Noel Longhurst

Spending some time in Dubai

2010-03-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

Dubai has become something of a symbol of decadence and unsustainable practices in recent times. I was therefore interested and somewhat heartened to read this story about the first time bank being set up in Dubai.

For the uninitiated, Time banks are a form of complementary currency in which the users create a form of mutual currency based, not surprisingly on time. Members can earn the currency doing community focused activities and then 'spend' it receiving services for others. They can be effective in particular as a tool to build social or community capital.

'New Economic' ideas reaching the land of the man-made islands and indoor ski centre. Maybe there is hope yet...

This week's New Scientist on Peak Oil

2009-12-09T02:35:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in the lecture on Transition Towns that the whole issue of 'Peak Oil' had become far more mainstream since the Transition Town movement started in 2006.

To nicely illustrate this point it is the cover story on this / last weeks New Scientist.

The article is written by David Strahan who is an 'early topper' and is a discussion of whether 'non-conventional' sources can fill the gap created by the decline in conventional.

It can be accessed online, for free here although the online article doesn't have the nice graphs that come in the hard copy. If anyone wants a copy of that I can do them one.

There is also an editorial here which suggests that we need to use unconventional oil carefully to give us time to change the infrastrucure in more fundamental ways.

The problem of 'getting things done': Dongtan eco-city

2009-10-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

A recent post by Kev on green technology in China reminded me similar praise for the eco-credentials of China from various sources, including being at a seminar a couple of years ago where someone from ARUP spoke about the hugely ambitious Dongtan eco-city project.

Dongtan was a new development that was intended to be zero emissions, with self-sufficiency in water and power amongst many other environmentally friendly features.

Kev's post prompted me check out how Dongtan was doing, bearing in mind that 50,000 people were supposed to be living there by 2010, and I was surprised to find out that it has stalled and now seems likely to never happen.

I was surprised because I bought into the 'China can get things done' argument, which clearly has an element of truth, but also clearly has limits. From the few things that I have read, it seems that the reasons for the failure are complex but also highlighted the negative impact of the proposed project on local communities and ecology.

This chimes with the unease that I have always had whenever I have heard China being praised for its ability to 'get things done' in an environmental sense. Its system of government does permit it 'get things done' in all sorts of ways, some of them which violate human rights. I have the same problem with the Peak Oil movement's praising of Cuba's such as through the film the Power of Community. Again its system of government seems fairly important in the way it dealt with its own 'peak oil' caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Whilst both China and Cuba can get things done in an environmental sense, it comes at a cost in other spheres of life. This 'inconvenience' is rarely mentioned when they are being praised, nor is the question about the relationship between response and political system.

Of course the flip side is whether our 'democratic' system, which purports to value individual rights and has numerous checks and balances has the ability to get things done. That for me is a very big question and the evidence is not good. Look at at the procrastination over UK energy policy over the last decade. The downside of democracy is that it can be very hard to get things done, and politicians find it hard to tell the voting public that they can't have their cake and eat it.

These are important questions because as/if the climate crisis worsens, pressure might build to suppress human rights or bypass democratic controls so that we can 'get thing done' a bit quicker. For example it will be interesting to see how the UK Infrastructure Planning Commission works, bearing in mind it is supposed to be an initiative which gets round the many planning issues which hinder large infrastructure projects. Or the way that terrorist legislation has been used to stop a climate change activist from travelling to Copenhagen. I guess that is why I sometimes see climate change as not only a great challenge for humanity as a whole, but also for the democratic system of government.

Is France going to start measuring 'progress' in a different way?

2009-10-09T01:59:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if this was mentioned in this week's lecture but President Sarkozy of France recently commissioned the eminent economists Joseph Sitglitz and Amartya Sen to look into alternative ways of measuring progress.

Their report was recently published here.

I have yet to read it in depth but it looks very interesting and a good exploration of some of these issues, such as the problems with GDP etc. It comes up with a number of recommendations and it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Charlie Brooker on the 'stuff-a-launche'...

2009-10-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

Charlie Brooker writing about too much stuff

Why Sustainable Consumption...

2009-09-30T02:29:00.000-07:00

I am currently writing up my PhD with the human geography department at the University of Liverpool. The working title of my thesis is ‘Investigating Alternative Economic Spaces’ and has involved studying the town of Totnes in Devon. The basic premise is to explore the extent to which it is possible to create ‘alternative’ economic possibilities at a ‘grassroots’ level. In particular I am looking at the processes which lead to the formation of ‘alternative’ places and whether such places and whether such places make experimentation more possible. In order to get to know the area that I was studying I lived ‘in the field’ for just over two years. I also engaged in participatory research with the Transition Town movement and, in particular, the Totnes Pound community currency.

I am publishing some of my research findings here. So far the information I have posted is mainly for the benefit of people who helped with the research and those interested in how Totnes became an alternative place. In this sense I am using the blog as a process of data verification as well as ‘giving back’ to those who gave me their time to help with the research.

I am now a Visiting Fellow at ENV and due to start a two year research project on complementary currencies will Gill in March next year. There is a lot of overlap between the theoretical background of my research and the Sustainable Consumption course, particularly the ‘new economic’ approaches. I am doing a lecture on Transition Towns as part of the Sustainable Consumption course and attending some of the lectures and workshops in order to participate in the discussion and to continue to develop my own thinking on the topic.

Oh and there is a prize for anyone who can guess what I a doing in the picture I have used. A clue: it does relate to one of the workshops later in the course…

A satirical look at the problems of managing carbon...

2009-09-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

It is often said that satire is a valuable mirror to society, highlighting inconsistencies, hypocrisies and problems with the way in which social issues are handled. This is a satirical look at the problems of managing carbon...

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/celebrity/emma-thompson-to-decide-where-you-go-on-holiday-200901131507/