26th Floor City Tower, Piccadilly Plaza Manchester, M1 4BT, Manchester (map)
The Manchester Greenpeace Network and ThoughtWorks are proud to present the 2014 climate change film by 350.org Disruption. Disruption lays bare the terrifying science, the shattered political process, the unrelenting industry special interests and the civic stasis that have brought us to this social, moral and ecological crossroads.
After the film Martin Porter will continue the story up to the present day, including the meetings, and the protests, that accompanied the COP20 and COP21 conferences in New York and Paris, and then there will be a discussion on how we work together to deal with the threat of climate change.
This is the first collaboration between Manchester Greenpeace and the ethical tech company ThoughtWorks, and takes place in their office in City Tower. We hope it will be the start of a series of regular film showing and discussions.
The film is free, and there will be drinks and snacks.
Manchester City Council has reportedly suspended Councillor Kevin Peel over his social media activity. If this is true (and we have it from here [unsubbed Lib Dem schadenfreude] , here and also from a “reliable anonymous source”), then the number of Councillors who are not Labour Party apparatchiks has sensationally doubled from 1 to 2.
The Council is made up of 96 Councillors. There is 1 Liberal Democrat, and now Kevin Peel, it seems.
If Peel is suspended, presumably his chairmanship of the totally useless Neighbourhoods and Environment “Scrutiny” committee will be revoked, and someone else will get the gig. Then everything will be just fine. Oh yes.
There is an aching need for more citizen journalists, especially in a city as dominated by one party and its smug hangers-on as this one.
Is there a story in your community that is crying out to be told to a wider audience? Is an important issue many care about not being covered in the mainstream media? Are you concerned about the increasing bias and declining standards of journalism in the UK’s press?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, and you live in or near Manchester, then The Meteor Journalism Course could be for you. The ten week course will give you a basic understanding of how journalism works and the ability and confidence to create your own quality journalism, in print or video. The course lectures will be conducted by experienced journalists, and National Union of Journalists members, with a wealth of knowledge to pass on from their time in the national and local press.
To apply, submit the following:
A short statement saying why you would like to take the course, contact details, and a brief explanation of your submitted content, explaining when and why it was produced (200 words max).
An article or video you have produced. This can be in any style and format and should be around 400 words, or 1–3mins long. A section taken from a longer piece is acceptable, and so is a piece produced specifically for this application.
Deadline for applications is 17 March. Applicants will know if they are successful before 24 March 2017. Applications should be emailed to:editor@themeteor.org
If you would like further information about the course text or ring 07504 331959.
The two hour weekly workshops will be held at the Green Fish Resource Centre, Oldham St, Manchester M4 1LE. Sessions will start on 6th April 2017 at 7pm sharp. The sessions will then run for the next 10 weeks at the same time and place unless otherwise specified.
The Meteor team got together as a result of a journalism course just like this one, and we believe that this course can build the same enthusiasm again. Later on in the course participants will have the opportunity to write, edit and publish stories on The Meteor website. We look forward to reading/viewing your work, meeting you and working together to create a more vibrant, inclusive, relevant and diverse media landscape in Manchester.
(Please share this with anyone in Manchester you feel may benefit from this training)
Best song about climate change? It wasn’t, until recently, an honour that meant much. Excluding witty reinterpretations of old favourites (no ‘Here Comes The Sun’), the barrier had been set particularly low. Most musicians can sound less pious than ‘Love Song To The Earth’ and many poets (/ 6 year olds) should aspire to richer lyrics than M. Jackson (cf. elephants, trust). That might now all change with Anohni’s album ‘Hopelessness,’ a furious beautiful wail.
‘4 degrees’ is the anthem. Listen to this first. Angry drums, warlike horns and then the shrugging refrain ‘it’s only four degrees, it’s only four degrees’. There follow apocalyptic wishlists of everything Anohni will watch with relish when global temperatures rise. Dogs, fish, lemurs – ‘I want to see them burn’. The perspective takes a moment to comprehend. Is this the persona of a nasty oil baron? Or a vindictive God? I now feel it’s somewhere between voicing a taboo (do some of us enjoy this image of destruction, or our power over the world?) and Anohni acknowledging, painfully, her own complicity, calling herself out.
