Concrete Utopia! – Saturday 20th February 2010

Saturday 20th February 2010

10am – 4pm

@ the Methodist Hall, Oldham Street, Central Manchester

On Saturday 20th February, people from all walks of life will gather to imagine Manchester in the year 2020- and how it will be ready for the changes that Climate Change will bring to Greater Manchester and beyond.

No need to book, just come!

For more information, contact calltorealaction@googlemail.com

PROGRAMME OF WORKSHOPS FOR THE DAY

Registration from 10.15 to 10.45pm

Opening Session in Main Hall

Welcome

A powerpoint presentation on : “How we got to where we are, and what is happening in the coming months and years”

First session (11.30 to 12.45/1pm)

1) How will we live? Presentation and interactive workshop by Andrew Leask, designer of the Trafford “Eco-house”

2) Film showing and discussion- Hi High Rise (a film by Jan Dixon and Emily Dixon)

3) The Manchester  Climate Change Action Plan for beginners – introductory session to what the plan says, how it was put together, what happens next.

Second session (1.30 to 2.45ish)

4) Religion and Climate Change (in the Chapel). What role are churches, mosques etc playing in the year 2020? What steps got taken in the years 2010 to 2012 that made them greener and more effective as sources of information and inspiration for people who wanted to take action on climate change?

5) “Integrated” transport in Manchester. How will Mancunians be moving around within the City Region area? How can more cycling and walking be encouraged? What are the current battles being fought?

6) Food and Manchester in the year 2020– Can we feed ourselves?

Third Session (3.00 to 4.10)

7) Steady State Economics

8) Aviation and Manchester- what will Manchester Airport look like in 2020, if the Council gets its way. What will it look like if the campaigners get their way?

9) Is this what democracy looks like? Explanation of how Manchester’s democratic structures currently work,and discussion of what they could/should look like in the year 2020.

Final plenary” 4.15 to 4.45

Coming together for announcements, feedback (one minute summaries of the workshops based around a few key words) and brief concrete suggestions…

Think Global, Act Local Government

ICLEI (the international Local Government Association for Environment) is hosting a whole lotta events at Copenhagen, and have done a bunch of briefing papers. Probably very good, but I’m recommending them on reputation alone, not having read the blighters (yet).

1. Glossary
2. Climate Change
3. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
4. Kyoto Protocol – Introduction
5. Kyoto Protocol – Mechanism for implementation
6. Conference of the Parties – how can LG actively participate?
7. The road to Copenhagen – international climate negotiations 2007-2009
8. Local Government Climate Roadmap 2007-2009
9. Why cities and local governments are key actors – fields of local action
10. World Mayors and Local Governments Climate Protection Agreement
11. Key Issues for Local Government on Climate Change: download
12. City Climate Catalogue
13. Negotiation update: After Bangkok UN Climate Talks (October 2009): COP15: Chances for Changing our Climate?
14. COP 15: what can we expect at global level?

Questions….

Please spend a few minutes answering four questions about Manchester and Climate Change. Click here to fill it in. It’s anonymous, so feel free to rant!

The questions are-
What’s the best thing climate campaigners have done this year in Manchester?
What’s the most important thing that climate change campaigners should do in the next 12 months?
What are the dangers ahead for climate change campaigners in Manchester?
A question about getting/staying involved…

November 30- thanks to all

Thanks to all who made the night such a success.

Thanks to all who ventured out on a cold Mancunian night to be there.

Thanks to those who have been involved in writing the Call to Real Action documents this year, to those who have been on writing groups.

Thanks to Cllr Richard Cowell and to Richard Sharland for coming, receiving the documents and being questioned at length.

Thanks to Ben Mellor for the poetry, and for Leonie Kate for foregoing her share of the limelight- next time.

Thanks to Nexus for hosting us again.

Come back to this site soon. By Sunday 6th we will have a fuller account of the launch (if you took photos, please send them in!), the results of the questionnaire that some of you answered. We will post the two documents we launched tonight- on the Action Plan and on engagement.

And we will post details of all the different projects under the banner of C2RA. Some jobs will be big, others small. Some simple, some complex.

• We need a bluffer’s guide of the 64 page “Manchester. A Certain Future.”
• We need many hands on deck for the Saturday February 20th conference (book it in your diary now!)
• We need people to run fundraisers- gig nights, comedy nights, quiz nights.
• We need people to write letters to the newspapers, people to make Youtube videos, people who’ll enthuse about C2RA to their friends, neighbours, family and work colleagues.
• We need people to write policy documents on food, transport, energy and engagement.

Very best wishes,
Marc Hudson, on behalf of Call to Real Action.

Call to Real Action – Re-Boot event

Call to Real Action – Re-Boot

Monday 30th November 2009

7pm – 10pm

Nexus Art Cafe, Dale Street, Northern Quarter, M1 1JW

MAP

Live Music                            Slam Poetry                   Nibbles

Stand Up Comedy           Climate Change Policy          and more!

The Council Executive will sign off on its Climate Change Action Plan on Wed. 18th November.

You can read the Council’s Action Plan HERE.

Come along on 30th November to find out what’s good, bad and ugly about that plan.

If you can’t wait til then, come along to Manchester Climate Forum (Wed 18th Nov) 7pm – Friends Meeting House, where people will be working their way through the Council’s document as well discussing the latest developments in the run up to Copenhagen. See the agenda here.

 

Lost the Plot? Find it again…

On Thurs November 5th (that’d be bonfire night!) come find it again with “Call to Real Action,” as we meet, mingle, and, yes, plot, around Climate Change and what can be done here in Manchester.

Lost the Plot?

Friends Meeting House, 6 Mount St, from 7pm.

Agenda will look something like this-

– welcomes, mingling, icebreaker and brainstorming

– the survey results

– the Climate Change Action Plan and the “response document”

– the launch on November 30th

– what C2RA will be doing in 2010…

–

Lost the plot? Come plot with us…

The next public “Call to Real Action” meeting is happening on Thursday November 5th, at the Friends Meeting House, from 7pm.

We will, as always, have plenty of time set aside for mingling and networking. We will also be discussing and planning around-

our response to the “Climate Change Action Plan”

our “A day in the life” document

our launch (Monday 30th November)

the schedule of activities for 2010.

the results of the “2020 vision” surveys
All welcome!