The Hope at the Heart of the Apocalyptic #ClimateChange Report #auspol #nswpol #qldpol #StopAdani #EndCoal #TheDrum #QandA End #Capitalism

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

The Degrowth Movement  has been around since the financial collapse in 2008 (something that happens on a regularly).  If something is out of balance, it oscillates, and if the wrong measure are taken to correct it, it just gets worse, till it finally breaks.  This is what our economic and financial system is, badly out of balance and it is driving climate change, inequality and poverty.

In the UK we had the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) which Labour set-up, but basically ignored!  The Conservatives, stopped funding it, and the English Green Party, also ignored a report published by the SDC; ‘Recession must make us question relentless pursuit of growth‘!

via The Hope at the Heart of the Apocalyptic #ClimateChange Report #auspol #nswpol #qldpol #StopAdani #EndCoal #TheDrum #QandA End #Capitalism

Mapping Climate Communication, new posters July 2014

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

Dr. Boehnert has produced 3 intersting charts on Climate Change and as stated, they are still a work in progress. The top chart does show how the USA has tried to discredit the science behnd climate change. And more recently how the UK Government scrapped the Sustainable Development Commission: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/ and has made large cuts to the Environment Agency.

EcoLabs

Mapping Climate Communication: Timeline

This series of three posters maps climate communication by means of a timeline, a network visualization and a strategy map. The work illustrates
relationships between climate discourses, prominent actors and major organizations participating in climate communication including science institutions, academic institutions, media organizations, think tanks and government agencies – along with the interests and funders linked to these organizations. Various discourses are mapped including climate science; counter-movements (contrarianism); ecological modernization, neoliberalism and corporate capture; and social movements (climate justice). The timeline visualizes the historical processes that have lead to the growth of various ways of communicating climate change. The network visualization illustrates relationships between actors and prominent discourses. The strategy map displays methods used within four discursive realms.

The posters are still work in process. They will be presented at the ‘Changing Climate Communication’ conference in July 2014. Feedback from this presentation will inform a final stage of the visualizations, to…

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Tories slash #climate adaptation spending. “Vote blue go extinct…”

Posted on by Patrick Sudlow

The Conservatives also asked the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Commission, at which Tim Jackson and colleagues produced a report, ‘Prosperity without Growth’. No political party in the UK, took this report seriously, and all constantly pursue economic growth. Which is of course, the cause of inequality and climate change. Truthout have just posted an article on ‘Beyond Growth or Beyond Capitalism?’, which is repeating the SDC’s findings; http://truth-out.org/news/item/21215-beyond-growth-or-beyond-capitalism. Will any political party embrace these policies and engage the voters with them? The UK Green Party were told at it’s 2010 Spring Conference, to be bold and to push forward on this agenda. They failed to do so, and the capitalist and growth at any cost agenda, prevails.

manchester climate monthly

polarbearadaptationfundingcut

Damian Carrington, writing in the Guardian.

What’s interesting is that the next sentence goes –

It had risen by almost 20% under Paterson’s predecessor, Caroline Spelman, but fell 41% after Paterson replaced her in September 2012.

So, there are Tories who want to conserve (the clue is no longer in the name) a habitable planet. But Dave, presumably in an effort to keep his make-Attila-the-Hun-look-like-Mahatma-Gandhi friends to the right happy, is willing to throw them overboard.

When they are older, and they understand what he has done, his children will – along with everyone else’s – curse the day he was born.
But of course, it’s easy to denounce the pantomime villain (oh yes it is). The bigger question is – where are the social movements? Where are the people who are learning and teaching how to channel the anger, disbelief and despair felt by so many into effective…

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