Adam Bollard

Amelia’s Magazine | Stopping Heathrow’s third runway – through poetry

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003_1Rick the punk poet does his thing

Being a wee bit literary, I have a penchant for poetry, check so it was with some expectation and enthusiasm I went along to the Poetry Night at Coffee And Corks coffee shop in Canterbury last night.

This poetry night is a weekly affair, drug held every Tuesday evening, but last night’s was different, in that it was being held in conjunction with the Airplot initiative. What’s Airplot, I hear you all clamour? Well, it’s a project that’s been dreamt up by Greenpeace to help stop the building of the third runway at Heathrow Airport – put simply, the NGO and a group of celebrities have bought a plot of land that is slap-bang in the middle of the proposed runway site. Members of the public can buy a share in the plot and therefore become a ‘beneficiary owner’ of the land.

002_1Coffee And Corks: it doesn’t just do coffee, there’s alcohol too – now that’s the stuff

As such, the evening was kicked off with an introduction from Greenpeace’s John Hallyday. “Climate change is having – and will continue to have – a massive effect on our species and every other species on the planet,” he said. “If we allow the third runway to be built at Heathrow, the UK won’t meet its greenhouse gas targets set last year. Plus, 500 people’s homes will be demolished in the village of Sipson, which stands in the way of the proposed site.”

After giving a plug to Canterbury’s upcoming Climate Fair, John’s final words were borrowed from the beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as he read a poem written by the latter while aboard a Greenpeace ship chasing whalers on the high seas. It’s fair to say it set a good vibe for the night to come. And it was immediately followed by the handing out of cards that those in attendance (poet participants, listeners or those just enjoying a coffee; all were welcome) could fill in for a prize – three hours’ free recording time at Canterbury’s West Track Studios. Not missing a trick (and why should they?), the organisers also ensured that by filling in a card and entering the raffle you also signed up to the Airplot campaign.

And so to the evening’s poetry itself. To say that there was great variety in what the poets – many regulars, some new – performed would be an understatement; to say that some of it was risqué and rather personal would be a vast understatement. However, I must admit, the vast majority of the poems impressed me, as did the pluck many of their authors had to stand up in front of people (some of whom, like I said, had only come in to sip a late latte) and deliver their thoughts, feelings, wit and wisdom through verse. I must give special mention to the middle-aged Adrian, whose ‘The Web Of Life’ was a lyrical, eco-friendly missive, and Rick, a self-proclaimed coffee-shop-culture-punk resplendent in a Mr Happy t-shirt, whose delivery owed much to the beat poets of old and whose entertainment value was only equalled by the title of his final poem, ‘Don’t Eat Dodgy Food In Foreign Countries’.

004_1

What a fine sentiment – especially in a coffee shop

All in all then, this was a great evening that hopefully drew attention to and created new converts to Airplot, as well as highlighting the good work of the Skillnet Group Community Interest Company in the Canterbury community, in conjunction with West Track Studios. I tip my hat – or rather my beat poet’s cap – then to the organisers, in particular Helen Long who it was that brought Greenpeace, West Track Studios and Skillnet all together on this chilly evening in a caffeine-fuelled fun-filled event.

Written by Adam Bollard on Wednesday March 3rd, 2010 8:12 pm

Categories ,Adam Bollard, ,Airplot, ,Coffee And Corks, ,Greenpeace, ,Heathrow third runway, ,West Track Studios

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Amelia’s Magazine | Pedalling for primates: pedal-powered cinema in Oxford aids apes and rainforests

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Pedal-powered cinema: doesn’t require a spanner in the works

Oxford, approved for the most part, viagra is an academic, see civilised city, but last night it was very much in store for some monkey business. Yes, GAFI (The Great Apes Film Initiative), SOS (Sumatran Orangutan Society) and the Ape Alliance were in town at Oxford Brookes University holding a screening of a primate-driven conservation film, powered, not by dirty old carbon, but by pedal energy.

We’ve covered the subject of pedal-powered cinema in the earth section recently, of course, but this event partnered the unusual film viewing experience with an interesting initiative – namely, using it to help raise awareness of and finance for pedal-powered cinema opportunities in the remotest parts of the world. GAFI, under the wind of its c-founder and filmmaker Madelaine Westwood, has committed itself to showing conservation films to the public in remote areas that highlight the damage they and their society are doing to their own environment.

