Amelia’s Magazine | Rivington Place – A different take on the plight of Globalisation and the textiles industry

Check out the range of talks and discussions this week, treatment there is a chance to vent some anger at some cops in a more legitimate manner than normal as well as plenty of events pushing for action on a deal at the Copenhagen Climate Change Talks.

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Illustration by Anneka Tran

Architecture and Climate Change – The Sustainable City
Tuesday 3rd November 2009 ?

Acclaimed architect, treat planner and former Mayor of Curitiba, sale Jaime Lerner, discusses his visionary ideas concerning cities and their future. Lerner’s talk will look at design in structuring urban growth as well as focusing on the importance of public transportation as well as engaging with some of the key issues affecting the built and natural environment now and in the future.

Time: 6.30pm
£8, £5 concession
Venue: RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD
?Website: http://www.architecture.com

Fast Facilitation – An action-packed taster course
Wednesday 4th November 2009

Getting a group together focusing on environmental issues in your neighborhood, or looking to take a new role in a discussion group? This course is suitable for people with little or no experience of facilitation. This course aims to help you design, facilitate and evaluate meetings or workshops that engage and include all participants effectively in order to achieve desired outcomes.

Time: 9.30am – 5.00pm
Venue: 212 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7BF
Website: http://www.the-environment-council.org.uk/training.html

Establishing a food forest: the Permaculture way
Thursday 5th November 2009?

An inspiring and practical film from permaculturist Geoff Lawton about the potential of permaculture forest gardening to design abundant human ecosystems. Part of a programme of film and events to accompany C Words: Carbon, Climate, Capital, Culture – an exhibition by artist-activist group PLATFORM and their collaborators.

Venue: Arnolfini, Bristol
Website: http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/details/416

Met open discussion about policing of the G20
Thursday 5th November 2009

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The Met police will be hosting a public meeting about policing of the G20 demonstrations, chances for people to vet their anger, frustration or glee at seeing protestors get beaten up. The police will be answering questions and making sure the media see they are taking some initiative, although I’m sure continuing their oppressive tactics away from the spotlight.

Time: 9.30am – 12.30pm
Venue: London’s Living Room, City Hall

Climate Emergency Copenhagen forum
Saturday 7th November 2009

Looking everything we need to do to stop climate change in it’s tracks, 10% cuts by end 2010 and the case for emergency action. Creating a million climate jobs by end 2010, decarbonising our transport fast and looking at the Copenhagen talks, and the deal we need and the deal we’re likely to get. Plus plenty of workshops on the day.

Venue: South Camden Community School, Charrington St., London, NW1 1RG
?Time: 12 – 6pm
Website: www.campaigncc.org

Put People First G20 Counter Conference
Saturday 7th November 2009

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The Put People First G20 Counter Conference will bring together academics, activists, campaigners, unions and policy makers to debate alternative policies to promote jobs, justice and a safe climate. Following on from earlier this year, where we marched in our tens of thousands to demand the G20 Put People First. However, we’ve seen nothing but a return to business as usual.

Time: 10am – 5.30pm
Venue: Central Hall Westminster SW1 9NH
Website: http://peopleandplanet.org/navid8537

Green Sundays
Sunday 8th November 2009

Bored with lazy Sunday afternoons? Why not go down to Green Sundays at the Arcola Theatre and explore environmental issues in a relaxed and chilled out manner? The event provides an opportunity for like-minded people to get together to learn about the planet while listening to live world music, film, spoken word, games and discussion.

Time: 3:00pm – 7:30pm
Venue: Arcola Theatre, 27 Arcola St, London, E8 2DJ
Website: www.greensundays.org.uk

press_image_nations_installation_2_0

An East London gem, buy Rivington Place constantly succeeds in delivering aesthetic art with a hidden political punch and the current show is no exception. Currently on display is NS Harsha’s installation Nations and Chen Chieh’s silent film Factory.