Play on repeat. And then listen to the rest of the album. It explores the dark crannies of recent regimes that most artists don’t touch, or address head on. The lyrics are pugnacious, on the nose, and thus jar all the more interestingly with Anohni’s angelic tremor. No matter how many times I listen to ‘Crisis’, its frank lines come as a shock: ‘Mass graves… Killed you father… In Guanatanemo’. Yet many of the songs here also play with the tropes of pop. ‘Drone Bomb Me’ is a love song – from the point of view of an Afghani girl, her family fresh dead. The low-toned ‘Obama’ is a break-up song, for hope.
The album is, therefore, a kind of Trojan horse. Visceral songs that can sneak radio play. Indeed, many of these tracks make you went to get up and dance (a more sensible response to apocalypse than stockpiling tinned food). The soaring electronic production offsets Anohni’s unique voice far better than the orchestral scores of Anthony and the Johnson’s, which conformed to type. I’ve long preferred her riskier, earlier collaborations with Hercules and Love Affair. And I’ve long felt that electronica (not to mention disco) get too easily depoliticized, neutralized. It is strange that in 2017 ‘protest song’ still conjures up an image of jangly 60s guitar. But here Anohni is pushing her plaintive singing in a new, abrasive way. Even Hudson Mohawke’s backings send his art in a different direction, no longer handmaiden to that particularly matcho Yeezusy form of EDM.
Who else makes – or could make – this kind of music today? I wore out PJ Harvey’s ‘Let England Shake’ (standout track: ‘This Glorious Land’) and welcomed her move into more political terrain. But both live and in recording, 2016’s ‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’, based on travels through Afghanistan, felt voyeuristic. I would love to see an angry new release from M.I.A – one of the few ‘big name’ artists as forward-looking as Anohni. Or maybe we simply need to wait for the follow up to ‘Hopelessness’. One track, ‘Paradise’, has been leaked, with the full version to soon follow. Her first offering in this guise was bleak, and the world has not got any better since.
This month’s Manchester Friends of the Earth meeting features a skillshare on all things to do with the media (social or otherwise), publicity and communications. Come along us and tell us what skills you would like to learn or what skills you can share with others…
Do you know your Twitter from your Snapchat, Facebook or Flickr?
Do you want to learn how to use social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), write a press release, create videos? Or do you have social media, design or photography skills that you can share? Would you like to help reach more people with campaign messages on climate change, fracking, clean air, nature campaign, recycling, active travel….
The event is open to anyone involved in environment, social & economic justice campaigns across Greater Manchester and is a ‘taster’ session for people to learn and share skills and identify people’s interests and (future) training needs.
Come along and learn about Twitter, how to write great press releases, community journalism and video training courses and effective communication skills.
The meeting will be on the 2nd Floor of the Green Fish Resource Centre, 46-50 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LE. The building has lift access, hearing loop facilities and accessible toilets.
Please spread to anyone and anywhere that might be interested…
PhD studentship now available: New cityscapes of micro-energy storage
Information and mobile technologies have been heralding a new wave of electrification in households, thanks to the increased use of batteries in particular. However, it is less known how the expansion of battery-based electric power across an ever-increasing range of devices is transforming people’s everyday lives, and by implication, the wider technical and cultural fabric of cities. Using original empirical research, this project seeks to provide novel insights into the social and infrastructural dimensions of the new urban energy landscapes associated with battery use.
Please contact Professor Stefan Bouzarovski (stefan.bouzarovski@manchester.ac.uk) with any questions about the position. The studentship is expected to commence in the 2017/2018 academic year.
JOIN US! On the 19th March to make history for women’s cycling in Manchester!
As part of Transport for Greater Manchester‘s WHOLE month of cycling events, we are delighted to be one of 60 – all happening to support International Women’s Day.
We’ll be leaving Platt FIelds Bike Hub at 1pm to form one of the three feeder rides to join the main event. We’ll pedal at a chilled lovely pace around the park, up the Fallowfield Loop and onto Alex Park. We’ll have qualified Ride Leaders on hand to help keep the group together 🙂
The main mass participation ride will be happening in Alexandra Park where all the feeder rides will come together for one bulk beaming pedal around the park – HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN WE GET!!??? Followed by an ace bike party with a bunch of stuff going on to boost current pedallers and encourage newbies to the saddle. Here’s what’s happening:
>> Free bike tuning & maintenance advice
>> Cyclist’s Speaker’s Corner – get your voice heard!
>> Learn2Ride sessions
>> Tasty grub & drinks at the Teahive Cafe
>> Silly bike games for kids and adults with ACE prizes to be won [more info to follow]
>> Women’s cycling photo exhibition
>> Safety goodies & bike training information from the TfGM bike trailer
It’s going to be a great day! Please please spread the word to anyone you think might be interested.
