Plane good sense?

Leading candidates in the race to become Bristol's first elected mayor have spoken out against the proposed £150 million expansion of the city's airport. Three of the four main candidates publicly announced at a debate in the city yesterday that they were opposed to the plans, which aim to ensure the Lulsgate site can cater for up to 10 million passengers per year...(more here on the expansion of Bristol airport and also business and housing issues).

Labour's Marvin Rees, the only candidate of the four present (Independent George Ferguson plus Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative candidates) to come out in favour of expanding Bristol airport as currently planned said, "What we need to do is have a coherent plan that looks 40 to 50 years in the future."  But what fuel will the planes run on in 30, 40, 50 years given that the current fossil fuel source is finite and also subject to price instability and hikes in price? And what will be the state of our climate if we continue high carbon emitting activities such as mass scale flying?

BBC News - US oil spill: 'Bad management' led to BP disaster

Shouldn't have been drilling in this deep water location to begin with but both BP and the US Govt were happy with this. Should use joined up, systems thinking to run their business. Oil as a finite, non-renewable, polluting but very useful and valuable resource should only be used minimally and highly efficiently - all legislation, regulation, control and international agreement should be geared to achieving this.

BBC News - US oil spill: 'Bad management' led to BP disaster

Ground vs Green

Just chipped in to the 'Ground vs Green' debate going on on the Evening Post website, particularly in response to someone calling themselves 'another cynic' because they did not regard opposing building a stadium in the green belt as rational. Here's my contribution to a debate that is, as usual, of the very highest quality (!!):

'I think most rational people would be pro stadium. The only thing to be cynical about is the use of the TVG laws by a minority of people to undermine the workings of the democratic planning process.' said another cynic.

What's rational about:

- designating land as green belt and then not protecting it?

-the council/govt saying we need to fight climate change and then turning land from a net absorber to a net emitter of carbon?

-expressing concern about the need to be ready to deal with flooding caused by the sudden heavy rains we now get and then removing land that naturally absorbs and steadily releases flood water?

-saying wildlife needs to be protected but then concreting over habitats?

-having government agencies like Natural England working to show how necessary to our physical, mental and social health green spaces are and how we all need to live close to a green space and then removing said spaces?

-saying what a good idea local food production is, especially in view of things like peak oil, and then reducing the land area available to grow food locally?

-MPs strengthening the law on town and village green establishment in both 2000 and 2006 then going on to campaign against the use of the laws they established??

By the way another cynic, the current planning process is a statutory ie legal process primarily and not a democratic one. Though it has a democratic element to it through the involvement of elected Councillors and Secretary of State, they are supposed to be guided by rules and regulations not a party line...hopefully to establish a rational outcome. The Ground vs Green debate will not be finally resolved by petition or voting but by the law that is an essential feature of a modern democratic system - and in this instance it may well prevent a wider majority view prevailing over a very local majority view.

Energy firm 'discovers oil' off Greenland - Business News, Business - The Independent

Energy firm 'discovers oil' off Greenland - Business News, Business - The Independent

Edinburgh-based explorer Cairn Energy today hailed signs of a possible oil discovery in the untapped waters off the coast of Greenland...Greenpeace warned that Cairn's announcement was "grave news" and threatened the fragile Arctic environment.

Cairn said it was too early to gauge the potential of its find, with the well not yet drilled to its target depth.
It has been drilling in the area 110 miles (175km) off Disko Island in west Greenland since July, with plans to reach water depths of between 985ft (300m) and 1,640ft (500m) - more than twice the 500ft (152m) drilling moratorium initially imposed by US President Barack Obama after the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Greenpeace, whose Esperanza ship is currently positioned within sight of Cairn's rigs in Greenland, claimed Cairn was risking another devastating oil spill by targeting "ever more dangerous, difficult-to-reach places".

It said tough conditions and icebergs posed a risk to operations in the region.

Campaigner Leila Deen added: "If a spill happened here, this pristine area would face an environmental catastrophe. The BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico showed what can happen when they drill in deep and remote places." ...

And of course even if oil is extracted without accident, spillage or other incident, when we use this finite fossil fuel we are: adding further to climate change and poor air quality; still hanging on to what should be our energy past and not focussing on the only energy future that is sustainable ie energy efficiency and renewables.

