Carbon Dave's Diary

How the Chartered Environmentalist came of age in 2012

The Chartered Environmentalist came of age in 2012, and is ‘Made in Britain’

 

by Dave Hampton – the carbon coach - Chartered Environmentalist

 

People who know me have been asking: “What’s with all this Chartered Environmentalist CEnv malarkey Dave?  You seem a bit OECD* about it lately?”
(*That’s like OCD, but with an added E for Eco?)

It’s true, it does seem to be grabbing my inner psyche; I do seem to be emotionally investing and bodily identifying with the whole “CEnv” thing.  And… I happen to believe it’s wholly healthy and wholesome. Good news. Exciting even. J

I’ve been a member of the Board of The Society for the Environment, the registration authority for the CEnv qualification, for almost a decade, curiously. And likewise I’ve been a Chartered Environmentalist myself for quite a while.  So maybe I’ve been slow to “get it”?  And maybe it’s all been shaping up steadily, from within.

 

I believe the Chartered Environmentalist is a vital force for good: professional, grown up, integrated environmentalism, worldwide, starting in the UK.

 

2012 was the year the Chartered Environmentalist really tipped:

 

We got a new CEO, a new Chair, and in Tony Juniper a fab new President (our first).  We’ve got the A-team; a triple A-rated, self-coherent and motivated leadership team.  A bit like three buses coming along… but all coupled together… all joined up.

 

This leadership team being the icing on top of a cake that has been painstakingly baked for a decade, with hard work, dedication, prescience, planning, mixing and leadership from within, and dozens more ‘A-team’ people involved from day one.

 

At the heart of it all, I suspect, is the word “integration”. Tony Juniper points to this.

 

Environmentalists have come of age – we are integrating ourselves: our aspirations with reality, our activism with strategy, our words with our deeds, and our desire for urgent change with cohesion and solidarity. We are being the change we wish to see, starting internally.  Like charity, environmentalism starts at home.

 

Instead of the ‘CEnv’ slipping off the end of a long list of letters after my name, I now use it all the time.  Of my ‘post nominals’ it is the first and foremost, and sometimes stands alone.  It’s almost like a CBE to me! 

 

And I spell it out too, the full version.  (“Cee enve” sounds awful and says nothing.)  My elevator pitch, even at parties is:

“I’m Dave Hampton, Chartered Environmentalist, and I’m pleased to meet you.”

 
Yes, sure I get “looks”.  That’s the point!  And we are legion: 7000 of us already.

 

Don’t get me wrong.  Chartered Environmentalists won’t ever “sing from the same hymn sheet” - that would be dull - and unhealthy - but we will probably be humming the same background tune.  You know, the one that resonates eternally with Nature.

 

A couple of years ago I was asked to talk about my solar panels on the BBC Today program, and I asked if they would be willing to introduce me as “David Hampton, Chartered Environmentalist”  -rather than as “the carbon coach”

 

At 7:30am, over her breakfast, the woman on the Clapham subway (c.f. man on omnibus) heard the message, loud and clear:-

“Hmm; here’s another of those ‘environmentalist’ types; but wait; they said he was “Chartered”?... that sounds a bit different; interesting; promising; if they are Chartered maybe they know their onions? Might even pay me to listen up?”

When the BBC wants to make ‘environmentalists’ sound good, or at least sound normal and healthy, then the world really has moved on.

 

Some of the greatest inventions in the world are also the simplest.  I think we have witnessed the birth of a new profession. Grown up Environmentalism. The Chartered Environmentalist. Made in Britain. 

 

Wanna change the world, who you gonna call?

 

Whoever it is, best check they are CEnv.  Whatever you want done, professionally, whether by architects, engineers, lawyers, accountants, surveyors, planners, designers, it will be a whole lot better if they are *also* a Chartered Environmentalist.
(e.g. as well as Chartered Engineer, or a Chartered Surveyor, or whatever…)  

 

After all, you don’t want anything done non-environmentally – do you?

Standards

Although the standards required to become a CEnv are set high enough to be meaningful, they are not unachievable - with a bit of experience, study, tenacity and application.  And you can apply via any of 23 Institutions so far.

 

The Chartered Environmentalist ‘badge’ worn with pride – can change the world. 

