good Forumers,
in the last few days, there have been some really interesting and incisive
emails to this List. Thank you! And for one I can also vouch for what
Alastair Macintosh said about the BBC Radio 4 'Analysis' programme on
Catholic Social Teaching. It really was unusually interesting and imparted a
great deal about ways of lateral, even radical thinking and 'doing' for
difficult times, which go way beyond Catholicism as we sometimes assume to
know it (can be heard again on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01npjpk)
Coming back to those recent missives to the List however, some of their
contributors will be participants at the London workshop on 17 November.
http://www.crisis-forum.org.uk/events/workshop7.php
So, here's your opportunity to engage with them in person! If you can make
it there's still spaces available, though we'll need to know numbers by this
weekend. So, if you're in or near London, don't delay but book your place
now!
contact [log in to unmask]
details below
cheers,
mark
--------------------------------------
Saturday 17 November 2012
Crisis Forum
Climate Change and Violence workshop 7
'Avoiding climate change violence: What is to be done?'
10-5
St Ethelberga's Centre for Reconciliation & Peace, Bishopsgate, London
Lunch will be a vegetarian buffet.
£20.00 waged, £11.00 unwaged and students
------------------------------
Programme Information
Morning session
Registration 9.45-10.15
10.15 - 11.20
Mark Levene, Introduction. From where I stand: Thinking back over the last
six workshops while attempting to look forward
Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed, 'Overcoming the Crisis of Civilisation:
Transformative Pathways for Socio-political, Economic, Ethical and
Technological Transition to a Post-Carbon World'
Over the coming decades an unprecedented convergence of civilisational
crises on a global scale, will lead either to unmitigated disaster, or open
opportunities for renewal and transformation. In this presentation, Nafeez
will outline some of the key areas for structural transformation, and -
based on lessons learned so far - how a viable post-carbon civilisation
capable of surviving and perhaps even prospering in the 21st century might
look.
coffee break 11.20-11.40
11.40 - 1.10 Facing off collapse ? Whose voices get heard in the climate
change debate?
John Nissen and Chris Shaw, with Jonathan Ward, round-table panel.
The Earth System embraces mechanics, climate, heat dynamics and cryogenics,
together with biological, biochemical, chemical and physical processes and
cycles. In the face of what is clearly now imminent collapse in key domains
of the system, John Nissen will be arguing for an engineering approach to
ensure the planet can continue to support our civilisation in a sustainable
and hospitable way. Set against John's proposition that such remedial action
is one of absolute necessity Chris Shaw will pose whether geo-engineering
might simply be the cloak under which neo-liberal ideology reproduces
'business as usual', leaving humanity more wedded (and marginalised) than
ever to implicitly undemocratic discourses and constructions of climate
change when actually the phenomenon might be providing us with the necessary
lever for radical social change.
1.10-2.00 lunch
2. 00-3.30 'So what is to be done? A basic call to consciousness, empathy
and antisyzygy'
Alastair McIntosh and Jon Barrett
What kind of a world do we need to work towards to bring about a reduction
in violence as set against the realities of accelerating climate change?
What are the social, political, psychological and spiritual dynamics of such
a challenge? And, perhaps more to the point, where they might contradict
one another how do we hold such contradictions together so that we don't end
up compartmentalising ourselves and each other through splitting, projection
and demonisation?
3.30-4.00 coffee break and break-out session
an opportunity to discuss the day; the issues which have fallen through the
cracks and which need articulating and developing; the bigger question of
where do we (writ-small as Crisis Forum) and (writ-large, as components of/
or as totality of 'humanity') go from here.
4.00 -5.00 final plenary, all available speakers, plus Jo Abbess
Brief biographical notes.
Jon Barrett has spent many years in developmental work with people in
difficulty with their lives - particularly young and adult offenders and
people tackling addictions and especially through the Scottish charity,
the Basecamp Trust, which he founded and directed. Since 2008, he has been
an independent researcher and educator on the converging crises of human and
ecological unsustainability. His primary interest continues to be in what
worksı to motivate enduring pro-social/pro-environmental behaviour change.
He is currently developing the firstSTEP (Sustainability Through Experience
Project) and a handbook of experiential activities to outreach
sustainability to lesser-engaged population groups. Jon and his wife,
Louise, live on the north Finistere coast in France where they are
regenerating a derelict farm as a home and public resource to explore what
sustainabilityı really means for our 21st century lives and expectations.
Alastair McIntosh is a Scottish writer, broadcaster and activist on social,
environmental and spiritual issues. His many books include Hell and High
Water, on the cultural and deep psychological elements of climate change -
which was described by the Archbishop of Canterbury as 'inspirational' in
preparing his address to Copenhagen in December 2009. Alastair's lectures
round the world include to WWF International, the World Council of Churches,
the Russian Academy of Sciences and also the Joint Services Command and
Staff College, where for a decade and a half he has articulated the case for
non-violence at the most senior levels of the British military
establishment. Alastair and his wife, Verene Nicolas, have lived in Govan
for the last 7 years where Alastair is founding director of the Gael Gael
Trust for the regeneration of people and place.
Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed is Executive Director of the Institute for Policy
Research and Development (IPRD), an independent think tank focused on the
study of violent conflict in the context of global ecological, energy and
economic crises. Having published widely on international terrorism and the
War on Terrorı, his current research on the radicalisation of violent
conflicts in strategic regions, as rooted in the structure of the global
political economy, is developed in A Userıs Guide to the Crisis of
Civilisation: and How to Save It (2010). This has also been more recently
developed as a feature documentary 'The Crisis of Civilisation' with the
filmmaker Dean Puckett.
John Nissen has a background in science, innovation and systems engineering.
This background has enabled him to take a fresh look at the Earth System on
the basis of which he predicts an imminent collapse of Arctic sea ice due to
positive feedback - a common engineering phenomenon. This is potentially
catastrophic as the faster warming sea accelerates release of the potent
greenhouse gas, methane, from a vast undersea store. In 2011 he formed the
Arctic Methane Emergency Group, AMEG, declaring a planetary emergency and
demanding immediate international action to cool the Arctic, using
geoengineering as a necessary tool.
Christopher Shaw is a Research Associate at the University of Sussex. His
current interest is in developing responses to climate change based on
explicit and socially progressive value systems. His progress can be
followed at www.notargets.org <http://www.notargets.org>
Jonathan Ward supervises a team of coordinators at Change Agents UK - an
environmental education charity that drives projects with young people,
graduates, business and communities working and learning together for a
sustainable future. Jonathan draws on upon his background in Physics and
post-graduate studies in Globalisation, Environment and Social Change and
Environmental Law. He is also currently working on a county-wide Transition
Project which incorporates Transition Farming, see
http://transitionrutland.wordpress.com/ .
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