Manchester City Council’s dominant Labour group has passed a radically-amended motion about “fracking,” a controversial process of accessing hard-to-reach natural gas. The original motion, which called on the Council to “declare itself a ‘Fracking-Free Zone’,” was put forward by one of the 9 Liberal Democrat councillors on the 96-member Council, Councillor Victor Chamberlain. (MCFly ran a story yesterday about the motion, which you can read here.)
The amended motion, passed by full Council, in part now reads “… calls on the Chief Executive to implemented a policy that supports the Friends of the Earth campaign that would ensure that planning permission will not be given for test drilling or extraction of shale gas (tracking) unless reasonable scientific doubt as to any adverse impacts can be excluded; the proposal is environmentally acceptable, or it can be made so by planning conditions or obligations.”
This is known in the political circles as “wiggle room.”
This amended motion was put forward by Councillor Nigel Murphy, Executive Member for the Environment. Councillor Murphy has declined repeated interview requests made by Manchester Climate Monthly for the last five months. Having grown tired of being fobbed off, we “interviewed” him here. (1)
Full comparison of the original and amended motions, and reaction from interested parties, will follow in due course.
UPDATE: Here’s what Manchester Friends of the Earth sent us (15th July 2012)
“MFOE is pleased that the council is supporting the campaign against fracking and is following the precautionary principle. Evidence is growing of the risks fracking poses to our water supplies, air quality and climate change – and communities across the North West are saying we don’t want fracking here. We hope other councils across the region will follow Manchester’s lead and implement precautionary policies on fracking”
Update: here’s the amended motion. The poor punctuation and grammar is theirs, not ours. Or perhaps “there’s, not our’s”.
Marc Hudson
mcmonthly@gmail.com
(1) In response, a false claim was made by the Head of News at Manchester City Council about whether we had ever gone through “regular channels” in seeking an interview. No retraction or apology has been forthcoming over the last three working days. We will be pursuing the matter.
MCFly co-editor Marc Hudson finds out that his price is a little higher than a free ice-cream and a comp showing of an American eco-documentary.
I would have been better off staying at the Friends of the Earth meeting (1). That’s not a sentence anyone can type lightly, btw, but it’s true in this case. Instead I co-operated with a previous obligation and went across the road to Affleck’s Palace. There, in the rather delightful venue known as “The Three Minute Theatre” (2) , a twenty-minute farce unfolded.
A showing was being held of “Gasland,” an American documentary about how awful fracking (tipping chemicals down holes to get gas out) is. In an irony as delicious as the free ice-cream, the event was fracking awful.
The Co-operative (3), a big employer in this city, and – once it hoovers up all those Lloyds Bank branches across t’country – a big employer nationally, had sponsored the showing. In a fit of unco-operativeness, they failed to check their dates. And so they clashed with the Friends of the Earth’s regular monthly meeting. Always on the second Tuesday of the month, and this month on the subject of … energy and what we can do locally.
As I collected stub for my free my ice-cream, I realised that someone was unco-operatively taking photos of me.. I asked him to stop. He co-operated. I co-operatively mentioned that I wouldn’t have minded, if he had simply asked my consent. He was part of a trio recording the showing, and the audience’s reaction to the film, apparently for some documentary (about people watching a documentary. Mise-en-abyme, much?). While he co-operated by stopping taking photos of me, I didn’t see him co-operate with the basic ethical point of consent by asking anyone else if they were happy being snapped. One of the documentary-makers asked me to co-operate with her plans by sitting in the front row so my reactions to the film could be filmed. I declined to co-operate. I also asked the guy to delete the photos of me. He said he’d co-operate.
The “organisers” then decided to co-operate with the many people who had co-operated by booking free tickets but who had then decided not to co-operate with the concept of punctuality. This sadly meant the organisers didn’t co-operate with the people who had co-operated by turning up on time. Choices, eh?
Still, during the wait, I got said hello to by someone from Manchester City Council’s Green City Team. They didn’t co-operate with my request for information about what on earth is happening to the Environmental Advisory Panel, but to be fair this may have been because my vocal chords had not co-operated in actually voicing the question. And they had their mind-reading function switched off. (4)
The guy who’d filmed me without consent then co-operated fully with the general ethical vacuum of the event by setting up a camera at the front of the room to film the entire audience as they watched the film.