 

Planting seeds

It plants the small seed of a big idea - in the established order - that an “environmentalist” can be professional too!   We even have a Royal Charter!

#MadeInBritain #London2012 #RoyalCharter #Olympics #Winners #Gold

 

It plants the seed that it is safe now, for us all to lower the drawbridge and allow a professional environmentalist or two to come back into the fold.  Back inside our long established fortresses. The environmentalist within: within our boundaries, within our corporate bodies and within our homes/castles.   We’ve been missing them!

We can welcome them back now.  They’ve ‘moved on’ too. Now they are ready to bring happiness, health and prosperity again. They are no longer peddling guilt and inaction, frozen in the headlights, angrily at odds with both progress and lack of it!

The same small seed also plants the big idea - by extension - that maybe just maybe there really is profit in all this ethical and ecological malarkey! Environmentalists have long been saying that it makes good financial sense. Now they are professionals - Chartered Environmentalists - just doing it.  Harvesting green economic shoots.

This is the profound shift: the 2012 tipping point?

More dollar value in healing the Earth, than in asset stripping and laying waste?

 

Activism

Don’t get me wrong. I will always remain deeply proud of my committed activist friends on the barricades, and in most cases they are still badly needed there. I am proud to share with them the good name of the “environmentalist”.

 

But the times they are a changing, and the doors of Portcullis House are already open - to bright eyed Chartered Environmentalists who can communicate and represent a sound evidence-based, broad-based case for positive change – who can advocate for change from within – from within!  Especially when they live those values, and model that change. 

 

Watch out for a new bike rack of Bromptons (foldaway cycles) in the House of Lords!

To be an activist, I no longer need to hide my education and professionalism.
To be a professional, I no longer need to hide my passion for radical change.

 

In short, I am proud to be both ‘the carbon coach’ and a Chartered Environmentalist (and a Chartered Engineer) again.  This feels way more centred and action-oriented.

 

 

As Margaret Mead famously said “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Today she’d have added that they’d probably be Chartered Environmentalists!

 

Spaceship Earth – will Jim fix it?

The Children’s Spaceship Earth – will Jimmy Savile fix it?

  

I wanted my last blog of 2012 to be about peace, joy and goodwill to all wo/men.  But there’s something taboo – more important – and someone’s gotta say it?

 

Not many people know this (or want to) but frequent flying is the single most damaging thing we can do - to the kids Home planet.  (In terms of our ‘contribution’ to greenhouse gas emissions - at the level of the individual.)

 

(Photo: Flickr CC Francois Roche)

I took a long haul flight once, twice if I am honest.  Please read to the end.** 
But I don’t any more, not since 1981 when I was 22 years old.  

As Jerry Garcia of the pop band the Grateful Dead said:

"Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us."

I don’t consider frequent flying socially acceptable any more. 

There. I’ve said it. 

Certainly not acceptable from people who seek to be leaders, healers, gurus, elders - or carbon coaches!

 

2012 was the year humans came together – with new common consciousness.  But rather than raised consciousness – let us also look downwards?  Towards our (carbon) feet?   Toward a much lower personal carbon ‘contribution’.

 

We all have (carbon) mud gathering on our boots. And we are all awakening to the perilous state and dire prognosis of our Home: Spaceship Earth, at 12^th hour.  (i.e. later on from the 11^th hour, and possibly too late.)  Do we dare lower our gaze - stop hoping to high heaven - and instead re-connect - as the indigenous did - with the miracle of the precious soil - and all future earth life hidden beneath our feet - and hurting - beneath our footprints. 

 

Photo Flickr CC juniorbonnerphotography 

 

Will we remember that our future - and Mother Earth’s - are same thing?

Will we call ‘Time’ and start to act as if we intend to stay – as if we love Mum?

Will we start to act more like Earth Pilgrims and less like (Earth) ‘Tourists’ – i.e. as if “just passing through” as Satish Kumar crucially observed? 

Will we remember that Earth is a unique and uniquely sacred jewel, more (of a) Present to us than any far distant past or future God.  When Mother Earth pops off Her mortal coil – so do we.  Maybe for all time.  Hardly any consolation that other Gods may forgive us, for killing off the God we were part of, and Her us.