Installed on the ground floor, drugs the silent sewing machines of Nations are stacked three feet high, unhealthy spinning threads tangles and pools between the machines. The flags of those included in the UN hang from each poised needle. If able to match each flag to the correct country would the viewer see who is excluded from the UN and question on what grounds in today’s society a country is judged for their eligibility to join?

press_image_nations_installation_3_0

In the context of East London’s own sweatshop history, the machines act as representatives of the unseen and unheard garment workers that throughout the centuries have consistently made clothes for countries both inside and outside the UN.

In terms of the textile manufacturing no country has a clear conscious that they have not broken the charter of human rights with regards to the treatment of employees. The exhibition refers to the impact of globalisation; as located within NS Harsha’s words (with thanks to INIVA’s excellent website) “This work took shape after my visit to a local small scale textile factory in which I personally experienced the realities of ‘human labour’. Hierarchies and exploitation are part of today’s global economic order. Nations engages with these socio-political complexities and cultural entanglements.”?

press_image_nations_installation_5_0

The exhibition is suggestive that as industry is now global, it is not enough to look after one’s own population, by choosing to outsource globally, the boundaries of countries disappear.

Upstairs is Chen Chieh’s beautiful and slightly chilling Factory. The film is located within an old textile factory, the casualty of the continuing search for ever cheapening labour. Seven ex-workers who lost their right to a pension with the closure of the factory accompany the artist. The camera pans through the monumental architectural space in a similar vein to the films of Jane and Louise Wilson (Stasi City).

01factoryphoto_0

Due to the women’s request the film silently traces their steps through the disused building, still occupied by the remains of their industry. Their passage through the space is occasionally interrupted by archive footage of the Taiwan textile boom, the noisy interruption highlighting those abandoned in the aforementioned search for ever cheaper labour.

The women of Factory are physical reminders of those all over the world, whose quality of life has come to depend on the presence of the textile industry within their country. It’s time that these employees were treated to the rights we so often take for granted whether it is something as simple as a lunch break or as fundamental as a living wage.

04factoryphoto_0

The exhibition asks us to question both our reliance and ignorance of outsourced workers at the same time as questioning our knowledge of political intricacies and deals made by the UN that effect relationships across the world.

There are many fantastic websites that continue the work begun by both artists at Rivington Place from the Ethical Fashion Forum, the Clean Clothes Campaign to Fashioning an Ethical Industry, and the War on Want. Green my Style provides daily updates on the steps been made to make the industry greener.

02factoryphoto_0

However as Factory so clearly shows a lot remains to be done, to protect those whose lives have come to depend on the West’s need for ever cheaper clothes.

This exhibition continues until the 21st November 2009, hurry down!

The first three photographs are by George Torode and the last three are stills from Chen Chieh’s Factory.

Categories ,art, ,Chen Chieh, ,Clean Clothes Campaign, ,Ethical Fashion Forum, ,factory, ,fashion, ,INIVA, ,Labour behind the Label, ,Nations, ,NS Harsha, ,Rivington Place, ,textiles, ,UN, ,War on Want

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Amelia’s Magazine | The Confessions of a Vegetarian

‘So why are you vegetarian?’ I seem to have been asked this question a lot in the last two months since I stopped eating meat. It makes for quite entertaining pub chat as everyone is vehement in the expression of their beliefs. The aspect I find fascinating is the high levels of animosity that are present in these discussions. It appears to me that the average meat eater is a lot more militant than the average vegetarian. I’m not entirely sure why it is though I have a couple of guesses. It might be that it genuinely seems ridiculous to them, order they’ve never thought about it much or the reasons I give just don’t register on their world view. The view I’m more inclined towards is that my decision to become a vegetarian feels threatening. By not eating meat it is as if I’m making a moral judgment on those that do.

veg1
All illustrations by Kaye Blegvad

I would like to begin by saying I’m not a militant vegetarian. I might sound like one if people ask my reasons, sildenafil but I don’t try and impose it on people, dosage but it’s nice to be able to justify your reasons, whether to others or just to yourself.