Madelaine, present at last night’s event, said that GAFI took up pedal-powered cinema as a resource after children in Cameroon had to walk 20 miles to a GAFI screening, only for a priest who had agreed his church could be used as the venue for the screening called it off, leaving the children to walk all the way back home without even having seen the documentary. A pedal-powered cinema kit, made up merely of a bicycle, a car battery, a DVD player and several different cables and coming in at a top price of just £2,000, was the answer. Thanks to this technology, GAFI can now screen films anywhere; on the side of a building’s wall or even a blanket.

Clever piece of kit: all you need is a bicycle, car battery, DVD player and lots of cables

Admittedly, last night’s screening may not have raised much towards this project – admission price was only £3 – but it was certainly well attended by an audience of up to 50 people, and not all of them obvious students either. And, in my opinion, the major feature shown, ‘Losing Tomorrow’ (directed by Patrick Rouxel), was certainly a success. Unlike the disappointment that was ‘Ice Bears Of The Beaufort’ I sat through at the Artivist Film Festival last weekend, this documentary successfully highlighted the problems – complex as they are – that blight both Sumatra’s primates, most of them orangutans, and the people who are involved in the logging industry that is depriving the monkeys of their habitat and the island of its rainforest.

Over the course of the last century, 50 percent of Sumatra’s rainforest has been cleared for logging, so dominant is the industry there – indeed, it’s estimated that just each day an area of rainforest the size of Manhattan is wiped out. However, suddenly to curtail the logging would rob a large number of people their livelihood – impoverished as they are – while, on the flip side, if the logging continues the country’s rainforest will be entirely wiped out and the logging employees without an industry to employ them anyway. It’s a fine Catch-22 with no easy answers. All the same, the audience was informed there is something they can do – contact their local MP or MEP to put pressure on the British government and the European parliament not to allow the import of timber furniture and wood pulp-produced paper that comes out of Sumatra – 75 percent of which is illegal anyway, so widespread is the logging industry there. The British government has so far made no move in this direction, but the European parliament has been looking into it, so there is some optimism, at least.

And we’re off! The cyclist pedals and the audience watches on

But what, specifically, of the pedal-powered cinema experience? Well, I must say, on a personal level, it’s rather an invigorating thing to be part of – or at least watch. On this occasion, as something of a gimmick, British cyclist and 2012 Olympic hopeful David Smith took to the pedals and, to give him his due, kept up an impressive tempo for about 45 minutes, before – a bit pooped – he handed over the reigns to another volunteer. There is certainly something agreeable about watching something worthy and well-crafted, while you’re aware the power that’s generating it is carbon free and directly man-produced – either that, or it’s just proof of the old maxim that it’s always enjoyable to watch someone working while you’re lazing about doing nothing. Either way, the pedal-powered cinema kit worked perfectly well and was a great advert for GAFI’s aspirations.

‘Losing Tomorrow’ was followed by the short documentary ‘Dear Mr President’. Filmed by Madeline Westwood herself, it showed reactions of Sumatran locals while watching the first documentary and then featured one or two of the viewers addressing, direct to camera, the Sumatran president at the time, asking him to do something about the primate/ logging problems in the country. ‘Dear Mr President’, we were subsequently informed, was indeed shown to the president, but just how much that act has achieved, of course, remains to be seen.

And how much can be done, in general, about Sumatra’s rainforest debacle remains to be seen too – but, as mentioned, we can all do something. For those interested, the MSc 10th anniversary conference on primate conservation will also be held at Oxford Brookes University on the April 23 and 24 – it’s open to everyone; the public as well as students and academics.

