A reminder

“Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human
victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us”
- Friedrich Engels, in Dialectics of Nature.

Thanks to John Tummon on the Convention of the Left mailing list for remembering this quote from Mr Manchester himself.

Consumer culture and the crisis

Report from the Worldwatch Institute reported by the Guardian:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/12/climate-change-greed-environment-threat

The average American (sic they mean UnitedStatesian) consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, fuelling a global culture of excess that is emerging as the biggest threat to the planet, according to a report published today. In its annual report, Worldwatch Institute says the cult of consumption and greed could wipe out any gains from government action on climate change or a shift to a clean energy economy.

No surprises here but useful to have this one to cite.   As we have argued (and see also John Bellamy Foster) this is the central problem – but it isn’t a matter of greed or even a cult of consumption – it is a matter of a capitalist system that requires endless production-consumption in the intersts of the treadmill of capital accumulation.  This is what has to stop – anything else is merely cosmetic because it does’t put out the fire beneath the planet.

A local renewable energy grid

Scottish island of Eigg wins green energy prize

Hebridean islanders build renewable electricity grid

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/13/eigg-wins-green-energy-prize

“The success of the project proves that when communities are incentivised, empowered and supported they become a compelling force in solving some of society’s biggest challenges.”

ALthough the conditions are very different in the Mersey/Manchester bioregion, this kind of intelligent self reliance, reducing our dependence on imported energy and using complementatry sources linked togeher,  is what we are after here.

And in Manchester, One of the actions from ‘A Certain Future’ is to

Produce a Manchester Energy Plan that provides the framework for establishing a city-wide decarbonised energy generation and distribution system and local energy plans supported by the LDF and Strategic Regeneration Frameworks.  Establish the partnerships and investments needed to develop and deliver the Energy Plan and the structures needed to integrate projects sharing heat, power and ’smart grid’ information, and to manage them.

And did you miss this story last summer? -

Manchester’s manure to fill gas grid from 2011

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE55E1BP20090615

The figures in this story are interesting – a lot of gas, but nowhere near enough to power all our homes – let alone all the vehicles.   There really is no alternative to reduce reduce reduce our energy horizons.

How to square the circle ?

The NWRDA has produced the first part of the draft Regional Strtegy RS2010.

They have set out an interesting challenge:

“Therefore we are clear that over the next twenty
years this region must:

• capitalise on the opportunities of moving to a lowcarbon

economy and address climate change

• build on our sources of international competitive

advantage and regional distinctiveness

• release the potential of our people and

tackle poverty

• ensure the right housing and infrastructure for

sustainable growth.

We must tackle all these, however, in a period
when less public expenditure will be available.”

A tricky pancake indeed!  Some of us think that the second of these – this idea of international competitiveness is incompatible with the others.  Indeed that is one of the key ideas of this bioregional green deal project – strategic localism rather than strategic globalism (see our glossary.  We also aren’t at all sure that ’sustainable growth’ is anything more than a contradiction.

Unfortunately the paper gets worse the more you go into it.  It uses the sustainability language, but with no depth of understanding as to what this might mean – it is playing at sustainability – fiddling in effect while the planet burns.

But let’s give it a thorough read and join in the consultation.   We know they mean well, we need to help them come up with a workable strategy not a fantasy.

The Copenhagen verdict

Evo Morales, President of Bolivia,  on November 28, 2008: “As long as we do not change the capitalist system for a system based in complementarity, solidarity and harmony between the people and nature, the measures that we adopt [to save the planet] will be palliatives that will be limited and precarious in character.”

A follow up to the NEF Green Deal pamphlet: The Cuts Won’t Work

NEF has published a follow-up to the summer 2008 New Green Deal paper:  The Cuts Won’t Work