First I’ll rule out the reasons that weren’t factors for me: the possible financial benefit had little influence on my decision, and it has nothing to do with not liking the taste of meat, as, unfortunately I really, really do (to the point that at first I had recurring dreams where I was guiltily biting into a chicken drumstick or lamb chop). Instead my motivations to stop eating meat rest on more ethical (to use that wonderfully vague word) foundations.

veg2

One of the main reasons that motivated me to become vegetarian is the environmental impact of the meat and livestock industry. The statistics of the livestock industry, they are quite staggering. A UN report released in 2006 entitled ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options’ stated that ‘the livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global’.
The livestock sector is responsible for 18% of green house gases, which is greater than the amount caused from transport. It is also accounts for 8% of global human water use and is suspected to be the largest source of water pollution. It is estimated to take 100,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef. As it stands livestock production (including feedcrop production) accounts for 30% of the land surface of the planet, and 70% of all agricultural land. The expansion of livestock production is accountable for a large amount of deforrestation. It is projected that global production of meat will continue to rise rapidly, with estimates that it will double by 2050. It seems clear that the livestock industry as it stands is both highly damaging to the environment and not sustainable.
These are just basic figures, to see far more and a wider range of the impacts I recommend doing additional reading, including looking at the report. But nonetheless these seem to provide a strong incentive, provided one sees sustainability and climate change as problems, to at the very least reduce ones meat consuption. Knowing this led me to have a nagging, guilt-ridden feeling every time I ate meat.

veg3

I suppose that nagging feeling is perhaps the real reason I’ve become a vegetarian. As I’ve become older, increasingly things are less black and white and morality and ethics becomes a blur. I’ve retained that ‘catholic guilt’ from my upbringing that means I tend to feel guilty about ridiculous things, often beyond my control. There are problems all around us from climate change to discrimination, from sweat shops to war. It can be all too easy to give up and admit defeat. By no means am I an exception to this. I still get flights to go on holiday despite knowing the environmental impact. I don’t check that every item of clothing I wear has been ethically sourced. These things nag at me, and I repeatedly fail to do anything about it. Similarly the thought of not eating meat dragged at me, wearing me down, sucking the fun out of eating meat, even if on another level I enjoyed the taste. It feels like by giving up meat I’ve taken an active decision, and one that I can manage. It feels empowering and though it might not last forever, and although I still have a leather wallet and belt, it gives me something to feel good about even if it’s only a small thing. It’s a beginning.

Categories ,Climate Change, ,confessions, ,Ethics, ,green house gasses, ,meat, ,meat industry, ,turning weggie, ,UN, ,veg, ,vegetarian

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Amelia’s Magazine | BTCV Green Gyms

My muscles are aching as I type, treatment my cheeks are glowing more than ever and I have a satisfied grin on my face…why?  I’ve spent half the day clearing woodland and sawing huge branches in the name of biodiversity and, no rx admittedly, doctor fitness…

hedge stage 1[All photos by Zofia Walczak]
Today I took part in my first ever Green Gym session, an initiative run by BTCV (the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers).  Funded by NHS Camden, the Green Gym is basically a combination of volunteering on biodiversity projects in London’s green spaces, getting a good work out and meeting new people.  As someone who detests gyms (positively loathes them), I was keen to find out exactly what these ‘Green Gym’ sessions entailed.  The thought of working out in a green area, fresh air and not doing exercise just for the sake of exercise appealed greatly. 

I have tried gyms extensively, and failed.  Gyms make me feel tired and bored.  The constant monotonous whir of exercise bikes and running machines, coupled with people in their own bubbles looking stressed and thinking about other things, monitoring their heart rates and counting every calorie they burn makes me depressed.  Likewise, seeing my reflection in the mirror-covered walls everywhere I turn, under the unflattering lights that make everyone (even the buffest-looking posers in the highest-end gym wear) look like sad, old potatoes, has made me finally admit to myself that gyms are not the answer.  After a run in the park (rare, lately) I always feel energised and glowing, but the gym just makes me look and feel grey, sweaty and blotchy…more like I should be in bed on medication than like I’ve just had a 45-minute workout.Green Gym area

