Hi all,

A busy week ahead (see calendar below). Just a reminder- if you want to start writing or volunteering for MCFly
a) you’ll be joining a growing band of folks
b) all you have to do is email us – mcmonthly@gmail.com

Please encourage your climate-concerned friends to take out a (free!!) subscription to the blog/newsletter – via our subscribe page.
If they need convincing, here’s a 40 second video explaining the top ten reasons folks should subscribe…
And follow us on twitter (@mcr_climate).

Coming up this week (see our March 2012 calendar page for more info)

Mon 12th, 6pm Using the “Activist Skills and Knowledge” framework, at the OKasional Cafe (Gamecock Pub)
What is it?  How does it work?  An opportunity to try out an early version of a tool for finding out what you already know and can do, and then sharing those skills and knowledge with other people
Length – 60 to 90 minutes

Mon 12, 6.45 to 8.30Engineering Solutions to the Energy Crisis. Mike Koefman, Lauren Collins and James Woudhuysen will introduce a discussion on how science can help engineer solutions to the looming energy crisis
Manchester Salon. £5/£3. Book here.

Tuesday, 13th, 5pm – 6pm
‘Emissions and Energy Scenarios – A Focus on the UK’ A talk with Maria Sharmina
Room 4, University of Manchester Students’ Union, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PR

Tuesday 13th, 6-8pm Eco Streets: Celebrating South Manchester’s commitment to tackling climate change
ZION Arts Centre, 335 Stretford Road, Manchester, M15 5ZA
This celebration event will showcase the work of the nine successful Eco Streets projects in South Manchester.  Projects include food growing at Fallowfield’s secret garden and education and learning at the new Chorlton Apiary at Scott Avenue Allotments.
For more details please contact Rachael Stoney at Groundwork on 0161 220 1000 or Rachael.stoney@groundwork.org.uk

Tuesday 13th 6-8pm  GreenSpirit Greater Manchester
Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester, M2 5NS
This year GreenSpirit Greater Manchester will be hosting an event in the week leading up to the Manchester: A Certain Future conference. It will be a chance to feed our ideas and thoughts into the main conference. It will be an informal and fun evening, with a bring-and-share supper held at the Friends Meeting House.
If you would like to come along or find out more, please contact Nicola Percival on 01625 572894 or email Nicola.percival@soulsustainability.co.uk

Tues 13th, 7.00p.m. (refreshments will be available from 6.30p.m.)
Famine and Food Security – does Genetic Modification have a role to play?
Cockroft Lecture Theatre, Manchester Conference Centre
You are invited to join an open discussion and question time on the theme of Famine and Food Security. This discussion will bring together experts to look at this topic and also to examine what role, if any, there is for genetically modified produce in addressing the issues of Famine and Food Security.
This event is a joint venture between the British Council and the British Science Association as part of a series of British Council Dialogue events.
Confirmed speakers are:
Kidist Kibret (University of Nottingham) – an Ethiopian student conducting research into yams as a food diversification strategy
David Hall-Matthews (University of Leeds) – the social and political causes of famine and food security
Christine Foyer (Centre for Plant Sciences, University of Leeds) – biotech approaches to improving crop yields
Booking is not required.
Questions can be submitted on the night or in advance to Addam Merali-Hosiene, Regional Officer for the North of England for the British Science Association on 0161 306 1599 or
addam.merali-hosiene@britishscienceassociation.org

Tues 13 March 6.45 for 7pm til 9pm, The Behavioural Challenge of Climate Change: Where we are at, and where we need to be’. A discussion of the latest climate research and some solutions to address the challenges.
Hosted by Manchester Friends of the Earth. Speakers:Prof Kevin Anderson, Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change.- talking about latest research, current understanding and projections for the future to understand the scale of the challenge.
Friends of the Earth national campaigner  Mike Childs- talking about Friends of the Earths current strategy and choice of campaigns to address the challenge.
Dave Coleman, Director, Cooler Projects CIC- talking about how Manchester as a city is responding to the challenge via the Manchester Carbon Literacy Project.
Public Discussion,  Everyone welcome, refreshments provided.
Green Fish Resource Centre, 46-50 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

Weds 14 March, 10 to 4pm
“Community Rights Made Real Workshop” – Tameside
Free! Book here.

Weds 14 March
cities@manchester Inaugural Lecture
Professor Ash Amin (University of Cambridge): Q&A and Public Lecture
1-2.15pm: Q&A with Ash Amin, Cordingley Lecture Theatre
Kevin Ward (Professor of Human Geography) will lead an informal Q&A session with Prof. Amin about his work, career and publications.

5-6.15pm: ‘Resilient Urbanism’- Lecture by Ash Amin, Chaired by Stephen Milner, Serena Professor of Italian. Cordingley Lecture Theatre. Followed by a wine reception.

Weds 14 March, 7.30pm to 9pm Growing Food in the City: local food in Havana and Manchester Levenshulme Inspire, 747 Stockport Rd organised by Levenshulme Green Party.

Thurs 15th, 1-2pm cities@manchester brownbag :‘Creating a sustainable Manchester: can the UK’s first industrial city blaze a trail for sustainable living?’ Mike Reardon, former Strategic Director, G.M. Environment Commission, University Place, 5.204.

Thursday 15th, 6.30 to 8.30 Carbon Coop and retrofit options…
Yard Theatre Work for Change, 41 Old Birley Street, Hulme M15 5RF
Free, informal, food provided
Places are limited, RSVP: info@carbon.coop or call 0161 408 6492

Friday 16 March Stakeholder Conference, 12.30 to 5.30 at MMU. Sold out

MCFly stories you may have missed

Book Review: Mad Like Tesla; Underdog inventors and their relentless pursuit of clean energy
Event Report: Going Beyond Dangerous Climate Change
Manchester misses out on Green Investment Bank
Interview: Urban Agriculture in Havana… and Manchester?
Interview: Energy and Emissions Scenarios

Lessons we like to believe we’ve learnt this week
Everything takes longer than you think it will.
You cannot porofread your own work.

Grab the money and run
Job Alert: Researching “volunteer recruitment strategies” CLOSES TUESDAY 13th

Jobs that need doing!
Could someone trawl twitter for groups MCFly could follow?
Could someone audit MCFly to see how much we are writing about people who don’t happen to be white males?

Local and Regional News

Mon 5th The Co-operative creates a million quid fund for renewables (MEN story)

and speaking of outfits that support Manchester Airport…
Friday 9th Flybe adds 86 flights a day…
Reading and Watching

According to the stats this video starring Richard Leese talking about the climate change action plan, has only had 55 views. Shreuly shome mistake?!

Can Organic Farming Feed the World? asks the Soil Association (hat-tip to obsessive compulsive commenter Patrick Sudlow)

Joe Romm at Climate Progress takes a look work by Ken Caldeira and tech guru Nathan Myhrvold on the impact of switching from coal to natural gas and finds it a bridge to nowhere.

“…a switch to natural gas would have zero effect on global temperatures by the year 2100. “If you take 40 years to switch over entirely to natural gas,” he said, “you won’t see any substantial decrease in global temperatures for up to 250 years. There’s almost no climate value in doing it.”

“The most surprising thing we found,” lead author Nathan Myhrvold told me recently, “is that unless you switch to a form of energy that cuts emissions really drastically” — and he isn’t talking about any piddling 50%, either — “you basically don’t get any real effect.”

Changing Climates, Changing Minds: The Personal – account from Skeptical Science of a geologist’s conversion. Very well worth reading!

If you’ve not seen the Greenland icesheet, you may want to fly up to take a look before it’s all gone (Ok, that’ll take hundreds of years-ish)