I like this report – it very effectively debunks the current hegemony of the supposed need to make savage cuts in public spending, and it makes the connection again between the crisis caused by the bursting of the credit bubbles and the need to decarbonise energy and the economy.
But like the New Green Deal it remains essentially a Fabian document – telling truth to power as if this will create the needed change. There is no theory of action, no praxis. It is essentially Utopian sustainability.
Secondly, it fails to address the argument (of Tim Jackson and others) that sustainable growth is a chimera because it is no possible to de-link resource throughput from growth. The document is arguing for (a green) Keynesian stimulus to get growth going again. maybe that speaks to those in power, but it leaves a big question – can there actually be a green ‘business as usual’?
The root of this second problem is the accumulative core of capitalism. Capitalism works on the accumulation (growth) of capital) extracted as surplus value together with the energy and other subsidies extracted from the natural world. It is this motor that has faltered in the present conjuncture – because the previous fix – financialisation of the economy had burst. What we see now is a combination of the internal and external contradictions of capitalism.
This is difficult to say and be heard since the whole world system (pretty much) is addicted to capitalist growth as an engine of wellbeing. NEF does a good job in problematising this, but it does not reach deeply enough into the root causes of the problem. Consequently it has neither an adequate diagnosis of the problem that needs to be fixed nor a convincing praxis or theory of action. Not that I’m saying this is an easy thing!
For an essay length exploration of these connected issues see my article:
http://greendealmanchester.wordpress.com/sustainability-utopian-and-scientific/
But  thanks anyway NEF for doing what you do. Just because it can be criticised doesn’t mean it should be rejected out of hand – I’m just trying to suggest (very roughly) where you need to amend the model and carry out new lines of work to take it further.

It is no longer a question of “Patria o Muerte” – but Life or Death for Humankind, Fidel Castro.

Fidel on the challenge of climate change

Fidel Castro has long been interested in the environment, repeatedly pointing out the unsustainability of he current globalised system of capitalism.   Here are some of his recent observations (October 2009) in the context of  Kobenhavn.

…..The issue is no longer “Patria o Muerte (Homeland or Death)”; it is truly and without exaggeration a matter of “Life or Death” for the human race.

The capitalist system is not only oppressing and plundering our countries; the wealthiest industrial nations wish to impose to the rest of the world the bulk of the burden in the struggle on climate change. Who are they trying to fool with that? In Copenhagen, the ALBA and the Third World countries will be struggling for the survival of the species.

Fidel Castro Ruz,        October 19, 2009

Read on …

Manchester’s emissions from food

Emissions from the production, distribution, consumption and waste of the food eaten in Manchester are estimated at 3.35 m tonnes.

But wait a minute, isn’t this figure more than the total claimed for all Manchester’s emissions (3.2m)?   The answer is that most of these emissions occur outside the city, just as our much of our other consumption emissions do (it’s hard to even buy a bike that hasn’t been made in Taiwan).  So a total footprint approach would correct the discrepacy (just as it would force consideration of the aviation emissions).   The point is that a focus on food, with local food production as a key element, would offer much of the 1.1m tones that the city council intends to save.

Overall agriculture around the world is responsible for nearly as much total greenhouse gas emissions as all forms of transportation.  And if distribution, preparation, consumption, flatulence and waste were also included, the figure would be even greater.

How did we arrive at the figure for Manchester?   Greenhouse gas emissions from London’s food system are  19m tones p.a.
London’s economy is approx 20% of national economy
Manchester’s is approx 3.5% of national economy

Therefore food based emissions from Manchester = 3.35 m tonnes

If you can fault this logic, then let us know.

Make a step change and stop relying on the market

“We’ve stuck with the market for a long time – we don’t think we can stick by it any more”

David Kennedy

Committee on Climate Change

see http://www.theccc.org.uk/reports/progress-reports

.

Third runway plan crashes and burns – and here in Manchester what?

Third runway plan crashes and burns – Manchester’s turn now.

Heathrow’s third runway plan is to be ‘postponed after the general election’ – but we know that this damaging plan is very unlikely to happen now. Why would you want to build a runway anyway when oil prices are going to go through the roof and climate change makes it urgent to end the needless burning of fossil fuel by Britons who think they are entitled to foreign holidays far away (translation – entitled to impose their unattractive and ignorant selves on other peoples and their cultures)? Yes I have flown many miles but don’t know if or when I will next, despite my yearning to go back to Latin America.

But what about Manchester- let’s see this as encouragement to include aviation emissions in Manchester’s forthcoming Climate Change Action Plan, and more generally to start doing some serious work (NWRDA, 4NorthWest, AGMA, MCC, Govt Office for the NW) on the replacement economy for the region’s unsustainable but up to now profitable industries.