Contents

1. Welcome to the 21st Century by Richard Douthwaite
2. Feasta event; 'Energy, Money and Growth' in February
3. What is Feasta doing?
4. Dublin based LETS
5. New publications to look out for.
6. Events
7. Membership

(1) Welcome to the 21st Century. By Richard Douthwaite.

I went to bed early on New Year's Eve, totally nonplussed by the excitement the media claimed other people were feeling. I certainly didn't feel like celebrating the arrival of the New Millennium in view of the mess humanity had made of the planet in the final fifty years of the last one. And yet, for anyone determined to be optimistic, some things are happening which can give them grounds for hope.

The most crucial challenge facing humanity is finding a way of living on the Earth that can be continued for generation after generation without degrading our environment any more. We've only a limited time left to do this - we have to get any new system up and running before the global climate begins to change so rapidly that the world's forests cannot adapt fast enough and die, along with everything living in them. The British Met. Office expects forest death to become really serious by 2050 if we continue as we are. So what hopeful signs have I detected that we might be about to start changing our toxic economic system for a more sustainable one and thus slowing down climate change?

When people hear really bad news, their first reaction is often to deny the truth of what they have heard. Only later do they come to accept it and act appropriately. Well, this has happened with climate change. At first industrialists and politicians tried to deny that the fossil-energy-intensive way in which we've been living is going to have to be scaled down by between 60 and 80% but now most, outside Ireland at least, are prepared to do so.

The clearest evidence for this is that two days before Christmas, the heads of the Met. offices in Britain and the United States sent a joint letter to the newspapers saying that the situation was now critical and 'to slow future change, we must start taking action soon'. They added that we also had to learn to live with the likely consequences of 'our past and ongoing activitiesŠ. more extreme weather, rising sea levels, changing precipitation patterns, ecological and agricultural dislocations, and the increased spread of human disease' "Ignoring climate change" they concluded, "will surely be the most costly of all possible choices, for us and our children." The full text of their letter is on the FEASTA website.

Another sign that the denial stage is past is that European environment ministers are becoming almost as outspoken as the scientists. The British minister, Michael Meacher, made a long, almost apocalyptic speech to the Geology Society in London towards the end of November, the text of which is also on the FEASTA site. In this he warned that ' unpredictable, but sudden, changes in climate' were liable to happen. He went on:

The message from the research is clear. We must take early action if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change and buy time to adapt. Early action would also reduce the risks of catastrophic "surprises".. If we can limit emissions we can slow the rate of change and minimise many of the worst impacts. By stabilising carbon dioxide at 550ppm, which is the level proposed by the EU to guide emissions reduction efforts, we can:

- avoid the loss of tropical forests;
- and, by the 2080s, prevent 2 some billion people experiencing increased water stress;
- and reduce by about 75 million the number of people flooded each year.

His speech concluded: "There has never been a greater need to fuse the disciplines of politics and science within a single coherent system. Ultimately, the future of our planet, our civilisation and our survival as a human species, may well depend on it."

The 'single, coherent system' he mentioned is, in fact, Contraction and Convergence, the process developed by Aubrey Meyer and a handful of part-time non-professionals attached to the Global Commons Institute in London. Meacher made this clear on January 26th in a message he sent to Tom Spencer, the former British Conservative MEP and ex-president of GLOBE International, an international association of parliamentarians, congratulating him on winning the Green Ribbon Award, largely for promoting the C&C concept. The Danish environment minister, Sven Auken, sent a similar message.

The really heartening aspect of C&C is that it distributes the right to burn fossil fuel not according to the size of one's purse, or on the basis of how much one has used in the past, but as a human right. Everybody on the planet would get the same. This would be a real milestone in human history. I can't think of any other economically-valuable right that is currently distributed universally, equally, and free. Will it set a precedent? What other rights should follow? The mind boggles at the prospect.

The fact is, though, that if one wishes to be efficient and achieve the maximum level of human well-being while not exceeding a sustainable level of resource use, those resources have to be shared as equally as possible. Equality, efficiency and sustainability are, consequently, almost inseparable. C&C is a way of regulating markets so that they work for people and the planet rather than against them. I find it tremendously exciting that there is a real prospect that such a system will come about and will push our economic system towards sustainability as a consequence.

