Rupert's Read

What a stunning year 2011 has been. Full of hope – and horror. 2012 will see the continuation of the year of revolutions in the Arab world, including probably the fall (most probably, I would guess, the death) of Assad – and I hope that real change will come to our continent, too. For, while we complacently think that we at least live in democracies, the truth is otherwise.   With the intensification of the financial crisis in Europe, which will I believe probably get much worse in the coming year, and with the coming to power of some 'technocratic' (read NOT democratic, tacitly very right-wing, pro-finance) governments, we cannot avoid now facing a defining question: _Are_ the nations of Europe really serious about becoming _democracies_ at all? I say 'becoming', because 'Democracy' , etymologically, involves the people governing: Does anyone seriously believe that the people (rather than 'the markets') govern, today, in countries...

The liberated regimes in Tunisia and Libya have closed Syria's embassy there. It is time for Britain to follow suit...:   SIGN (as I have), and then spread the word! http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/25418 ...To boot the war-criminal Syrian regime's embassy out of Britain.   These Downing Street petitions can make a real impact - if they get thousands of signatories. Help make sure that this one does!   The Syrian army is killing its own people with impunity right now, in Homs: https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23homs  . This is the least that we can do, to try to make sure that, before too long, the killers can ge stopped.

Reality bites...

My Christmas 'Love-Gas', has just gone live over at the GreenHousethinktank site: http://www.greenhousethinktank.org/page.php?pageid=gases Have a read; and greetings of the season!

Me protesting outside City Hall on the National Day of Strike Action against the cuts on Wednesday 30th November 2011.

The beginning of the end for the Kyoto 'Annex 1' vs 'non_Annex 1' distinction is crucial. This opens the way for the starting-in-2020 climate agreement (or maybe 2017?) promised in Durban to be something modelled on Contraction and Convergence (or on GDRs, etc). This gives a crucial opening to achieve for the first time an agreement which encompasses everyone, is just, and is effective. So, although the long delay may well prove fatal, especially to AOSIS countries and LDC countries, we do now at least have a _chance_, for the first time, of achieving what we as a species need through the COP process. So: one cheer for Durban. ----------------------------------------    For all things Rupert, goto www.rupertread.net

The dodgy deal at #Durban (essentially, nothing except promissory notes til 2020 - by which time it will be too late) sheds new light on the direness of the need for new political institutions that will robustly think and act long-term-ist. Check out my piece at http://www.greenworld.org.uk/page305/page305.html   , for a concrete suggestion for what such institutions would/should/could look like... Would guardians for future generations allow the present moment to slip by without starting to act to stop deadly climate change? I think not...

My evidence to the House of Commons select committee is on p.38f. of: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmenergy/writev/consumpt/consumption.pdf

    This submission: ·          Draws on the author's political and journalistic experience to note and explore the failure of the previous Government to come clean about Britain's rising carbon emissions, once one takes into account factors such as 'embodied' emissions, and calls on the present Government to embrace honest full disclosure of the record, using a consumption-based emissions reporting system (and including in this air travel beginning in the UK, and some portion of sea travel); ·          Draws on the author's philosophical research to note and explore the danger of taking 'developing' countries to be more economically 'efficient' as a reason for justifying under the banner of 'globalization' the 'offshoring' of industrial production there – because such offshoring is often carbon -inefficient, as consumption-based emissions reporting would make clear.   ...

This film made by a former student of mine is WELL worth watching: Tonight 'An Inconvenient Truth 2 - A film about the world getting better' premieres on the Community Channel at 8.30pm, Sky 539 and Virgin 223. The series continues next Wednesday at the same time and on Wednesday 21st. If you don't have Sky/Virgin you can watch the series on Freeview 87 on January 15th/16th/17th at 6am. Or watch online at www.jackguest.com from December 10th. To watch the trailer and an interview the director did with BBC radio Gloucestersh ir e go to www.youtube.com/agreatfilm The follow the series and movie on Facebook go to www.facebook.com/aninconvenienttruth2 And if you want to buy the director's cut on DVD with special features (including a 2nd film) email dvd@jackguest.com with your order - the cost is £9.99 including postage.   If you can't watch tonight or the following Wednesdays the series repeats on Sky and Virgin on  The Community Channel, Sky 539, Virgin Media 233: 2...

A One ­day Conference with Tony Juniper, Molly Scott­Cato, Miriam Kennett and Rupert Read Saturday, 18th February 2012, Centre at St Paul's, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 1JP An underlying question to much of today’s political agenda is “How can we get back to Economic Growth as soon as possible?”. Yet economic growth does not take into consideration finite natural resources, social justice and individual wellbeing. How can we escape the dependency of a system based on continuous economic growth? What alternatives are there? How can alternatives be implemented and given the priority they need in our crowded social and political agendas? This “Ideas Day” will bring together prominent speakers and activists who have addressed these issues constructively from a sustainable point of view; as well as a range of individuals and groups who are developing and implementing practical alternatives . Our intention is that this day will stimulate thought and action amongst sustainability and green ...

Richard Murphy ( anti-poverty campaigner, tax expert and author of the UK's No.1 Economics blog www.taxresearch.org.uk ) will be launching his new book - The Courageous State - in Norwich on Wednesday, December 7th at the Workshop Coffee bar. Click the image to enlarge.