Also see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/aug/23/cairn-oil-strike-arctic-fears

Trains and transport hub not bendy buses

I've been to a lot of meetings about bus rapid transit. The more I went to and the more questions I asked the more I realised just how poor the plans are - and that's as a person very strongly in favour of more, better and cheaper public transport. No surprise then that I agree very strongly with this latest press release from Bristol South Green Party and admire the work of Cllr Tess Green, green activist Pete Goodwin and others:

Bendybus is just a vanity project, say Greens

Threats to government funding for Bristol's first bus rapid transit route hasn't yet stopped the council spending on it. At the council meeting earlier this month, only one member voted against.

That member was Southville's Cllr Tess Green. She believes that even if it does win government cash, the new concrete guided bus route into the city from Long Ashton will be a white elephant. She says money would be better spent on schemes that could really make a difference - like light rail from Portishead into the city centre, or a first-class transport hub for all of Bristol at Temple Meads. Now she's lobbying the Department for Transport to explain her concerns.

Bristol South Green Party, meanwhile, has joined Tess and other local organisations in asking the government to refuse an order allowing it to go ahead.

"We've been studying the case made for this first bendy-bus route" said spokesman Pete Goodwin, "and find it doesn't do what it says on the tin. Traffic and congestion in the next twenty years get much worse with or without the bendy- bus. All this project does is encourage more commuting by road from North Somerset. They've conveniently forgotten about climate change, peak oil, and the awful congestion that we already suffer."

"This is a reckless waste of public money at a time when much more vital services are being cut, and community assets are being sold off. So far as we can see, it's just another part of the council's bid to turn the Green Belt around Ashton Vale into a big sports and entertainment venue, it serves no other major purpose. That makes it more a vanity project, at the cost of real public services."

ENDS
Note: The formal objections from Cllr Green and from the Bristol South party to the Bus Rapid Transit project can be read here .

Thoughts on The Age of Stupid

Having presided over the showing of The Age of Stupid and ensuing discussion at The Thunderbolt pub yesterday evening, here are a few thoughts from the notes I made. There is no lack of human ingenuity or 'grey matter' (as someone in the film put it), so if we set our minds to a task we can achieve success - including building the fair and green society needed to cut and cope with climate change. We need to re-establish the idea of leaving the world a better place as our notion of progress as opposed to passing on ever-larger problems to future generations. Its no good pretending climate change is not happening, going along with predominant public thinking, or talking about issues but not taking action - the established facts are that we need a total re-ordering of society to solve problems, take opportunities and secure our health and wellbeing. Happiness is not 'stuff'. Climate change is ultimately something of a leveller, with rich and poor at the mercy of natural forces. Are we knowingly going to wipe ourselves out? Surely not. Do we think we are worth saving? Yes! http://www.onlygreen.org.uk/

Bristol Happiness Lectures 2010

You may recall my post on the Happiness Lectures a couple of years ago. I wrote about sustainability-happiness connections. Many people are overloaded and stressed due to fast, urban lifestyles and long hours of work. They are often in debt, anxious and depressed, wasteful and polluting because of their dogged pursuit of more and more. People try to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ but gain no fulfillment from this as they go around the unsustainable viscious circle of consumption. Yet politicians in the big parties still say we need more consumption to get us out of recession!

I've written on happiness and related topics a fair amount (published in date order here). Thought I'd mention this year's Bristol Happiness Lectures taking place at St George's Hall on the Tuesday evening, of May 18th (see picture, click to enlarge). The lectures also mark the launch of the new improved edition of the book Find Your Power, now subtitled 'a toolkit for resilience and positive change' by Dr Chris Johnstone from Bristol University, a key thinker on happiness and related issues. Pity the lectures are not happening during the election campaign, to encourage discussion on wellbeing.

The new edition of Find Your Power has a forward from Rob Hopkins, of the Transition Movement. It has been updated to look more into our current context of economic uncertainty and climate challenge, and has new material on resilience, recovery from depression and addressing global issues. This is a book that can be applied to any kind of change - and it addresses both personal and planetary issues (including climate change and peak oil). I'll be reviewing Chris Johnstone's updated book in full on this blog later in May/June.

For more on the link between tackling depression and addressing global issues, see the article 'Resilience, Recovery and the Self-help SSRI' which can be downloaded from the writing page on Chris Johnstone's website at http://www.chrisjohnstone.info/writing.htm

Free film show at The Thunderbolt: The Power of Community

On Tuesday 13 October, 7.30pm you can come and see the excellent film 'The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil'* for free.

Its being put on at The Thunderbolt, 124 Bath Rd, Totterdown, BS4 3ED, just along the road from the Three Lamps junction, by the South Bristol Greens.

Get along there and meet up with people for change in Bristol!