*Aubrey Meyer is to give a seminar on Contraction and Convergence at the FEASTA conference on February 20th (see details below)

(2) The Feasta Conference.

Feasta: The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability
In association with the Trinity Greens and the Student Economic Review

Presents 'Energy, Money and Growth'
A conference on the questions raised by Richard Douthwaite's two new books, the second edition of The Growth Illusion and The Ecology of Money.

'If we cut energy use to stop climate change, will we still be able to have economic growth?'
'How soon will the world's oil output start to decline?'
'Why does someone, somewhere, have to pay interest on almost all the money we use?'
'Is growth required to improve the quality of life and slow population increase in the Developing World?'

At Goldsmith Hall, Pearse Street, Dublin 2.
Saturday 19th and Sunday the 20th of February 2000.
Speakers:
James Robertson, Dr. Colin Campbell and Richard Douthwaite

With seminars and/or panel contributions by Aubrey Meyer (Global Commons Institute, London), Jane King and Professor Malcolm Slesser (Resource Use Institute, Edinburgh) Donal Enright (Dept. of the Environment, Dublin), David O'Kelly (FEASTA) and Serena Phillips, India.

Cost: Corporate or Local / National Government = £50; Individuals = £5 per day; Concession = £3 per day.

A package is available from the Feasta office that includes Richard Douthwaite's two new books at a reduced cost, lunch on Sunday and tickets for both days.

The New Economic Foundation's CD ROM will be launched at this event.

A timetable and full details of this event can be obtained from the Feasta office or from our web site.

This conference unfortunately clashes with rugby international and hotel accommodation for the Saturday night is almost unobtainable. Please let the FEASTA office know if you could put someone up for the night, or if you cannot find anywhere to stay. The majority of the event takes place on the Sunday.

(3) What is Feasta doing?

We thought it would be a good idea to prepare this snapshot of Feasta's activities and plans as they stood in the last week of January.

Monetary Reform.
A sub-committee convened by Emer O Siochru has set its sights on bringing zero-interest banking to Ireland. Discussions are being held with people in the financial services sector about the best way of doing this - should we set up a new organisation, or try to graft a zero-interest stream onto existing bodies such as credit unions, mutually-owned building societies and the TSB? When the strategy is settled, the chief executive of the Swedish JAK bank, which is interest-free, will be invited to visit Ireland. If anyone has an interest in this area contact Emer at; emer@eos-ecoarch.com

The proposal for a world currency system based on carbon-dioxide emission rights advanced in Richard Douthwaite's new book, The Ecology of Money, is becoming a focus of activity and another sub-group will be taking this forward in co-operation with the Global Commons Institute in London. Funding has been offered for this work but we are not yet sure how it should be used.

Publications
The first issue of the FEASTA Annual will appear in April. Two thirds of this will be given over to specially-commissioned articles on the use of global, national and local indicators as guides towards achieving sustainability. Other articles will include the full text of the first annual FEASTA lecture, which was given by Professor Herman Daly at Trinity College, Dublin, last April; a critique of the Irish government's energy policy by Kevin Healion; an interview with the former Peruvian diplomat, Oswaldo de Rivero, whose book, The Myth of Development, has had a big impact in Latin America; and the results of a survey which shows that Irish economists' attitudes to sustainability fall into two distinct camps. The bookshop price of the Annual will be £10, but members whose subscriptions are up-to-date at the end of March will be posted a copy free.

Feasta annual 2001
The main theme of next year's FEASTA Annual will announced soon. Anyone interested in joining the editorial committee should send an e-mail to Emer O Siochru at emer@eos-ecoarch.com or ring her on 01 497 2564.

Educational Materials
At Feasta's launch in October 1998, many people said that there was an acute need for study materials on New Economics and sustainability generally. Originally, we thought that we might fill this need by selecting a number of articles and publishing them as a Reader in book form. Now, though, thanks to Anne Ryan's involvement in a diploma course in sustainable rural development being run from The Rural Innovation Centre (the former St. Patrick's Agricultural College) in Monaghan town, we have a much better approach.