[Note: this is a guest post by Roddy Newman ] Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has been criticised for supporting Paul McCartney's 'meat free Monday' climate change campaign, but her critics are simply ignorant, because the world's leading authority on climate change, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told "The Observer" in 2008 that people ought to give up meat one day a week for climate change reasons, and then ought to reduce their meat consumption further: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/07/food.foodanddrink As the above "Observer" article points out, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation has stated that global meat consumption will double by the middle of the century, because the world's growing middle class in for example China, are using their extra income to buy more meat, and FAO said in its now famous book length 2006 report, "Livest...

Green thinking We at Green House cannot entirely agree with Bronwen Maddox when she says that the recent Prospect think tank awards demonstrated that "plunging markets and revolution have prompted radical new thinking." In one sphere at least that verdict seems questionable: it was noticeable that no green-leaning think tank featured on any of the shortlists mentioned for any of the awards—a disappointing state of affairs given the central importance of environmental policy to the current UK government (rhetorically at least) and to any serious approach to our current problems which looks beyond the short term. The award winners, admirable though their work is, work very much within the established terms of the debate, at a time when the fundamental premises of capitalism are being called into question very widely and when talk of economic collapse is not confined to the tents outside St Paul's. It was this failure of the political commentariat, which pro...

Statement from Eastern England Green Party:   On behalf of Eastern Region Green Party, the Regional Co-ordinator Dr. Rupert Read [that's me!] said: " The Government is ratcheting up the rhetoric ahead of tomorrow's strikes. But it is the Government's own poor handling of public sector pensions that remains a serious concern for workers across the public sector - it looks like we are still some way from the government offering a genuinely fair deal. "I know that the unions will now want to work even more closely with Government to reach a settlement, as well as to improve community relations and ensure maximum support from the wider public. But time has almost run out. "I regret the disruption caused by industrial action and feel confident that, nowadays, union leaders only resort to the strike option in special circumstances. But if public sector employees continue to feel that the Government is not listening and the need for action remain...

Any job is unsafe in the line of fire So, the Coalition want it to be easier to hire and fire people ("Cameron's war on employment rights", 23 November). This is a deceptive piece of spin. What they mean is simply making it easy to fire people. We are given a long list of measures that not only make it easier to fire workers, but to do so with impunity, however arbitrary the decision. That is why big business wants these legal changes; and that is why this government will give them what they want. This has nothing to do with improving the economy, let alone to do with reducing unemployment. It has everything to do with businesses being empowered and workers being disempowered. Dr Tom Greaves Dr Rupert Read   [Scroll down on this page to see the letter on the INDY's website: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-newspapers-feed-the-greed-for-fame-6267628.html  ]

I'll be presenting Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek, 2010) at the Manchester Metropolitan University this Saturday. All are welcome, at this research-engagement event that Phil Hutchinson and I are organising!

  Sir, As you report (“ Party funding reforms appear doomed ”, November 22), reaction from the three main parties to the committee on standards in public life’s proposals to tightly restrict individual donors’ donations and to introduce a “pay per vote” scheme to make up the shortfall has been rapid – and negative. It appears they would rather keep their access to soft money from super-rich individuals, corporations and trades unions than gain access to a large permanent stream of public money. This telling turn of events points to the broader issue, largely missing from the CSPL approach: the corrosive effect of the dominance of our politics by the interests of a small wealthy elite (for example, half of Conservative funding now comes from financial interests). This elite is holding our politics to ransom, at the very time when economic and climate crises point to the need for radical change. The case for radical party-funding reform, in t...

Jack Guest is a former student of mine. This film is WELL worth watching! (I enjoyed it a lot)   An Inconvenient Truth 2 World Premiere Three-part series starts 7 December 8.30pm on Community Channel Jack Guest, an extraordinary young filmmaker from Cheltenham . After graduating in philosophy and politics, Jack single-handedly funded, directed and produced a film to address the impact of climate change and uncover workable solutions.   Inspired by former United States Vice President Al Gore's 2006 documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth ', Jack travels by boat to Sweden, a country aiming to break its dependency on oil by 2020 , to speak with leading politicians, scientists and entrepreneurs. Jack also meets with families committed to reducing their impact on the environment and visits an eco-village completely dependent on renewable resources.   Jack says: "In no uncertain terms we face a huge problem on planet earth and An Inconvenient Truth 2 looks at turning that prob...

By Rupert Read, with a response by Brian Heatley Summary : Last month's developments, including the massive crash in silver and copper prices (which have, I believe, come about because people, including crucially industrialists, are realising that there just isn't going to be the economic activity to use them), presage, in my view, the next stage of the economic crisis. The world is waking up to what may be the end of growth, certainly in the ‘developed’ (sic.) world. If there is growth now in some sectors of the world’s economy, it is likely to be matched or outweighed by decline elsewhere. Meanwhile, a huge potential disaster is looming and growing in the world, as money itself comes under strain... I predict massive corporate debt crises soon, to rival the growing sovereign debt crises. But the fiat money system itself will likely be in the firing line within a year or two… This piece explores speculatively some of the scenarios for the next few years which are not makin...