So here I was, on my way to Baker Street, battling severe delays on the circle line, and modelling some of the least fashionable garments in my wardrobe.  I was wearing a pair of old, black hi-top trainers (NB these were my dad’s old pair from his engineering work, not of the retro ilk).  I had baggy woollen long-johns underneath some rather tired looking tracksuit bottoms tucked into long green and red thick woollen socks, about 3 jumpers, big fat bright green men’s fleece gloves, an old bright pink scarf, and a men’s waterproof jacket.  Chris, the organizer, had warned me to dress warm and prepare to get muddy.  For a second, as I stood on the packed London tube, it struck me that I might bump into an ex in this less-than-attractive get-up, but I soon felt liberated, and everyone else started to seem over-dressed!

Today’s green gym session was in a blissfully serene, snowy, slushy, empty Regent’s Park.  It’s incredible how the grey, heavy sky which is a permanent backdrop to the London skyline actually looks so beautiful and poetic in a wide open space, a background for the silhouettes of huge old oak trees and their twisted branches. 
trees sky

Super-keen, but with no idea of what I was letting myself in for, I skipped insouciantly into The Hub, a cafe/sports area in Regent’s Park, where I was greeted by the smiling faces of the group I’d be working with.  There were a few more newbies so I wasn’t on my own, but mainly people who had already been to a few sessions.  After quickly filling us in on what we might expect they praised us for being hardcore enough to have our first green gym session in the current muddy and cold conditions.  Apparently it’s all much easier and more pleasant in summer…

After a brief introduction we wandered to the site that Green Gym participants will work on in the next few weeks.  It was so easy to talk to everyone, and it was such a mixed group.  There were people who had been referred by the NHS (the scheme is a physical and mental well-being initiative as much as a ‘green’ one), editors and anthropologists who had been made redundant, new graduates and people on volunteering schemes…in all we were about 16 or 17 people, though I’m told groups number between 20 and 30 in spring and summer.

clearing

We started off with a warm-up, and then Chris from BTCV explained the tools we’d be using and went through health and safety…basically, the saws and shears used for cutting up big boughs and clearing huge twisted areas of extra-thick bramble are not to be chucked and swung around carelessly if you want to come out intact!

Laurent, who had done the warm-up, showed us around the area, and explained more or less what our aims were.  The area had once been a meadow, but was now covered in thick, intricately interwoven ivy, bramble and deadwood. Ivy is a great habitat on trees, Chris explained, but on the ground it acts as a thick barrier preventing birds from finding food.  One of the key aims of BTCV is to enhance biodiversity, which the UN has decided to dedicate this year to (see International Year of Biodiversity).  We would also be clearing and thinning-out the south-facing side of the space, allowing trees and plants to receive more sunlight rather than it being blocked out by dead branches.  The best branches would be used to start making a deadwood hedge.

sawing

So we got to work, with smaller groups working in different sections.  I worked with Catherine, a nutrition graduate who was taking up volunteering after finding it impossible to find work.  It was also her first session, so we stumbled along and asked lots of questions together.  With over-enthusiastic use of the huge shears, we quickly cleared a very messy area of the woodland, forming a huge pile of dead branches, bramble, weeds and ivy.  Any doubt that an indoor gym session would have actually been a better workout soon disappeared; there is not a single muscle in my arms or back that escaped un-used!  

Whenever we found a thicker, straight and strong branch, we would cut it to size (about 5 feet) to make stakes for the hedge.  The stakes needed to be sharpened at one end and hammered into the earth, and then long bendy branches would be woven around the stakes.

weaving

The session was split into two, with a tea and biscuits break in the middle.  The hard work meant a re-fuel was definitely on order, and we got to mingle and chat again.  We got back to work, sawed and sheared and chatted some more, and when 2 o’clock came around most people didn’t want to stop.  This kind of work can be so refreshingly addictive if your workout ‘routine’ is usually a mind-numbingly repetitive set of excercises you have stuck to on and off for seven years.