“Hi everyone, the price of your free ticket and an ice-cream is that we film you watching this film and use the footage as we see fit. If you don’t like it, you can a) bugger off or b) sit way at the back or c) wear one of these gimp/V for Vendetta masks that we’ve brought along and are selling for the reasonable price of £5”.
So, I decided that further co-operation with such an unco-operative bunch, who clash with established green events, who take photos without asking, who start a long film late on a school night, was not called for, and so I invoked the law of two feet. As I left I heard the opening words of the film – some guy saying “I always used to be pretty optimistic.” Well, he’d obviously not been to this documentary-showing.
There’s an aching need for opportunities for people to collaborate, co-ordinate and, yes, co-operate. This was such an opportunity, and it was wasted. By clashing with a big established group, by knowing nothing about the anti-fracking motion that goes before Manchester City Council tomorrow, by having entirely dubious ethics about consent, this event co-operated with the yoof expression “epic fail.”
Marc Hudson
mcmonthly@gmail.com
Footnotes
(1) I am a card-carrying member of Manchester Friends of the Earth
(2) And innocent of any wrong-doing
(3) I am a card-carrying customer of the Co-operative Bank. I am a TOWIE (“the only way is ethics”) rather than one of the legions of people who have joined them over the years for their legendary customer service.
(4) I’ll pop the question to an elected member, who regularly ‘engages’ with the publication.
We here at MCFly are volunteers (the £8,800 from Lush goes to pay for printing, web-hosting and the like). We think volunteering is a Good Thing. And we think that “carbon literacy” is a Good Thing (not quite as good as carbon capability, but that’s for another time).
So, we are delighted to have found this volunteer call-out below in the weekly Manchester Friends of the Earth digest. We are reprinting it, purple prose and all. We know the folks behind Cooler Projects [see interview]. We have every confidence that they will provide training and support; and that while volunteers will help the project, those volunteers will gain in experience, confidence and skills. If you have the time, this is a project to get involved in. (But do leave some time and energy left over for SteadyState Manchester!)
Manchester Carbon Literacy: Project Volunteering Roles
Cooler Projects CIC, a not-for-profit community interest company, based in the Green Fish Centre next door to MFoE, have a number of roles for volunteer project workers to work on the Manchester Carbon Literacy Project.
This project is delivering the Carbon Literacy objective of
Manchester: A Certain Future, the city’s climate change action plan.
This aims to offer everyone who lives, works or studies in Manchester a day’s training in Carbon Literacy. The project is now moving out of its pilot phases and preparing for its public launch later this year.
In order to support the scale-up, volunteer project workers are needed who can offer anything from a regular day a week to a full-time project assignment.
A wide range of skills and experience are required for different roles
including, but not exclusively:
administrative support;
IT and desktop publishing skills;
and academic or practical experience of any of:
schools and education;
commercial business experience;
community engagement.
At the moment these roles are unfunded, but Cooler cover reasonable travel expenses, including a bike allowance, lunch allowance and an opportunity to gain documented experience for qualification support or CV, contributing to a uniquely groundbreaking project in the city and more widely.
On Wednesday 11th of July, Manchester City Council will meet and discuss a motion about ‘Making Manchester more Sustainable’. The motion has been put forward by Chorlton councillor Victor Chamberlain, one of 9 Liberal Democrats in the Labour-dominated 96 -member Council.
The motion, which is quite broad and includes lots green policies, was prompted by Manchester Friends of the Earth’s Survey of Local Election Candidates regarding their policies on climate change, food, waste and sustainable transport. Councillor Chamberlain told us that he put forward the motion as it’s easy to make green statements and promises during an election – what he wanted to see now is that they re-affirm these green principles and translate them into action.
“I was also want the council to embrace its role and lead the way in building a greener, more sustainable city,” he said. “There has been a lot of things kicked into the long grass and I want things to get done. The council is good at marketing itself as green but I do worry that it’s just empty rhetoric.”
