Carbon Dave's Diary

Happy New Era - Random Acts of (climate) Kindness

 

Happy New Era!  

 

2011 saw the passing of so many old ‘non-working’ assumptions

Wall Street immunity from scrutiny - for example - #occupy

 

Bring in the new! 

I welcome in all the imaginings - of a happier, fairer, greener nature.

 

For me 2012 is a year of fresh beginnings, in the fire of radical renewal.

My personal vision for 2012 is to be “the carbon coach on fire!”

Ablaze with passion again :)  

And “minding my own business!”

 

 

If you missed it here’s my ‘Campaign Hero’ piece in last weeks

Ecologist magazine 

 

 Ben Hudson #bhudso was my interviewer and he gave me great encouragement.  He knows climate change is a ‘bigger than self’ problem. We’ve decided to work together this year on some fun ideas.

 

This is the era of the ARK: Acts of Random (climate) Kindness  

 

 

(Hopefully there’s a nice little surprise for you at the end of this piece.)

 

Do you ever take your eye off the carbon ball(oon)? Feel disheartened?   See all your effort as a ‘drop in the ocean’?   Common symptoms believe me!

Then take solace, and heart, here: 

The Hummingbird Story by dear Prof Wangari Maathai (RIP)

“I am doing the best I can!” 

How cool if everyone awakens: to this buzzing, flaming, passionate reality!

 

Of course you and I have been working on shrinking my own carbon feet for a long while now; but that doesn’t ‘exempt’ me.

 

I am going to redouble my own efforts at home in 2012.

 

I looked in the mirror

And what did I see

A big purple CO2 balloon

With a name on it…

 ‘Me’

 

 

You will see from the Ecologist article that I have bold plans a-(carbon)-foot…

 

…to co-create a MILLION carbon coaches in 2012!

 

More on this later...

 

First, here’s what I said in the Ecologist (and I have had some lovely feedback.)

 

I am going to launch something that helps people to coach themselves…. on an amateur basis. Amateur coaching is what we need because none of us have got all the answers yet.

The people who change the world are often amateurs. The root of the word amateur is to work for love, so for me it’s the highest possible compliment.

 

 

I’d like to share with you my own 2012 Mission Possible – what I am doing - to get me off to a flying (or flying less) start.  (And do I wish to accept it? I do!) 

 

1. I am going to get a good handle on my carbon footprint. I know there are loads of ‘calculators’ out there and they all give different answers! That’s ok. I choose to use the one that I respect the most, for now.  In the UK, that’s the Resurgence calculator.  I am going to refresh my familiarity with exactly how the estimation process works, (under the bonnet), and get better acquainted with ‘my number’
2.  I will concern myself with honesty over accuracy. Sure, we can all present the data in many different ways, (e.g. be harsh or lenient on ourselves.) It’s not a competition! I will size myself up again and learn all about the various main chunks that make up my footprint, and their relative size.  I will get to know the ‘breakdown’ of my own carbon (humble) pie!      E.G. Elec 1, Gas 2, Travel 3, Food 2, UK Share 1, Stuff 2.  TOTAL: 11 Tons?
3. Now I ‘know my number’ and how it’s broken down (just ‘ball-park’ data) I am going to tell special someone in my life – I have chosen my wife Jan.
4. I am deciding to take meaningful steps in 2012 to reduce the bits of MY footprint that are under my direct control. And I will make some changes in MY life.  I will share that plan with Jan - my ‘carbon buddy’ - so that she can support and witness my progress over the year. I’ll ask her to keep me accountable during the year, encourage me and seek progress reports. (My January 2013 newsletter could be fun!) 

 

My wife is my perfect choice to be my carbon buddy.

It is MY responsibility to do what I can with MY carbon number and I want to be able to say – like Wangari -  ‘I am doing the best I can’

It’s my number, my choice, and my reasons.  It’s me who will benefit most, too.

Now here’s the nice surprise – I hope… 

I reckon – if you want to do the same as me - in steps 1 to 4 (above)…

 … then you are a Carbon Coach too 

You are a Carbon Coach!

Congratulations!

Everyone is a carbon coach!! (We just haven’t all realised it yet)

 

NOW YOU MAY already know your carbon shadow intimately and feel as if you have been there, done that (already) and got the Fairly Traded T-shirt. If that is true then you are extremely well placed to take a fresh look at whether there is anything more you can happily do?  Or you may already be doing the best you can? Shine on.

For me, 2012 is simply the year I decide to continue my personal carbon-cutting mission for a slightly different reason: because I want to J

Ultimately, that’s the only valid reason.  After all, my carbon (reduction) efforts are going to make the biggest difference to me - and my loved ones!  It’s a personal choice, and it comes with a personal benefit. I have a hunch it will make me feel much happier, too. (One thing the world does not need right now is miserable carbon coaches!)

‘The carbon coach on fire’ wants to live 2012 with enthusiasm, passion, focus, commitment, curiosity, determination, persistence, will power, and joy. 

Most of all joy.  It has to be joyful - for me and for my loved ones.

I am the only person I can change.  You are the only person who can change you. 

And I’d like to be fitter, happier, better off and better placed to face the future, but I will regard all these as small optional extras  :) 

 

My intention in all this is:

To do it for love 

I want to be inspirational to loved ones, and to others. Just doing it and being the carbon coach for a year, I will coach myself, take action myself, raise my own awareness, and then I will see if I am truly doing the best l can?

My choice of ‘carbon buddy’

My thinking is that it doesn’t matter what their interest or knowledge of green issues is. It doesn’t matter if their feet are huge or tiny (that’s their business!) and it doesn’t matter if they are keen or skeptical. It doesn’t matter if they are green, red or blue, or purple; old or young, etc.  All that matters is that they like/love me - as I am - and are willing to hold my hand while I change my (inner) light bulb.  Someone who will enjoy watching me (enjoy) being the change I want to see in the world.

After all, we don’t go around suggesting friends go on a diet – or at least most of us don’t.  But I can decide to take responsibility for my own lifestyle, my own happiness, and my own consumption. And shine!

 

So please do NOT even think of suggesting that anyone else might want to look at their footprint!!!  Not even your best buddy.  (I did that once but I hope I got away with it – if not I hope I may be forgiven :o)

If friends ask what makes you a carbon coach, you can proudly say YOU are busy looking closely at YOUR own carbon feet.  JUST minding your own carbon business!

