Category: Other stuff

The final session discussed how we communicate with others about Climate Change. We were asked to consider examples of bad and good conversations we had experienced. We considered some of the reasons that make it so difficult to engage in conversation: busy-ness, it’s all about the future rather than the here and now, it demands self-sacrifice with no benefit for me.

We went on to consider our own initial reservations about approaching the topic: fears about upsetting those closest to us, our sense of ignorance, never knowing enough to present a persuasive argument. We then shared what gave us positive support. Some found that being part of a group provided a network of resources. Others talked of the cost-saving arguments for low carbon energy use. What is most helpful is to frame the problem in terms of things that can be done now.

We followed up with a listening exercise in pairs where people were encouraged to listen to the other without interrupting them or listening selectively in order to ask questions. We recognised the importance of speaking from our own experience , “telling our story”,rather than using ideas alone as a means of engaging with people.

Finally, we reflected on what we had found useful about our six weeks together. We shared how we had become empowered to make changes in our lives and how sharing our feelings about the process was so important. We celebrated with a meal that members brought to share and planned how we will keep in touch and meet up again in the future. Thanks, once again, to everyone for their contribution. Great to have your presence in the final session, Charles, as one of the founding figures. Thanks especially to Ben, for providing his home as an intimate space in which we could all share and reflect in an atmosphere of trust.

General consumption and waste

 In this session we focused on our consumption. We learned how it is a big proportion of our carbon footprint and how it tends to increase in line with our total household income (the more money we have the more we spend!). There is a relationship between what we buy, why we buy it and our identity.

 Our first exercise was to relate a purchase we were pleased with: Kew membership, solar PV, a battery to go with PV, second hand clothing, bikes, evening courses. And those we regretted: books, home improvements that go wrong, bad phone contract, speed dating nights, shoes and interestingly, bikes.

Then we discussed why we buy using the exercise on p29. Thoughts that occurred to us included: purchases for comfort or enrichment, is being green denying ourselves pleasure?, purchases leading to hoarding, friends who buy to cope, purchases to celebrate traditions (Christmas, carnival), days out with children, substituting ‘experiences’ for actual gifts especially when celebrating children’s birthdays.

 Our next exercise was to design a poster exploring the differences between personal needs and wants. One group drew three concentric circles with basic needs in the centre (food, warmth, housing, ?Wifi), then a middle ring for things like special food, entertainment, enrichment, studying etc and an outer area for purchases that we felt were extravagant and not needed like weekend breaks by air (some said these were a necessity to some people), art collections, extravagant jewelry, watches etc, private heated swimming pools and so on. The other group’s poster was a collection of drawings: community giving companionship and friendship which didn’t require expenditure, a mastercard advert for a festival, choices and thoughts when making purchases, children’s expectations.

 Our penultimate exercise was to think about five ‘ways to well-being’ published by the New Economics Foundation which explored the ideas of give, connect, keep learning, be active and take notice. We all thought about whether we do these in our lives and could we make more time in our lives to do them. Generally we thought these were good principles but sometimes it can be hard to keep a balance. One particular example is how family responsibilities can take up the time we might spend on learning, being with our friends, volunteering and so on. Another is how education can give us a double bonus of spending time with others of different age groups and life experiences. And also our busy-ness can mean that we miss what is going on around us especially in the natural world. 

Finally we thought about the things we didn’t get a chance to say during the evening – being too busy in our lives, remembering to be compassionate to ourselves, working towards the NEF Five ways, paying attention, new ideas for home improvements, the carbon significance of un-deleted emails (server space and carbon footprint!), unsubscribing to unread emails.

 Thank you to Ben for hosting our group and to Peter for the wonderful cake!

We had a lively and informed discussion about food. We started by discussing some memorable meals that we’d had and interestingly a lot of people described the context much more than the food itself. We then did an activity in pairs where we discussed the meaning of food, such as what and who influences our food choices. Topics ranged from how there’s more choice now than a few decades ago, veganism, organic vs. local, rituals and habits, noticing seasonality and availability to compassion for our own-grown vegetables. We then did an ‘anxiety spectrum’ where we got up and stood at one end of the room or the other according to how strongly we felt about certain issues, such as the treatment of small farmers in the UK and further afield, which some people in the group had not thought about much previously and took away as one of the main things they will consider after the session. In the break we enjoyed some lovely Brazilian snacks – cheese balls and corn cake and peanut sweets.

For the majority of the session we played a food footprints game looking at the main sections of the chapter in the book: production, processing, packaging and transport. It was really useful as it’s difficult to differentiate between a lot of products which seem similar, such as the production of different fruits and vegetables, so it really gets you thinking. It seems easy to hold one piece of information in your head – say the worst or best thing about a product such as there being minimal packaging or it being flown over from New Zealand – but to think of all four factors with each product is more of a challenge. I generally find it easy to not buy a fresh product where it’s obvious that’s it’s been flown from far away, but more difficult to take into account where the ingredients of products with multiple ingredients have come from. So in some ways it’s easier to just avoid these products, or at least see them as a treat.

We also discussed our food diaries briefly, which was interesting as even for people who already think about these things quite a lot, such as vegans, there is still often a gap between your own perception of what you eat and what you actually eat. I realised that I don’t think of myself as someone with a sweet tooth but I in fact eat more sweet things regularly than I had thought. And I also eat more dairy than I think of myself as doing.

My main lesson was to eat less dairy (I’m already vegetarian and used to be vegan for five years), because in terms of carbon it’s actually worse than some meats. So I’m going to treat dairy as more of a treat than an everyday part of my diet. I was really encouraged by other people in the group who said they’d had loads of support to be vegan and it made me remember that my family and friends were really supportive when I was vegan a few years ago.

In our first session we discussed some general issues around climate change such as responsibility for the problem and what a low-carbon future would look like.

On the issue of responsibility we thought about individual vs structural change. We agreed that individuals do hold significant power through their consumer choices. However we also recognised that people can only take actions within certain frameworks of possibility (eg they can only use public transport if these services are provided; they can only use community-generated energy if the political system supports and encourages such endeavours). So of course there are limits to individual action.

We also brainstormed what a low-carbon future might look like. We wondered what legal frameworks might be developed to ensure that our carbon footprints were lowered. In the absence of such frameworks, would people’s individual morals be enough to keep all of our footprints down? This is a thorny issue which governments are reluctant to touch, because it would involve imposing carbon quotas upon people, which could be unpopular.

We also thought about whether we would have such a strong sense of seasonal change in the future, given our changing weather and how the availability of produce all-year round makes us more immune to the seasons. We also wondered whether, if people have smaller families, this would lead to more people living communally, in order to find a sense of community which they wouldn’t get from having a big family. Finally, we had a mind-bending discussion about self-drive vehicles, which felt like science fiction, but apparently is a fast-creeping reality!