ISEE Conference at UEA

  ….. http://www.uea.ac.uk/documents/483130/2451561/International+Society+for+Environmental+Ethics+Poster.pdf/ee082889-900c-42cf-9035-658f75514415

Great piece from 'The Daly News'

'Clean coal' is just coal; 'green growth' is just growth. Read on, to find out more:

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Moronic Oxymorons in the Age of Climate Change Posted: 13 May 2013 09:14 PM PDT by Rob Dietz At 400 parts per million, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a menacing milestone. We've failed to get a handle on our addiction to fossil fuel, and now we're in desperate need of solutions for preventing runaway climate change. There is no magic pill for curing the climate threat — real solutions involve the difficult work of changing the way we run the economy. It's time to make a transition to a renewable-energy economy that respects the waste-absorption capabilities of the atmosphere. As logical and desirable as this transition sounds to some, faux solutions seem to be more popular. Many people find it easier to accept ideas in line with the our growth-obsessed, technophilic economy rather than face the fact that the conventional economic approach has become obsolete.  Two of the faux solutions would be laughable as oxymorons if they weren't able to attract such serious support. The phrase "clean coal" implies that miners have struck it rich — that they've found a seam of coal that, when burned, produces only a lemony fresh, green vapor. Wouldn't "clean coal" make an excellent air freshener? "Clean coal" could be useful for all sorts of things in a pinch: Mom: "Oh no! The baby just spit up on herself, and we're all out of soap." Dad: "Don't worry, honey, we've got some clean coal right here." "Clean coal" is just plain coal. It's true that some varieties of coal produce less noxious emissions (e.g., less sulfur or mercury) than others, but none of them are clean. "Clean coal" is an abbreviation of the less poetic "clean coal technology," a phrase that's been around since the 1980s. A U.S. Department of Energy report from that decade explains that clean coal technologies are "systems that can offer significant benefits when used to generate power, control pollution, or to convert coal into other alternative energy products." The report also offers this honest assessment: There is no point in pretending that coal is what it is not, nor that it is not what it is. Coal is naturally endowed with the elements and minerals of the living organisms that define its primordial origins, and that means the carbon for which it is valued. But, to some degree, it also means sulfur, and nitrogen, and incombustible impurities. It is an incontrovertible fact that the uncontrolled burning of coal will release into the environment carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), particulate matter, and ash. It is the business of the Clean Coal Technology Program to develop the means of burning this coal with attendant minimal emissions of these undesirable pollutants; we know that there can never be none. So, if not literally "clean" coal, then certainly we mean "cleaner" coal, and it is in this sense that the Program uses the shorthand term, Clean Coal Technology. But that honesty is lost in the advertising and lobbying that mining and power generation corporations have funded to promote "clean coal." As the prominent linguist and cognitive scientist George Lakeoff has noted, the imagery of "clean coal" can seep into the subconscious mind and affect attitudes toward coal. At 400 parts per million, the time for oxymorons has passed. Even more seductive than "clean coal" is the wishful thinking of "sustainable growth." Economic growth has become the highest priority for almost every nation on Earth. Politicians compete with one another to see who can promise the fastest growth. Newscasters report rising economic indicators with glee. Economists in both government and academia promote an agenda of endless growth. But the continuous ramping up of production and consumption comes with severe costs — 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (and the associated climate destabilization) is but one among many. Take, for instance, the spate of species extinctions. Or the billions of people living in poverty. Or any number of other global-scale environmental and social problems. Even the most dedicated worshippers at the altar of growth recognize some of these problems. That's why adjectives seem to be sprouting like mushrooms in front of "growth." People regularly utter the phrase "sustainable growth," along with its slightly less oxymoronic cousins, "green growth" and "smart growth." But just as "clean coal" is really just coal, "sustainable growth" is really just growth. No doubt that green technologies can help. A household with compact fluorescent light bulbs, or even LED bulbs, consumes less electricity and generates a smaller footprint. But if the number of houses continuously increases, even though they have smaller footprints, they combine into a larger overall footprint. David Owen explores this "rebound effect" in his recent book, The Conundrum. Technology and greater efficiency are not enough on their own. We can't consume our way to sustainability — we have to shift our aim from an ever bigger economy to a right-sized economy. As Albert Bartlett, the physicist and activist, has said: Smart growth destroys the environment. Dumb growth destroys the environment. The only difference is that smart growth does it with good taste. It's like booking passage on the Titanic. Whether you go first-class or steerage, the result is the same. It's tempting to accept the clever slogans and magical "solutions" that bombard us all the time. After all, it sounds like "clean coal" is just the resource to power "sustainable growth." You can have your cake and eat it too! But at 400 parts per million, the time for self deception and denial has passed.  So has the time for buying moronic oxymorons.

