petrol up -
what's the problem?
Everyone seems to be giving the Government stick for house prices falling and petrol getting more expensive, but to look at things from a different perspective, are these trends such a bad thing? For years the cost of buying a house has been out of the reach of most first-time buyers who have not inherited some money. If house prices are in for a sharp correction, it can only be a good thing for people who have struggled to get a foot on the housing ladder. The present fall in house prices has been achieved without increasing the supply of housing which would swallow up the green belt with so-called eco towns, and the amount of housing for rent is actually increasing.
As for the cost of petrol, the conventional view is that the rising cost is a disaster for motorists who are struggling to make the daily commute to work, let alone get away on holiday. But from the point of view of protecting the climate, higher petrol prices are just what we need, and if they encourage people to car share, or better still use public transport or a bike, for once the Government is getting something right.
The Real Credit Crunch
Amid all the talk of the credit crunch, and the concentration on easy fix remedies like rate cuts by the Bank of England, it is easy to overlook the underlying factors that are causing recession in the United States, the world’s largest economy, and dragging the rest of the world with it. Like the Dutch tulip mania of the seventeenth century, the bubble has burst. House prices are tumbling, jobs are being lost, and the price of food and fuel is soaring. The reasons for this recession go deeper than just the financial markets losing confidence in the ability of borrowers to repay their debts.
What we are experiencing was forecast no less than 36 years ago in a book entitled “The Limits to Growth” by Donella H Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, and Jørgen Randers. They asked far-reaching questions such as “What will happen if growth in the world’s population continues unchecked? What will be the environmental consequences if economic growth continues at its current pace? What can be done to ensure that human economy that provides sufficiently for all and that also fits within the physical limits of the Earth?”
At the time the book caused quite a stir, leading to newspaper headlines like:
“A computer looks ahead and shudders, ” “ Study sees disaster by the year 2100” and “Scientists warn of Global Catastrophe.” However as the years went by and the world economy grew, it was easy to dismiss these words of warning. What we chose to ignore was that we have been living on the world’s capital, binge-consuming on the harvest of the forests and seas, and the unique bounty of “easy oil”. Those resources are now depleting at an alarming rate. Forests have been decimated. The atmosphere has been pumped full of carbon dioxide. The seas have been over-fished. Oil has been extracted so fast that we have reached Peak Oil much faster than even the pessimists forecast. The “easy oil” has been extracted, that is, the oil which offered the highest Energy Return On Investment (EROI), and are left with a rapidly diminishing supply of high quality crude oil, and then will be scraping the barrel for tar sands and the like.
The United States has over-extended even the resources of its huge empire, in trying to secure Iraq’s oil to prop up its energy-addicted economy. The war against insurgents has reduced the EROI and entropy has set in.
The real cause of the credit crunch in the financial markets is that we have come up against the limits to growth of the natural world. The free market disciples promised an illusion of endless growth, a bubble that has now burst, exposing the emperor wearing no clothes. You cannot achieve endless growth in a finite system. The credit crunch is just a painful reminder of the real world. Sadly there will be worse to come as the world plunges into a deep recession, peak oil drives inflation, and food prices soar out of the reach of the world’s poor. Tragically climate change will hit food production when we have allowed the world’s population to grow far beyond what can be sustained.
What should our response be? Thankfully the answer has been set out for us in simple terms in “The Transition Handbook” by Rob Hopkins. We need to begin the urgent task of converting our communities to transition neighbourhoods, in which every aspect of our lives is re-localised to remove our dependence on oil, so that we learn to be self-sufficient in food, medicine and leisure, with friends and family close at hand, rather than scattered round the country, or worse around the globe, separated from us by what George Monbiot has described as “love miles” that are killing the planet in our attempts to maintain contact. The credit crunch is a painful reality check. The natural response is one of anger and denial. There will be attempts to re-inflate the bubble. But the sooner we come to terms with the limits to growth on our unique and precious planet, the sooner we can start to process of transition to a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable future. Converting the world to the transition concept is not going to be easy, and we may have left it too late. But at least we must try, for the sake of our children.
A Crisis of Spirit
Amid all the talk of crisis surrounding climate change, it seems to me that there is also a crisis of human spirit. Don't get me wrong. I am not an evangelical Christian or a Gaia-worshipping New Age mystic, rather a confirmed agnostic. But it seems to me that the feeding -frenzy of consumption indulged in by a significant proportion of the population of the Western World is part of a moral vacuum that is pervading our lives. People are consuming without thought of the consequences.......(continued)
Read "A crisis of spirit" by John Pearce, Author of "The Little Green Book"
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The Green
Backlash Begins
6th May 2008
If 2007 was the year Britain went green, at least in terms of press coverage, 2008 looks like being the year when the green backlash began.
There are signs of a lurch to the right, with the election of the first British National Party member of the Greater London Assembly, and the election of a Conservative Party Mayor of London.
The new Mayor has been elected on a ticket of reforming the London Congestion Charge, one of Ken Livingstone's finest achievements, and of scrapping plans for a £25 a day charge on 4x4 Chelsea Tractors entering cental London. So already green reforms are being rolled back.
