Why Do Evil People Always Have All The Plans?

Climate Week – What It’s Really About

So here it is, Climate Week has started.

If you’re involved in the climate movement, you’ll have had a discussion on this, no doubt.

When I first heard about it last summer, I assumed it was a London version of the New York Climate Week championed by Mayor Bloomberg over there for the last couple of years. But this Climate Week is a different kettle of fish. It positions itself as a –

supercharged national occasion that offers an annual renewal of our ambition and confidence to combat climate change. It is for everyone wanting to do their bit to protect our planet and create a secure future.

And looking at the map of events – this is the kind of engagement that organisations like Stop Climate Chaos could only dream of. Schools, offices, community organisations – all sorts of groups are hosting an event of some sort. In the face of disappearing media coverage on climate change, this is something that should be praised.

So why now? What’s the strategic reason for doing this in the last week of March? Is it the highly important/under-reported Energy Bill in Parliament? Is it pushing the government on Sustainabile Development Commission, the Green Investment Bank, or the EU’s stance on the second Kyoto commitment period?

No.

Perhaps it was all about coinciding with that epitome of public engagement/media friendliness WWF’s Earth Hour happening on Saturday March 26th. And yet there seems to be no evidence of a formal partnership. Was the idea of Climate Week’s sponsors just too unpalatable, and too damaging? After all, RBS, EDF Energy and Tesco’s are perhaps three of the most ‘love-to-hate’ corporates for climate activists.

Indeed, for the corporates funding Climate Week, this is partly about brand management. Immediately Naomi Klein’s voice rings in my head – “this is how they undermine our work, by claiming our public space.” And that remains largely true.

BUT – if we move beyond seeing Climate Week as a movement or political tactic – and instead if we understand Climate Week to be a tool for those inside corporations to be able to gain enough clout to push sustainability messages through to their customers – that’s a different conversation. We sometimes forget that there are many sustainability advocates within corporations who want to see it do less harm. But without persuasive business arguments, it’s hard to win those debates. Showing public support for climate action, in association with their brand, gives these internal champions much more fire power. And we need those people to be winning those arguments.

Don’t get me wrong, I want a total transformation of what business is, and how it does it, but from little things, big things grow.

And think of the public outreach potential.

Imagine – if every one of the 2,000 Tesco stores, with their hundreds of thousands of customers, had some sort of bold climate-related message at the check-out counter. Something about the fact that Tesco’s is reducing it’s supply chain carbon emissions by 30%, about how climate change matters to them as a company (and should matter to you too). Talk about reaching a new audience! Do not underestimate the power of a trusted brand bringing this message to those outside our (campaigner’s) spheres of influence.

So this for me is the real test: through Climate Week, do we see meaningful public engagement that then becomes part of the brand message? And do we see internal changes in the sponsor’s products, and ultimately, in their business model?

Climate Week isn’t really about the climate movement, it’s about a conversation about the future of business.

Other views on this question –

• Danny Chivers in the New Internationalist.
• Jo Clarke on the Otesha Project blog.
• People & Planet greenwash campaign. (As an aside, the CEO of Climate Week is a former Director of People & Planet…)
• Adam Ramsay in Bright Green.
• Bibi van der Zee in the Guardian.
• Peter Lipman in the Transition blog.
• Matilda Lee in the Ecologist.
• Martyn Williams in politics.co.uk.
• Damian Carrington in the Guardian.

Link Loving 20.03.11

• How many good emperors in a row can an authoritarian system produce? Brad Delong.
• How to make a successful transition from autocracy to democracy. Alex Evans.
• Beatrix Campbell on Rosa Luxemburg.
• Targeting the banks is the wrong strategy for UKUncut. Tim Sowula.
• Mark Anderson dispels the ‘Britain maxed out it’s credit card’ myth.
• Left Outside on a hundred year old business model for the Daily Mail that just keeps giving.
• Peter Johnson wonders whether Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, is gearing up for a fight against the financial sector.
• The best machine ever.
• Hidden power – the role of the Cabinet Secretary.

Have We Truly Realised What This Means?

Keith Olbermann on Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission.

Be prepared for;

• attacks on unions
• tax cuts for the rich
• selling wars as products
• racial and religious profiling
• the Tea Party as front-men of their bank-rollers and then be outlawed
• bank reforms to be rolled back
• Walmart sponsored town councillors
• the rich politicians become poor in comparison to corporate-sponsored

etc etc etc.

