And Now we Wait for Leadership

On Saturday I attended The Wave, in London, which was a demonstration designed to remind politicians that we want them to come away from the Copenhagen Summit with a strong agreement to tackle Climate change.

I’m really glad that I went, as I would have felt pretty hypocritical if I hadn’t made the effort. Sadly, I don’t think that enough people showed up to make ministers sit up and take notice. Too many people either don’t care, or don’t care enough. Here in Horncastle, we have around 10, 000 people, and yet I know of only six adults, and two kids who went to London. There may have been more, who went independently, but even so, the it was a poor show, that was obviously repeated all around the country.

So now we have to wait for leadership from our politicians. The same politicians who took us into Iraq, fiddled their expenses, and wasted £14,000 pounds per person propping up a banking system as corrupt as themselves. Perhaps this really is the Age of Stupid.

So what do we do if World Leaders fail to live up to the title of  ‘Leader’ ? Probably what we all should already be doing. Acting now, without waiting for the nanny state to tell us that we should. I think that deep down, we all know that we have to do something, even if we don’t really want to change. Probably the first thing to do is to sign up to the 10:10 campaign. You sign up to reduce your own emissions by 10% in 2010. By signing up, you show the government that you want to reduce emissions, and help give them the backbone that they need to to act at their level. You can sign up here

The more people that sign up, the more that politicians can see the support for action, and we start doing something NOW.

Even if they let us down, we are only responsible for our own actions, not theirs, but we are TOTALLY responsible for all of our actions, or inaction.

It’s time to act.

Deano

Peak Oil Animation

Isn’t Youtube great?

I found this little animation on Youtube, and thought that it was a nice, simple way of getting some facts about Peak Oil across. If anybody has found anything better, let me know, and I’ll publish a link to it.

Deano

Transition Training

This weekend I am away in Lincoln doing the official Transition Training. I became involved with Transition Lincoln by accident. I went along to a meeting of the Lincoln Urban PIGS (Pemaculture Interest Group), as I’m involved with Permaculture, and they were in the process of morphing into Transition Lincoln. I decided to get involved, even though I live 26 miles from Lincoln. In reality, I should be involved with Transition Horncastle, but they don’t exist yet. There are four of us from the Horncastle area scheduled to do the training, but only one of the four lives in the town itself. Perhaps we’re a few months away from forming a group, but it is something to aim for. Local solutions for local people. Perhaps my own village will, take up the challenge? Maybe not. The Burghers were outraged when we tried to get some affordable housing built. ” We don’t want poor people in the village” was the mood of the minority, and was actually said to me. The selfish way that we lead our lives has to change.

I intend to lend my support to Age of Stupid, by watching it again on Saturday. Hopefully, enough people will attend to convince the cinemas to show it more widely. Even though the film doesn’t offer any positive message, or solutions, I still think that we will turn things around. I don’t believe that it’s too late to change, and that it is imperative that we do so.

I will reply to any comments next week.

Have a productive weekend.

Deano

Age of Stupid premiere

I went to the Premiere of Age of Stupid yesterday, and was impressed with the film. I thought that the premise of looking back in time from the future was a good way of approaching the subject, and that the use of the stories of real people, affected by climate change, and by Peak Oil was very moving, and effective.

After the film, they announced a coalition against climate change, involving lots of different organisations, that they claimed represented nearly 6 million people, or 10% of the UK population. The message that they were trying to get across was that we must put pressure on the government to push for a really strong treaty to come out of Copenhagen, in December, to replace the Kyoto agreement, and that they were organising a mass rally in December.

The website implores people to watch the film on its opening weekend, which is coming, as the number of ‘bums on seats’ over the opening weekend, will determine how widely shown the film will be. There is a list of cinemas sheduled to show the film, so if you’re concerned about climate change, or peak oil, you need to get yourself, and as many friends as you can muster, to a screening this weekend.

Please support the film, and encourage as many people as possible to go and watch it.

Deano

Age Of Stupid Premieres on Sunday

The Documentary film “Age of Stupid” premieres on Sunday, in London. The film deals with the issue of climate change, and the premiere is to be shown at Odeon cinemas around the country, by Satellite Link.

I will be watching the film in Lincoln, on Sunday, along with other members of Transition Lincoln> I will write a critique on Monday.

If you want to find out more about the film, you can go to the following website:

http://www.ageofstupid.net/

Deano