 

Amnesty Norwich to raise awareness of human rights for future generations with debate

Wednesday 15th May will see Rupert Read speaking at Amnesty International, Norwich, discussing and debating human rights for future generations.

The talk will discuss the need for considering the actions we take now in view of the potential for excluding human rights from the unborn future generations.

The debate, led by Dr. Rupert Read; Reader in the UEA School of Philosophy, will take place during Amnesty Norwich's regular open monthly meeting from 7.30pm at the Charing Cross Centre, St John Maddermarket in the centre of Norwich.

Amnesty Norwich chair, David Huband, said "We like to include a talk every few months to introduce a range of topics to our members as well as encouraging a wide range of visitors to our open meeting."
He continued "Rupert has been on our list of speakers to approach and we are very happy he is able to talk to us on such a thought invoking topic."

Dr. Rupert Read, who is also the Chair of the Green House think tank, explained his reasoning behind the need for such thought and debate;

"Amnesty is the world's premier human rights organisation. Human rights discourse is powerful and indeed virtually unanswerable, nowadays - but what if it tacitly excludes our children's children? I will be arguing that human rights need to be extended to unborn future generations, and have a mechanism to propose that will make this possible. I look forward to discussing this idea with Norwich Amnesty."

The Amnesty Norwich monthly meeting, which takes place on the third Wednesday of every month, is open to all, membership is not required for attendance.

Debate at Paston College

I will be debating Lamb and Blizzard on Friday: should be interesting, as usual!

Environmental Ethics Conference at #UEA

This is going to be grand – do come! http://www.uea.ac.uk/philosophy/news-and-events/conferences/environmental-philosophy

The loveliest posterboards of the campaign!

Check out the pic!

& #VoteGreen!

Vital city housing demolished under Labour. Greens ask _why_?

Green Councillors are concerned that the Labour-run City Council has disposed of significant social housing in Norwich and allowed it to be demolished without firm plans for replacement.

In 2006, the Green Party opposed the City Council's decision to uproot council tenants and leaseholders at 50 flats in Barrack Street on the basis of developer plans for a mixed use development.   In 2007, 19 sheltered flats at Greyhound Opening were 'decommissioned' and elderly residents were relocated.  Both sites still lie empty.  

Green Councillor Paul Neale, County council candidate for Town Close said: "I am shocked, when there is a national housing crisis, and a local crisis made worse by the Bedroom tax, that tenants at Barrack Street and Greyhound Opening were moved against their wishes and the sites remain empty. The Green Party is pressing the Labour Cabinet at the City Council to urgently set out a solution to this issue."

Green Party City Council candidate for Mancroft, Simeon Jackson says: "Norwich's housing stock is in need of refurbishment to bring it to modern energy efficiency standards. This would create local jobs and be a long-term investment - the Green Party's real alternative to destroying homes. We have been pressing the council to improve housing whenever we have the opportunity, such as within our proposal for the City Deals bid."

NOTES AND PHOTOS

The original flats on the South side of Barrack Street can still be seen on this old satellite picture at Google Maps - http://goo.gl/maps/rhlOA. 

Since the demolition of the flats, the site remains undeveloped, now 7 years on, behind a metal wall. 

Harvey Cox and I speaking on the economy, this Friday eve

Do come along!