Written by Adam Bollard on Thursday March 11th, 2010 10:50 pm

Categories ,Adam Bollard, ,Ape Alliance, ,GAFI, ,Madelaine Westwood, ,Oxford Brookes University, ,pedal-powered cinema, ,Sumatra, ,Sumatra Apes Society

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Amelia’s Magazine | Sweet Crude film takes on Chevron, Exxon and Shell in the Niger Delta

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Ruby Suns - Fight Softly

Poor Ruby Suns. You work for months and months, site site day and night, seek in a windowless studio writing, this recording and producing your third album, tweaking knobs, perfecting your art and getting all excited about it, only to get to release date to find that numerous other bands with a similar musical style and influence have released their latest critically acclaimed and commercially successful albums before you. Gutted. While Yeasayer, Animal Collective and Fleet Foxes bask in the glory of recent albums that made the public and critics alike sit up and applaud, new album ‘Fight Softly’ from kiwi band The Ruby Suns just sounds like more of the same. And perhaps, dare I say it, not even as good? It’s even more disheartening when you think that The Ruby Suns released their first self titled electro indie pop album in 2005, when ‘Fleet Foxes’ and ‘Odd Blood’ were nothing more than a twinkle in their creators’ eyes.

Ryan McPhun – Californian-born, New Zealand resident, and axis on which The Ruby Suns spin – is clearly an expert in the technical workings of electronica and the ins-and-outs of world music. Every possible synth sound is used to the point of overload on this record, with 80s new-wave chord sequences, afro and tropicalia beats, spiralling sustain, echoing electro vocals and close harmonies coming thick and fast to produce an eclectic, experimental and sometimes challenging sound. Like a kid with a new keyboard for Christmas, every button has been pushed and every effect has been used.

It is an undeniably uplifting and, at times, euphoric record with some genuine feel-good moments, such as stand out track and lead single ‘Cranberry’, which makes you feel like grabbing a Pina Colada, donning a Lei and limboing under the nearest low fence. ‘Closet Astrologer’ is an epic, spacious affair, replete with McPhun’s wavering, delicate vocals, echoing beats, wistful basslines and twinkling keys. What seems to be lacking, however, is a bit of raw emotion. This is a very introverted affair – it is strangely detached, and therefore left me cold.

The influence of such records as Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tango In The Night’ and Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds Of Love’ are constantly hovering over this album in such a commanding way that I found myself hankering for “Little Lies” and “Running Up That Hill” rather than “Closet Astrologer” and “Two Humans”. While these two tracks are good, they’re simply not as good as their original influences.

Whether it is because I heard this album after the likes of ‘Odd Blood’ and ‘Merriweather Post Pavillion’, or whether it ‘s just not as impressive an album, I was left feeling that ‘Fight Softly’, although interesting, stirring and genuinely enjoyable in places, lacked the innovation, the soul and the jolting originality of it’s contemporaries. Had this record come out a year ago, it might have been a very different story altogether.
Curse Of The Black Gold: exposing the exploitation of the Niger Delta and its people. All illustrations by Zöe Barker.

Despite being a fervent film fan, nurse I’ve never managed to blag my way into a film festival before, ed so was I excited by the prospect of attending this one? Well, see truth be told, not enormously – after all, it was taking place at the Shaw Theatre, a venue at which I once encountered the ‘comedy’ stylings of Simon Amstell. Hmmm. Nah, that may be a little harsh; although Amstell was rubbish, the rest of the comedy night I went to wasn’t terrible – it was in aid of a ‘free Tibet’ campaign after all.

Anyway, despite my misgivings, was I shaken and stirred by what I witnessed at the Artivist Film Festival? Well, on the one hand, yes; on the other, no, afraid not.

This film festival has been around for seven years, claiming to address human rights, environmental preservation and children and animal advocacy, as it strengthens the voice of socially conscious filmmakers or artists – ‘artivists’. It originated in the US – Los Angeles and New York – and crossed the Atlantic to London; this year it takes place in these three cities at different times in the year, but in the past has also visited Tokyo, Mexico City and Lisbon. The 2010 London leg took place on Friday evening and all-day Saturday and, taking in two shows on Saturday evening, I saw a short film followed by a feature film and another short followed by another feature.

The first short/ feature double bill focused on the exploitation of the Niger Delta by the multinational oil companies present there and the Nigerian government. The short, ‘Curse Of The Black Gold’ (directed by Julie Winokur), was an 8-minute blitzkrieg of information – visual, written and spoken – made up of the work of photojournalist Ed Kashi, statistics and opinions of Nigerian activists and poets. But, really, it was merely a prelude to the main course that was to come – the feature film ‘Sweet Crude ’ (directed by Sandy Cioffi).

