marklynas.orgThe low-carbon revolution starts here 26 January 07
It was a bit like a vicar's tea party - except that there wasn't any tea. We were much too busy for that. Instead, we all sat in the living-room of the vicarage earnestly discussing how to transform Wolvercote into a low-carbon community. It wasn't just your average bunch of middle-class greens either - included in the circle were the headteacher and chair of governors from the local primary school, the milkman from a nearby North Aston dairy, the leader of Oxford City Council, and a representative from the village hall committee, among others.
This article first appeared in the New Statesman on 29 January 2007. For the original article – with better layout, and blog discussion – click here.
We batted around some intriguing ideas – from introducing a loyalty card scheme to encourage residents to give up supermarkets and shop locally, to the idea of having an “energy champion” living on every street. The local school, which has already halved the number of parents who drop their children off by car, has applied for grants to get solar panels installed on its extensive area of south-facing roof. Now the church is also looking to follow suit, and to encourage its congregation to do likewise. My job is to draft a “charter” for how a low-carbon community might look, which we can launch at a public meeting and use to generate local support.
Suddenly everyone is taking low-carbon living seriously. A recent Oxfordshire energy- reduction conference was so oversubscribed that even the organisers were only allowed to send one delegate. Across the country as a whole, there has been a sea-change in attitudes over the issue: as recently as two years ago, everyone hoped that “they” – the government, scientists or whoever – would deal with climate change for us. No one felt much individual responsibility to act. It is now clear that the government has failed, and that we cannot look to ministers to fight this battle on our behalf. Instead, this has to be a DIY revolution.
There’s nothing special about Wolvercote, by the way. We’re a long way behind the Cheshire village of Ashton Hayes, which began going carbon neutral over a year ago. Led by parish councillor Garry Charnock, the villagers have now doubled the number of fully insulated homes, and several houses now sport solar hot water panels. The Golden Lion pub aims to be the first carbon-neutral pub in the UK. The local council has been pressured into building a footpath to the railway station, so that residents don’t have to walk along the verge of a busy road in order to swap their cars for rail travel.
Finding themselves inundated with requests from other communities about the low-carbon village project, Charnock and others launched the website www.goingcarbonneutral.co.uk to share tips about their experiences so far. Ashton Hayes (population: 1,000) is also sponsoring a nationwide conference in Chester on 14 April (at which I will be speaking), where delegates from dozens of incipient low-carbon communities can share experiences. As the conference organiser Tracey Todhunter told me: “Every day my email inbox is full of parish councillors and others from places around the UK asking how to go carbon neutral. There’s nothing special here: we’re just ordinary people – so we want to learn as well as teach.” At the last count, Todhunter knew about more than 30 communities that are now going low-carbon throughout the UK.
These projects share a recognition that national government has lost the initiative on tackling global warming. Terrified, in equal measure, by the motoring lobby and the Home Builders Federation, ministers are plodding timidly behind the more visionary initiatives of communities across the land.
What the government lacks, above all, is any recognition of the sheer urgency of the crisis. With only nine years to go before carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere hit 400ppm (parts per million) – after which the chances of keeping global warming below the dangerous “tipping point” level of 2°C begin to diminish rapidly – the carbon clock has just a few minutes to go before it reaches midnight. In villages and towns across the UK, worried citizens can hear the clock ticking. But in Westminster, everyone seems to have gone deaf.
Comments
Cathy Green
January 28th, 2007 at 11:20 AM
Mark,
Yes I have your ‘Carbon Counter’ book and am launching a series of meetings in Gloucestershire called ‘The One Tonners – How Low Can You Go?’ – trying to get across the message that low carbon living is ‘cool’ – it’s cool to be low carbon could be my mission statement! ‘One Tonner’ obviously refers to being an emitter of only One Tonne of carbon a year. I’ve had t-shirts printed up saying ‘I Wanna Be A One Tonner’ – and yesterday we (15 volunteers) went out onto the streets of Cheltenham, Glos. to hand out leaflets and promote the idea of low carbon living generally. I reckon under 1% of people were on board / interested – another 9.5% had it on their radar and the other 90% either didn’t care or didn’t believe in Climate Change! And many many other people said they really weren’t concerned about Climate Change! What lucky lucky deluded people the majority of the population are and also how ill-informed! I understand that there are pockets of concerned citizens around the country and in the US doing as much as they can but really, given the general complete lack of concern by the general public this is a time when we need top-down government legislation more than ever… we committed greens alone are not enough in number to turn the tide. Sorry I am still reeling from the coal-face interaction with the mass of disinterest and ignorance of the man in the street on this issue – the level of ignorance is astounding – I can’t believe how many people still think that the Ozone layer is responsible and also how far away they think the ‘possible threat’ of climate change is. I have to say that even George Bush is ahead of Cheltenham folk on this issue? Anyone from any other parts of the UK found a better response?
Lynn Vincentnathan
January 28th, 2007 at 03:45 PM
We need to do this at the individual level, or we’re sunk.
We need to do this at the government level, or we’re sunk.
We need to do this at all levels – self, home, work, church, school, town, state, fed gov, world.
It does really seem even here in the “don’t mess with Texas” and “U.S. means us (actually me) and no one else” land. I feel we are on the brink of a revitalization (or social) movement—the 4th wave of the environmental movement. It could happen almost overnight. I was there in San Francisco when the hippy movement happened (I lived in the district adjacent to Haight-Ashbury) & saw this Pied-Piper type of immigration to SF of (it seemed) the entire youth of America, and their change from straight to hip overnight.
So in a day coming very soon, we will wake up & the entire world will be changed. It will be hip to be carbon neutral, and the denialists will be scorned back to the hell from which they came, the butt of many jokes & sneers.
And we will find rejoicing in our little ways of environmental healing. We will find pennies saved for our tiny deeds, deeds which when combined will mean the salvation of our beautiful, wonderful world.
I feel positive. A student came to me this Friday and expressed her concern about global warming. I asked if there were others that felt like her. She said yes. I told her let’s start a campus club. (I had been in the earlier Environmental Awareness Club, but someone wrecked it & try as I might, I could not revive it—it has to come from the students & their enthusiasm.) I’d like this club to be about global warming (with some awareness of other enviro/social problems). Can you think of a short & good name??? Like, the Climate Change Club, or ??