Steady-State Economy report to be discussed by City Council

Posted on November 11, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly

The concept of a “steady-state economy” will be discussed by a committee of Manchester City Council on Wednesday 16th November. Members of the public are able to attend, and Manchester Climate Monthly would encourage anyone concerned about the long-term future of this city to be there.

The meeting, of the Council’s Economy, Employment and Skills Oversight and Scrutiny Committee, will be held at Manchester Town Hall at 10am, next Wednesday. It will be in Committee Room 11.  The Steady State Economy report is the first item.

There is a lot of history to this report, which we will tell y’all about over the coming days. For now – you can read the whole 4 and a bit pages of report, as a pdf from the relevant page of the council’s website.

We’ve also posted the ‘meat’ of it here on our site. Hyperlinks and commentary to follow…

Marc Hudson

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Occupy Climate Change

Posted on November 10, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly

MCFly co-editor, Arwa Aburawa, has just had a brief piece of writing published on the frontpage of the Canadian magazine Adbusters.

I’m biased, of course, but I think it’s champion. Feel free to leave comments there or, even better, here.

Marc Hudson

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Event Report: Leadership for a Sustainable Future Lecture

Posted on November 8, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly

We asked MCFly reader Laurence Menhinick to attend a recent lecture at Manchester Metropolitan University and tell us what she thought. Here’s what she wrote.

Leadership for a Sustainable Future – by Professor Damian Hughes (3rd November 2011)

Reading Professor Hughes’ impressive résumé (international speaker, former Manchester United football coach, Human Resources Director for Unilever, sports psychologist to the GB Rugby League, author of leadership books and director of his own Change Management Consultancy), you couldn’t help but have high expectations from such a world-class expert. Indeed the lecture promised to explain the human psyche and behaviour patterns, and to equip us with practical steps to overcome resistance to change – all of which I reckoned would come in very handy when trying to persuade people to review their actions and change their impact on the environment. The event was very well attended by a mixed crowd, from important business managers to MMU students, together with lecturers and a generous helping of interested members of the public, me included. Continue reading →

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Debdale Eco-Centre in *NOT* shutting down shocker

Posted on November 7, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly

MCFly investigates a bad news story, and finds the truth isn’t quite as bad as had been reported…

On 14th October, Manchester Evening News published a story listing all the organisations facing funding cuts to be agreed at an upcoming meeing of Manchester City Council’s Executive. That list included Debdale Eco-Centre, which describes itself as “is one of the few eco-centres in Manchester focussing on organic gardening”. Its “Grow Your Own Food” project had received over £5,000 from the council in the previous year. Continue reading →

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MCFly climate bulletin #1, Nov 7 2011

Posted on November 7, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Hi all,
it’s now just under 60 days till the first Manchester Climate Monthly (dead tree format) hits the streets (on January 2nd, 2012). Please encourage your climate-concerned friends to take out a (free!!) subscription – via our subscribe page. And follow us on twitter (@mcr_climate)

Training opportunities.
Media training day, run by the Mule Sat 19 November 11-5, £10pm

“Greening the Green Deal”, Sun Dec 4th, 12.30 to 4.30, at Manchester Town Hall. Free, but you need to book, which you can do via this page.

Changes on the website
– November 2011 calendar updated
An hour long lecture about “critical thinking and climate change” and skepticism/denial is now on our climate science videos page (not that we made it!)
There’s the beginnings of a glossary…
We’ve added a “Paid Gigs” page, where we will post relevant job adverts.

Local and Regional News
On 29th October, students evicted a Ryan Air stall from an employment fair. Indymedia account here.

According to NorthWest Business Insider, “a total of £227m funding has been dished out by the Regional Growth Fund to the North West as part of its second funding round. The government said the money is set to support 7,800 jobs with 39,500 indirect jobs supported. Successful bids include Pirelli Tyres in Carlisle for the development and manufacture of less carbon intensive car tyres.” Will this reduce overall carbon emissions? In principle, yes.