I’ll be honest from the off, this film has left rather a profound effect on me. Documentary maker Cioffi has successfully managed not just to harness the story, excellently explained, of the 50-year exploitation of the Niger Delta, but also shows the viewer how, by making this docu, she effectively became an activist for the region’s people in their crusade – both peaceful and regrettably violent – against the corrupt Nigerian government and Chevron, Exxon and Shell, who together have blighted and continually try to force these people out of their ancestral homeland. Not just that, her film effectively and dramatically spells out how an offshoot of the Nigerian army, the JTF (Joint Task Force), has killed innocent people of the Niger Delta, and displays how the US TV network ABC has completely misinformed the public on the interests and actions of the armed Delta resistance group MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), bizarrely concluding on no evidence whatsoever that this group may be linked to Al-Quaeda.

For anybody with any interest in the corruption of the oil multinationals and our continuing dependence on oil-derived energy, Sweet Crude is essential viewing. Really. It’s deservedly won 14 awards at 33 film festivals. Sandy Cioffi herself was on hand at a Q&A after the showing and said that, in conjunction with the US organisation Justice In Nigeria Now! and the UK movement Oil Change International, she is working on securing a theatrical release for the film in the US. Indeed, if that comes about, perhaps a UK release may follow? And – I must admit, to my surprise – despite the complexity and deep-rooted nature of the problems in the Niger Delta and all her experiences in making her documentary, Cioffi is hopeful that some sort of satisfactory resolution can be reached. She claims this comes from her time spent making a documentary in Northern Ireland at the time when the Good Friday Agreement was struck – an agreement by local government that seemed impossible to reach for many years. One must admire her optimism.

Ice Bears Of The Beaufort: Even David Attenborough might not be impressed…

Unfortunately, following the fireworks of the previous show, the second short/ feature double bill was certainly a let-down. It started off with ’Abe’ (directed by Khen Shalem), which featured a golden retriever dog’s experiences once his owner dies. Frankly, if it were supposed to emit sadness among the audience for its canine protagonist’s plight, it didn’t work for me. At the end, Abe ends up in kennels with another load of dogs, presumably ready to be picked up and adopted by another owner one day? Hardly the heavy ending I suspected I might see following the sunny, too-good-to-be true start. This was more a misfiring student film with high production values than the harsh reality check it could have been. Probably I’d have felt differently if I were more of a dog person?

And if the short disappointed, its partner feature film, the documentary ‘Ice Bears Of The Beaufort’ (directed Arthur C Smith III) really did. To be honest, I didn’t really get what the point of it was at all. It showed a year in the life of a group of polar bears in ‘the last balanced arctic ecosystem in Alaska’, which we’re informed at the start is under threat from oil drilling. But that’s all we got. There was no further hint at this growing threat, just 52 minutes – that’s right 52 minutes! – of polar bears rolling about and playing in the snow and arctic sea set to what sounded like a Jean Michel Jarre soundtrack. Quite simply, it’s an hour I’m never getting back. Oh, and besides me, there were only about six people who’d also bothered to see it. Maybe those who hadn’t come back from the previous films knew something we didn’t.

So, for me, the Artivist Film Festival was a mixed bag. However, for giving me the chance to educate myself on the situation in the Niger Delta through the documentary Sweet Crude, I must say it was also very worth my time going along – for, as the final line of said film asked about the region, what if the world paid attention before it was too late…?

Written by Adam Bollard on Tuesday March 9th, 2010 10:46 pm

Categories ,Adam Bollard, ,Artivist Film Festival, ,chevron, ,Curse Of The Black Gold, ,Exxon, ,Jean Michel Jarre, ,Niger Delta, ,Sandy Cioffa, ,Shell, ,Sweet Crude

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Amelia’s Magazine | Thoughts on the Falklands

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ROCKHO~2

Let’s get out of here: Do the penguins know something we don’t?

You have to hand it to Desire Petroleum and Rockhopper Exploration, stomach choosing a rig named Ocean Guardian to carry out the much publicised second exploratory drilling off the coast of the Falkland Islands shows a great grasp of irony.