Two groups are currently taking the TRIC course. They meet for three hours one evening a week to discuss, with a trained facilitator rather than a lecturer, a set of twelve or thirteen articles - newspaper cuttings, magazine stories, book excerpts etc - on a particular theme they were given to read the week before. The students are enthusiastic about this method of learning and there is a strong possibility that some of them will stay together when the courses end to tackle practical projects in their communities.

The TRIC materials are available to us so we intend to prepare our own version of the course and make it available on a CD-ROM so that anyone can organise a study group in his or her area and print out sets of readings on their computer. This method will enable FEASTA to tailor the contents of each CD-ROM to the needs of the group requesting it and to keep the readings on it fresh and up-to-date.

David OšKelly has prepared another teaching tool. This is a set of PowerPoint (ie computer) or overhead slides and speaking notes which will be made available to groups or organisations to present to their members. This presentation explains the way that the creation of money by the banking system perverts the development of the economy and society and makes both unsustainable by requiring perpetual economic growth. David tried out the talk for the first time at the Dublin Food Co-op in September and got a very good response. He will present it again at the Money, Energy and Growth conference advertised in this bulletin. Please enquire if you would like to obtain a computer disc of his material.

Conferences and Lectures
Two conferences are planned for the first half of this year so we have set up a special sub-group consisting of Peter Dorman, Davie Philip and Ben Whelan to publicise and organise them. Apart from the Money, Energy and Growth event, there will be a conference later in the year to discuss the Indicators section of the FEASTA Annual. Many of the contributors will be invited to speak but the time and place have still to be arranged.

It is hoped that this year's FEASTA Annual Lecture will be given by Bernard Lietaer, a former professor of International Finance at the University of Louvain in Belgium, whose book, The Future of Money has caused a lot of debate in Germany. It will become available in English shortly and his lecture will be timed to coincide with its publication. Look out for details.

FEASTA has been asked to help arrange 12 hours of lectures and workshops on "Local strategies in response to economic globalisation" for a conference called by INES, an umbrella organisation for NGOs concerned with issues of global responsibility, in Stockholm from June 14th to 18th .

The FEASTA website
Our web site has been re-modelled and updated. www.sustainable.buz.org/feasta_pages/

Feasta Newsletter
The new Feasta newsletter is out. If you are a member a copy is on its way to you.

Fundraising committee.
So far, most of the money required to run FEASTA has come from a British charitable foundation and from the members themselves but as the scale, pace and range of our activities builds up, much more is going to be required and we have set up a sub-committee to attempt to find this. Even so, membership subscriptions and donations are going to be particularly important because they cover the general activities of the organisation and are not earmarked for a specific goal. Our sister organisation, the New Economics Foundation in London, was criticised in the past for involving itself in a lot of peripheral areas and not sticking to its main job, developing a coherent alternative to the present economic system. This happened because NEF was able to raise money for the peripheral work but not for its radical core activities. As we don't want this to happen to us, we urge you to be as generous as possible when sending in your subscription.

Volunteers required.
If you would like to take part in any of the activities mentioned above - or if you have an idea for a project which you think would benefit from becoming a FEASTA activity, we would like to hear from you. Contact us by e-mail at feasta@anu.ie or telephone; 01 476 0415. We are particularly keen at present to find someone to take on responsibility for transferring the sustainability course to the CD-ROM.

Full details on www.feasta.org

(4) (4) Dublin Based LETS.

If you live or work in Dublin city would you be interested in participating in a Local Exchange Trading System? A group have come together from the Dublin Food Co-op to revamp a Dublin city LETS. Although based at the Wholefood Co-op, which operates each Saturday at St Andrews Resource Centre on Pearse Street, it will not be restricted to co-op members. Other community groups and individuals will be encouraged to trade.
A seminar on LETS will be held at Dublin food Co-Op to explore difficulties and concerns people have with LETS. It will begin at mid-day on Saturday the 19th of February as part of Feasta's 'Growth, Energy and Money' event.

Continue to Page 2 of newsletter