I initially planned today to be a one-off trial, but it would be ideal to continue.  The sessions will be held in the same place for the next few weeks, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11-2.  Some people come to every session and some come along sporadically; there’s no pressure to commit but people seem to keep returning.  To sign up for a session you can go to BTCV’s website, send them an email, and they’ll reply with all the joining info. The Green Gym certainly beats running around in circles in my small local park, but the disadvantage is that you can only really take part if you don’t work 9-5 full-time. 

I spoke to Chris after the session, and he told me some more about what BTCV is up to this year.  Green Gyms are soon to start in four other boroughs, and Camden Council is also funding a BTCV Carbon Army project to plant orchards in council estates.  To be selected for the scheme, residents of the estates had to express and prove an interest, since they will be planting the fruit and berry trees themselves with guidance from BTCV, starting their own vegetable patches, and later taking care of them.  It is a way to get people working together as much as an environmental and local food initiative.  We are so  removed from most food production now that this will be a great way to start democratising the process again.  Having grown up on an inner city estate myself I can definitely appreciate the scheme and it will be interesting to see where it goes.  

duck_ice

Ducks recklessly ignoring Police ‘Do not cross’ signs

I’ll be going along to the setting-up of one of these orchards in the coming weeks, so will write up about the experience.  For now though, I really really need to go and stretch some more.  I have a slight fear I won’t be able to move when I roll out of bed tomorrow morning… but at least I’ll have spent the day breathing fresh air and surrounded by green leaves rather than grey concrete…bliss.

Categories ,Biodiversity, ,bramble, ,BTCV, ,camden, ,Carbon Army, ,climate, ,conservation, ,deadwood hedge, ,environment, ,Green Gym, ,ivy, ,NHS, ,orchards, ,permaculture, ,Regent’s Park, ,UN, ,Volunteering, ,Year of Biodiversity

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Amelia’s Magazine | Book Review: Eradicating Ecocide

big deal- jon baker
Big Deal_JonBaker_03smAM
Photo by Jon Baker

They met when he was hired by her mother to teach her to play the guitar. They, information pills as in Big Deal: Alice Costelloe and kc Underwood, order a boy and a girl, a blonde and a brunette. They sound like Best Coast, Tennis and Cults wrapped up and swirled up in a hot tub, with the sun shining, bunnies and frogs hopping around the edges. Electric guitar dominates, but doesn’t overpower the combined voices of our protagonists. It’s almost as if the guitar is having a ball, dancing around without them, and they’re looking at it from the skies, singing our story. As Moshi Moshi say: ‘aching harmony’. Costelloe’s voice is nonchalant and sweet, 60s with modern gusto and pout. His is gentle and supportive, a deep backbone, crucial and pleasant. They are steamy, hot and full of either middle distance moodiness or penetrating eye contact into your confused youthful self. I’m thinking they will be perfect for a summer of love and all the elation and despairs it brings. Looking out of the window and simultaneously wishing to take back the last thing and for the next thing to happen. The embracing of the heat’s blurring of judgement, highly ambitious ideas, the sun setting on drama. You can almost feel it in the air can’t you? Brewing.

BIG DEAL

Big Deal‘s single; Talk, is out today on Moshi Moshi records. They have recently signed to Mute Records.

Book Jacket for Eradicating Ecocide, buy more about

What is Ecocide?
Has the formation of laws and legislation had unforeseen and possibly disastrous consequences?
Has the protection of the environment been abandoned by the law?
What can we do?

These are the questions Eradicating Ecocide, thumb a new book by Polly Higgins sets out to answer.

Polly Higgins is a Barrister, viagra 100mg a Human Right’s Lawyer and author of Eradicating Ecocide. On her blog The Lazy Environmentalist Higgins defines Ecocide as the “damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished.

Published in 2010 by Shepeard-Walwyn, Eradicating Ecocide, is a carefully considered polemic on the consequences of leaving environmental concerns at the sidelines, (the destruction of the rainforest, tar sands, Oil, Global Warming) in favour of infinite growth and unregulated capitalism. Higgins believes that the “law as it currently stands is not fit for purpose. It rarely protects the wider earth community interests of both people and planet. Instead, all too often it is the interests of the very the few that are protected, of those with ownership. This causes great injustice at both micro and macro level.” In short, Eradicating Ecocide is a call to arms, an appeal to the protection of the environment in the face of wanton and needless destruction.