RR on Radio 4's You And Yours, debating the ad industry's spinmaster-in-chief:

There's no onus on us at 'Leave our kids alone' to provide evidence of harm from ads - the onus is on the advertisers to provide evidence that such ads don't do harm. It's utterly anti-precautionary to fill kids' minds with this stuff - it's like filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, or filling your lungs with smoke. There's no onus, in such cases, to show evidence of harm. Absence of evidence (of harm) is not evidence of absence. Have a listen to me on Radio 4, on YOU AND YOURS, debating with the ad industry's spin-master, who is trying to obfuscate this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p017y992

RR speaking to Norwich Amnesty Group: about human rights for future people

On May 15th: The meeting is at the Charing Cross Centre in St. John Maddermarket at 7.30. All welcome.

'Guardians for future generations' is my exact topic.

RR on the radio on @leaverkidsalone

Go 7 minutes in to hear RR's case for why we should #BanAdsAimedAtKids: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016xrph This afternoon on BBC RadioNorfolk. 

 

Hear my debate this afternoon with a marketing man on Radio Wales (Go 1 hr 48 mins into this, to hear it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rt4mm ) on whether or not we should ban ads aimed at kids.

@leaverkidsalone campaign takes off!: #Banadsaimedatkids

This is a smattering of the coverage we've garnered today:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/9985167/Advertisements-aimed-at-young-children-are-immoral-and-should-be-banned.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307275/Ban-adverts-targeted-11s-Campaign-group-end-industry-built-childrens-pester-power.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/11/ban-advertising-young-children-yes

Join the campaign!

www.leaveourkidsalone.org

 

Ian Gibson calls for there to be more Green Councillors - and more Independents - elected in these Council elections:

"I have been heartened by the interaction between Independents and Greens, and their attempts to restore democratic process to the governing of Norfolk. I wish every Green and every Independent Councillor-candidate good luck, and I'm positive that there will be more Green Party and more Independent Councillors on Norfolk County Council after the voters have had their say on May 2nd."

Dr. Ian Gibson, former Labour Party MP for Norwich North.

No ConDems here! - pic

A straw in the wind from Bury St. Edmonds. When our Green candidate (and sitting Councillor) Mark Ereira-Guyer knocked he asked whether they'd like his election address as a Green - and they said 'Yes, absolutely'.

Ipswich Green Party - from my recent visit to support them

Ipswich #Green Party are going great guns this year for the local Council
elections. I was dead impressed with them when I met them recently. This
photo was taken down at the also-increasingly-impressive riverside area of
Ipswich...

@ColcGreenParty My recent Colchester visit to support the Green Party election effort there

Me with some of the Green Party candidates standing in the County Council elections in Colchester, last weekend.

 

--

Rupert Read

Green Party East of England Co-ordinator.

http://rupertread.net

[If you have an urgent email for me while I am away from a regular computer, you may wish to try contacting me instead on rupertread+mob AT gmail.com]

WHY NOT FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER?: twitter.com/GreenRupertRead (my 'politician' account) AND on

twitter.com/RupertRead (my 'personal' account).

The Grand National - why it just isn't fun any more

As the Grand National approaches tomorrow, we've already had one death at Aintree, this year: http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/05/battlefront-death-at-aintree-shows-organisers-have-grand-national-meeting-safety-badly-wrong-3584482/. The macabre 'betting slip' above, drawn up as a reality-check by smart opponents of the race to illustrate the nature of the problem here, is in that sense, sadly, already out of date. (If you had your money on the 4-1 outsider, you've already lost...)

Despite 'the National' being part of our annual life when I was growing up, I won't be betting on any horses or taking time out of my weekend to watch it.

So why the opposition? There will be activists from the Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe (FAACE) protesting outside Aintree station to raise awareness of the number of fatalities of horses in the race.

The thing is: it is one thing for humans to take part in a risky sport, if they choose to. It is quite another to subject animals who have no choice in the matter to even greater risks.

It is just wrong, it just ain't fair, to gamble with horses' lives every year in this way.

It's time for the Grand National to fade out, and for jump-horse-racing to be put on hold.

Green Party Leader in Norfolk as Foodbank Braces for Effects of Cuts

The new leader of the Green Party in England and Wales Natalie Bennett will be visiting Norwich tomorrow (Friday April 5^th) to launch campaigning for the county council elections next month.