Much in the media over the last few days has been made of the diplomatic spat that’s broken out between the British and Argentine governments over who has the right to drill for oil off the islands, buy but that ignores the big issue in all this, ed surely – war is an enormously unlikely consequence; after the debacle that’s been Iraq and the ongoing Afghan conflict, UK politicians certainly have no taste for it and here’s especially why. No, the big issue is the toll that drilling will inevitably take on the Falklands’ environment – both social and natural.

Carcass_panoramic_0897__0896_1 Carcass island: will rugged beauty have to give way to downright ugly?

First the social side, the vast majority of the populations where the thirst for oil drilling has taken hold in recent decades have not got rich quick – or at all – as one or two Falklands residents interviewed in the media last week, with dollar signs seemingly lighting up in their eyes, seem not to have noticed. Take the Niger Delta, for instance, or Aberdeen. Indeed, while a fair proportion of the latter’s economy is driven by the oil industry’s presence in the area, it’s hardly helped it to become the British Abu Dhabi.

Second, the natural environment. The Falkland Islands are world-renowned for their natural beauty, especially their wildlife. Almost 300 species of flowering plants and an extensive number of bird species call the Falklands home, while seals, sealions, dolphins and whales count the islands’ coasts or their waters as their habitat. And already there’s a movement insisting that the islands’ penguin numbers – made up of five different breeds – are dying in their thousands due to over-fishing. What effect will the oil industry have on all that if it succeeds and sets up camp on the islands? Well, it certainly isn’t going to be pretty. All this, of course, is in addition to the general global damage that will be done by setting up yet more oil-driven energy resources for years to come on these islands, as opposed to investing in greener technology.

309_1Ocean Guardian rig: very black humour

And that leads me on to my final point – and here’s the real rub. Believe it or not the Falklands government, the same politicians who are only too happy to invite the oil people to their islands with open arms – presently aim to ensure 40 percent of the Falklands’ own energy is wind technology-based. Hypocritical much?

One or two of the islands’ residents may well be right in thinking they stand to make a mint out of oil coming to the Falklands, but it will be left to the rest of the 3,000-plus population to pick up the pieces – probably quite literally.

Written by Adam Bollard on Tuesday March 2nd, 2010 5:27 pm

Categories ,Adam Bollard, ,earth, ,environment, ,Falkland Islands, ,Ocean Guardian, ,oil, ,Penguins, ,wildlife, ,wind technology

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Amelia’s Magazine | Ecological volunteering at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park

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Volunteers: folks doing their bit on a Saturday

Who’da thunk it? A site of natural beauty that is responsible for conservation and social projects galore in East London that I’ve passed on the train on and off for nearly six years – and I had no idea it existed.

Yes, buy I’m talking about Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, store a 33-acre woodland space that used to be a fully fledged cemetery until it was officially deconsecrated in 1966 and is now managed by a charity, pill The Friends of the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. And on Saturday afternoon, I popped along to a conservation day organised for volunteers.

As many as 2,600 volunteers maintain the park’s varied and diverse habitats every year. On Saturday there were around fifteen of them, who were busy clearing branches, twigs, loose leaves, litter and general detritus from 10am through to 3pm, including a break for lunch, of course. One of them, Mischa, in his mid-twenties and from Bethnal Green, told me that he had come along because it was a way of giving something back to the community in which he lives.

“It’s also something useful to do with my Saturday, as opposed to, say, laying about with a hangover,” he said with a smile. “After a week of work in an office, it gets you outside doing something that feels genuinely worthwhile and meeting new people.”

His friend Andy, also in his mid-twenties and from Hackney, added: “We find out about and get into these sorts of events through Go London. It’s a good initiative because it allows you to volunteer when and how you want to, rather than demanding a continual commitment. I enjoy volunteering at weekends when I can.”

And the cemetery park does need the volunteers too. Kenneth Greenway, the site’s liaison officer, who is charged with maintaining its upkeep and is its human face for the public, as well as being the only member of the charity who receives any pay, insists that it would take him an entire week to get through all the work that a group of volunteers gets through on a Saturday like this. Plus, it’s very important that the park is maintained – it plays an important role in the local area.

“No other park in Tower Hamlets offers what we can,” he said. “The borough doesn’t meet national targets for advised green spaces, so this park is crucial for the community. Not only is it nice to have a quiet, open space to be able to walk through and sit in, but studies have proved that green spaces are an important contribution to urban people’s mental wellness. Aside from the park’s main entrance, its five other ‘kissing gates’ are never closed, which means it’s always open, making for a safer – as well as more accessible – park.