Humanity is at a Crossroads by Abi Daker

Eradicating Ecocide opens with a contemporary reminder about the consequences of runaway ecocide and unregulated industry; the 2010 BP Oil Spill in the Mexican Gulf. Higgins’ arguement implies that as it stands both law making and the planet are being held to ransom by profit-driven corporations.

For Higgins the environment is all too often neglected in favour of short term profit, pointing out that part of the problem lies with “Governments, driven by the obsessive pursuit of economic gain, often undervalue subsequent ecological losses that can arise out of profit making activity… Myopic financial policy takes preeminence over longer term damage and destruction, by keeping the focus firmly on the short-term, problems mouth for others to address at some indeterminate later date.” Not only do we need to fight big business, we need to take the challenge to our own blindfolded Governments.

In her calm and through exploration of the unforeseen consequences of law making,? Eradicating Ecocide takes us through the convoluted changes in law and the pivotal court cases that lead to the development (in law) of corporations being held to account for damages made to the environment as “fictional persons” The example Higgins cites is the Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad trial of 1886, where for “the first time that the word ‘person’ in the fourteenth Amendment was presumed to include corporations.” See Eradicating Ecocide for further details on the outcome of this pre-trial statement.

Illustration by Gabriel Ayala

Eradicating Ecocide also focuses on the development of ‘compromise laws’ by big business and the law courts in order to pacify pollution concerns. The subsequently formed ‘compromise legislation’ merely side steps environmental responsibility whilst failing to provide any real deterrence against the destruction of the planet. The biggest failure in compromise recently was at Cop 15 in Copenhagen. Desperate to end the conference with some form of good news, politicians’ delivered the “The Copenhagen Accord“. As this document is not legally binding, nothing within this treaty has yet to be implemented in local or worldwide politics, as of yet there is no binding successor to equally compromised Kyoto Protocol.

For myself, Eradicating Ecocide highlights that the problem with placing profit over all else is that monetary worth becomes the barometer against which all ‘worth’ is measured. Subsequently the earth and its ‘resources’ become a mere asset. Once the earth is seen as an asset, it ceases to be alive and once it ‘dies’ it becomes easier for the bio habitat to be seen as singular commodities (a trend which began with the Industrial Revolution). Subsequently we, the citizens of the planet, must fight to save the planet as a living organisim in its entirety, not solely the sections we personally inhabit.

The Destruction of the Tar Sands by Gareth A Hopkins

A brave book, Eradicating Ecocide takes the stance that by allowing the “commercial exploration and destruction of resources” to take “precedence over the obligation of the sacred trust”, corporations have become the colonisers of the 21st Century. Within the UN framework, the concept behind the sacred trust is to ask for “community interests to be placed over private and corporate decisions.” (p.57)

Eradicating Ecocide is an inspiring, informative read and an incredible history lesson on the role of law (so often seemingly abstract from our lives) in shaping our society, our business and the way we view the earth. Personally, the book is incredible for its demand that we use that which is already present within the UN – The development of International Criminal Law in the wake of World War Two and the concept of Trusteeship– to implement these necessary changes. Because the framework for Crimes against Peace already exists, Ecocide could be included without the need to create any new organisations.

The book’s brilliance is that it functions as a template for what both citizen and state can do to protect the environment. Eradicating Ecocide contains useful advice on how we, citizens of the world can implement change. For example, by joining existing climate change networks or starting your own, we can apply pressure on Governments to recognizing Ecocide as a breach against peace. We have the power of the multiple and the power of the streets on our side. With an ever-increasing population, we need to accept the earths resources’ are finite and move away from a market driven economy.