 

She'll be visiting Norwich Foodbank to highlight the impacts of recent welfare cuts and find out why the foodbank expects a huge rise in people needing emergency food supplies.

 

Ms Bennett said: "I'm visiting Norwich Foodbank to highlight widening inequality. On Saturday we will see a £100,000 tax break to UK millionaires, while this week's cuts hit struggling families and those receiving benefits the hardest."

 

A key element of the Green Party platform for the forthcoming county council elections will be protecting services for vulnerable people. Norfolk has six Green county councillors, more than any other county in the country. At the county council budget meeting in February, the Green Party tabled an amendment to protect social care funding and mental health services.

 

City Councillor Lucy Howard said: "Here in Norwich the recent cuts will result in a rise in the use of food banks by families plunged into poverty. The cuts will worsen child poverty, which in certain wards in Norwich is already very high: in Mile Cross 40 per cent of children live in poverty, as do 37 per cent in Wensum  and 36 per cent in Mancroft."

 

Norwich food bank has seen many local families referred to them by care agencies every week. Over 1,000 local children have been helped by their foodboxes in the last six months. 

 

Natalie will be accompanied by Dr Rupert Read, the east of England Green Party lead candidate for the next European Elections. They'll meet Project Manager Grant Habershon who will explain how Norwich food bank gave three days of food to 5,500 local people last year and that they expect that number to increase to over 8,000 local people this year. Mr Habershon told the Green Party that he expects the recent benefit changes, coupled with the current economic conditions, where wages and benefits are static and essentials such as food and energy prices are rising, to increase the need for food banks.

 

Natalie Bennett and Rupert Read will be donating food to the Norwich food bank with local Green Party members. They will be available for photographs and interviews at 12:30 to 1.30pm on Friday 5^th April at Norwich Foodbank, Henderson Business

 

Centre, 51 Ivy Road, Norwich NR5 8BF.

 

Me at Hay this year:

Do come along to Hay-on-Wye to their philosophy and music festival 'Where the light gets in' (http://howthelightgetsin.org/ ), this May/June. I'm on the programme in the following 3 events. The 2nd event will hopefully be fairly explosive; and I am delighted to have Nassim T. responding to me (though I suspect it will end up more of a double-act), in the 3rd:

Event [360]

Saturday 1 June 2013

9:00am

Venue: Pavilion

Philosophy Session

Philosophy Breakfast

Rupert Read.

'Get a shot of inspiration with your espresso. Today's Breakfast is led by philosopher and Green politician Rupert Read, offering stimulation for those keen to get the most of the day ahead.' Price includes breakfast.

_______________________________

Event 379

Saturday 1 June 2013

2:30pm

Venue: International

Philosophy Session

In the Beginning was Nature

Alistair McIntosh, Benny Peiser, Rupert Read. Razia Iqbal chairs.

'All of our political parties are [allegedly] pro-environment now, on the grounds that being green is in everybody's interest. But should we rather see our attachment to nature as a spiritual response to our place in the universe, or would this risk a return to heathen superstition?

Green politician and philosopher Rupert Read, ecological activist Alistair McIntosh, and director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation Benny Peiser explore our relationship to Nature.'

_____________________________

Event [425]

Sunday 2 June 2013

11:00am

Venue: Ring

Philosophy Session

How Do You Solve a Problem like Uncertainty?

'Rupert Read, Nassim Taleb. James Garvey chairs.

Philosopher Rupert Read presents the case for a new paradigm of risk management with a response from Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb.'

Me on Radio3 on science

Go 35 mins in to hear me debating Keith Laws on the alleged scientificity of psychology on BBC NightWaves on Radio 3, last night: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r5ps2 I thought it went pretty well!

See what you think.

[If you like it, do share it!]

Here are my past performances on NightWaves, if you are interested to hear more:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pmh5z/Night_Waves_Philosophical_Investigations/ - the great Wittgenstein debate!

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio3/r3arts/r3arts_20130305-1417a.mp3 - go about 25 mins in to hear me debating whether we are living through a new Enlightenment.

And here’s the link for my discussion of Kuhn’s STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS at 50, earlier this year: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01kkp42 (16 minutes in).