“Plus, in terms of wildlife diversity it’s probably richer than a site of comparable size in the countryside, and that’s because of the volunteer work that goes into its upkeep.”

So near yet so far: Canary Wharf in the distance

According to Kenneth, the park is home to 27 different butterfly species, UK rare species of beetles, flies and spiders, a UK rare species of bumblebee (the brown-banded carder bee) and 50 different bird species, including the green woodpecker and the greater spotted woodpecker. In terms of flora and fauna, it’s one of only nine areas in the UK where the Poplar Knight fungus is known to thrive and can claim to contain the highest number of the rare Tall Nightshade and Woolly Thistle plants in urban London.

“The park is also an educational resource for more than 7,000 schoolchildren every year,” added Kenneth. “During term time there’s a class in here twice a day – there’s always a waiting list.

“And we’re involved in local social improvement projects with Providence Row Homeless Association. Former homeless people spend a few hours of their day volunteering and doing odd-jobs here, which is especially useful to them because, as they’re addicts, the work helps fill their day with something instead of returning to drug abuse out of boredom or re-offending in order to buy drugs.”

Tools of the trade: don’t be a rake, use a wheelbarrow

It’s easy to be cynical about or dismiss the good work of a park like this in the hurly-burly, rat race-driven world of modern London, but when you spend just 30 minutes or an hour here, quickly you start to feel differently – the fact that this woodland hideaway exists right in the midst of the often hard urban reality of Tower Hamlets can only impress and please you. Plus, Kenneth’s enthusiasm is very infectious. It’s enough to make you want to volunteer one Saturday. Even if you have a hangover – well, maybe.

Ecologically-themed volunteering events take place all the time, throughout the week, at Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park; for more details do visit the website.

Written by Adam Bollard on Tuesday March 16th, 2010 12:15 am

Categories ,Adam Bollard, ,community-based events, ,Go London, ,Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, ,Volunteering, ,woodland

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Amelia’s Magazine | Hard Rain exhibition highlights need for global action on environment

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Gasmask wedding: Using nuptials to protest against pollution in Russia

Given the fact I think Bob Dylan‘s something of a genius, information pills it would probably come as no surprise to you that I was eager as a leaf blowin’ in the wind is tossed this way and that to check out the Hard Rain exhibition, discount now to be seen free of charge – and, fittingly, out in the elements – in London.

Featuring challenging photographs that come together to document environmental and social issues from around the world, this exhibition is currently displayed along Imperial College Road, off Exhibition Road, as a 60-metre long banner of photographs, together with commentaries.

Deforestation in Brazil: the timber being felled in this image had to be sold by parents to pay for their children’s TB medication

Its images reflect global challenges of today, from environmental change to human rights, with each one referring to – and, in turn, being referred to by – a line from the lyrics of Dylan’s iconic song ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’. Why this song? Well, written as it was by Dylan in reaction to the Cuban crisis of the early ’60s and, thus, influenced by a potentially cataclysmic event itself, it inspired the project.

According to Mark Edwards, renowned photographer and Hard Rain’s organiser, the aim behind the project is to draw attention to global concerns and help enthuse people to put huge pressure on governments around the world to address the environmental and global problems we face. It’s a lofty ambition, certainly, and maybe sounds rather too idealistic; however, it’s hard not to be moved and feel somewhat invigorated after taking a look – however long – at the exhibition. The photographs portray a range of problems from deforestation to the aftermath of conflict, pollution and abject poverty. And there’s certainly a sense of ‘cause and effect’ to all of them displayed together – the reality of the problems we face as a world leap out of these often very striking and memorable images and, as a whole experience, they do underline the need to tackle all of these problems together, not individually one at a time.

Fancy a snack: the West stuffs its face while millions elsewhere suffer from food shortages

Impressively, before reaching Imperial College Road, Hard Rain travelled all around the world, ensuring it’s apparently so far been visited by more than15 million people. It runs until Friday – 12 March – at Imperial College’s South Kensington Campus; I urge you to brave the elements and take a look before it’s gone, even if you have to do so in a break between it pouring with heavy, nay, hard rain.

