FEASTA Bulletin, Autumn 2004

Contents

1. The FEASTA Annual Lecture 2004 by Wolfgang Sachs
2. Building the Eco-Economy
3. Growth: The Celtic Cancer, The Human Cost Of The Global Economy
4. Community Learning Toolkit
5. Understanding the Economics of Sustainable Development
6. The FEASTA Conference 2005
7. Membership

(1) The FEASTA Annual Lecture 2004 by Wolfgang Sachs

This year's Feasta lecture will be in Dublin on Thursday, November 18th. The venue will be announced later. The lecturer is Dr. Wolfgang Sachs, a Senior Fellow at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Energy, Environment, in Germany, where he leads two projects, "Globalization and Sustainability" and "Environment and Fairness in the World Trade Regime". In his talk, he will survey resource conflicts around the world from the twin perspectives of fairness and justice.

Dr. Sachs is the author of several books including The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power (1992) and Greening the North: A Post-industrial Blueprint for Ecology and Equity (1998). The titles of two of his 2003 publications, Environment and Human Rights and Fair Wealth: Eight Shifts towards a Light Economy, give a good idea of the approach he is likely to take in his lecture.

Dr. Sachs is a former editor of the magazine Development, and was Chair of the Board of Greenpeace Germany from 1993 to 2001. In 2002 he helped compile The Jo'burg Memo: Fairness in a Fragile World, a memorandum written for the World Summit on Sustainable Development charting a sustainable development agenda for the current decade.

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(2) Building the Eco-Economy

FEASTA's Richard Douthwaite will be speaking at the main conference of the next Convergence Festival being held in Dublin on Friday the 15th of October. Combining analysis, conceptual frameworks and real-life case studies, this highly participative event moves beyond chalk-and-talk, to engage and challenge delegates to think through the implications and opportunities for business. This conference entitled, New Directions for Business, also features leading sustainable business consultant Dr Michael Braungart, Gerry Wrynn (Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment), David Middleton (CEO of the Business Council for Sustainable Development UK), Carol Conway (CEO of Common Purpose), John Gilliland (OBE, Director of Rural Regeneration Ltd.) and Mary Kelly (Director of the EPA).

In a tapestry of events examining the economic, ecological and cultural dimensions of this future, Convergence 6: Building the Eco-Economy brings together stakeholders from the island of Ireland and the best thinking available to explore the challenges and opportunities for cultivating the next economic miracle: a world class business environment that is clean, green, sustainable and profitable.

Convergence will run from Thursday the 14th to Sunday the 17th of October in the Cultivate Sustainable Living Centre which was formally the Viking Adventure Centre in the west end of Temple Bar, Dublin.

Festival highlights include the visionary chemist, author and international sustainable business consultant Dr Michael Braungart PhD who will launch the festival on Thursday 14th with a keynote lecture. Also included in the Convergence programme is an exhibit of best practice in sustainable products and services, the Design and Innovation Forum, a Slow Fashion Cabaret which highlights eco and ethical designs, and a selection of provocative films to make you stop! Think! and Act!.

See http://www.sustainable.ie/convergence for full details.

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(3) Growth: The Celtic Cancer, Why the global economy damages our health and society

A 300-page bumper issue of the Feasta Review will be published in November. "The aim of the Review is to present in a permanent form some of the thinking that has been going on in the Feasta network since the previous one appeared" says John Jopling, who edited it with Richard Douthwaite. "It is three years since the last issue and there's a lot to report."

The issue's theme is the elimination of the human cost of economic growth and globalisation. In the opening article, Dr. Elizabeth Cullen demonstrates comprehensively how great this cost has been. She cites survey after survey to show how the stresses generated by Ireland's recent, rapid economic growth damaged its people's health and the strength of their communities.

"Although studies around the world had clearly shown that ill-health and certain crimes increase if the gap between rich and poor is allowed to widen, the Irish government deliberately increased the width of the gap by its tax policies in order to improve competitiveness" Dr. Cullen says. "In other words, they sacrificed the health of the people to improve the health of the economy. I was shocked."

Among the other 18 articles and 15 book reviews is the text of Dr. David Fleming's 2001 Feasta lecture on how we should respond to the threat that a catastrophic economic breakdown will occur in the next few years when the world's oil and gas production begins to fall as the reserves are used up. Stan Thekaekara's 2002 Feasta lecture is also there. In it, he describes how his thinking has been profoundly influenced by that of the tribal people among whom he works. "The economies of indigenous people are based on a concept of no ownership," he says. "How can you 'own' the land, the water, the forests, the birds, the animals?"

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(4) Community Learning Toolkit

FEASTA's Education Working Group is developing an innovative mixed media toolkit of study materials on sustainability for use by organisations or groups of friends who might wish to meet together regularly to explore and discuss the topic together as a prelude to some form of action. The kit will have material for ten meetings and will cover the work of FEASTA including energy, peak oil, climate change, and money systems. If you are involved with a local group that would be interested in using this resource or interested in forming a local group in your area please contact communication@feasta.org

Facilitation training for people interested in delivering the toolkit is being offered in November. If you would like to be considered for this please contact communication@feasta.org

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(5) Understanding the Economics of Sustainable Development

The Development Studies Centre in Kimmage Manor are launching a new course in association with FEASTA. The course, which is titled 'Understanding the Economics of Sustainable Development', will begin in January 2005, further details and a brochure available in the autumn from The Development Studies Centre, Kimmage Manor, Whitehall Road, Dublin 12. For further details e-mail tom.campbell@dsckim.ie

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(6) The FEASTA Conference 2005

Feasta is planning a major conference to be held next spring on the sustainability of the systems that currently produce most of the world's food. Food safety, water contamination, habitat destruction, animal cruelty, soil erosion, loss of genetic diversity, declining rural communities, the threats of GMOs - these are just some of the problems which have been used to argue for significant change in how our food is produced. But in the near future the significant stresses of changing weather patterns, aquifer depletion and especially peak oil, could combine to cause significant food shortages globally and sharp increases in prices - at the very least.

This food conference will focus on these stresses, particularly the effects that dramatic increases in oil and gas prices will have on food production, distribution and supply systems that are heavily dependent on cheap and abundant fossil fuels. We are about to enter an era where we will have to once again feed the world with limited use of fossil fuels. But do we have enough time, knowledge, money, energy and political power to make this massive transformation to a food supply system that is already threatened by significant environmental stresses?

This conference will highlight the problems that we face, examine many possible solutions, and will seek to answer two questions: Can the world's population be fed sustainably without the use of fossil fuels within the production, distribution and supply of food? If we concentrate on creating truly sustainable food supply systems, can many other environmental, social and economic problems be reduced if not resolved? Further details from food@feasta.org

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(7) Membership

Membership of FEASTA gives you the opportunity to support the foundation's work and entitles you to a discount on the Feasta review due out next month, two newsletters, quarterly e-mail bulletins, and concessions on our events and publications.

€20 for a years membership
€10 concession for students and unwaged
€30 for a voluntary group or organisation
€65 for a funded group or organisation

If you are not a member please consider becoming one. Donations are very welcome.