[Sadly, you can’t listen to my debate on humanism with A.C. Grayling any more – it’s been taken down]

Syria - civil war and prospects Gilbert Achcar

Wednesday 13th March
Arts 2.01, 1730, University of East Anglia

Professor Gilbert Achcar (SOAS)
Causes and Prospects of the Syrian Civil War
Gilbert Achcar is Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS in London. He has degrees in Philosophy (ESL, Beirut), Social Sciences (UL, Beirut) and Social History/International Relations (University of Paris-VIII). His research interests and publication topics include: the political economy and sociology of globalisation, the global power structure and grand strategy, empire theory and the unfolding of US hegemony globally and in the 'Broader Middle East', politics and development economics of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, the sociology of religion in general, of Islam and Islamic fundamentalism in particular, social change and social theory. Some of his most recent publications include; The People Want: A Radical Explanation of the Arab Uprising (2013), The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives (2011), (with Noam Chomsky) Perilous Power: The Middle-East and US Foreign Policy (2010) and The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder (2006).

Food paper from Green House

The latest Green House report is now out; it is on 'food security': http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-lines/primary-commodity-prices-and-global-food-security/paperback/product-20694881.html

Talk on 'Valuing nature', this pm

At 3.30 in Arts 01.01 at UEA today, Tom Greaves and I will be talking on this, to DEV.

Do come!

Anti Nuclear Letter Printed in Norwich Evening News

UNIVERSITY OF HULL PHILOSOPHY RESEARCH SEMINAR

Dr Rupert Read 

(University of East Anglia) 

Wittgenstein among the 'human sciences': 

Some thoughts on the case of medicine 

(including psychiatry) 

Wittgenstein suggests that we ought to be wary of modelling of all human knowledge and inquiry on the pattern of science. I explore and expound the basis for this wariness, and then go on to apply this thinking to the very important case of medicine. In particular, is ‘Evidence-based medicine’ a benign for instance of science-in-action to improve people’s lives, or is it an imperialist power play designed to drive out art/judgement and values from medicine in the name of an alleged science-based alternative to these? Might there be a philosophy-informed alternative to EBM that improves upon it, through avoiding the scientism arguably present within it? In the case of psychiatry and care for mental-health in general, are there additional reasons to be found in Wittgenstein’s thinking for doubting that an EBM-based–approach can be the right one? 

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 13.00-14.30 

LR17, Wilberforce Building 

ALL WELCOME

Rupert Read at University of York Speaker Series

RAIL FARE PROTEST, 2013/01/02

From the Norwich Evening News:

Rail fares have risen [this year] by an average of 4pc across the Greater Anglia network.

The rises could have been steeper but for an intervention by the Government to limit the regulated fare rise to inflation plus 1pc, rather than the planned inflation plus 3pc increase.

But members of the Green Party gathering at Norwich station this morning said the rise was too steep and have demanded rail fares be reduced to an affordable level.

They also called for public ownership of the railways and cuts to carbon emissions through more rail travel.

Leaflets were being handed out asking passengers to take action by tweeting their complaints about fare rises to @transportgovuk using the hashtags #farefail #railfail.

They are also are being asked to email their MP to complain by visiting www.farefail.org.

Rupert Read, from the Green Party, said: “Back in October the coalition government capped the latest rail fare rise at 4.2 percent in order to defuse anger at the 6 percent rise it had planned to allow.

“That was trumpeted by the likes of Transport Minister Norman Baker as a fair deal for passengers.

“But it’s nothing of the sort because even with that reduction, UK train travellers will still be paying some of the highest rail fares anywhere in Europe.

“Yet we are still very far from achieving the kind of efficient, truly integrated public transport system which would benefit us all.”

The price changes mean the price of a peak Anytime return ticket from Norwich to London has climbed 9.2pc, from £98.60 to £107.70. The price of an annual season ticket from Norwich to London will rise from £6,900 to £7,184.

New Year, new ACTivism

I'll be leading a demo at Norwich train station at rush-hour in the morning of Jan. 2nd, to protest at the state of our nation's trains and the fares we have to pay on them.

Goto http://oneworldcolumn.org/ to read more!