My mission is to work out how I can be happy & inspirational on less carbon.

Care to join me? 

One more carbon coach… then a few… then a million….

Here is the link to the ‘change.org’ petition site: 

I invite you to join me here – and be one in a million - in 2012

 

 That will be our gift to the world this year.

Imagine if everyone else ‘JUST’ did that! 

And anyway, remember…

We’re all just walking each other home    (says Ram Dass) 

 

  

Credit ‘Earth Family’

Click : Everyone is a carbon coach!

 

 

Wind Wave Solar and Will Power - Moving Planet Day

Moving Planet Day - St James’ Piccadilly – London - September 24^th

IDENTIFYING THE MONEY POWER BEHIND CLIMATE CHANGE 

The Climate Scene – by Dave Hampton – the carbon coach 

Good morning.  May I start with inspiration by Grace Lee Boggs who is 91 yrs young:    “Do something local, do something real, however small.  And don’t ‘diss’ the political things, but do understand their limitations.”   So - the short version of my talk is - Just Do It, locally, and with good grace.  (Thanks Grace.) 

It’s an honour to be first to speak today. My intention is to:-

• scatter a few seeds – and maybe spark some gracious conversations later
• speak from the heart –share some simple but radical notions
• set out an action list - an A to E list - arising from my personal analysis of the Changing Climate Scene. And it is an urgent ‘A&E’ situation too.

The overwhelming reality – and it is overwhelming - truly, madly, deeply so is that – all of us together in the West are complicit. We are combusting hundreds of millions of year’s worth of precious, and previously safely long-buried, ‘Ancient Sunlight’. We’re taking Vitamin FF fossil fuel  (past life lifted from its grave) & metabolising it daily.  Each year, we squander one million years worth of ancient sunlight !  We are on fire. Who will say, “STOP IT!”

Unlike most other very serious issues facing humanity today, the cause of climate chaos is, very unhelpfully, completely invisible.  Invisible bonfires:  the OBscene damage to our Home planet - UNseen. So let’s make it visible. Blow up a 10 gram Purple CO2 Balloon. The average UK lifestyle leads to emissions of 100 of these balloons per person/ per hr. Think disclosing tablets for plaque on teeth, there was even a chemical that turned purple - when a swimmer urinates in a pool! The other meaning the talk title is the climate SEEN.

Once we see it– we may also see we are the money cause. It is MY money that sustains the bonfire. Denial is cheap – and costs £1.40p per litre, 13 pence per kWh, £1 a therm, or £50 a cheap flight.

Al Gore says we treat our atmosphere – our ocean of air - like an open sewer.  My aim these last few years is to face up to this - to me and my carbon shadow – and to look it in the eye – name it – size it up – and disclose it.  It’s big and it’s not pretty. In panto ‘it’s behind you!’ This is the inner work – removing the carbon plank from my own eye and – or is it a splinter?

It seems that what needs to be done is actually quite simple:   Dr Seuss said “Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”    And Einstein said “When the solution is simple, God is answering.”

In 2009 there was a campaign The Solution is Simple – backed by Alain Robert who climbs up the tallest city buildings -without ropes- to draw attention to the climate crisis. In the campaign:

1 – Stop Cutting Down Trees. Plant More Trees.

2 – Make Everything Energy Efficient.

3 – Only Make Clean Energy 

 
Will Power: British company Eco Sustainable Solutions has put forward a plan to construct a major solar power plant in the county of Dorset that will have the ability to power 1,000 local homes.

 

That simple message, 3 years ago, was that we had 100 months -  to tip the balance - of all history – one way - or the other.  It is 63 months now.

So here is my A to E for the ‘A&E’ that’s urgently needed for our Earth:

A is Activism – activism is beautiful. There are brave people all over the world risking everything. At Climate Camp, Climate Rush... I don’t say we all need to break the law, or climb the Lloyds building, or go to jail, but we can be witnesses, and state that these are our friends doing these amazingly strong actions. I’m publicly proud of them. Frankly they deserve more support - they deserve our participation too – in the fight for our kids future.

B is Being the Change. By the way when Gandhi said ‘Be The Change’ it was a lovely invitation to become personal beacons of inspiration - all BEING the change. Not people going around saying the words Be The Change!  He’s done that bit!   Being the change is cool – delightful – educational and fulfilling... it has to be done for joy. Not righteousness. One attracts, the other repels. So don’t waste any opportunity to joyfully cut your own carbon, and be proud of what you’ve done. I wish i could say I cycled here today, but I did take the train. And by the way, I don’t fly, not atall. That feels right for me. And crucially - I’m very happy not to fly.

C. There are two C’s. C and C. Contraction and Convergence as proposed by my friend Aubrey Meyer and as endorsed by almost every intelligent human on the planet, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and most spiritual leaders. But agreeing that it’s obviously right - is not enough!  We have to demand world leaders DO it. It is coming. Soon we will have C&C.

My D is for DOING.  Deploying clean energy generation equipment in our home towns, on our roofs, on our community centres, in our fields, New clean community power station capacity - solar panels, solar farms, wind turbines - YIMBY - Yes In MY Back Yard.   “Every hour,  enough Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s surface to meet the whole world’s energy demands - for a year.”   Wind & solar have vast potential.  Don’t let ‘them’ tell you otherwise. (Plus renewable energy – long term – is all we got!)

E is for Ecocide – again the subject of a whole talk –but I believe Polly Higgins’s work around Ecocide and giving our Home Planet Earth a legal identity and legal rights is probably THE vital missing part of the whole, giant, jigsaw.

So – that’s my A to E – and we can – very quickly – against all odds – combine to TIP the status quo in the world – peaceful energy revolution.

So, here’s a glimpse of what all this will look like in the near future:

Activists will be respected and their advice sought by leaders (rather than capitalists)

Burning carbon unnecessarily will stand out like a sore thumb - like me turning up today in a Hummer!

We’ll have accepted C&C equal rights to pollute the air – we will restrain ourselves - paying heavily if we exceed our shrinking carbon quota (and receiving a payment if we don’t.)

We will be Doing It - Deploying solar and wind like crazy. Not least because it will be astute too.  We will all be building new locally run solar and wind and living off free clean power from the elements for life... eternal power!

