a) Local news
Cllr Richard Cowell and Dr Victoria Johnson spoke at a Manchester Climate Forum meeting on Tuesday. Cllr Cowell spoke about the Council's “Call to Action”, and Dr Johnson spoke about her experiences at Poznan and the international negotiations leading to Copenhagen.
A report can be fond here.
http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/02/local-and-global-manchester-climate.html
Arwa Aburawa won the MCForum essay contest, with an essay that highlighted how white the usual climate campaigning scene is, and giving a whole series of practical steps that should be taken. Congrats to her, and you can read her winning entry here-
http://manchesterclimatefortnightly.blogspot.com/2009/02/essay-contest-winner.html
The Sustainable Cities Institute (yes yes, the one sponsored by Tesco) hosted an interesting lecture on carbon emissions from production and consumption and who is really responsible for what. It was delivered by Dr John Barrett of the Stockholm Environment Institute, who travelled all the way from... York, to deliver it.
The next meeting is on Tuesday March 10, and details will appear in MCFly in due course.
On Saturday the “Call to Real Action” group, which is writing a report about what the Council and the people of Manchester could do about climate change, met for the first time. It meets again this Saturday Feb 21st, and is planning a half day conference on Saturday 7th March, on the way to launching their report in early April. For more information, and to get involved-
http://www.calltorealaction.wordpress.com
calltorealaction@googlemail.com
Council gossip
The Environmental Strategy Board, set up as part of the Council's “Call to Action” on climate change, and chaired by MCC's chief executive, Sir Howard Bernstein has already met twice. MCFly sources are well-impressed with the speed and vigour with which things are moving.
In unhappier council news, the post of Director of Environmental Strategy remains unfilled, despite interviews taking place. The job is, MCFly is told, to be re-advertised.
b) Upcoming local events
Tuesday February 17 at 7:00pm.
University of Manchester Students Union - Meeting Room 1Environmental Direct Action in Britain -
a Short History "a look back with academic Brian Doherty at our recent past including Reclaim the
Streets, the Anti-Roads movement, Mayday Protests, the Climate Camps and more......"
Friday 20 February 6.30 for 7pm
Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project on Earth?
CUBE, 113 Portland Street, Manchester M1 6FB
On Friday 20th Feb, Jack Woodward, Canada's top aboriginal lawyer and legal council to the
Beaver Lake Cree Nation, will be in Manchester to talk about his fight against Canadian tar sands.
Tar sands are an unconventional source of fossil fuel which emit on average three times more
carbon emissions in their extraction and production than conventional oil. The processing
involved is highly polluting and if the planned expansion of tar sand developments goes ahead
unchallenged, it threatens to cause not only local ecological and social disaster, but also runaway
climate change - in comparison to a list of 207 nations ranked by greenhouse gas emissions,
Alberta's tar sands come out higher than 145 of them. Sat 21 Call to Real Action from 12 noon to 2.30pm. Forming writing groups, getting the questions right, brainstorming who to ask for answers/ideas. Mingling and meeting etc.
email calltorealaction@googlemail.com for more info.
international news stories of interest/importance
Dr Chris Field, one of the lead authors of the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has told the American Association for the Advancement of Science that "We now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected," and that- as some environmentalists said all along, the last (2007) report was too small c-conservative
The AFP story (see link below) concludes with the cheerful lines
'The 2007 fourth assessment presented at a "very conservative range of climate outcomes" but the next report will "include futures with a lot more warming," Field said. "We now know that, without effective action, climate change is going to be larger and more difficult to deal with than we thought."'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090214/sc_afp/usclimatewarming_20090214150716
d) "other stuff"
Competitions
“Do you want to do something positive that benefits others?
Young people aged 16-25 who live in Manchester can apply to the Green Machine seed fund for up to £500 along with support and guidance to start up their project.
Deadline for applications: Friday 27th February
For more information call 0161 228 0459, or email: greenmachine@myvp.org.uk
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