31 Oct Red Rose Forest is happy with its project involving tree planting in Trafford.

3 November United Utilities get £400m loan from European Investment Bank for climate mitigation and energy efficiency works

Reading
On the upcoming Durban climate talks.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rise by Record Amount (Guardian 4/11/2011)
Morocco to host first solar farm in €400bn renewables network
1 November The IPCC says the wild weather is gonna get wilder (Guardian)

Action urged on ships’ carbon emissions by Richard Black (BBC, 3 Nov 2011)

And Jim Hanna, sustainability director at everyone’s favourite chain, Starbucks, has told US Congress that climate change will make coffee more expensive (this caused prolonged whimpering at MCFly towers…

News flash – New research shows that carnivores don’t like vegetarians. They feel veggies judge them, so get their retaliation in first…

Campaigning tools
Tearfund have a new short video about the human impacts of climate change in the Majority World. “What does a man from rural Uganda called Emmanuel have in common with a world-renowned scientist called John from Wales? And how is a man called Bill from a terraced house in Leeds connected to Andrew, who lives in a small village in Malawi.”

Holly Hammond, at Plan to Win has written a brilliant post about facilitating large groups.

On the “Nerd Loop” and losing interest in communicating climate change

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AfSL Lose Bid To Create ‘Renewable Energy Hubs’

Posted on November 5, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Action for Sustainable Living (AfSL), the award-winning Manchester-based eco charity has lost a bid to create three community renewable energy hubs across the city. On Monday 31st October, they announced that they had not been selected as one of twenty finalists in a competition run by EnergyShare, a fund that supports community-led renewable energy projects across Great Britain,.

Josh Steiner of AfSL told Manchester Climate Monthly that the project will now remain on hold as they lack the financial resources to launch it. The AfSL project, named RENEW, wanted to establish three energy hubs which would serve as ‘models of best practice’ and ‘inspire their local communities to undertake locally-led energy projects including demand creation programmes for renewable, carbon literacy training and engagement, energy procurement projects and more.’

Continue reading →

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Startling confession from Manchester Town Hall

Posted on November 4, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly

The leader of Manchester City Council since before some MCFly readers were born, Richard Leese, has a blog, imaginatively titled “The Leader’s Blog.”(1)

In the latest post, he mentions

Heating in the old Town Hall is either on or off, takes a week to fully switch on, and equally takes a week to fully switch off. It’s currently on on the basis of a long range weather forecast that said we were going to have an extreme cold spell in October and of course exactly the opposite has happened leading to every window in the place being wide open in an attempt to keep the temperature down. Not very environmentally sustainable and not very pleasant to be in, so one of our many tasks will be to see how we can retrofit a more efficient heating system given the constraints of a Grade 1 listed building.

To head off a flurry of rude comments from aggrieved eco-worriers, the Crumpsall crusader adds later in the same post that: Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change Action Plan, Energy, Manchester Airport, Manchester City Council | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Campaign Update: Friends of the Earth’s Final Demand

Posted on November 1, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly

MCFly invited Ali Abbas of Friends of the Earth Manchester to tell us about FoE’s “Final Demand” campaign.

The Big Six energy companies have a lot to answer for.

Public anger has been growing as record prices, with average annual bills topping £1,300 for the first time, are matched by record profits, up from £15 per dual-fuel customer in June to £125 in October.

But it’s not just about the one in four UK households who won’t be able to afford to heat their homes properly this winter.

These same energy companies are lobbying hard for permission to build a new generation of gas- and coal-fired power stations, which could cost the average household an extra £300 per year by 2020 as fossil fuel prices continue to rise.

That’s why Friends of the Earth has launched its Final Demand campaign. Continue reading →

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Weather Vs Climate: Food, Nuclear Power and Thin Threads Of Hope

Posted on October 29, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly
MCFly went to the ‘Weather vs Climate’ event organised as part of the Manchester Science Festival on Thursday Oct 27. The first part of the event was a strange mix between a bad science lesson and cheap kids’ party. The presenters had us blow whistles/kazoos to show whether we understood the difference between weather and climate. Personally, I found it a little too traumatic, although families and kids may have found it useful.  Thankfully, part two – where the audience were able to ask a panel of climate experts including Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre any question they liked – was a big improvement.
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Solar Power and The Right to “No”?

Posted on October 28, 2011 by manchesterclimatemonthly

Manchester City Council is going ahead with a scheme to install solar panels across a swathe of North Manchester properties, to be in place before the end of March 2012. A councillor who asked whether tenants would have the right to say “no thanks” to panels received an unclear answer at the council’s Executive meeting. He has since been informed that tenants not interested in savings on their electricity bills of up to 100 pounds a year, will have the right to refuse the installation.

Manchester City Council’s nine member executive met on Wednesday 26th October. The meeting , dominated by the cuts to “voluntary and community” services and “supporting people” programme was later described by Council Leader Richard Leese as “distinctly miserable” on his blog. Continue reading →

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