And because of Ecocide Law and Planetary Rights, banks, corporations, lawyers, governments even, will take account of the legal rights of the natural world – Mother Earth is the Parent Company – the Holding Company plc – and eco crime will be punishable in Law. Because Nature doesn’t do bailouts. The clear message to business will be - to make any further profit, always avoid crime of ecocide.

Thank you so much for listening – there is one more I need to add.

And it’s the letter W.  I add this for me, as much as for anyone. It is time for us/me to graciously accept the Peace that goes with knowing we are going to win this.  We have to start to know this. Now, at last, however slowly, we ARE winning, and we will win. Be winners not losers.  That was W.

And that’s isn’t mindless optimism, it’s 'by design' - the engineering of the psychology of Victory.

Thanks.

PS In a question after this talk it was suggested that the Zeal of Youth would have topped things off!







 





LINKS

Activism:   The Just Do It film – many screenings are free of charge www.justdoitfilm.com

Activists modelled on suffragette movement -Climate Rush – http://www.climaterush.co.uk/

Being The Change conference 2011 – London – 1/10/11  www.beingthechange.info   

Contraction and Convergence as first proposed by the Global Commons Institute www.gci.org.uk

Doing www.onehundredmonths.org    www.thesolutionissimple.org

Eradicating Ecocide book and Planetary Rights - www.eradicatingecocide.com

http://www.thehamiltongroup.org.uk/common/ecocide.asp    The Ecocide Trial - The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom - 30 September 2011  - PLEASE NOTE - The Trial is open to the public on a first come first served basis and starts at 9am. The trial is being shown on TV screens outside the courtroom for those not able to get into the Courtroom.  It can also be watched live through this SKY link: Sky News

The Transition Town Network  www.transitionnetwork.org 

http://graceleeboggs.com/ Grace Lee Boggs – 91 year old activist and philosopher

www.borderlanders.com  Navajo Indian and Jungian Psychology

www.thework.com The Work of Byron Katie

 

 

 

Contrails - Conservatives are banking on Campaigner Fatigue

 

Con Trail - Conservatives are banking on Campaigner Fatigue

Here's the blog I borrowed the photo from : http://anandgreenwell.com/?p=74

Sir

(As submitted to 'The Independent' newspaper.)

I would like to expose and condemn this government's trail of con tricks. Here is the modus operandi.

Junior ministers propose something nasty, unthinkable even, with a straight face. Like selling off national woodland. Privatising the NHS. Cruelty to animals. Censoring climate science education. 

The 'greenest ever electorate' are shocked.  People-powered petitions are put about, over-worked campaigners burn midnight oil, and public outrage is given voice. Pyrrhic victory ensues.  Exhausted campaigners celebrate.

The Prime Minister steps in, sheepishly claiming to have 'listened to the public', announcing to loud applause that plans have been abandoned.  Amidst the noise and confusion a slightly lesser outrage slips through on the nod. The PM is patted on the back by all concerned. The foul play goes undetected. 

A slow motion re-play of recent Tory 'plays' would expose this blatant con-trick once and for all. 

David Hampton

Marlow

Bucks

 

Getting Your Green Mojo Back – 5 ways to get it - and keep it

 

Getting Your Green Mojo Back – 5 ways to get it and keep it 

Psst!  Ever lost your green mojo?  We’ve all been there. Losing it, finding it, keeping it? Time to get green fit.  Eco compassion fatigue, and carbon droop, are perfectly natural! No need to worry. It’s perfectly normal to think it’s all too big - or feel inadequate  ;o) 

The ‘small task’ - of morphing an entire global industry - (all our habits, culture, plans, materials, paradigms, supply chains, manuals, everything!) - into something radically different - is no small challenge.  The ultimate goal (zero carbon + zero waste + closed loop) is almost the mirror opposite of what we’ve always done… what we know… what we’re good at… what we once learnt. But that was before we saw the eco buffers ahead. 

Here are some proven secrets to an ever more sustainable peak-eco performance?

PHOTO: http://profitablepartyplan.com/2010/04/10/how-to-get-your-mojo-back/

 

Tip #1   Find someone who has done it 

There are plenty of green superheroes out there. Men and women who have succeeded – on the ground - doing something big, hairy audacious and Green. (BHAG)  Speak with them, invite them to speak with your colleagues.  Buy their books. Google their videos.  If you wanted to be a top boxer, you’d study the best (e.g. Ali) their moves, walk, action.  “In theory, practice and theory are the same thing.  In practice, they’re not.”

Tip #2   Find someone deeply inspirational 

Some achievers are also deeply inspirational. Anita Roddick, Bill McKibben, Paul Hawken, Ray Anderson, Wangari Mattau. The list is long. People who are personally, authentically and whole-heartedly determined to transform the world.  Seek them out.  Find people who have met them (they will have got their green mojo back!)  Such people can arouse a sincere re-commitment throughout your organisation. They can ignite a burning desire - to become one of the leading ecological enterprises.

Tip #3  Be bold 

“Rescue Earth Mission” isn’t for the faint hearted.  We won’t fix anything by bolting one (slightly less messy)  compromise onto another. Be good at ‘going back to the drawing board’.  Boldly question the brief - without having to have all the answers.

If the spoken “need” is transport, ask if the real solution is more creative than  just building  more airports.  What about Boris bikes? Pedestrian friendly communities?  Light rail?  Thinking big got us into this mess; it will be thinking big that get’s us out of it too.  Dream Big and Green:-  the first zero waste town? - restorative communities that export solution faster than pollution?

Tip #4    Consciously grow your own green motivation expert  

The ‘why bother’ question is always a tricky one.  I hate to be critical but over the last 30 years we’ve just kept trying the same old tactics: a ‘standard-issue’ motivational toolkit: except all the tools are blunt or broken!   For example: 

• Do what I say not what I do (bullying?)
• Do it or feel ashamed of yourself (manipulation?)
• Do it and be rewarded (bribery?)
• Do it or we will punish/tax/fine/demote you (government?)
• Do it and you’ll look good (CSR or greenwash?)

I find these very uninspiring, don’t you?

Try this:-   Do it because you know it’s the right thing to do.

