MCFly 029- All Power to the... Council?

Manchester and Leeds recently got new powers - as “city-regions.” Announced at the Budget in April, it wasn't clear if this was another Westminster PR stunt about “de-centralising” or a real deal. According to a blog post by the Manchester Evening News journo who broke the story, (David Ottewell), it may be the latter. And crucially, number 7 of the ten 'work streams' is “Rapid transition to a low carbon economy” which 'will involve retro-fitting existing buildings and AGMA taking greater control over the energy with which it is supplied.' Watch this space.

Meanwhile the new Communities secretary, John Denham, has announced a consultation in which councils are "asked to tell the government what new powers they need to mount more effective climate change work." It runs until October 2, and MCFly will be reporting on Mancunian responses and the outcome.

www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/localdemocracyconsultation

Let there be light. Lots of it.

Was anyone in the city centre last night? According to an article in the Manchester Evening News, you couldn't really tell it was Earth Hour (as organised by that well-known radical grassroots group WWF).

The Big Wheel kept on turning, mostly lit up. The Palace Theatre was ablaze (figuratively), "as did the lights of signature buildings in the corporate Spinningfields district off Deansgate."

Hmm. The best comment (if you're a hopeless curmudgeon) was a tweet by the following chap, http://twitter.com/CarbonHeart :

Just think turning lights off is a feeble gesture, like bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon. Detracts attention from more effective actions.

But I digress. The MEN piece closes with the following -

City centre spokesman Coun Pat Karney said: "Poor marks for Manchester, we have let the side down. Most of us were probably more preoccupied with putting the clocks forward that with Earth Hour, which saw many other city centres across the world dramatically plunged into darkness.

"It's a possibility that it wasn't well enough publicised in the city. I only started reading about it about a day or two before it was happening and I'm sure the majority of people had no idea it was happening. We can only apologise to the rest of the world and make sure we make a better effort next year."

Sure. I feel safer already. How about having a monthly Council backed one? To get people into the swing of things...

MEN recycles recycling

On Tuesday March 17th the Manchester Evening News published the third of its (much delayed) Greenlife supplements.

We are told on the front cover that there are "Virtuous circles: How recycling can save money and the planet."

Now, I am sympathetic to journalists, being the son of two of the blighters. And I've written several thousand blog posts on why a little bit of exaggeration is acceptable in tabloid newspapers.

But "save the planet"? Recycling?? You're not having a laugh, cos it's not funny.

The contents are predictable- love-ins for long-time Greenlife sponsors Bruntwood and the Co-op (don't get me wrong- they're doing admirable things, and I'm glad I bank with them. Their customer service has improved over the last years, from a lousy baseline, true). Greenlife have picked up "Ascot environmental" as an advertiser too, so maybe there'll be another supplement before Copenhagen. Oh joy.

It's all so damned top down. There's nothing in there about "how to get involved", "how to take it beyond just recycling." It's almost as if the Manchester Evening News is operating on a shoestring staff and is [therefore] only really interested in easy cheap copy. Oh, wait...

How to get involved?
Try this - Call to Real Action
or go to that
Chorlton Green Festival

Or check out Environment Network for Manchester.

Manchester Cartoonist gets more global coverage

Marc Roberts, who draws cartoons for Ethical Consumer and New Internationalist in addition to his Manchester Climate Fortnightly gig, has had another cartoon posted on the widely-read "Climate Progress" website.

He's also had several postings in each of Real Climate, Nature Climate Feedback and the New York Times dotearth blog. The latter even interviewed him.

Maybe one day Manchester and UK papers will bother to share with their readers the talent that the Americans have no problem seeing.

MEN not useless after all...

All those horrible things I wrote about the Manchester Evening News? All those sneering "unconstructive" comments? All the petty side-swipes? I take them back.

WAY,FI? No I don't. I take back that taking back.

Dizzy yet? No, me neither; but I am chuffed that MEN printed my response to a letter they ran last Thursday, by a guy who signed himself as "Average Working Man". AVM said a) Climate Change might not be happening and if it is b) I can't do anything about it so c) I'm just going to eat drink and be merry.

Here's my letter as I sent it in, virtually identical to what the MEN published.)

I understand all too well the feelings of frustration and powerlessness that "Average Working Man" expresses in his letter ("I''ll be selfish", MEN 26 Feb). He writes of global warming (which IS happening, sad to say) "I cannot get personal about such matters, because governments are not going to take notice of my thoughts."
At the national and international level, I suspect he is right. At the local level, if he were to get together with other people, then he might (fingers crossed) be wrong.
Manchester City Council has recently released a climate report called "A Call to Action", and the head of the Green City team has publicly requested comments and suggestions on it and the Council's climate work. Although there are some good things in the report, a large and growing group of Mancunians think that it doesn't go far enough. They're getting together to write "A Real Call to Action." The next meeting of the group, which has a website www.calltorealaction.wordpress.com, is on Saturday 7th March, from 1.30 to 5pm, at the Central Hall, Oldham St. Average Working Man, and anyone else who thinks that climate change needs a strong response, is welcome to join us.

Educationally sub-normal sub-editor at MEN?

It's usually the sub-editors who write the headlines to newspaper pieces.

So rather than blame John and Anne Nuttall for "Icy peaks mock global warming" (Saturday 28 Feb, page 4 of Weekend pullout) above their piece on walking along the Pennine* Way [it contains a straightforward account of where they walked and how you can follow them], I'd take a pop at the dominant sub.

The obvious question to ask is ; which part of "global warming" are you having trouble with?
Did the recent Australian heatwaves and subsequent bushfires happen on another planet?