Illustration by Gabriel Ayala

For an update on the Climate Change debate in the wake of Cop 15, I recommend reading Higgins’ account of Cancun (Cop 16) and her summery of the RED++ deal; “The commercialisation of forests into the hands of the corporate sector to make money out of supposedly saving forests.”

A brilliant book and one that needs to be read, especially in the light of the recent news that oil companies plan to resume deep sea drilling.

If middle England can stand up against the Coalition’s plans to sell 15% of British Forests, we can ALL stand up against a destruction on a far wider scale -the loss of “the Earth’s lungs”- too.

For further information please visit the book’s website: This is Ecocide’s.

Categories ,5th Breach against Peace, ,Amelia Gregory, ,Amelia’s Magazine, ,Eradicating Ecocide, ,Polly Higgins, ,The Lazy Environmentalist, ,This Is Ecocide, ,UN

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Amelia’s Magazine | BTCV Green Gyms

My muscles are aching as I type, treatment my cheeks are glowing more than ever and I have a satisfied grin on my face…why?  I’ve spent half the day clearing woodland and sawing huge branches in the name of biodiversity and, no rx admittedly, doctor fitness…

hedge stage 1[All photos by Zofia Walczak]
Today I took part in my first ever Green Gym session, an initiative run by BTCV (the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers).  Funded by NHS Camden, the Green Gym is basically a combination of volunteering on biodiversity projects in London’s green spaces, getting a good work out and meeting new people.  As someone who detests gyms (positively loathes them), I was keen to find out exactly what these ‘Green Gym’ sessions entailed.  The thought of working out in a green area, fresh air and not doing exercise just for the sake of exercise appealed greatly. 

I have tried gyms extensively, and failed.  Gyms make me feel tired and bored.  The constant monotonous whir of exercise bikes and running machines, coupled with people in their own bubbles looking stressed and thinking about other things, monitoring their heart rates and counting every calorie they burn makes me depressed.  Likewise, seeing my reflection in the mirror-covered walls everywhere I turn, under the unflattering lights that make everyone (even the buffest-looking posers in the highest-end gym wear) look like sad, old potatoes, has made me finally admit to myself that gyms are not the answer.  After a run in the park (rare, lately) I always feel energised and glowing, but the gym just makes me look and feel grey, sweaty and blotchy…more like I should be in bed on medication than like I’ve just had a 45-minute workout.Green Gym area

So here I was, on my way to Baker Street, battling severe delays on the circle line, and modelling some of the least fashionable garments in my wardrobe.  I was wearing a pair of old, black hi-top trainers (NB these were my dad’s old pair from his engineering work, not of the retro ilk).  I had baggy woollen long-johns underneath some rather tired looking tracksuit bottoms tucked into long green and red thick woollen socks, about 3 jumpers, big fat bright green men’s fleece gloves, an old bright pink scarf, and a men’s waterproof jacket.  Chris, the organizer, had warned me to dress warm and prepare to get muddy.  For a second, as I stood on the packed London tube, it struck me that I might bump into an ex in this less-than-attractive get-up, but I soon felt liberated, and everyone else started to seem over-dressed!

Today’s green gym session was in a blissfully serene, snowy, slushy, empty Regent’s Park.  It’s incredible how the grey, heavy sky which is a permanent backdrop to the London skyline actually looks so beautiful and poetic in a wide open space, a background for the silhouettes of huge old oak trees and their twisted branches. 
trees sky

Super-keen, but with no idea of what I was letting myself in for, I skipped insouciantly into The Hub, a cafe/sports area in Regent’s Park, where I was greeted by the smiling faces of the group I’d be working with.  There were a few more newbies so I wasn’t on my own, but mainly people who had already been to a few sessions.  After quickly filling us in on what we might expect they praised us for being hardcore enough to have our first green gym session in the current muddy and cold conditions.  Apparently it’s all much easier and more pleasant in summer…

After a brief introduction we wandered to the site that Green Gym participants will work on in the next few weeks.  It was so easy to talk to everyone, and it was such a mixed group.  There were people who had been referred by the NHS (the scheme is a physical and mental well-being initiative as much as a ‘green’ one), editors and anthropologists who had been made redundant, new graduates and people on volunteering schemes…in all we were about 16 or 17 people, though I’m told groups number between 20 and 30 in spring and summer.

clearing

We started off with a warm-up, and then Chris from BTCV explained the tools we’d be using and went through health and safety…basically, the saws and shears used for cutting up big boughs and clearing huge twisted areas of extra-thick bramble are not to be chucked and swung around carelessly if you want to come out intact!