 

Tip #5   DIY  Be The Change You Want to See In (The Company and) The World 

If each of us takes care of our own waste, carbon, consumption and dirty habits, the world takes care of itself right?  When we work this out for ourselves, in our own time, and of our own free will, then we will naturally want to get on with it, and set a good example: joyfully, willingly, freely. We will do it because we’ve decided to do something about … <insert word you care about here> 

When people act from a place of authentic self-motivation, it’s highly contagious. Others are inspired to follow – because they see we are happy doing what we do – and they see there isn’t a catch – it’s not a trick.  It’s a free choice.  We can all dive in! 

Warning: Don’t overdo it – don’t change everything all at once!  

If you do...  e.g. you become vegan, sell car, stop flying, stop buying anything etc etc…  there’s a chance you will feel unhappy - temporarily (!) - as you detox.  So take it slow.   Each of us can only shrink our waste-diet at a pace that keeps us - and those we love crucially – happy!  If we or they become unhappy – guess what – we inspire people NOT to copy our new green act!!   #Green Fail!

Instead, simply, steadily, determinedly green your own act - at your will.  If it makes you happier (it usually will) – then your increased happiness will be infectious!  You will be a trend setter: a green leader. You will be irresistibly attractive.  No perfume or deodorant required.

Finally - Cold Feet? 

Ok - but what’s the point if | China does x |  population does y | competitors do z | clients do f |  planet all goes phut | … anyway? 

All good points.  But let’s expose this as the psychology of losing. No sports team for the Olympics is thinking “what’s the point of training hard if we lose anyway”  

Wiping out waste - happily - can be a central pervasive (and persuasive) theme of your life.  It’s fun, sensible, healthy, educational, entrepreneurial and ecological. It’s all these things and more… 

BEST of all – it can ALSO be a simple ‘random act of kindness’. This keeps me happy - when tackling my bit of the huge ‘waste mountain’ backlog. 

Never underestimate the infinite power of a seemingly futile gesture. 

Here is a shovel.  
You know exactly what to do with your own waste mountain.  Enjoy!  
The kids are worth it.

 

Dave Hampton

An abridged version of this article first appeared in Construction Manager magazine, May 2011

 

 

Watt Next? - One Person One Volt!

Watt Next?  - Power Share - One Person One Volt!

Watt we need – and soon – is complete Dev-OIL-ution of Power  (for Social Justice, Community Economic Resilience, and Ecological Sustainability) 

Say YES to Alternative VOLT

Yes to Fairer Volts!

Starting to Put Long Term Solution Above Short Term Pollution

Self-control is the ultimate answer… self-(energy)-control that is.  This is THE only ever-lasting (energy) solution currently on offer for humanity - that is compatible with the physical Universe - and with future life aboard Spaceship Earth.

 

 

 

Only Local End-User Empowerment – (i.e. ‘growing up?’) each one of us – of and by ourself - will deliver and unleash self-responsibility, real energy education, local creativity, and respect for limits.  Local energy freedom will make life’s energy riches fully visible once more – and reconnect us into the ‘natural grid’ of the sacred eternal circle of life.

Energy is good stuff.  Amazing stuff.  The stuff of life. 

But like power, it can corrupt.  Absolutely it can. Absolut energy.

 

Energy cannot be created or destroyed.  It can only be harnessed and shared.

Energy is the ability to do work.  ‘Work’ is a big idea. So is energy. And power.

The deep underlying importance and significance of all forms of energy is usually massively downplayed and underestimated.  We fear power cuts and lights going out - only because we have had all responsibility (for meeting our own energy work and power needs) taken away from us.  Our ancestors became state-(energy)-dependent.  Now we have been spoon fed energy ‘too cheap to meter’ for so long we have grown uselessly dependent on centrally fed power. We are utterly lost without it. We have even forgotten, cultutrally, how to grow our own energy locally, like timber, sailing ships, tides and windmills.

The True Free Energy of the Great British people!

 

 

Energy is the stuff of life.  It is far too important to let governments or companies or other nations or even ‘other people’ control it on our behalf.

The battle for the control of energy / power is more of an upstream battle – than almost any other form of battle for power that we might think of – s/he who controls the 'oil' controls the (oil-addict) nation. It is upstream even of the battle of ideas – it oils all wheels.

Silently, invisibly, unobtrusively (and cheaply), and to all intents appearing all innocent, shiny, clean and pure, central energy – from ‘those in power’  and ‘those into power’ enters our homes quietly, via wires and fuel pipes.  Metered of course so that we can all be ‘milked’ and revenue (tax?) raised by the centre.

We don’t see the military power or civilian casualties behind the power struggle as governments ‘do our dirty work for us’ to deliver ‘security of supply’ and acquire adequate reserves for our nation – via military might.

We don’t see the tonnes of coal oil gas and fossil being gulped down whole by the far-distant angry dirty ‘power station’ – doing our (dirty) work for us.

We don’t see the fumes, the ash and the tonnes of carbon dioxide being belched out either.  The bonfire of the fossil fuel (ancient life cremation – the destruction of all of our multi-million year old ancient sunlight fossil fuel reserves – up in smoke – ‘once and for all’ – (or more accurately ‘once and for just the lucky few’)  It is only taking a few hundred years of mindless mass orgy oil consumption – a planetary closing down sale – mass bonfire.  The bonfire of our children’s future for the sake of today’s vanity – our desire not to lose face - or lose cheap dirty power.

 

Spaceship Earth?

Under socio-political extreme pressure like this – it’s no surprise governments and energy companies (same thing) make a dash for the magic nuclear wand / pipedream.  But the pattern is the same.  We don’t see the reactor hidden somewhere expendable. We don’t see the fighting for territory that has the fissile raw materials. We don’t see the side-effects of radiation. ‘Those in power’ hide the news about the covered-up leaks. Hide the sickness and deaths. Hide the waste stream. Hide the long-term price tag that future generations – if they survive it all – will have to pay.

This all adds up to a huge toxic energy debt – mortgage around the children’s necks – for a few barrels more?   Is this who we are?  No thanks.   Oil - carbon - was the currency of C20th.   NOW - Renewable energy is currency of this century and by definition - of all time:-

This is The Solar Century as Jeremy Leggett tagged it.

Bring On The Sun! 