Signs are no better from the Labour Party, where there is already talk of scrapping the penalties for households throwing out excessive amounts of rubbish, and also of removing the already delayed 2 pence a litre on fuel.
It is clear that as house prices tumble, utility bills and inflation soar, and recession looms, there is the start of a backlash against green policies, and in some of the press the beginning of a trend to blame economic woes on environmentally-friendly policies. This does not bode well for later in the year when recession really begins to bite.
Too little, too late
2nd March 2008
It is becoming increasingly clear that we may be unable to prevent catastophic climate change. Instead of united action to cut carbon emissions, people in the developed world are largely carrying on as normal, driving their cars, flying on holidays, and consuming like there is no tomorrow, which seems likely to be the case.
Instead of declaring a state of emergency and taking drastic action the government is allowing airport expansion and more road building. Inspirational ideas like that of Matt Prescott for E-day were largely ignored or worse ridiculed. The BBC did not even have the courage to continue with the project.
The tragedy is, that had we taken united action we might have had a chance. Instead the cranks and sceptics who continue to deny global warming are given equal airtime and newspaper coverage, in the face of 99% of scientists who are telling us the urgency of the situation.
Ethical living survey
Door One conducted a survey on ethical shopping and living, with some startling results. The survey revealed that 98% of Brits don't regard Gordon Brown as a representative for ethical living, with Anita Roddick stealing top position. It also found that a massive 84% of the UK found ethical products and campaigns, such as Bono's American Express RED campaign and Anya Hindmarch's 'I'm Not a Plastic Bag', over hyped. Furthermore, a shocking third of respondents could not state where profits for ethical products go or what benefit they reap, and over two-thirds of those asked were confused over the definition of 'fair-trade'.
Door One survey - 15/6/07
Measure your
ecological footprint
Have you ever wondered how green your lifestyle is? The latest way to measure this is by assessing our ecological footprint. This is a measure of the biologically productive land that is needed to support our individual lifestyle, to produce the resources we use, including food, oil, wood and water, and also to absorb the waste that we produce, such as carbon dioxide, pollution and refuse. Worldwide, there exists about 1.8 global hectares per person with which to do this.
Our 'fair share' of the globe's resources works out at around two hectares per person per year, whereas the average person in the UK requires 5.3ha each (the equivalent of six football pitches). A flight to the east coast of America can add another two to three hectares on to your personal footprint for the year.
There are a number of websites to work out for your ecological footprint:
Ecological footprint calculators
Earthday.net/footprint
Carbonfootprint.com
Greenchoices.org
bp.com
Bestfootforward.com
Resurgence.org
To look at the impact of electronic waste try:
weeeman.org
Further reading:
Independent article
Times Online - "How to be green"
The End of Cheap Food
The push for biofuels raises profound moral questions for anyone concerned about the environment and the developing world. It is becoming increasingly clear that the use of farmland for fuel crops is pushing up the price of food, which hits the world's poor hardest. We have been sheltered from the food riots already taking place in the Third World, but even in the West, people on low or fixed incomes are being affected by rising prices.
Some are likening the push for biofuels to a war between the world's poor and motorists. America sees biofuels as a sure winner, boosting incomes for its farmers, while reducing its dependence on imported oil, at a time when domestic oil production is falling fast, and the cost of the war in Iraq runs into billions of dollars.
Biofuels let motorists off the hook, by promoting the belief that they are somehow less polluting. Serious questions are now being raised about whether this is actually the case, with large areas of rainforest being cleared in parts of South America and Indonesia for fuel crops, rainforest which is a major carbon sink. The use of oil-based fertiliser to grow biofuels also has to be factored in, as does the nitrous oxide produced by biofuel crops. This gas is nearly 300 times as powerful as a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide, and a recent study by Keith Smith, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, and colleagues, found that the levels of nitrous oxide produced are twice that allowed for in the calculations of the International Panel on Climate Change.
As the TV series said, "It's not easy being green", and biofuels are not the quick fix that some environmentalists promised.
Don't be a Squanderbug!
Wake up and smell the Fairtrade coffee. Climate change is already happening. We need to act now, but what can we do? When our parents or grandparents lived though World War Two, the government came up with some great ideas and slogans, some of which are useful today. One was the “Don’t be a Squanderbug” slogan, which at a time of shortages and rationing, encouraged people to consume less, and to make do and mend. Which is precisely the most effective way to combat global warming, and far more effective than recycling.
Another slogan was “Is your journey really necessary?” Again, just what we need to reduce carbon emissions. If we start living our lives more locally, a lot of journeys cease to be essential: we need to look for what we need to survive on our doorstep, to re-build our neighbourhoods, so that we have local produce, local shops, local services, and local friends and relatives. If you can’t get to your destination on foot or by bike, think: do I really need to go?
The other big wartime idea was the “Dig for Victory” campaign, that aimed to get Britain self-sufficient for food. People lost a bit of weight, but they were healthier. No-one starved. Cuba has done it, with more people back working on the land, it now uses a fraction of the oil it used to, and feeds its own people. It has a first class health service, and among the highest literacy rates in world. We don't need a dictatorship. We just need to act now. As we plan for the future, we can learn from the past.
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