Laurent, who had done the warm-up, showed us around the area, and explained more or less what our aims were.  The area had once been a meadow, but was now covered in thick, intricately interwoven ivy, bramble and deadwood. Ivy is a great habitat on trees, Chris explained, but on the ground it acts as a thick barrier preventing birds from finding food.  One of the key aims of BTCV is to enhance biodiversity, which the UN has decided to dedicate this year to (see International Year of Biodiversity).  We would also be clearing and thinning-out the south-facing side of the space, allowing trees and plants to receive more sunlight rather than it being blocked out by dead branches.  The best branches would be used to start making a deadwood hedge.

sawing

So we got to work, with smaller groups working in different sections.  I worked with Catherine, a nutrition graduate who was taking up volunteering after finding it impossible to find work.  It was also her first session, so we stumbled along and asked lots of questions together.  With over-enthusiastic use of the huge shears, we quickly cleared a very messy area of the woodland, forming a huge pile of dead branches, bramble, weeds and ivy.  Any doubt that an indoor gym session would have actually been a better workout soon disappeared; there is not a single muscle in my arms or back that escaped un-used!  

Whenever we found a thicker, straight and strong branch, we would cut it to size (about 5 feet) to make stakes for the hedge.  The stakes needed to be sharpened at one end and hammered into the earth, and then long bendy branches would be woven around the stakes.

weaving

The session was split into two, with a tea and biscuits break in the middle.  The hard work meant a re-fuel was definitely on order, and we got to mingle and chat again.  We got back to work, sawed and sheared and chatted some more, and when 2 o’clock came around most people didn’t want to stop.  This kind of work can be so refreshingly addictive if your workout ‘routine’ is usually a mind-numbingly repetitive set of excercises you have stuck to on and off for seven years.

I initially planned today to be a one-off trial, but it would be ideal to continue.  The sessions will be held in the same place for the next few weeks, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11-2.  Some people come to every session and some come along sporadically; there’s no pressure to commit but people seem to keep returning.  To sign up for a session you can go to BTCV’s website, send them an email, and they’ll reply with all the joining info. The Green Gym certainly beats running around in circles in my small local park, but the disadvantage is that you can only really take part if you don’t work 9-5 full-time. 

I spoke to Chris after the session, and he told me some more about what BTCV is up to this year.  Green Gyms are soon to start in four other boroughs, and Camden Council is also funding a BTCV Carbon Army project to plant orchards in council estates.  To be selected for the scheme, residents of the estates had to express and prove an interest, since they will be planting the fruit and berry trees themselves with guidance from BTCV, starting their own vegetable patches, and later taking care of them.  It is a way to get people working together as much as an environmental and local food initiative.  We are so  removed from most food production now that this will be a great way to start democratising the process again.  Having grown up on an inner city estate myself I can definitely appreciate the scheme and it will be interesting to see where it goes.  

duck_ice

Ducks recklessly ignoring Police ‘Do not cross’ signs

I’ll be going along to the setting-up of one of these orchards in the coming weeks, so will write up about the experience.  For now though, I really really need to go and stretch some more.  I have a slight fear I won’t be able to move when I roll out of bed tomorrow morning… but at least I’ll have spent the day breathing fresh air and surrounded by green leaves rather than grey concrete…bliss.

Categories ,Biodiversity, ,bramble, ,BTCV, ,camden, ,Carbon Army, ,climate, ,conservation, ,deadwood hedge, ,environment, ,Green Gym, ,ivy, ,NHS, ,orchards, ,permaculture, ,Regent’s Park, ,UN, ,Volunteering, ,Year of Biodiversity

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