After the apparent abundance of what was really ‘finite’ (fossil fuel) during the decades of the energy glut – we will soon discover the true abundance of what we were told there was a lack of  - (there wasn’t) - renewable energy power!  We confused a one off glut for true abundance and we confused (steady state) natural limits – everlasting annual energy income – for ‘lack’

The transition however will be challenging – as we will experience the severe cold turkey aftershock and an unprecedentedly sudden energy detox – an apparent energy lack – with shortfalls, shortages, short supply… and short tempers.

But we will find a way through… we have to… we owe the kids that…

As for good clean ever-lasting renewable energy – it’s the new (solar) gold rush. We will farm it, store it, appreciate it, but most of all we will take control of the means of production – and we will discover the need to share it out fairly. Or fight.  And who better to make the tough decisions about who gets WATT – other than local people on the ground – making life or death decisions in their own community. 

Energy, by the people, of the people, for the people – locally!  Women and children first!

We will need many many many more renewable energy generators.

Ideally these should be located everywhere where we want to use energy. And that's everywhere we are of course. Yes, sometimes we may need to locate (wind) farms offshore, (solar) farms in deserts, or otherwise separate power a short distance away from us as end user. But that won’t be the norm, or the ideal solution for energy security and autonomy, without the added cost of protecting the connected territory and the power cable.  That will appear as foolish as having a garden allotment 100 miles from home.

Generally the word 'superhighway' is from the Old Power Engineers Bible and will soon be confined to the past – it is lazy thinking in this century.  Don’t be fooled by it.  If they invest all of our money into (rebuilding or upgrading) the old-school super-grid then it will appear much more costly to create a peoples power grid – a community power interconnector web:

The world wide power web.
As individual citizens and communities and regions are progressively empowered (in both senses) and take responsibility for (and can generate small profit from!) power generation that is devolved - downwards - from dirty old 'Central Power and Grid Control' model, the new energy highway we will need will look more like a lots of spiders WEBs – a web of spiders webs - than a spinal chord or a UK Motorway route map. 

 

 

In the spiders web - in each thin strand - joining individual homes or SMEs or towns - the various cables only have to carry their share of the local excess – the ‘export’ - or soak up this excess - when there is local energy shortfall. The web just has to fine trim the national balance – generators and users - with a few kW flowing from Sid’s home to Sarah’s one moment, while she boils her kettle, then back from Sarah to Sid the next.

Similarly a town like Henley may agree to share a few megawatts with Marlow during Marlow regatta, and Marlow will send back a few megawatts during Henley – ( a different week of course!)  Each node on the grid will be power sharing and time sharing all the time, but the steady state condition will be ‘IN BALANCE’ - consisting of zero nett energy flow – as each and every node will generally only bother to generate enough to meet their own local needs, which will in turn define the total demand of the entire system. 

Thus we will empower ourselves, take responsibility for WATT we need, and learn to share and respect limits, and submit to others needs when they are greater than ours, so that they will one day do same for us?

 

Super Moon, Spaceship Earth and a Local Commotion

Super Moon, Spaceship Earth and a Local Commotion

 

I was excited as I wrote this, looking forward to things looking up. On Saturday night there was a Super Moon.  Hundreds of Marlow people were ‘looking up’ at a beautiful Full Moon; the fullest in 20 years or so, I’m told. The Moon is closer to Home and ‘down to Earth’ at the moment.

 

 

It all feels special to me. There’s a commotion! Something big and free is waxing and waning. After tragedy in Japan, there is something new awakening, birthing, and a tide turning.

Under the moonlight, I simply wished for a good, safe place for all children to live happily ever after, here in Marlow, Bucks, England, Spaceship Earth. I know I’m not alone in that deep, instinctive yearning.

Not to worry if you missed the super moon, there’s another in just a month, on Easter weekend.  And in between these full moons, in just two weeks' time, is Mothers' Day and a ‘New Moon’. We briefly lose sight of moon, and sun’s energy bouncing off her. But we can reflect, and wish for the well-being of the Mum we all have in common – the One mother ship - Earth.

There are green shoots everywhere, everyday, in this beautiful town. Amazing Marlow people, out and about, walking, talking, sharing, driving a bit less (how full are the bike racks outside Fegos now!), enjoying Higginson Park, the river, growing ‘free food from the sky’ in gardens and allotments, solar panels working away on roofs, farmers markets, reconnection, generosity, random acts of kindness.

All this fresh stuff, right here in our own back yard, helped along via world wide web, via community groups like Marlow Parents, Transition Town Marlow and Freegle.

Louis got it long before Neil did. (Armstrong.) What a wonderful world. Here on Earth we are taking small steps and giant leaps. Of course we care: Marlow Matters.

 

David Hampton, Hyde Green, Marlow

 

(This piece first appeared in the April 2011 issue of free community newspaper 'Marlow Matters' which is produced by the Bucks Free Press, for Newsquest London.)

Of poppies and addicts (lest we forget the future)

Sir

We are addicts. (Fossil fuel.) Our 'thinking' is accordingly hazy and lazy. Government and media focus on short term 'fixes' - for self-inflicted problems. Our children's Home? We are burning up.

In the background, brave soldiers fight on, to secure new supplies, and new 'suppliers'.

The future is green, if we want one. Freed of need, (to smoke fossil) we will see a clear bright renewable future, of home grown food and energy: free green 'fuel' from the heavens above. Healthy new jobs, common purpose, real security, and a Brave Britain that is proudly self-sufficient;  perhaps soon strong enough even to share our spare with others? How good would that feel?

Now that would be a life worth our grandparents dying to protect for us today.

Dave Hampton, Marlow, Bucks

(The Independent newspaper chose not to print this letter.)

Poppies in Afghanistan

Picture borrowed from http://blogs.psychcentral.com/epidemic-addiction/2010/10/not-that-bad/

Keep F-i-T and reduce carbon obesity

 

PV or not PV – that’s the question – part 2

Eco-the-rich

 

Recent discussions with friends - about their (recent or imminent) decision - PV or not PV - have prompted me to raise some big issues that others don’t seem to be mentioning yet - about the choice to go for a PV solar roof.  Or not.

 

“It’s OK to Eco the Rich”

 

The Feed In Tariff  ‘grant’ for PV panels can justifiably be criticised for being regressive - benefitting the rich more than the poor. 

