Monday 25 November 2013

Fossil Fuel Divestment at Cambridge University! (we hope...)

This isn't Transition Cambridge's own campaign, but a very exciting development in the spirit of Cambridge Transition-ing from fossil fuels!

In short, Cambridge University Students Union (CUSU) voted earlier this month to call campaign for “Cambridge University and its colleges to explicitly commit to pursuing low-carbon assets and withdraw their investments from companies whose main business is the extraction and/or production of fossil fuels.” Major congratulations are due to Suyin Chalmin-Pui, Ethical Chair of CUSU, Daniel Macmillan of the University's Socially Responsible Investment Campaign (CUSRIC) for this exciting development! However, the hardest fight - persuading the University colleges, bursar by bursar, to divest -  is yet to come.


Oxford University students have also begun a Fossil Free campaign...


An introduction to the burgeoning worldwide fossil fuel divestment campaign:

In August 2012 the American environmentalist Bill McKibben published an article called 'Global Warming's Terrifying New Math' in Rolling Stone magazine (the edition with Justin Bieber gazing soulfully from the front cover). In it he laid out three, critically important numbers:
1. 2 -  the maximum number of degrees Celsius the planet can warm before the risk of runaway climate change is unacceptably high, as agreed at the Copenhagen climate conference in 2010.
2. 565 - the number of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide we can release into the atmosphere to have a reasonable chance (80%) of staying below 2 degrees of warming.
3. 2,795 - the number of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide we will release if we burn all the coal, oil and gas the fossil fuel industry has in reserve (even without unconventional fuels like shale gas, tar sands oil etc.)

2,795 is roughly five times 565. Therefore, roughly 80% of remaining fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground. This would slash the value of fossil fuel companies, and they won't give it up without a fight.

The conclusion of this article is that it is critically important to confront the fossil fuel industry head on. A few facts about fossil fuel companies:
  • Just 90 companies (83 of which are fossil fuel companies) are responsible for two thirds of manmade global warming emissions.
  • Since 1998, Exxonmobil, the world's largest oil company, has been funneling millions of dollars into funding lobby groups and thinktanks which cast doubt on climate change science.
  • Exxonmobil plans to spend $37 billion a year through 2016 (about $100 million a day) searching for yet more oil and gas, with other oil companies pledging similar amounts. This is in spite of the fact that we already have enough fossil fuels in reserve to take us five times over our global carbon emissions budget, which would avoid exceeding a 2 degree rise in global temperatures (see above).
There are currently fossil fuel divestment campaigns at 308 colleges and universities, 105 cities and states, and 6 religious institutions across the world. The divestment movement has grown so fast that fossil fuel companies have publicly spoken out, condemning it as counterproductive. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you... (then you win)


At the Shared Planet Conference 2013 the UK Fossil Free movement was launched. There are now Fossil Free campaigns at the Universities of Oxford, Warwick, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bath Spa, UCL, East London, Norwich and Powys. And, as of  November 11th, 2013, Cambridge University!

A successful divestment campaign at Cambridge would be a huge victory in the context of the global divestment movement. Cambridge University has a £5bn endowment, making it the wealthiest university in Europe. Close on £1bn of this is invested in fossil fuel companies, including Exxonmobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP. Much of this total is through college investments, in particular Trinity and St Johns.

However, the challenges faced by the Cambridge University Fossil Free campaign are considerable. As well as investments in fossil fuels, there are other close links between the university and the fossil fuel industry. For example, the Head of the Faculty of Engineering, Professor Dame Ann Dowling, is a non-executive director of BP. Fossil fuel companies are a heavy presence at careers fairs, and award large sums to the university in research grants. A further complication is the widespread use among University colleges of tracker funds, which automatically buy shares which will grant the best return - typically fossil fuel companies.

There are certainly questions to be asked of the divestment movement - for example, would it not be better for Cambridge University to keep shares in fossil fuel companies, and attempt to influence them towards investing in renewables? This is a valid point, and one that has been raised by academics at the University. In my view, although there are sectors of fossil fuel companies which take renewables seriously, these same companies are focusing increasingly on their core assets. Shell, for instance, ditched solar in 2009, and is now forging ahead with a project in the environmentally catastrophic Canadian tar sands, as well as in the Arctic. This can, and must stop. The science is clear, there is an absolute moral imperative to speak out, and the message must be sent in the strongest possible way.

Please sign the petition to call on Cambridge University to divest from fossil fuels:

http://campaigns.gofossilfree.org/petitions/cambridge-to-divest-from-fossil-fuels





Sunday 17 November 2013

The Liberated Feast

Friday night was the date of the second Liberated Feast in Cambridge, organised by the fabulous Jennie Debenham. This isn't a Transition event, but Jennie is very active in the Cambridge food group, and the topic of food waste is central to understanding how a transitional Cambridgeshire diet could look. In case the concept is new to you, the Liberated Feast is about using food which is past its best-by date, and unsaleable. Some of the food isn't even fated to be dug up out of the ground, as it isn't profitable for the landowners if the crop is too small, until it is rescued by gleaners and saved from rotting in the earth.

This took place at the St Paul's Centre on Hills Road, and was such a large banquet that the tables seem to go on forever. There must have been over a hundred diners, and plenty of volunteers running around trying to keep on top of things. For academics who are used to formal dinners this scene might not have looked so alien, but to me it was quite new and made me think of medieval banquets, with distinguished guests riding in by horseback to be entertained by lutes. The lutes failed to show up on this occasion though, so we had a very skilled hula hooping troupe to entertain us instead. I really don't think the lack of music was a problem - the hall was full of friendly lovely people who were very happy to chat, it would have just made it harder to hear each other if there was a live act.