**** Guys are absolutely welcome as well – this event is by no means excluding you awesome lot – but designed to help highlight IWD and help develop women’s cycling in our fine city… Would be beyond great if you could join us – as individualsl or with your family & friends ***
Job Title: Project Worker
Reporting to: Sow the City Director Grade/Salary: £19-23K pro rata (based on experience & qualifications), 0.6 FTE Hours: Part time3 days a week. May include some weekends and evenings. Contract: Fixed Term for 6 months Probationary Period: 8 weeks Location: Based at Sow the City office, Manchester City Centre
Do you have the skills and enthusiasm to teach communities how to grow their food?
Do you have experience of successful partnership work?
Do you want a varied and rewarding job?
Background to the Role
Sow the City is a small, dynamic and growing social enterprise based in Manchester. We have over eight years of experience delivering projects across the city to improve local communities and build a heathier city where everyone can grow their own food.
We provide a range of services to Local Authorities, schools, housing associations, the NHS, and the private sector including workshops, events, corporate volunteering, consultancy, landscape design, consultancy and research. More information can be found at www.sowthecity.org
We have a passion for what food growing can achieve and the issues it can help address, ranging from addressing food poverty to boosting the health and wellbeing of individuals and the community. To do more of this we need your help!
You will be responsible for providing a busy programme of horticultural training and community development work, sharing your knowledge and passion for the environment and urban agriculture.
Our office is based in the Northern Quarter in the City Centre but we work across Greater Manchester with occasional work elsewhere in the UK.
For an informal chat about the post, please contact Jon Ross, Sow the City on 0161 465 6954 or email jon@sowthecity.org.
Application is by CV and a covering letter explaining how you fit the job description and person specification (available here). Please limit both documents to no more than 2 sides of A4 each. Submit the application via email to info@sowthecity.org
Closing date for application is midday on 27th March 2017
Please mention environmentjob.co.uk when responding to this ad.
In partnership with Eros Press and Gaia Project, we are delighted to host the exclusive launch of Sally O’Reilly’s hotly endorsed debut novel, Crude.
Sally O’Reilly will be treating us to readings from her new novel and revealing her research methodologies. Power, the politics of narration, the potential of satire and the role of the fantastic in contemporary critical/creative writing will be core themes explored in her presentation. Sally will also be doing a book-signing, and Crude will be available to purchase from our Bookshop at a special launch price of £10.00.
Introduced and chaired by Gaia Project curator James Brady, ARTFUL… RESISTANCE! is set to be a rather lively complement to the unveiling of Crude. The platform will be handed over to art-environmentalists, Hayley Newman (artist and member of Liberate Tate) and Jai Redman (artist and Creative Director of Engine). From personal reflections on ‘being an artist in an activist’s world’ to creative dissidence against corporate oil sponsorship of the cultural sector, you can be sure to expect some polemical performance, a bit of healthy ranting and even a protest sing-song! To conclude, Brady, Newman, O’Reilly and Redman will convene for a playful discussion and Q&A on the complexities and ethics of artful resistance and disobedience, and on the collective struggle against the insidious neoliberal machine.
Tyndall Manchester would like to invite you to attend the next talk in our seminar series on “Travel behaviour change and climate change: communicating better” by Dr. Kate Pangbourne, on Thursday 23rd March (room C1, George Begg Building, Sackville Street) at 4.00pm.
Travel behaviour change and climate change: communicating better
Dr. Kate Pangbourne, The University of Leeds (biography attached)
The need to address over-reliance on car-based personal transport remains a significant problem in most parts of the developed world. Too much car travel damages health in several ways- directly by air pollution and indirectly by creating urban air pollution. The emissions from petrol and diesel engines also increase the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and thus transport is heavily implicated in climate change.
In this talk, I will introduce the work of the ADAPT project, funded by EPSRC through the Living with Environmental Change challenge fellowship programme. The ADAPT project aims to create tools for creating effective personalised motivational messages for travel mode shift as a contribution to supporting individuals to adapt to the effects of environmental change. Improving mode shift will support efforts to mitigate the impacts of such change.
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
JOIN US! On the 19th March to make history for women’s cycling in Manchester!
r seminar series on “Travel behaviour change and climate change: communicating better” by Dr. Kate Pangbourne, on Thursday 23rd March (room C1, George Begg Building, Sackville Street) at 4.00pm. 
manchester climate monthly 