Written by Adam Bollard on Wednesday March 10th, 2010 5:15 pm

Categories ,A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, ,Adam Bollard, ,Bob Dylan, ,deforestation, ,Hard Rain exhibition, ,Mark Edwards, ,poverty

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Amelia’s Magazine | Carbon Fast – worth a go or just a gimmick?

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Day_8._Eat_by_candlelightCarbon Fast Day 8: Eat by candlelight. All images: Anieszka Banks

Well, pills I’m sure you’re all aware of the fact that within the last few weeks we passed into Lent – that period of forty days and nights between Shrove Tuesday and Easter when Christians everywhere are encouraged to give up something dear to them, approved often food-related. Now, I can’t profess to being Christian, nor a dedicated subscriber to Lent whenever it swings round each year, but here’s something I’ve come across that has made me sit up and take notice. Tearfund, a UK Christian NGO that works to reduce poverty and change lives around the world through relief and development projects, has come up with a novel twist on this year’s Lent – for those willing to give it a go. Yes, it’s running a project called Carbon Fast that claims to encourage people to give up or do things each day that cuts their carbon emissions.

Now, practically everyday I feel like I could do more to use less energy and be greener (don’t we all?), so, I asked myself, why not check out what this Carbon Fast asks one to do? So, I visited Tearfund’s website and sent off for the leaflet (reassuringly printed on recycled paper) that is supposed to inform me what to do on each of the days of Lent – the charity posts you the leaflet for no cost and mine arrived within two days; not bad that, I thought. But what’s the itinerary like?

A mixed bag perhaps, but it does contain some decent daily activities or, should I say, changed-from-the-norm daily activities. Yes, while on Day 26 of Lent it suggests you ask yourself ‘what does life to the full mean to you? Reflect and pray through this today’ and on Day 40 ‘pray for the work of the church, building God’s kingdom now by caring for and renewing the earth to protect poor people, fighting injustice and poverty’ (hmmm, not sure how either of those are actually going to reduce your carbon emissions, myself), many of the suggestions are practical and specific.

For instance, there’s Day 6: ‘Turn it down: if you need to add cold water when you fill the sink or run a bath, then your hot water thermostat is too high – it should be set at 60C or 140F. Then there’s Day 15: ‘Limescale reduces efficiency: Fill the kettle with one-third vinegar and two-thirds water, and soak overnight. Rinse, then boil the kettle – and discard the water’. And there’s Day 38: ‘Avoid short car journeys. A cold engine uses twice as much fuel, so walk, cycle or get the bus instead of using unnecessary fuel’. A good, solid suggestion that.

day_32.grow_your_own1

Day 32: Grow your own food

But here’s the acid test, have I been convinced enough to partake in any of Carbon Fast’s suggestions? Well, yes, actually. In as much as there’s some I’m planning on trying and sticking with beyond Lent. After all, there’s little point in having a go at one of these suggestions once and never again giving it a thought. On Day 37 you’re supposed to recycle ‘radically’; my council certainly recycles some of the rubbish it collects from my home, but how much? I’ve always felt I should make sure I recycle more, such as furniture I no longer need. In fact, furniture from a neighbour a couple of doors down the road from me, who sadly passed away recently, needs recycling – and I’ve decided to get on the case and look into who locally might want or need a new table, wardrobe or bookcase or any other bits and bobs that would otherwise get thrown out from that house. Plus, as Carbon Fast’s Day 20 encourages, we could all use less technology – I certainly don’t need to watch as much TV as I do. Surely I can cut down on that on a regular basis?

use_less_water

Day 36: Don’t leave the tap running

Admittedly, this initiative isn’t going to do anything outstanding and put pressure on the big corporations to become carbon neutral, but at least it’s something that does encourage the environmentally-minded – and who knows, maybe one or two who haven’t been before – to keep up their efforts. Still, lest we forget, like a puppy at Christmas, cutting carbon emissions isn’t just for Lent, it needs to be life.

Written by Adam Bollard on Monday March 1st, 2010 4:54 pm

Categories ,Adam Bollard, ,Anieszka Banks, ,carbon emissions, ,Carbon Fast, ,earth, ,recycling, ,Tearfund

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