The motion puts forward a list of suggestions which can either be accepted, amended or rejected at the full council meeting at Manchester’s Town Hall. These include:
To adopt Meat-Free Mondays in all of the Council’s catering and services.
To create a Bee Action Plan to create natural habitats in public open spaces.
To encourage stronger regulations to stop supermarkets from throwing away edible fruit and vegetables
To switch to a renewable energy tariff for all its buildings and services so that all the electricity consumed comes from a ‘Green’ and sustainable source.
To declare itself a ‘Fracking-Free Zone.’
To set a recycling target of 70% by 2025 for Greater Manchester.
To fully acknowledge the impact Manchester International Airport has on the carbon emissions in the City by ensuring the full impact of the airport (including flights) is included in Climate Change strategies.
To set a target of 20% of journeys under 5 miles being made by bike by 2020.
To introduce a default speed limit of 20mph in all residential areas for the benefit of people walking and cycling.
To support better integration of cycling and public transport in particular through the provision of a cycle carriage on off-peak Metrolink trams and longer distance bus services.
Chamberlain added that this wasn’t a party-political motion and hoped it would get a lot of support and encourage a debate. “I am worried that it will be amended and lose its value but if it’s accepted, I do think it will make a difference. I think there are a lot of practical things and suggestions that the council could take up.”
When ask how he will ensure that the motion’s suggestions aren’t just accepted and then ignored, Chamberlain admitted that it would be challenging. “We will have to monitor it and keep asking for updates on progress. I also think that it’s not just the job of councillor to do this – locals and anybody worried about these issues should try and follow up on these policies’ progress too. I don’t want this motion just to be agreed in principle, I want it to be carried out.”
Bernard Priest (Labour), Ardwick’s councillor and Executive Member for Neighbourhood Services said that his first impressions of the motion suggestions was that they were already part of the council’s existing policy. “There is nothing new in the motion from what I’ve seen and I think the council’s already got a robust set of policies which we need to get on with.”
Priest did however concede that MCC currently has no policy on fracking and although there are no plans for fracking to take place in Manchester, he admitted that he was dubious about the practice. He noted that the council would not be able to change Metrolink’s policy on not allowing bikes on their trams although they could campaign for it.
Priest was also unsure about the meat-free Mondays suggestion as he explained that those getting married at the council on Mondays may not be happy if meat was left off the menu. He concluded: “There is nothing in the motion that I disagree with but I’m at a loss to know what putting the policies together like that will actually achieve?”
Manchester Climate Monthly requested a comment from Manchester Friends of the Earth, but they were not able to provide one at the time of publication. and they were in the process of sending us this while we were hitting the “publish” button.
“We are pleased that many of the environmental issues highlighted in our local election survey, conducted for the May elections, were positively supported by many candidates across all parties.
“This is a welcome sign that councillors are starting to recognise the importance of tackling environmental issues in securing a prosperous and sustainable future for Manchester.
“We look forward to a positive and constructive debate on Wednesday about these issues, and Manchester Friends of the Earth would welcome the opportunity to work with the Council and other organisations and individuals to help make Manchester a cleaner, greener and fairer city.”
Paid employment opportunity: Volunteer Coordinator for EMERGE 3Rs
EMERGE 3Rs has a paid employment opportunity for a new Volunteer Coordinator. The main purpose of the role is to develop and coordinate EMERGE’s volunteering programme which involves volunteers in a range of environmental projects focussed on sustainable resource use. The Volunteer Coordinator will recruit, train and support volunteers in a variety of roles across the organisation, including within FareShare North West.
Hours: 35 hours a week including some evenings and weekends.
Location: Based at EMERGE 3Rs, Units E1 – E4 New Smithfield Market, Manchester M11 2WJ. However, the job will require flexibility including out of office work within the community in Manchester and the surrounding area.
Contract: Contract until 31/03/2013 subject to further funding.
To apply: For an informal chat about the role please contact Nicola Milner on 0161 223 8200.
You’d be forgiven for not knowing it, but there’s a “Greater Manchester Climate Change Strategy.” It sets out some challenging targets. One of the targets that is being missed, however, is the deadline to produce a plan to implement that very strategy itself.
