All Party Parliamentary TEQs report launch

All Party Parliamentary TEQs report launch

by | Jan 23, 2011 | All Posts, Climate Change, Cultural stories, Economics, Peak Oil, Politics, Reviews and recommendations, TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas), Transition Movement

What a week - Tuesday's launch of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil's report into TEQs was a tremendous success, with excellent media coverage, including Time magazine, The Sunday Times, Bloomberg News, the BBC, the Financial Times and many others (linked article list). The only problem has been that the degree of interest has been such that I haven't found a moment to write anything here - although I have been Tweeting, I feel as though I'm the last to cover it! A fuller, more thoughtful piece may follow when time allows, but for now take a look at the videos from the event (Caroline Lucas MP, John Hemming MP, Jeremy Leggett and me), the various blogs that are discussing the implications, and of course the report itself.
On a personal note, it has been hard getting through all this without my co-author David Fleming, who passed away suddenly around six weeks ago (I also suffered another extremely close bereavement shortly after), but I am pleased and proud that it has gone so well. Many people have worked to make it possible and given their support, but I'd particularly like to thank Beth Stratford, an inspiring climate campaigner and the editor of the report, who over the past few weeks has given more time than she really had to help make the launch a success. Thanks Beth.
In memoriam, David Fleming

In memoriam, David Fleming

by | Nov 29, 2010 | All Posts, David Fleming, TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas), Transition Movement

My dear friend and colleague David Fleming unexpectedly passed away last night, peacefully in his sleep. I am still somewhat in shock. I only had the great fortune to know him for four years, but from the outset I knew what a privilege it was. He found me at a time when I was struggling to know where to direct my energies, and supported me in so many ways to learn how to build a life around doing what I love. Over those years he has become one of my closest friends. Heading to the local pub in Hampstead for a drink with him was simply one of the best things I have found in this life. Even the name of this site (which I love) owes a great deal to him. After much agonising I just couldn't decide on a name that felt right, until David heard me mutter to myself in jest "oh, maybe I should just call it Dark Optimism". I well remember him seizing on this, and declaring that "Shaun, I would consider it an honour to partner with Dark Optimism". I laughed, but over the next couple of days the idea somehow solidified in me to the point where it was obviously the right choice. I will likely expand on this post when my head is clearer, but for now... Thank you for all you did for me David, and for our world. I love you, and I'll miss you so very very much. David Fleming 2010
Update - David's book Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It, his life's work, was published posthumously by Chelsea Green Publishing in 2016, and is available here.
~ Other online tributes will be added here as I hear of them: My obituary for David, for The Ecologist The Ham and High's obituary for David (David's local paper) Lawrence Woodward's obituary for David, for the Organic Research Centre Bulletin Trinity College, Oxford's obituary for David (David's alma mater. See p.63 of the report, p.65 of the pdf) The Times' obituary for David Rob Hopkins (Transition Network) Raven Gray David Boyle (new economics foundation) Davie Philip (FEASTA) Maria Elvorith Martin Davis (to whom we owe the wonderful picture above) Michelle Berriedale-Johnson (+ an April 2011 update) Gavin Starks Gillian Paschkes-Bell The New Era Network Organic Farmers & Growers The Centre for Alternative Technology Screengrab of some of the many tributes paid through Twitter Sarah Nicholl (Nov 2011) Brief 1m20 video clip of David and his flat, from 2008 (courtesy of his long-time friend John Cunningham) A November 2010 interview with David, sitting up an oak tree! (courtesy of Henrik G Dahle) David Fleming on Tithe Farm - 1987

Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay". And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed. When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also. For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live. For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

~Kahlil Gibran

LSE Complexity Seminar – audio and slides

LSE Complexity Seminar – audio and slides

by | Jul 7, 2010 | All Posts, Peak Oil, TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas)

The slides and audio are now available from the seminar David Fleming and I gave at the London School of Economics last week. The topic was "Transition Towns and Tradable Energy Quotas: Frameworks to support a diversity of small-scale solutions to the large-scale problems of peak oil and climate change". Note that the slides are mis-numbered on the LSE site, so my opening section is Audio Part 1 (which begins with introductions from those present) and Slides Part 2, and David's is Audio Part 2 and Slides Part 1! My section was a half-hour run-through of climate change, peak energy, finance and the Transition response, much of which will be familiar to regular readers, but delivered to an interesting (and interested) new audience.
Heinberg – after Copenhagen

Heinberg – after Copenhagen

by | Mar 15, 2010 | All Posts, Cultural stories, Peak Oil, Politics, Reviews and recommendations, TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas)

See below for an interview with the ever-insightful Richard Heinberg, discussing where we should put our efforts in the aftermath of the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit. It is well worth a watch, and you might want to consider spreading it to your contacts via the "Share This" link in the bottom right corner of this post. I heartily endorse his perspective, but disagree when he argues in support of carbon taxation at around fifteen minutes in, saying that "we need to make fossil fuels more expensive". In my opinion, we do not - we need to guarantee a fair entitlement to the available energy, not ration it by the depth of people's pockets. As Richard says, "if you're taxing everybody on their use of fossil fuels - raising their cost of living - it's pretty hard to get their buy-in to that", but once you guarantee people a fair entitlement, in line with a declining cap, society can then collectively focus on keeping the price of energy as low as possible, which is a simply-understood task that everyone can buy into with enthusiasm. Richard is touching on a widely-unrecognised contradiction at the heart of present energy/climate policy discussions - the desire to raise carbon prices while keeping energy prices low. Market-based approaches struggle to see past this, but TEQs would resolve it at a stroke, through the recognition that reducing the quantity of carbon emissions can be best achieved by means other than a high price.