 

 

When the news broke about Jimmy Savile’s abusive habits, everyone said that they suspected something bad was going on - but they didn’t say anything - yet - because no one else was saying anything - yet. 

Everyone “half” knew – silently. 

(I’ve just checked the spelling of Savile’s surname - never before noticed the spelling was -VILE not –ville.)

 

A growing number of people half-know that flying long-haul has a large invisible unspoken (future) cost tag.  We half-know our children will have to pick up this hefty tab.  We half-know that the “Home Ground” Earth planet we borrow - from all children of all species – is taking a lot of abuse – on a daily basis.  And yet we carry on flying, because… no one has really said anything – yet.

But We All Fly Dave?

 

Sure. People have loved ones, near and dear, or “far and dear”.  And some have jobs and missions.  And everyone ‘knows’ that it’s the (rest of the) growing population and their desire to fly that’s the real problem.  Not our 10 tons.  Surely we can ignore our little piss in the wind.  Surely we can deny our personal drop in the ocean will do any real harm.  Can’t we?

**As it happens I don’t fly; my choice; I’m happy not to; the only long-haul flights I ever took were NY 1978 and LA 1981. I don’t feel like I’ve missed out too badly.

There’s plenty of nature, beauty and wisdom – even peace, joy and goodwill - right here in my families back yard, in Marlow, UK.  (Tourists from USA agree ;)

Isn’t this the stable future; the golden gift to the baby ?  The climate peace deal here on Earth?   Peace with-INN!?

 

Abstinence from jet-set assistance of dwindling kerosene-guzzling jet engine is the new higher power!

 

So, in 2013, please can we end the silence about the full-term cost of air travel?

 

 

Notes

 

One person’s return flight London to Sydney costs 9 Tons of CO2e

That’s the same as an average European’s entire annual footprint.

The ‘average’ Indian citizen’s entire annual footprint is 1 Ton of CO2e

Why I don't like the Thrive movie

Why I don’t like the Thrive movie

 

I first saw the trailer to the Thrive movie about 6 months ago. There was a lot to like about it, and I found a lot of it 'chimed' very nicely - with my inner ‘truth-o-meter’ - but there was also a funny clanging alarm claxon sounding in the background, the source of which I couldn’t quite recognize at the time.  Now where had I heard that one before?

 

 

This week a good friend, who I’d met on a personal development weekend a few years ago, but from a very different background to me, excitedly posted a link to the film on my Facebook wall, encouraging me to watch it, telling me I’d love it!

 

What came next wasn’t very pretty.  Despite our (relatively high) levels of personal enlightenment, our awareness of our shadows, egos, projections and emotions, we both struggled to come to an amicable agreement about the film.  We battled!

 

And - with hindsight - here’s why. (We are friends again now.)

The film is a ‘hotch potch.’  Intentionally or otherwise it is a mix of good stuff, in with bad stuff, in with good stuff.   Like a sack of good healthy Peruvian seed potatoes, mixed up with half a dozen GMO Monsanto creations...

 

Nice picture borrowed from my good friend Martha Cuffy's Facebook wall. It's probably legally Facebooks (or Monsanto's) so a sincere thank you to them.

 

Thrive's a clever film, there’s little doubt about that. It was clever to persuade (manipulate or trick even?) not one but NINE of the leading inclusive generous bio-diverse enlightened compassionate and loving thinkers in the world to participate.  See link:-

http://thrivedebunked.wordpress.com/

But the film uses fear, to attack fear.  (As we all can do, when we stray from grace.)

It is a film, supposedly all about love, created from a place of confusion, shame & fear.

 

And some of the maker's agenda, projections, confusions and fears pollute the film and make it toxic. Strong words I know, but I’ll stand by them.

 

Specifically (and boy oh boy there are loads of people angrily DEMANDING 'specific' answers and clarification from the nine who have very clearly and unambigupsly distanced themselves from the film) here is what offends me.  And I am going to say this as lovingly as I am able:

I don’t know if there really are ‘free energy-field tesla’ inventors being silenced, or if there really are many “energy from nothing” geeks, all over the globe, along with their patented demonstrator “free field energy with no downside whatsoever” black boxes – I just don’t know. 