The follow-up question would be: "Why did you need to inflict your scientifically illiterate prejudices loose in a newspaper which has editorialised on the importance of climate change action in the (distant) past?"

Buffoon.

* Not "Penine", as it originally appeared in this post (see comment 1 below)

P.S. Meeting up with my cartoonist friend Marc this morning, reminds me that he tackled this little-bit-of-local-snow-puts-paid-to-global-warming tosh in a cartoon last year.

Sadness piling up, and more useless MEN

Sadness about the Heathrow decision.

I mean, I knew the government would do it.

The 2003 White Paper was basically written by the aviation industry and sent over to the Department for Transport for mastheading and distribution. “Freedom to Fly” was a beautiful framing device, making it a question of liberty versus restriction, rather than indulgence versus survival.

And I intellectually knew most unions would be on board. After all, I suggested the theme for this cartoon by the absurdly prolific and sharp Marc Roberts.

But before reading my FT, I read my Morning Star, and it had a piece on...

"Airport workers addressed MPs at Westminster yesterday to "set the record straight" about Heathrow expansion. Workers from Heathrow and other British airports took the case for a third runwayto Parliament, concerned that the latest governmetn delay on approvignt he scheme was putting jobs and development at risk."

Workers of the World, Unite, you have nothing to lose but a habitable planet for your children.

And I am sad that the notion of a Just Transition hasn't gotten more traction, but I'm not surprised given the general cackhandedness and downright weirdness of many climate activists.

And I am sad to think that the Campaign against Climate Change Trades Union thing is wasting its breath.

And I am sad that Heathrow wasn't stopped before it got this far because now there the heroic eco-warriors are going to have to fight on at least three fronts- Airports, Coal and Copenhagen.

And I am sad to think that Manchester is so ill-served by the Manchester Evening News.

Yesterday the Council announced its climate plans. Today the MEN's front page splash was... wait for it...

“Drunk in charge of a stolen Asda scooter! Woman is banned from driving after trying to travel 10 miles home on a 2.4mph mobility buggy."

I. Shit. You. Not.

Nothing I could see in my paper edition on the climate plans (such as they are.) but on page 16 we have “Light fading fast in search for last 100-watt bulbs.”

I just checked their website, which I refuse to link to on principle.

They haven't even reported the Council's plans. And they call themselves a newspaper? They're having a bloody laugh.

What is wrong with this bloody species?? Anyone?

MEN, eh useless or what?

More laughter inspired by the Manchester Evening Newsance.

On Saturday 6^th December we have- to my knowledge- only the second ever front page story on Climate Change from the Manchester Evening News (I may well be wrong- in the good old days I used to ignore the MEN).

David Ottewell, who's their star reporter, wrote up a piece that... well, you can read it here.

It's hard to over-emphasise just what a non-story this is. I have lost count of the number of times I've read “go local sustainable energy” pieces in magazines and newspapers that dissed wind turbines on your roof. At the time that David “I'm Green” Cameron got his, there was a spate of such stories, patiently explaining that wind speeds that close to earth make the whole proposition unfeasible, in built up areas.

So this is a Non-story of Epic proportions, though no doubt B& Q will be annoyed.

The story also all-but-conflates domestic wind power, on yer house with wind power more generally, before carefully including a carefully worded sentence- "There is no suggestion those fail to generate enough power to cover their environmental costs."

This may well not be Ottewell's intention or fault- sub-editing can strip away nuance and important distinctions. But even if this is the case, the MEN really should be more careful because

a) it aspires to being a proper newspaper

b) it doesn't exactly have a record to boast about on climate change. Its other- recent- front pager on the subject was a “wasteful junket” story. As a commenter on the MCFly blog said-

"I was pretty enraged by the front page story about the firemen - but mainly because I reckon it's the first time we've seen climate change on the front page, it just needed a bogus 'junket' news hook to get it there! In their defence I can see every reason for the fire service to attend this course: in the outlying reaches of Greater Manchester and up onto the moors, the risk of large-scale fires courtesy of climate change is very real and very dangerous."

MEN didn't cover Mini-Stern in any depth, and certainly not promptly (see MCFly 2), hasn't covered Manchester City Council lack of a climate strategy even though one was promised (MCFly 3), the missing million quid that the Council has yet to spend (MCFly 6: NB they may well have spent it by now, but they certainly haven't told us about it. Or anyone else, judging by their website.)

MEN seems to delight in publishing any old denialist crackpot letter, filled with unsubstantiated claims.

All this is surely unrelated to the fact that one of its associate editors has published denialist tosh in the guise of proper argument.

"For every scare-mongering scientist you'll find one who will tell you the current warming is purely a cyclical event. A thousand years ago, the planet went through a period of global warming, called the medieval warm period. Temperatures were higher than anything observed during the current warm period.
Where were the cars, aircraft or coal-burning electricity plants to blame it on then? And the same thing happened a thousand years before that, in the Roman warming period."

MEN seems to have taken the “if it bleeds it leads” ethos to heart. It's a pity. England's second city deserves better.

In other media self-lobotomy news, Peter Sissons interviewed Green Party leader Caroline Lucas about climate change on Saturday, and used the “there's still scientific debate about the issue” line.
Extraordinary; whoever the producer/researcher putting words in the mouth of that particular meat-puppet anchordroid really needs to look themselves in the mirror.

But then, since when did Manchester Climate Fortnightly have quite such high moral ground to stand on? We have, in the latest issue- 13, rushed to print with a story that seems now to have a lot less to it than we thought. The subject of a post tomorrow...