Went to the Green Party meeting last Thursday (am starting off with Environmental Groups, will then branch out to other groups). Did a q and a session (see bottom of this page) and also got people into groups to answer various questions. Sadly no time left for groups to answer more than one question, or to cross-fertilize.
Next week am doing Friends of the Earth, Manchester Climate Action and later in the month Greenpeace. Will also post their answers to these and similar questions.
Who should “we” talk to? (we being people who want the Stakeholder Conference to fulfill its potential)
School children
groups who represent disability, access etc.
Faith groups
SPECIFIC mosques, churches etc
PaganFederation
Conservation groups, permaculture, community gardens
Schools doing ‘ecoschool’ project standards
Afsl
Geography teachers
MEEN
Woodcraft Folk
Teaching Union
Manchester Trades Council
BTCV
Anti-Tescos
Ramblers
National Trust Rep
CPRE
People and Planet
Independent Media
Health Workers
PTAs
Campaign for Free Public Transport
Rail Users Groups
Allotments
Groups like Shelter and other homeless orgs
Sustainable Businesses (unicorn, 8th Day etc)
Uni (tutors and students)
How should we be educating ourselves and others?
Promoting through youtubes, interactive media
community outreach – contact various socieites, e.g. Church groups, ethnic minority groups, TARAs
meet and (challenge) greet with the Council – go to surgeries. Mass Lobbies with our demands for stake holder conference
Build relations with the council to understand structure
Produce document answering key questions for people outside teh movement to understand what stakeholder conference is
Themed pre- Nov 30 meetings
What would make you get involved in “C2RA”?
A belief that there are, at least a few, certain outcomes
A SPECIFIC task to be involved in
Be able to make a contribution that involves family-friendly ours (e.g. Picnic in the park)
Something that would use my specific skill set
See how it impinges on my daily life
Social based meetings and work based meetings (free food)
Dangers in Process and how to avoid
No follow up
Stage manage (death by powerpoint)
Preaching to the converted
Confused by council-ese
Lip service
How to avoid – don’t use powerpoint. Detailed follow up (meetings, events, groups)
What do you think “success” would look like with the stakeholder conference?
local residents actually invited to attend, in good time
a change to the decision that aviation not be included in the targets and discussions.
A concrete, achievable, affordable action plan, that contains specific i,e. NOT “we will encourage more cycling” but “we will put in a cycle lane in x places, and make 200 street-hire cycles in the city”
stop the felling of mature trees. Why are we always told mature trees are diseased but not told what disease it is, or a tree is felled when some pollar4ding will do. More pollarding of mature trees like we see in Europe.
QUESTIONS FROM FOLKS, WITH MY ATTEMPTS TO ANSWER
How does the Climate Change Action Plan fit into the Council’s 10:10 aspirations?
The 10:10 campaign is a small step towards the aspirations of the CCAP. They obviously hope that the 10:10 will build the momentum towards greater CO2 reduction. They think they’ll get their 10% reduction by measures thermostat in their buildings this winter.
Is there a Greater Manchester Action Plan and how are the other local authorities dealing with climate change?
The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) has got an “Environment Commission” that is looking at Energy, and sharing expertise. There’s mention of a ‘low carbon economy’ in the Greater Manchester Strategy. Through gritted teeth I will admit that MCC is ahead of all the other Gtr Manc local authorities.
Isn’t big industry the problem not our individual lifestyles and if so how will the council deal with that?
Manchester(the area covered by MCC) is mainly service and tertiary industry, it is post-industrial so to focus on industry would not resolve the emissions problem.
Can the council sort out the buses which are huge polluters in Manchester?
The buses have been privatised and de-regulated but MCC is taking steps to ensure better service level agreements with bus companies in the short term.
Read Full Post »