 

But the FiT grant is quite a different animal to the incentives that UK government has tried in the past. More ‘ISA with a tax break for Julian’ than ‘Nectar points for Jason’.

 

The grant appeals to the ‘upwardly mobile’ (do they still use that phrase?). It’s attractive to private homeowners. It lures the ‘wealthy.’ It interests the ‘better off’.  All of which do not necessarily make it a bad thing – in the greater scheme of things?  We have to engage people with money - into this “planet saving” business - at some point?

 

 

 

A lot of previous government ‘help’ (and it’s sometimes stretching a point to call it that) has historically been targeted at, or has appealed to, those on low incomes:-

 

So is this ‘energy efficiency’ stuff really just for the hard-up? And not for me?

 

The overall effect of a decade of this approach - on us all – may be that the public have got the general idea that this ‘energy efficiency’ this is something ‘worthy but dull’ - for the poor, frugal and needy –but irrelevant to the lives of ‘the rich and greedy’

 

This is entirely the wrong message.  It makes energy efficiency seem down market.

 

Eco the rich.  Profit for the posh and privileged?

 

What if ‘energy efficiency’ was instead seen as something a bit posh and privileged? Aspirational.  Keeping up with the Greens’es. (Incidentally these ‘eco the rich’ ideas pre-date the new Tory govt by 15 years or more.  It’s definitely not a stealth wealth redistribution Tory smoke and mirrors thing.)  There is science behind it: market innovation and transformation.

 

I am not rich. But compared to some I guess I am very fortunate. So some of my own experience and thinking may be of relevance to others like me:

 

Here are some of the reasons why we actually went for PV:

 

1) It wasn’t really an economic decision for me.

It was a logical decision, sure, and a sane one I hope, time will tell. But quite a bit of emotion crept into the decision at crunch time.  I’m not going to pontificate about future generations, (not this time!) although concern for the children is probably the ‘highest’ reason anyone can have for taking urgent action to cut their personal carbon legacy. This was ‘up there’ for me and a valid reason.

 

But the other emotional angle, for me, was, I confess, much ‘lower’ more base - and bass!  It was a bit like the ‘poop poop’ of Toad of Toad Hall when he spots something new (again) that he wants.  I wanted a PV roof for reasons of excitement, style, fashion statement, boys and their toys, shiny green-tech, eco, ego, esteem, (keeping up with the Green’es) to be in the vanguard, and kerb appeal.  In this case curb-ing carbon too.

 

2) Marketing Budget – proudly flying the PV flag

I don’t have a marketing budget, I run a small ‘man wife and dog’ business from home, call myself ‘the carbon coach’, and thrive on word of mouth.  If I did, it wouldn’t be much money. But blowing five years worth of marketing budget on PV panels for my roof would probably be 10 times better than any advertising hoarding could ever be.

 

I’d like to think the PV solar ‘hoarding’ is saying something like: “I walk my talk. I happily authentically cut my own carbon and costs here. And I can help you do same.”

 

3) Residual Value

People like to rave about the economics of PV by comparing it with an ISA – one with an ROI of 7, 8, 9 or even 10%!  E.g. “If you have £7k in an ISA you are much better off putting it on your roof” some say - (including me!)

 

But of course it isn’t an ISA!  No it’s some PV panels firmly bolted onto the roof of your home and hard-wired into your home’s electricity panels and meters.

 

No one really seems to be talking about the residual value of a PV installation.

 

You can’t take it with you!

The way the FiT is legislated, the rights to the FiT grant stay with the title deeds.

 

You move - you lose. 

You can unbolt your panels, but you won’t get the Feed in Tariff grant back.  So chances are you are better off leaving it behind… for the next owner… Unless they don’t want it.

 

Common sense tells me that anyone looking to buy my house will most likely be attracted by the low bills, the overall green / energy efficiency ‘statement’, the impressive energy efficiency ‘label’, and the prospect of >20 years ongoing decent FiT income - instead of electricity bills! 

 

So I don’t expect a future buyer to say they don’t buy (want) the PV bit (i.e. they want it stripped off the roof before contracts are exchanged.)  But they could.  If they did, I’d be left with a few £1000 worth of (second hand) PV kit - that I paid ten grand for.  Not good.

With a Cash ISA you get your cash nest egg back at the end, as well as all the ROI over the years. With a PV roof the biggest single variable, surely, is how much the PV roof adds to the house price.  Is this zero, or negative, equity, or more than it cost?

 

If prospective buyers like the whole package – and emotionally want my house above other similar homes on the market at the time -  my guess is that having the PV roof will at the very least ‘ease’ the sale – i.e. make it happen - in the same way that dropping the price £5k would.  If they love the house, Uncle-Tom-PV and all, then it’s not beyond the realms of fantasy and wishful thinking for them to be willing to pay a chunk over the market rate for it.  i.e. At least £10k more (which is the sum I paid for the PV.)

 

To illustrate this, imagine a celebrity choosing between two mansions, both originally worth the same, at £10 million, but one of which has just had a PV solar roof fitted.  I suspect they might pay £10 million plus 1% (£100k) for the one with solar – if they badly want it.  I KNOW this is totally un-substantiable – I know!  But what if it’s true? 

 

IF it’s true then a quality attractive and well designed PV installation costing £10k, on top of a big home, might add an illogical £10k - £20k - £50k even - to the house price?

 

Lower down the ladder, it is also a situation of “no one knows yet!”

 

But whether a PV roof is seen as an attractive extra feature or not – in future - will surely be the key factor in whether PV takes off. 

 

The time may come of course when not having PV may be seen as a reason to mark down the offer price of a property – like not having an inside toilet!

 

4) Globally speaking

PV panels are open, transparent, risk free and locally autonomous.  The more they generate, the more they don’t  pollute. In total contrast to old fashioned fossil or nuclear power – the more they generate, the more they pollute - and the higher the bill, until eventually they ‘cost us they earth’.  So PVs feel like they are doing the right thing.

 

‘Carbon quids-in’

Each PV panel ever made has effectively got a negative legacy footprint on the world – and is ‘carbon quids-in’ - providing it is given a nice roof to sit on, and a nice home to power for life.  The technology is ecologically restorative, when it displaces dirtier generation.  The more PV we use, the more CO2 we avoid putting into the atmosphere overall.   In this sense planting PV panels on your roof is almost as good as planting a tree! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5) Legacy

 

Put your money where your roof is

It’s possible my kids will benefit more from the legacy of millions of solar panels than they ever will from the legacy of £1000’s in my will.