We were assured that the “Implementation Plan” would be presented in March (it was due to kick in from April 1st). It wasn’t. We were assured that everything was on track for the following meeting of the “Environment Commission” – the group that signs off this stuff before it goes in front of the big boys (the Greater Manchester Combined Authority heads). So, with great anticipation we have just downloaded the papers for the July meeting (Friday 13th in Oldham, in case you’re at an extremely loose end)…
Er, whoops. There’s this…
It is proposed that a first full draft of the [Implementation] Plan is presented to the Commission at its next meeting on October 12th and, depending upon the progress of approval for the GMS ‘refresh’ and progress on the partnership with Government Depts, the Plan can be finalised at that meeting or on December 7th ahead of being presented to the AGMA Executive for approval.
Why? Well, y’see…
While an immense diversity of description, detail, priority and measurement in reporting is making the process of aggregation and summary extremely challenging, progress towards building up a picture of aggregated activity levels across Greater Manchester from 2011 – 2015 is being made. Once a certain amount of collation has been completed, a broadly indicative baseline of currently planned activity will be in place.
Anyone who is waiting for the GMCA to prepare Manchester for the challenges of climate change, well, enjoy the wait. Everyone else – why not get involved in making things happen? Thursday July 19th, from 6.30pm to 9pm at Madlab…
This youtube is 54 seconds long and tells you about a really exciting project happening here in Manchester. Please watch it!
Best wishes, and, as ever, if you want to volunteer some time and/or energy to MCFly, get in touch with us via mcmonthly@gmail.com…
PS Here’s our post-mortem of the last print issue. Please add to it!
Arwa Aburawa and Marc Hudson
Coming up this week
Tuesday, July 10, 7:00pm until 8:30pm Powering the future: your questions answered Manchester Friends of the Earth Green Fish Resource Centre, 46-50 Oldham Street, M4 1LE
How can we keep the lights on without new nuclear?
Who do we want to control our energy supply?
What can I do to support Clean British Energy?
Join us for a discussion of all things energy-related with our special guests:
* Glyn Thomas from Friends of the Earth
* Ed Gill from Good Energy
* TBC from The Carbon Co-op
Tuesday 10th July, 7.30pm Screening of ‘Gasland.’ A screening of the Josh Fox’s controversial documentary about ‘fracking’, the process of extracting natural gas from shale oil, takes place at the 3MT Venue, Afflecks Arcade, 35-39, Oldham Street, Manchester, M1 1JG. Supported by The Cooperative, this is a FREE event, but seats are limited to 70, so please book your place now by ringing the Three Minute Theatre on: 0161 834 4517 or emailing: gaslandscreening@yahoo.co.uk
Wednesday 11th July 1.30-3pm Launch of Hyde Park Community Orchard
The event has been organised so that local schools and other volunteers who have been involved in planting or making the artworks can come and celebrate completion of the new features. There will be refreshments and cakes, kids’ activities and tours of the orchard. The Mayor will be present to declare the orchard open so we are hoping for some real summer weather!
Please RSVP if you’d like to attend here http://hyde-park-community-orchard.eventbrite.com/
Weds 11th July 10.00—16.00, Engaging Communities on Climate Change, The Green Fish Resource Centre, 46-50 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE
This course will teach you the skills and information needed to develop long-term engagement of civil society organisations, groups and individuals in work on climate change and low-carbon living £395: Business rate £288: Large charities, public sector and small businesses £130: Smaller charities (under 15 staff) and individuals.
Bookings Tel: 0207 324 4775 Email: anna@talkaction.org
Weds 11th July 4-7pm Growing Manchester networking event at the Lakeside Centre, Platt Fields Park
‘Growing Manchester’ and the ‘Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens’ would like to invite you to a network gathering
The aims are to:
> Meet other participants in Growing Manchester or from community garden projects in the city
> Learn how a number of projects have developed their growing project, what works and what doesn’t
> Share ideas and support one another to overcome challenges
> Discuss how other participants, the Growing Manchester programme and the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, amongst others, can support your group
> Be inspired by the Friends of Platt Fields plot and get your hands dirty!