Before the first course, Jennie addressed the crown and thanked the donors COFCO, Simon and Mayfield Organics, and Om chocolates. The co-op and Arjuna also gave some things, I'm not clear on the details. Bev Sedley from Cambridge Carbon Footprint also spoke to promote the Food for a Greener Future campaign and the Celebration of Local Food at Fitzbillies which will launch it. Both the Liberated Feast and the CCF event are emphasising vegan, local food as a sustainable and ethical choice.

The first course was rainbow carrot soup, a really tasty dish served in an impressive variety of vessels. I felt quite fortunate to have mine in a shallow bowl, some of my companions were given their soup to eat from a mug! This flexible approach to serving is a good way to cope with large numbers of diners - much better than buying a 100-piece matching china set. Maybe we could have brought more of our own tableware with us in fact. We also handed down the soup from one person to the next, until everyone had their meal. This made life easier for the volunteers, but I could imagine that not everyone would enjoy such a system. If the Liberated Feast was every to go more commercial, this might need a re-think, but with the largely green audience it was just a pleasant opportunity to co-operate and care for each other.

The main course was a mix of roast vegetables, sprouts, coleslaw and a sort of spanakopita thing, I didn't actually rate this so highly although I did like the sprouts. The coleslaw was the only thing where I got a vague sense that the food was past its best, perfectly edible but not delicious (as the rest of the banquet was). Maybe I was imagining it, or maybe I'm just a fussy eater, but a more spicy dressing would have made sense to cover up the slight fading of quality.

This is certainly a transition issue - in the post peak-oil economy we may have less access to fresh food and quality storage, so we will face eating older food day-to-day. Part of the solution is to use strong spices and herbs, as the southern Asian countries supposedly did to mask the unpleasant taste of ageing meat, and another part is just to eat it and be grateful to have food at all. Perhaps we will break from British manners eventually, and accept a culture of finishing each others food.

Anyway, the desserts on offer were a crumble of some sort, and a chocolate torte. I had the torte, which came with a frozen banana ice cream, and was very very nice.

I was astonished by how much work the volunteers did to make the event a success, I think a lot of people involved with this have really been unsung heroes because there were days and days of work done aside from Jennie's own marathon effort. I suppose there are economies of scale in something like this, but the amount of washing up at the end, and the amount of leftover food up for grabs by the crowd was staggering. A lot of the people who attended were able to see that, so I think we'll all learn quite a lot from seeing it.

All in all a remarkable achievement, a great event, and I'm looking forward to the next one!


Sunday 10 November 2013

SkillsFest 2013


The first post for the Transition Media group blog... I hope this will take off. Comments on the blog are really welcome!


The Greeniversity SkillsFest

I was happy to attend the SkillsFest yesterday, a great event that was made possible by the efforts of a huge number of volunteers from the Cambridge green community. Greeniversity is an initiative that aims to keep 'older' skills alive, as they will certainly be relevant again when peak oil and carbon caps change the way we live. They're all generally quite fun and useful for living a happy and simple life in balance with the world.

Jacky and Daniel at the welcome desk
While Greeniversity runs classes all year round, the SkillsFest is a special occasion where a great many people who have a skill they can offer come together and allow guests to try out a real mix of things they may never have considered turning their hand to.

The Cafe Project was also around, offering drinks and cakes, rounding off a complete day out. I had one of the vegan fig flapjacks which was delicious, and a cup of water. No lemonade or orange juice for me unfortunately! Maybe because they couldn't be sourced locally.

I was too late for the first session owing to rain and badminton, so I was just chatting for a while, but eagerly went upstairs to join the singing class, run by Bev Sedley standing in at short notice. I had met Bev before, at a celebration meal ending the Cambridge Carbon Footprint vegan challenge, but I didn't realise she had such a talent for teaching and leading vocal harmony. We learned and sang four songs by ear in an hour, including Heigh Ho Nobody Home and My Baby Just Cares For Me. I also met Sue, who was very kind about the press release I did for the fruit harvest project, and expressed an interest in helping the media group more. Yay!

A wealth of opportunities


For the next class I was tempted by the session about preparing the veg and fruit patch, but I went for the knitting session with my friend Marie. I never thought that I would be come a dedicated knitter, but I was curious to try the experience and I thought I could get a good idea of the technique and the essentials in an hour. It is harder than I thought though, and instead of wool it was my brain that ended up in knots! Perhaps I'll try again one day, but I really don't tend to wear wool and I have 100 other things that I want to learn. It was good to gain some small insight into this world though, and to stop underestimating the skill of knitters :-)

I really feel like I would have liked to contribute more to the event, so maybe next time I'll do some guitar lessons or vegan cooking, but I feel very grateful to have so many kind and talented people in the city where I live. It felt like a lot of people were there so hopefully everyone will leave with the feeling that it was a success.

Axel took some really nice photos, which you can see on the Cropshare blog and give a great sense of the fun bustling atmosphere at the event. http://cambridge.cropshare.org.uk/photos/skillsfest-nov-2013/

Thanks to all those who gave their time to the event, and to those who attended, encouraged the team, and donated to the room hire!

Oscar