 

Is PV making my WILL POWER-ful? 

Globally, there need be no shortage of will power, as Al Gore pointed out.

 

6) Wealth and Safety

It was a rush for (black) gold (greed) that helped get us into this planetary mess. 

 

For a long time some ‘greens’ have sometimes ignored the wealthy, and either regarded them as inevitably ‘part of the problem’ or just ignored them.  (Until they wanted a benefactor that is of course.) 

 

But we will not change the world by ignoring the wealthy! 

Neither is it the case that the wealthy are ignoring the problem, nor their responsibilities any longer, if indeed they ever did?  They are realising that they are in a unique position to give, to leave a legacy.  To make things happen. I welcome this.

 

No number of pure ethical greens can save the world* - without engaging wealth. (*not peacefully at least.)  If it requires money to do things that reduce emissions, then people who are currently wealthy are part of the solution.  “Where will the money come from? Where it is now!” (As Gandhi once observed.)

 

Where better than <Marlow> (or insert <YourTown>) in 2010, to start a people power revolution that will help heal the world. 

 

Don’t think of it so much as PV. Think of it as a small symbolic gesture of leadership.

“I will, even if you won’t.” “I’ll clean this planet up, starting with me, even if others won’t.”  “The infinite power of a seemingly futile gesture.”

 

Care to take the PV plunge?  The water is lovely.  You will not regret it.

 

"Woo - this is big!"

Dave Hampton’s Speech at Westminster Launch of UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC) ‘Adopt an MP’ campaign at Old Palace Yard, Horse Guards Parade.

13:00hrs Monday 13th September 2010

 

 

Running Order:

Alex Farrow, UKYCC

Niel Bowerman, Climatico, adviser to President Obama team during 2008 election

Stephen O’Brien, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State DFID

Dave Hampton, The Carbon Coach

Ben West, UKYCC

Speaker, Stop Climate Chaos

Caroline Lucas, MP Leader of Green Party

Jenny Jones, GLA Green

Gemma Bone, UKYCC

 

 

 
Caroline Lucas, MP Leader of Green Party - Photo Dave Hampton

 

 

“Woo - this is big!”  My youngest daughter Grace advised me to start my talk like that.

 

I’m delighted to be asked to speak today. All of you in UKYCC have my full undying support, and I think your ‘Adopt an MP’ campaign is just brilliant.

 

My name is Dave Hampton. I’m carbon coach to the rich and famous, to CEOs and Celebs, and I also do climate comedy… or at least a lot of people laugh at me    :o)

 

Before I start, I need to make an apology. I am sorry. It was my generation who messed up. And I’ve dedicated the rest of my life to the great carbon clean up.

 

 

So – ‘Adopt an MP’ – what a great idea. Those poor little orphans.  They need some loving, and some positive parenting.  Be kind to them. Everyone’s fighting a battle.

 

Now, not many people know this, but Old Palace Yard, where we are, was once home to a rare analemmatic sundial.   These use the fact that the sun travels in a predictable pattern over the course of a year, called the analemma, and trace the projection of a shadow to measure time, not only the hours as in normal sundials, but also weeks and months. 

 

So you could say we are people who know the writing’s on the wall. We’ve got the time of day for you, we know exactly what the planetary time is, and we know how much time we’ve got left. 

All of which is exactly the sort of deeper knowledge we can share with our adopted MPs.  We want to tell them the time.  And that it is time.  And that we and they are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.

 

I’m huge fan of UKYCC. Your methods and approach mirror mine as carbon coach:

Change the world - one man/woman at a time – starting with yourself.

 

Using a positive vision and actually enjoying the low carbon party, living in it, loving it. It’s a party!  So much better a party than the old ‘long soaked in fossil fuel’ party…

 

We want to speed fast forward towards a better future: one that works for me, for you, for us, for all of us, and for all time.

 

No more excuses. What do we want?  Wind and solar. When do we… NOW!

 

Imagine proper rail, new rail links, and quality affordable mass transport.

 

We will only buy into energy that’s clean, safe and won’t run out.

As for dirty old fossil and nuke, we’re simply not buying it.

 

The ‘Solution is Simple’ campaign had all the answers, a while ago…

1 – Stop Cutting Down Trees.

2 – Make Everything Energy Efficient.

3 – Only Make Clean Energy

 

And crucially the Adopt an MP campaign is not about criticism or praise, but all about remembering that MPs are humans and need our support if they are to make a stand to create the clean, fair future that we need. They need our love.  They need to know how strongly we feel, and to know just how decided we are, and hence how strong a platform we can give them.  Solid platform.

 

I was mulling on this subject over the weekend, and why it can sometimes take so long to adopt something new when it seems so obvious AFTER the event.  Innovation always seems embarrassingly obvious once it’s happened. 

My most important message (to anyone) is not to do nothing because you don’t feel you can do enough. We – each one of us – is POWERFUL BEYOND MEASURE.  We just need to clean up our own act.  Curiously there is infinite power in seemingly futile gestures.  Especially lots of them.

 

Imagine two entrepreneurs walking down this street. They see a £50 pound note ahead - just blowing along on the pavement.  “You gonna pick it up?” asks one.  “Nah. If it were real someone would have picked it up by now.”  Isn’t that how it can be?

 

I’ve an Embarassing Confession.

I’m 50… 51 in truth. I’ve been campaigning for decades but amazingly it was only about 5 years ago that it occurred to me that I could actually go and meet my own MP.  (I'd written letters and gone on marches etc, but it hadn’t occurred I could go and say hi.) 

 

No-one else was doing it, so I guess the story we have been telling ourselves was that MPs would obviously never listen to us.  So we never even tried talking. How daft. “If it were possible someone would have done it by now.”

But I did fix a 15 min meeting at my MP’s surgery 5 years ago. His secretary wasn't at all satisfied with my answer to her question, what did I want to see him about?  I said, “climate change.” And she said, “No. Come on now. What do you

really want to speak to him about?” 

 

Get this. 5 years ago no-one had ever wanted to talk with him about climate change.  Just imagine that.