To book your place at the gathering or find out more about the event email raichael@farmgarden.org.uk or call 07505 172 335 102.
Thursday 12th, 7pm to 9.00pm Green Party meeting, Creative Corner Cafe, 14 Milton Grove, Whalley Range M16 0BP. including brief presentation and longer workshop about “SteadyState Manchester” facilitated by Marc Hudson
Thu 12 July 2012, 7.00pm until 8.30pm Manchester Friends of the Earth Climate Subgroup Meeting
“Our monthly climate subgroup meeting at which we’ll be planning next steps on the Clean British Energy campaign and our local campaign to engage businesses with Manchester’s climate change plan, A Certain Future. If you’d like to join us, please call/text Ali on 07786 090520 so we know to expect you.”
Green Fish Resource Centre, 46-50 Oldham St, Manchester
Friday 13, 10am to 12 noon Greater Manchester Environment Commission meeting. Open to public. Oldham
Lessons we like to pretend we have learnt
Senses of humour are very personal things. Arwa is way better at layout than Marc.
Reading the Manchester web
From Mad Cycle Lanes of Manchester “Sky Ride is one of those events where lots of drivers strap bikes onto their cars and drive into Manchester so they can have a few hours cycling in the city centre, dressed up in helmets and ugly yellow advertising bibs before driving home again to their car-dominated suburbs where they hardly ever cycle. Far from improving the image of cycling, it promotes the idea that cycling is dangerous and strange.”
Diabetes and climate change are two urgent challenges in the 21st century. IDF has produced a pioneering policy report that establishes both the interconnections between these global risks and the opportunity to combat them together.
The report was produced in consultation with global experts from the health and environment sectors, including Dr Fiona Adshead, Sir George Alleyne, Associate Professor Ruth Colagiuri, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Professor Anthony J McMichael and Professor Hugh Montgomery. IDF gratefully acknowledges the unrestricted grant given by Bupa for the production of this report.
Launched at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the Diabetes and Climate Change Report puts diabetes, NCDs and health at the heart of sustainable development.
MCFly co-editors Arwa Aburawa and Marc Hudson on the magazine’s relationship to party politics in Manchester.
We have had meetings with Labour Councillors.
We have had meetings with Liberal Democrats Councillors.
We have had meetings – and even almost-collaborated – with members of the Executive of Manchester Green Party.
These have been a mix of on-the-record meetings, interviews, off-the-record meetings, and will continue to happen.
We know people in all three of these parties who are sincere, who are competent. Sometimes they are even both these things at the same time.
Here’s our point; we think all three parties are face-palm inadequate and under-performing on the central issues of the 21st century – how do we – with social and ecological justice – minimise the horror of climate change, and prepare for what we can no longer avoid.
Arwa Aburawa and Marc Hudson
P.S. We are not now, and have never been, members of any political party. If that changes, we will make a public statement. We will not then report on any matters relating to that party, we’ll get another MCFlyer to do that.
P.P.S. If ever anyone bothered to hack our emails to each other (a la ‘climategate’ at University of East Anglia) they would find plenty of material – spectacularly robust and unprintable assessments – about the actions of ALL THREE parties. That doesn’t mean the parties are irredeemable, or can or should be ignored. Just that MCFly tries (and often fails, of course) to do what we thought journos are supposed to do – report ‘without fear or favour.’
Call for short film scripts for producing a short video clip
The world is rapidly changing, and we are right in the midst of various environmental, societal, cultural, and economical transformations. Will these shifts, in sum, constitute a Great Transformation that will re-embed the economy within the realms of society and nature? For civil society organizations around the globe, the pivotal question is: how can we best shape these transformations in a fair, inclusive, and environmentally sound way, so as to enable human development and restore cultural diversity while remaining within planetary boundaries?
On the occasion of our international NGO-dialog project “NGO Strategy Dialogue on Energy and Climate, Agriculture and Food Security towards the Great Transformation – NGO SEAT” with an international conference attended by 150 international experts from all over the world (Bonn, 1-4 November 2012) we announce a competition for the best script on the topic of the Great Transformation. If you think you have an extraordinarily unique, amazingly original, and at the same time well-founded, intelligent and entertaining script idea in your mind – send it to us!