*

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period." The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.

http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php

The Power of the Community: film show 27 Feb

Open Meeting: Film and discussion

The Power of the Community
- how Cuba survived peak oil

Southbank Club (formerly Holy Cross), Dean Lane
Southville


Friday 27 February, 7pm to 8.30 pm
(doors open 6.30pm)

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period." The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.
http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php

Speaker: Wendy Emmett – environmentalist and follower of the Cuba experience. Just returned from leading an environmental study tour of Cuba.

Free entrance (bucket collection proceeds go to the organisers, Bristol South Green Party and Bristol Cuba Solidarity).

Bar Available!!

Sustainable living: an essential not a luxury add-on

‘Sustainable living is all very well, but people also have to get on with living their lives’ concluded Bristol Evening Post feature writer Suzanne Savill’s piece about alternatives to petrol and diesel (‘Think about it’, Bristol Evening Post's Seven Magazine p3, June 7 2008). This is an illogical, contradictory statement since if we don’t live our lives sustainably we will not be able to ‘get on with living’ them. The ‘alternative’ to sustainable living is one that by definition cannot be continued ie its unsustainable.

Her statement sounds to me like a denial of problems that are real, serious, and urgent, like peak oil production and climate change, which are inseparable from soaring food and fuel prices. Best science and economics tells us we have to adjust and adapt our lives, which means fully embracing sustainability’s key concepts: efficiency; renewability; environmental limits; meeting needs; fairness here and around the globe, for both present and future generations.

Sustainability is not an add-on luxury, its an essential – though our government has failed to lead on this, get this message across and make it easier for people to make practical, sustainable choices.

Price of diesel reaches £1.30/litre in Bristol....

I've been giving my reaction online to the news that the price of diesel in the Bristol area has reached £1.30 per litre ('Dismay as diesel rockets to £1.30', Bristol Evening Post, 9 June). We should have been weaning ourselves off all oil products for decades now via very large scale investment in: energy efficiency; public transport, walking, cycling; support for local economic development; renewable energy; research into alternative fuels... Given that previous Tory and Labour Governments have made green claims one would have thought this would have been done but it hasn't. Now the security, stability and affordability of our lives has not been assured as a result of this inaction. It does not look to me like fossil fuel (and food) prices can have anything but an upward trend over time as the scarcity of this finite resource can only grow.

Those who for example react to describe not living close to work and being poorly serviced by buses/trains correctly highlight two aspects of the issue that need to be addressed very urgently (and that we should have begun addressing at least two/three decades ago when greens were, as now, advocating localised development etc). Having said that, whilst I appreciate the individual circumstances some people are in, there are many who could choose a greener alternative (nearly half of all car journeys are less than 2 miles long).

Government has completely failed to make it easier and more convenient for people to make green choices however and so they need to take the lion's share of the blame here. Re-allocate just a quarter of the road budget and in ten years we could build light rail systems in eight cities, create 10,000 people-friendly home zones, put £4 billion into cutting train and bus fares, £1 billion into rural transport and another billion into transport for disabled people. Add to that safe routes to all our schools and colleges and tens of thousands of new jobs and it's money well spent (see here for more detail of green transport policies).

Sustrans' annual 'Change Your World' campaign

Received the message below from Sustrans and signed up to support the campaign (although my travel by car and in general is already pretty low).

Sustrans' annual ‘Change Your World’ campaign kicks off today with the launch of www.changeyourworld.org.uk . To join in, tell us you'll swap a car trip during the first week of July and walk, cycle or use public transport instead.

Please consider doing you bit by supporting this campaign, perhaps committing to cut your car use even more if you can (the rising price of fuel and the spiralling of climate change impacts gives plenty of incentive for this!). What I really want from the government is concerted, significant and sustained action and investment into walking cycling, public transport (trains generally, light rail, buses...) and car clubs, to make minimising car use easier - let your PM, MP and local councillors know if you agree!!

The Green Party website says 'Re-allocate just a quarter of the road budget and in ten years we could build light rail systems in eight cities, create 10,000 people-friendly home zones, put £4 billion into cutting train and bus fares, £1 billion into rural transport and another billion into transport for disabled people. Add to that safe routes to all our schools and colleges and tens of thousands of new jobs and it's money well spent.' Eminent good sense given the twin problems of peak oil and climate change.

Peak Oil Subvert

Have a look at this film about our addiction to oil, likening it to drug addiction:

http://www.electricdecember.org/07/calendar/13/

Very creative work from 18 yr old director Luke Martin, working with producer Denzil Monk, reported in todays local paper. More on peak oil here.