 

But I got there... we had a good chat… we managed to get on quite well... despite him being a Tory...  I donated him a book and a special EE light bulb, and invited him to come to my home for tea... then it slowly went pear shaped, but that’s another story, one that culminated with me being banned from his surgery...

But now I am delighted to be

close in touch with my new MP, Dominic Grieve QC, a Cabinet minister in fact, who seems great. And he IS coming to look at my house and for tea next week. Hooray!

 

I know that a visit to my super green home for tea isn’t the answer to life, the universe and everything, but at least it’s a mutual recognition of being on the same page. And maybe there’s a metaphor, about politicians wanting to come and get some of what we've got.  And politicians who can recognize a good thing: that there is a positive vision and one that they can come and see.  That there is life after fossil.

 

There is one huge, oil-fuelled party raging on.  But as Douglas Adams H2G2 said, the longest every party in the history of the universe is coming to an end.  The good news is that another cool party is just getting started, and it’s just down the road. Now there are two parties.

 

Some old fossils and “people in power” have heard about this new cool party, and are cautiously attracted.  They have heard good reports back about the new green jobs party, the green silicon valley, the altogether smarter, younger, trendier, sexier BRIGHTER GREEN party that more and more people are happily drifting off to (and not coming back).

 

Sure there are some old fogeys, badly addicted to fossil, clinging on to the taps in the kitchen, at the old fossil party, but deep down, even they want to be invited to the big new Parliament in the Park with you guys. Where the bright young people picnic.

 

The big idea that I’d like to leave you all with today isn’t that big, and isn’t that clever.

Maybe it’s so obvious it’s almost a no brainer. But let’s give it a go:-

 

 

 

As well as Adopting your MP in a global campaign sense, why not be their gentle carbon coach too? Everyone needs a carbon coach. Everyone can be a carbon coach. Everyone is a carbon coach.  Give your MP a few tips. They need help. Advise them what to wear to this new cool party. Tell them what (recyclable) bottle to take.  Tell them what you think they ought to know.

 

Hint that they could look as cool as / cooler than / Boris - if they get a bike.

 

Let them know all about SEAT 61, the rail travel site, and the joys of rail and Eurostar.

 

Tell them why you don’t fly much.  (I don’t fly at all in fact. I’m lucky not to need to.)

 

Warn them that people won’t be impressed by them boasting about how many climate conferences that they FLY to.

 

Tell them about how much money you’ve made helping people save energy.

 

Tell them how much respect they will get swapping their Jag for an 70 mpg VW Polo.

 

Tell them how all your cool friends are having SOLAR panels fitted, right now.

Like your friend Barack Obama is probably gonna get for the White House soon.

Like Prince Charles is having installed on Clarence House up the road - as we speak.

Have they got theirs yet?

 

Even whisper how very sexy you find an MP with a solar roof?

 

Warn them about embarrassing faux pas’s like buying bottled water. Tell them about cool metal water bottles.

 

Warn them to go easy on the meat. 

 

Invite them to experiment for themselves with just how good it can be to be going greener.

 

Invite them to pause and consider for a moment just how attractive they will become if they come out and do the simple things like:

Lead from the front;

Walk the talk;

Be the change;

Just do it;

Lead by example.

 

If they walk their green talk they will be cool, hip and win the votes of your generation.

If they don’t, we just can’t trust them.

 

Some MPs have had a taste of the good green life,  but most haven’t yet had the chance. They’ve been busy.  So give them the chance to have a taste of the cake, and how good it can all feel. Reassure them it will all be a piece of cake.

 

Invite them to imagine a thriving Green silicon valley, like is happening in Brighton now.  Green jobs.  Share with them a taste of the quality of life of the transition movement, dances, bonfires, home grown food, home made stuff…  It’s not difficult to make it sound delicious – because it is!

 

Remind them what Prince Charles is STARTing.

And what brave people like Ellen MacArthur are determined to bring about.

 

 

It’s possible they may still stay stuck hanging on to those taps at the old fossil party.

Just warmly tell them they will be welcome to come join the new party any time, when they are ready. Let them know we will be waiting to celebrate their arrival. Let them know they have an open invite – if they shape up carbon wise, of course.

 

Because at the end of the day, I can’t help thinking this is a huge no brainer and much more simple than we’ve made it in the past.

 

Isn’t there still a huge leadership vacuum? There are job vacancies for real leaders!

I can’t help thinking that to be the one mainstream MP who truly takes the lead on climate will be an amazing golden dream prize, and one that curiously is pretty much still up for grabs at the moment.  In the usual political parties that is.

 

Imagine going down in history as the MP who really ‘got it’ in 2010.

The one who made it the rest of their life’s work. I’d follow them anywhere. Wouldn’t you?

SO much better than going down in history as the guy who helped the USA in the war for other peoples oil, just to feed our hopeless wasteful oil addiction at home.

 

Simply be the one to get it, and who leads from the front.  Simples.

 

Can I close with a song that I wrote a few years ago? You are lucky, I won’t sing it.  You will soon get the tune though.  (Read words of ‘Sun of Imagine’)

 

OK. Thank you so much everyone.

 

Shine on UKYCC.

Godspeed to Adopt an MP.

 

 

Sun of Imagine

(With all credit and great respect to John Lennon)

Imagine no pollution
It's easy if you try,
Oil and fossil left below us,
Above us, pure clear sky

Imagine all the people
living off today...

Imagine there's no carbon,
It isn’t hard to do,
No oil to kill or die for,
No false religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine solar pensions 
I wonder if you can!
No need for greedy nuclear,
Not in our neighbourhood plan,
Imagine all the people
Sharing out the sun...

You may say I’m a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live on sun.

DRH, 2006

Imagine no pollution

Sun of Imagine

(With all credit and great respect to John Lennon)

Imagine no pollution,
It's easy if you try,
...Oil and fossil left below us,
Above us, pure clear sky, Imagine all the people
living off today...

Imagine there's no carbon,
It isn’t hard to do,
No oil to kill or die for,
No false religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine solar pensions
I wonder if you can,
No need for greedy nuclear,
Not in our neighbourhood plan,
Imagine all the people
Sharing out the sun...

You may say I’m a dreamer,
but I’m not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live on sun.

(DaveH, 2006)

 

JUST WATCHING THE SUN SHINING  myspace