Hi all,

new MCFly (#5) only a week away. As ever, we are very very keen to have volunteers give us an hour/day/week/first-born of their lives… mcmonthly@gmail.com

Coming up this week

Tues 1 May NW Sustainable Futures Summit, Museum of Sicence and Insdustry. It will cost you upwards of £75

Tuesday 1, 7pm for 7.30pm. Going Dutch: New homes, New travel arrangements in the Netherlands Transport consultant Richard Armitage is a member of SUNN, the Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods Network. In autumn 2011 SUNN hosted a study tour of three Dutch cities to see how active travel opportunities can be designed into new developments.
Friends Meeting House

Weds 2, 4pm Dr Geoff Vigar (Newcastle) “Localism, Democracy and the State: an interpretive analysis of a Neighbourhood Planning Frontrunner” Hanson Building, Humanities Bridgeford St

Wed 2, 7.30-9.3pm Didsbury Film Society showing of ‘The Economics of Happiness‘. St James and Emmanuel Church, Barlow Moor Rd, Didsbury £4.50, includes wine/drinks/nibbles, good conversation afterwards!

Thurs 3 Council elections. Will Labour scrape home in Manchester?

Friday 4th Climate Survivors meeting call Pauline on 0777 992 3681 for the address – we often meet in someone’s house so we communicate this privately to those who are attending.

Sat 5 May
350.org are sending out a global invite….
In places from drought-stricken Mongolia to flood-stricken Thailand, from fire-ravaged Australia to Himalayan communities threatened by glacial melt, we will hold rallies reminding everyone what has happened in our neighborhoods. And at each of those rallies, from Kenya to Canada, from Vietnam to Vermont, someone will be holding a…dot. A huge black dot on a white banner, a “dot” of people holding hands, encircling a field where crops have dried up, a dot made of fabric and the picture taken from above — you get the idea. We’ll share those images the world around, to put a human face on climate change–we’ll hold up a mirror to the planet and force people to come face to face with the ravages of climate change.
1pm in Piccadilly Gardens…

Stories you may have missed on the MCFly website

• Event Report: Tues April 17th Climate Hustings
• Event Report: MMU Green Impacts Awards Ceremony
• Course alert: Internal Auditor Training (ISO 14001) – May 31st
• Book Reviews: “World Cities” & “Cities and Low Carbon Transitions”
• Earth Day in Didsbury and eco-cookery to come!

Lessons we like to pretend we’ve learned
When you fill in one of those email your MP letters, a copy goes to the guy putting out the private member’s bill.  So be careful what you say. Just sayin’.

Local and Regional News

MEN reports 200 space bike parking hub to be built in city centre basement

Hulme Community Garden Centre is expanding (no link)

MEN desperately trying to magic up large crowds of viewers for the Dreamliner. Fails.

April 24- The Insider reports – “The renewable energy sector in the North West is worth £1.2bn, according to a new report.The new data reveals that 9,400 people are employed in the sector across 611 companies in the North West.
The region has the greatest number of people working in the heat pump sector outside London and the largest wind power workforce outside the capital and the South East, the report says.
It also highlights the work of the Joule Centre for Energy Research, a partnership between universities in the North West.
Lancaster-based Myriad CEG, an on-site green energy specialist, is a major sponsor of the Renewable Energy Association’s report ‘Renewable Energy: Made in Britain’.”

Things worth reading
Watch the climate conversation run aground

Pioneering Commodities Studies Bring Transparency to Oil Companies and Swiss Trading Hub
National oil companies and their customers should publish the price, volume, and crude grade for every  cargo of oil sold, thereby bringing greater transparency to a largely hidden part of the world’s oil market, Revenue Watch (RW) reports in pioneering research released today.
The study is being published simultaneously with the English edition of “Commodities: Switzerland’s Most Dangerous Business,” a groundbreaking analysis of the industry by Berne Declaration (BD) that shows why and how resource-rich developing countries remain poor while Swiss trading companies make billions.