Feasta recently made a submission to the Irish government’s Consultation on Climate Change policy. It addresses fossil fuel emissions, carbon cycles and sinks, the transition to a sustainable economy and lastly the need for a climate law.
by Brian Davey. Broken promises and naive expectations – that’s how many people at the McPlanet Conference held recently in Berlin clearly felt about the last two decades of global environmental policy. They believe that an imperfect-but-better alternative exists: protecting and enhancing the commons and community-based protection of biological resources worldwide, including in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa where land-grabbing is currently rife.
Feasta member Aidan McKeown believes that overall, this book “succeeds in delivering a powerful argument that humanity will be forced into – and, crucially, benefit from – a move to a more locally-based and less societally complex way of living. Moreover, by including an historical perspective, it shows that what we are facing has precedents in our collective past: people have repeatedly adapted to crisis, often proactively choosing less complex societal arrangements.”
On April 8, Feasta’s David Korowicz was the featured guest on From Alpha to Omega, a weekly podcast by Tom O’Brien. He spoke about the likelihood of economic collapse and what to expect in the coming years. You can listen to it here.
Nick Bardsley, a Feasta member and lecturer in climate change economics at the University of Reading, has prepared a slideshow presentation for the recent Feasta Climate Group weekend which is now available for download. In it he discusses the problems associated with a biofuel-based economy, drawing on the work of energetics analysts Mario Giampietro and Kozo Mayumi. Nick also discusses his own challenges as a lecturer in ecological economics.
Joanna Santa Barbara writes about Atamai Village, in New Zealand: a new community that attempts to respond intelligently to the need to mitigate climate change and adapt to low or zero fossil fuel use, the constraints of sea-level rise over the next century, the need to step outside, as much as possible, the mainstream financial system and the importance of a local steady-state economy within the biophysical limits of the region. From Fleeing Vesuvius.
In the New Zealand edition of Fleeing Vesuvius James Bellamy describes how crises are opportunities to change things at a deep level – to rethink our relationships with one another and the world.
As Naomi Klein has been pointing out recently, effective action on climate change requires changes that go well beyond simple shopping decisions about which lightbulb to buy – what’s actually needed is political change on a global level. Rather than shrinking back from this idea, what if we embraced it and recognized that such change, if carefully planned and implemented, could bring about vital improvements to the lives of most people around the world?
Brian Davey has produced two more posters for the Occupy movement which can be downloaded from this site. They describe the Eurozone crisis and the “monetocracy”: the one percent who exercise power over the rest of us.
In his chapter in Fleeing Vesuvius Phil Stevens describes challenges to resilience in New Zealand and provides suggestions to help the country sustain its rural sector and preserve its democracy. There are lessons here for elsewhere too.
In a follow-up to her earlier post on preparing your household for a currency crisis, Theresa Carter suggests a range of practical preparations that communities can make in order to build resilience.
In his chapter from the New Zealand edition of Fleeing Vesuvius, Laurence Boomert gives an account of a lifetime built on accepting and rejecting Vesuvius and the progressive actions taken to beat the odds. “The foreground will seem like the end of the world but I see, through the smoke and ruins of that which must fall, a wiser, more humble, more determined humanity with 10,000 years of social and technological success stories to draw on, setting a new course for the future.”
by Richard Douthwaite. In a widely-circulated article in September 2011, Chris Skrebowski, who runs a peak oil consulting firm and was editor of the Petroleum Review for eleven years until 2008, argued that there are two forms of oil peak. One is, or will be, caused directly by depletion – the oil is no longer in the ground in sufficient quantities for producers to be able to maintain production. The other is the economic oil peak, which he says is the “price at which oil becomes unaffordable to consume and therefore to produce.” Is this assessment realistic?
Richard Douthwaite, co-founder of Feasta and much-loved colleague and friend, died on November 14th 2011 after a long illness. We will miss his unique and far-ranging intellect, the clarity of his thought and writing, his warmth and his laughter. Tributes to him have come in from around the world and you can read them here.
In line with his wishes, we are continuing with our scheduled events and publishing of articles.
Independent radio producer and Feasta member Mary Phelan travelled to Tanzania and Zanzibar earlier this year in order to make two radio documentaries on the effects of climate change in East Africa. The first programme, which focuses on the impact climate change is having on Zanzibar, will be broadcast on Saturday 5.3.2012 on Newstalk 106-108fm at 7am. The second programme, looking at the situation in northern Tanzania and Mount Kilimanjaro, will be broadcast the following day, 6.3.2012 at 8am.
Schumacher Ireland Summer School
Exploring the transition to a sustainable society on the island of Ireland
Schumacher College is organising its first Summer School in Ireland from 11th to 15th June 2012, in conjunction with Queen’s University Belfast. Feasta members Jonathan Dawson and Peadar Kirby will be among the course teachers. [...]
Feasta’s Autumn conference examined measures that this country could adopt to secure its economic future which would not leave it reliant on external factors largely outside of its control. Scenarios explored included the potential collapse of the eurozone. The conference featured prominent international and Irish economists and was aimed at economists, politicians, policy-makers, business people, social partners, and other key decision-makers.
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