Hi all,

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)

Monday 19th, 5.30pm to 7pm EMERGE 3Rs: Zero Waste CelebrationEMERGE is a Manchester – based social enterprise promoting the idea and practice of the 3Rs: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE Join them from 5.30-7pm on  2012 at Brazennose House West, Brazennose Street, Manchester, M2 5AS
· Yummy Love Food Hate Waste Cookery Demonstration…
· Zero Waste Exhibition
· Reduce Reuse Recycle Tips & Info
· EMERGE & FareShare showcase
Come and have your say on what EMERGE should be doing to help the community reduce waste!
Refreshments provided. If you have any questions, please contact Nicola on 0161 223 8200.

Tues 20, 6pm – 7pm ‘Ecology as the new Opium of the People’ – Prof. Erik Swyngedouw lecture-and-a-curry
Location: Room 4, University of Manchester Students’ Union, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PR

Weds 21 March
Gunter Pauli workshop and evening lecture at MERCi, in Ancoats.
Details here.

Wednesday, March 21, 6 to 7.30pm Life Friendly Event: “Keeping on: sustainable art-activism” at Chinese Arts Centre, Market Buildings
Thomas Street Manchester
Platform is a London-based group of artists, environmentalists, human rights campaigners and activists who work together on issues of social and environmental justice. Founded in 1983, their current focus is on getting society off its dependence on oil because of its human rights, resource justice, and climate change impacts. The major campaigns and creative initiatives at the moment include finance (getting British investors to withdraw from backing Tar Sands extraction in Canada), cultural sponsorship (driving a wedge between Tate and BP, Shell and Southbank Centre), and corrupt corporate practices (revealing Shell’s complicity in militarised violence in the Niger Delta). This talk and discussion will look at some of the strategies and lessons learnt over many years to enable artists and activists to keep on making work that challenges the status quo and speaks truth to power, while at the same time sustaining ourselves, our imaginations, and our communities.
Book here.

Weds 21,8 to 11pmA Reasonable Cause, A mixture of Music, short film a talk about something green and as much fun as we can have.
This month we have the delightful sounds of Folkin El, and the stunning Violet Youth.
We have David Barlow, Environmental Strategy lead on Biodiversity from Manchester City Council. Films, drawing and more.
See ye there. (at Kraak Gallery, 11 Stevenson Square) Facebook page

Thursday 22nd, 7.00-8.30pm Carbon Coop meeting in Moss Side
Claremont Pub 124 Claremont Road, Moss Side M14 4RR
Free, informal, food provided
Can our homes be made energy efficient, if so how would that work?
We need to cut the average amount of energy our homes use by 80% to deal with climate change and rising fuel bills. Carbon Coop have been having a look at the options and want to know what you think would work, what wouldn’t and why.
The Carbon Co-op and residents in Hulme from Homes for Change (the Yellowbricks) and Bentley House (the Redbricks) and in Moss Side from the The Avenues Residents Association have been working with energy experts URBED on detailed assessments of the properties for both retrofit options (insulation etc.) and community renewable heating systems.
This is not a consultation about any planned developments, so don’t get your hopes up, we are just trying to build up models of how communities might take control of energy usage and want to find out what people think about both what is possible and desirable. Advice will be on hand though for anyone interested in taking the ideas forward.
Have your say, get involved, eat free grub!
Places are limited, RSVP: info@carbon.coop or call 0161 408 6492
See here for details.

Thursday March 22nd 7pm An evening of information and discussion on how to make our homes warmer, more energy efficient and cheaper to run. St Clement’s Church, Edge Lane, M21 9JF
Chorlton Refurb presents:
-Local home owners describing successful improvements.
-Energy efficiency experts to answer your questions.
-News on the Government’s Green Deal.
-Findings from Chorlton LEAF.
Chorlton homes are some of the least energy efficient homes in Manchester as they are older, bigger than average and solid-walled. What can be done? Chorlton LEAF, funded by Dept of Energy and Climate Change, is a project that aims to find out. 20 comprehensive energy assessments are being carried out on typical Chorlton homes, investigating household behaviour and building performance and making detailed and practical recommendations. All the reports will be available at http://www.chorltonrefurb.net. On the night there will be a free prize raffle for a detailed home energy assessment and an opportunity to sign up for a very reduced price thermal imaging survey.
7pm Refreshments and Stalls
7.30pm Presentations and Discussions

MCFly stories you may have missed

Cllr Marc Ramsbottom (leader of the Mcr Lib Dems) interviewed.
Stakeholder hold stake: Dissent breaks out at Stakeholder Conference
Stakeholder Conference: The culture workshop
Newsflash: Steering Group steers towards democracy
Manchester Energy Advice Centre to shut
Event Report: Engineering an energy solution

Lessons we like to believe we’ve learnt this week
Things can be worse than you expected
Flying to Spain is much cheaper and quicker than taking the train/coach

Jobs that need doing!
Could someone trawl twitter for groups MCFly could follow?

National News
The Tories to launch a bonfire of the “red tape” about things like, oh, asbestos, invasive species and industrial air pollution; protection for wildlife and common lands
Guardian story here.

Mon 12 Insider Media reports “Banks Renewables, part of the Banks Group, has completed a £16m funding agreement with The Co-operative Bank to fund the construction of its first wind farm in Cumbria. Work on the Armistead Wind Farm is set to begin shortly after Durham-based Banks agreed a deal with The Co-operative Bank, which previously provided the financial backing for the company’s Marr and Hazlehead wind farms in Yorkshire.”

Weds 14th Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre is Toast….

Reading and Watching

Chorlton Councillor (Lib Dem) Victor Chamberlain on “Twenty’s Plenty”

The Arctic Methane Emergency Group holds a meeting at the House of Commons http://www.ameg.me/index.php/letter-to-world-leaders

Sherwood Anderson, the guy who discovered the hole in the Ozone Layer, and said this “What’s the use of having developed a science well enough to make predictions if, in the end, all we’re willing to do is stand around and wait for them to come true?” dies. Real Climate does a great obit.

We can’t prevent Climate Change. So what can we do?

The Fallacies of Green Growth (an UNCTAD report)

Resilience: Motherhood Statement, Rhetorical Slogan or Neo-liberal shift?

George Monbiot reckons that – on nuclear at least – Friends of the Earth has lost the plot.

“Fracking Hell!” say some activists in Wigan.

Carbon Blood Money in Honduras (hat-tip to Dominic)

Council Leader Richard Leese reports on his recent trip to Chicago