Link Loving 19.03.11

• The Ella Baker Center have a glossary for the language of the current green wave.
• Wonderful interview between John Thackara and Mugendi M’Rithaa covering the alternative economic and social models growing in Africa.
• CSR NewsCorp style – focus on the carbon, ignore the journalistic integrity. Natalya Sverjensky.
• Leo Hickman on how the palm oil industry is fighting the PR war.
• Duncan Green’s take on the drivers of Egyptian change. Knowledgeable as ever. (And he links to my Global Dashboard piece – *joy*.)
• Solitaire Townsend on The Gods of Climate Change. Nice religious imagery : )
• Of all the pieces about Cameron/weapons dealing/Middle East last week – this from Alex Evans topped the bunch.
• Julia Middleton on the power of the network in leadership.
• Let this sink in – Chinese provinces compared to countries with similar GDPs. Frank Jacobs.
• James Lloyd on the decision by Number 10 to hire an ex-BP person to advise on climate change and energy.

7 Billion – Are You Typical?

h/t Andy Hix

Link Loving 18.03.11

• Tom Baker has some questions for 38 Degrees. Time for field organisers?
• Trendwatching’s March briefing. Includes this gem.
• Jonah Lehrer asks whether people are nicer in cities. He is perfect future-husband material.
• Still can’t quite get over this one – Political Scrapbook report on Deutsche Bank employees waving bank notes from office windows as NHS protestors march through streets below.
• James Lloyd on why we need energy coop’s rather than corporations.
• Umair Haque on the capitalist’s paradox – including this zinger,

Do our outcomes say: “We’re creating a radically better future, in human terms — because yesterday’s best isn’t good enough”? Or do they say: “Here you go. Want fries with that McFuture?”

• Matthew Herbert on how to move from a top-down to a self-organising model of working.
• David Blanchflower on why this could be the longest recession for a hundred years.
• And if I’m sharing zingers, I may as well include this old-school put down from Ann Pettifor,

In their Project Merlin agreement with the government, the banks ‘anticipate the further impact on demand of the higher cost of lending arising from increasing capital and liquidity requirements.”….In other words the banks are blaming muted demand caused by their exorbitant loan rates on the Basel agreements..and the government includes that pathetic excuse in its agreement……What tosh!

Ari Berman And Marshall Ganz In Conversation

Really enjoyed this – a six part conversation between Marshall Ganz and Ari Berman reflecting on the Obama campaign vs his Presidency, with focus on grassroots organising. Only for die-hard Marshall Ganz fans I guess…

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Bradley Manning

A US soldier is held in solitary confinement. He’s been there since June. He’s kept naked for hours at a time and not allowed to sleep between 5am and 8pm. For one hour a day, he is allowed to walk around a room in shackles.

He’s not in a cave in Afghanistan, but in Virginia – in a high security prison where he is kept without trial or conviction for releasing secret evidence to Wikileaks revealing US soldiers shooting Iraqi civilians.

This profile piece from the NY Times paints the picture of who he is. A geek growing up, and harassed for being gay in his teens – his first strong social relationships came from friends in Cambridge, MA, where he hung around with computer nerds. He’s only a year younger than I am.

Wired magazine gives some more background as to why Manning released the information.

“I want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are … because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.

While in Iraq, the incident that got him the most was when fifteen detainees were arrested by the Iraqi Federal Police for printing anti-Iraqi literature. He was asked by the army to investigate who the “bad guys” were. He said he discovered the detainees had printed a scholarly critique of the Iraqi prime minister, one called “Where did the money go?” that followed what Manning said was a corruption trail within the Iraqi cabinet. He reported this to his commanding officer, but said “he didn’t want to hear any of it”. He said the officer told him to help the Iraqi police find more detainees. Manning said he realised, “I was actively involved in something that i was completely against”.

Opposition to the military’s handling of the case is growing. This week Philip Crowley, a senior State Department spokesman, resigned after calling his treatment “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” The UN, Amnesty International and peace activists have all been active on the case, demanding his release into a normal legal procedure.

Exposing war crimes should never be a crime. And considering Obama promised to close Guantanamo within a year of his election and has failed so spectacularly, the least he can do is end this shameful absurdity.

Link Loving 17.03.11

• How to be an activist while working for the UN. *Awkward*
• You can now download one of my favourite books from last year, Handmade by Tessy Britton. It profiles amazing social change/innovation projects around the US and UK.
• Erik Assadourian is less than impressed with the revised ‘green guidelines’ for consumer products Stateside.
• Tom Baker considers how foreign campaigners can influence Chinese policy.
• New eco-hunk Matt Walters says goodbye to his car and goes fossil-fuel free.
• Josh Ryan-Collins sees encouraging grassroots developments in the movement to revolutionise our approach to money.
• Lydia Prieg on how the government is letting mega-banks off the hook again.
• A return on lobbying investment? How about 22,000%?
• Umair Haque wonders whether the recent phenomenon of Charlie Sheen isn’t exactly the right metaphor for modern capitalism?