The winner will be awarded with prize money of € 2000 to € 4000 which should help to produce the short video clip. The exact value of the price money will be fixed by the jury.
Further honor will be handed to the winner by showing the video clip during the opening session of the conference and further sessions. In addition, the video clip will be available on a long-term basis on the Germanwatch website and YouTube Channel. The second prize will be € 500 and the third € 250.
What do we expect from you?
The competition is intended for scripts only. Only submissions in English will be accepted. The submitted idea should not exceed 5 minutes in total for the video clip and must focus on the Great Transformation. The topic might be approached taking into account the following thoughts:
Why do we need a Great Transformation (e.g. to turn challenges such as crises in climate, energy, food and financial systems into opportunities)?
What needs to be transformed and how (e.g. consumption and lifestyles, systems and ideas of growth, values, perceptions, attitudes, aspirations, role models etc.)?
How will the Great Transformation positively affect our lives (e.g. societal well-being, happiness, buen vivir, co-existence with nature etc.)?
Which role can Civil Society and other actors play to promote the Great Transformation (e.g. new forms of organising society, participation, ownership etc.)?
How can political processes such as the follow-up to the Rio summit or the UN climate negotiations play a role in this process?
The closing date for the competition will be 10 August 2012 (i.e. we need to receive your envelope until this date!). Decisions will be announced on 25 August 2012. Once the winners have been announced, the winner of the first price will receive € 2,000 to € 4,000 to produce a short video clip based on the script. The closing date for the production of the video clip will be 15 October 2012. Germanwatch might be in a position to even fund the realisation of more than one video clip and even beyond this date, which can only be decided at a later stage.
Some formalities for the submission
In order to submit the script, please send the following elements inside one envelope:
working title and a short description of content (max. 10 lines, on the title page of the script)
the script and if necessary a description of the setting and acting persons
a detailed timetable of the steps of production
a detailed budget estimation for the production of the video clip (e.g., fees for actors and expenditure on materials and equipment)
samples of your previous work if existent
a short CV of the author(s)
the signed application form
Put the title of the planned video clip on the closed envelope.
Please send submissions to:
Germanwatch e.V.
Boris Schinke / “Call for scripts”
Kaiserstr. 201
53113 Bonn
GERMANY
Contact and further information
Schinke@germanwatch.org
Free Training opportunity: ‘Food & Climate Change’
EMERGE’s training sessions are designed to help you understand climate change & make an action plan of what you can do to reduce your own carbon footprint. These sessions are free but you must be available to attend all three sessions.
Friday 13th July 10 – 1: Find out about the impacts of climate change globally and locally and what you can do to reduce your impact.
Friday 20th July 11.30 – 1.30: Cook and eat lunch together. Discuss food and climate change. Create your own carbon reduction action plan.
Friday 3rd August 12 – 1: Tell us how your plan of action went over lunch.
Location: EMERGE, Units E1-E4 New Smithfield Market, Manchester, M11 2WJ.
If you would like to attend this training please book your place by contacting Nicola Milner on 0161 223 8200 or email volunteering@emergemanchester.co.uk
Free Training opportunity: ‘Introduction to Growing your Own Vegetables’
Would you like to learn how to grow your own vegetables? Come down to EMERGE’s Learning Garden to find out how at one of our community growing sessions. These will be held on:
Saturday 21st July 10 – 3 and Saturday 4th August 10 – 3at the EMERGE Learning Garden on New Smithfield Market, Manchester, M11 2WJ.
Lunch will be provided. Please inform EMERGE of any special dietary requirements.
We have 12 places available. Book early to avoid disappointment by contacting Nicola Milner on 0161 223 8200 or email volunteering@emergemanchester.co.uk
Our "leaders" are going to keep making empty promises. It makes them feel good. It gets the activists to act like zombie kittens. If you want to have some self-respect and perhaps make a difference (actual facts may vary), then find a functioning group that cares about your skills and knowledge - what you have, what you want.
One useful group might be www.climateemergencymanchester.net - you can email them on contact@climateemergencymanchester.net
manchester climate monthly 