 

I do know I have never actually seen one or met one, despite being the sort of chap these people (if they existed) would probably chose to trust and bring their inventions to me.  I have a reputation for being critical of group-think, open to conspiracy theory, critical of the establishment, of government, of big energy and of elites.  Open and trusting to new ideas.... mostly (!)

 

And I also know that there is plenty of stuff going on in the world that I do NOT understand.  It really IS possible that “Men in Black” equivalents - 'secret agents' - have been confiscating these “free energy black boxes”, and zapping the memories (at least) of the innovators.

 

And I also know it’s also unlikely.  My love of physics, engineering, science and maths is sufficiently advanced for me to know that the harnessing of energy on the same scale as humankind has gotten used to, during the energy glut years, is no small technical challenge.  It’s a vast one, with no instant quick fix, no Tommy Cooper "just like that!" from under his Fez.

We aren’t talking about extracting enough energy from the air to power a mobile phone (which is totally possible) – or boil one kettle - (maybe possible one day.)

 

But hang on a minute Dave!  While I have this inner argument - between my inner Cambridge educated scientist – and my humble happy blissed out ‘I know nothing’ hippy self – what are those big shiny panels on your roof Dave?

 

Yeah yeah they are my solar panels, what’s that got to do with it?

 

Well don't they already magically generate enough free clean abundant energy and power for my needs (not my greed) ??  Just a few large flat panels of some clever silicon-based crystalline material, and it is aleady harnessing the energy field of all that free solar radiation, and converting it into real-time real-use electricity - that I can use to power this laptop, boil a kettle (slowly), and charge my mobile. Don’t they???

 

So why am I being seduced into believe that one day there will be a NEW improved better model  - of “free energy from a black box” – when there is already a perfectly good one on my roof – working – happily – economically – cleanly – harmlessly - magically - without a single FBI agent in sight.

 

My conclusion is simple, but subtle. Right here right now there are people who wish to play down the power of locally-owned locally-managed community renewable energy.  Off grid power.  At their most obvious, they write for the Daily Mail.  But they also exist, in much more moderate, subtle, palatable, plausible and likeable form at the heart of government in Cabinet, in the CBI and the Boards of global industry, in top Universities, in the BBC and world media, in the FT, Guardian, and top newspapers, in the Arts and in the House of Lords and representatives.  And in the USA, they are to be found making films like Thrive.

These loveable rogues don’t want solar in their exclusive village, they don’t want wind near their holiday cottage, they want their children to work in a bank, not in the green economy.  They don't want to use their (fast) car less. They don't want to curtail their globe-trotting, or cut back on their consumption. (Or their film-making.) They don't want to insulate their old homes. They aren’t sure whether global warning is serious.  They dislike hippies and they are damn sure that we will need to fight someone somewhere, in order to keep playing happy families (doctors and nurses) at home and in our peaceful village.

 

And the latest line of confused thinking from these people, to justify their existence.  (They are incidentally often generation upon generation of total fossil fuel energy addicts.  At some level they believe their fortunes privileges and future well being will all depend on their continuing to excavate / raid and appropritae other peoples fossil fuel, uranium or other resource.  (Crazy people!)

They think that if they tell people there is a ‘Free Energy Black Box’ - one that the state has suppressed (shock horror!) - then we will keep believing in them, and keep on buying their power - in the meantime, until these new boxes are stacked up high on the shelves… ..one day… but not yet.

The false promise of abundant 'free energy tomorrow' gives us an excuse not to act to change anything (or cut back on real waste) today...

But guess what. These Free Energy Black Boxes (renewable energy) already exist. They are abundant.

The healthy demand for local renewable energy today is being suppressed - today - in the media - and by Thrive movie!

Connive might have been a better title. 

 

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

 

B-ring in the new! 

I welcome in all 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 28 December 2011

Ecologist magazine 

 

Ben Hudson #bhudso was my interviewer for The Ecologist 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 surprise for you at the end of this piece.

 

Do you ever take your eye off the carbon ball(oon) and feel disheartened? 

Do you ever see all your efforts as a ‘drop in the ocean’?   

Common symptoms believe me!

Then take solace, and take heart, link 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?  Yes 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 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?  In which case - 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.

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 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 also like to be fitter, happier, better off and better placed to face the future, but I will regard all these as 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 that 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 thousand... 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/