Tom Youngman

The sound of today, the sound of sunshine. Toro y Moi.

Mon, 28 May 2012 14:42:00 +0100

The sound of today, the sound of sunshine. Toro y Moi.

"The thing at the heart of our problems globally is the value system. We value money and wealth and..."

Fri, 25 May 2012 12:29:02 +0100

“The thing at the heart of our problems globally is the value system. We value money and wealth and status and objects over other people, our communities and our planet. We need to shift that away and put the things that sustain us, both as individuals and as a global society, back at centre stage.”

- Neva Frecheville

My friend Danny is going on a bit of a journey, and he’s filming it! It’s well worth a watch. In his latest video, he chatted to Neva in the pub. As you can tell from the above quote, it was more exciting than it sounds. Danny’s video series is continuing, and getting even more exciting - check them out here.

A Proposal: Let's demand the 'impossible'.

Thu, 24 May 2012 22:50:00 +0100

The science is clear. We need to take urgent, ambitious action on climate change. Even conservative sources, such as the International Energy Agency, estimate we have less than five years to take meaningful action on climate change, or seriously harmful effects will be irreversible.

Meanwhile, the politics is uncompromising. In Durban nations agreed to implement a new climate treaty in 2020. It doesn’t take genius to realise that this is too late. The Kyoto Protocol (the existing climate treaty) will continue until then - but it does not include Japan, Canada, USA or Russia - in fact it only covers around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is clear that the political solution on the table is highly inadequate.

This decision has already been made. By the usual rules, it is fixed. But why should we play by the usual rules? As young people in international climate negotiations, I see it as our role to demand what is necessary to safeguard the survival and wellbeing of all nations and peoples - and if that includes calling for action outside the current agenda, then so be it.

Some may call this naïvety. The truth is, this is not calling for the impossible. This is calling for what is distinctly possible - the new treaty will be agreed by 2015, it could be implemented earlier. What identifies it as impossible is political will - and that is something that constantly changes, and changes at the whim of the people. If we open the conversation, our governments will be forced to participate in it.

Therefore I call for what most negotiators would consider ‘impossible’, but what in reality is not only possible, but essential:

The outcome of the Durban Platform should enter into force as soon as possible - ideally 2016, soon after the outcome is agreed, but no later than 2018.
The outcome of the Durban Platform should be ambitious and equitable, reaffirming commitments made by all nations when they signed the UNFCCC in 1992.
The second Kyoto Protocol commitment period should finish immediately before the new treaty begins - therefore lasting between three and five years.

via Tom Williams

Wed, 23 May 2012 19:36:01 +0100

via Tom Williams

Want to keep track of the ongoing climate negotiations in Bonn?

Tue, 22 May 2012 23:55:58 +0100

Although you may not have heard about it on the news, there are actually UN climate change negotiations ongoing in Bonn, Germany. These negotiations are not as big as the annual ‘COP’ summits (such as ‘COP17’ in Durban that I went to last year), but without the media attention often more achieved at these small meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - the UN process seeking to tackled climate change.

As always there is a team from the UK Youth Climate Coalition (the organisation I went to Durban with) at the negotiations. Follow their progress on their blog or on their twitter. You can also follow Camilla, Louisa or Danny from the delegation on Twitter.

Also worth following is the ‘Adopt a Negotiator’ project, who have a fantastic website giving updates of goings on in Bonn. You might want to follow some of Adopt a Negotiator’s writers on twitter, such as Seb, Priti or Mostafa.

There two big debates taking place in Bonn are:

Equity

There has been renewed focus on who takes more responsibility greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Nations such as India and China argue that as they have less historical responsibility for emissions, they should not have to reduce emissions as much (or even at all) and should be allowed to develop more. This is an established principle in the UN climate convention, but these developing countries want more emphasis placed on it in future negotiations.

In Durban, India’s proposed ‘equitable’ approach was not having any new legally binding treaty on climate change - clearly not a viable option. Young people in Bonn are trying to reframe the equity debate, emphasising how the only equitable solution to climate change is an ambitious and binding one, that actually solves the problem.

For more information check out these three blogs, explaining the perspective of India, of China and of the EU (the EU negotiates as a bloc in the UNFCCC).

The Durban Platform

The Durban Platform is the new track of climate negotiations created at COP17, the climate summit in Durban, South Africa last year. It seeks to create a treaty ‘with legal force’ by 2015, that enters into force in 2020. The first negotiations sessions of this take place in Durban. Not much has happened yet, but it’s worth keeping an eye on. The Kyoto Protocol is the only legally-binding climate treaty to date, but it doesn’t come near to solving climate change. The outcome of the Durban Platform needs to be a fully-fledged international solution to climate change.

The Durban Platform is nowhere near urgent enough, right from the beginning. The International Energy Agency - usually a conservative source - estimates we have less than 5 years to take action on climate change before the effects become irreversible. Clearly 2020, when the Durban Platform treaty would come into force, is after this 5 year window. This means that the treaty needs to be incredibly ambitious, so nations take pre-emptive action.

So far in Bonn, negotiations on the Durban Platform have achieved…. nothing. Debates over the agenda have prevented progress, as has the aforementioned debate on ‘equity’. This is not inherently a bad thing - we want to make sure this treaty is equitable - but that progress has been stalled so much is pretty worrying.

This speech, delivered by Quintin Combrink, was one of three...

Tue, 22 May 2012 23:19:47 +0100

This speech, delivered by Quintin Combrink, was one of three that I co-authored while at the UN climate talks in Durban last December. We were particularly proud of this one. Quintin asks negotiators in the room to raise their hands to answer a series of questions, starting with whether they’re wearing shoes, moving on to whether they’re there to help solve the climate change, and finishing with the key question in Durban at that point - whether they think they can agree a second Kyoto Protocol commitment period by the end of that two weeks.

This approach, although it may seem fairly run-of-the-mill, is completely out of the ordinary for a UN summit. International diplomacy works in a veiled way, with statements vague and hard to read. Negotiators often use speeches to obstruct (see this great blog by Seb) negotiations and obscure their true positions. Getting them to reveal their cards and take on a more co-operative spirit is a key part of finding a solution to climate change at the UN level. Watch the video, see how we had a go at doing that!

Best publicity campaign ever: MGCY, the youth constituency at UN...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:39:14 +0100

Best publicity campaign ever: MGCY, the youth constituency at UN sustainable development talks, have a Rio+20 memes Tumblr!

uncsd-mgcy:

Need solar panels? by Marofa

I like-apella Futureheads cover Black Eyed Peas’ Meet Me...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 22:44:36 +0100

I like-apella

Futureheads cover Black Eyed Peas’ Meet Me Halfway

Come along! greenvision: People’s Kitchen, round 3: Thursday...

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:57:52 +0100

Come along!

greenvision:

People’s Kitchen, round 3: Thursday 5th April 2012

Come along to Green Vision’s third ‘People’s Kitchen’ event, where we’ll be cooking food that would otherwise have been wasted and serving it for free or a donation. The food cooked will depend on what we receive in the immediate days, but you can be assured it’ll be tasty under the watchful eye of our chefs, CJ, Shane and Taryn.

Our freshly-cooked food will be accompanied by fresh discussion, with our theme: How can we feed our growing population? Join us for discussion on alternative agriculture, local food, reducing food waste, genetically-modified food and vegetarianism.

We’ll also be planting pumpkins! Plant your pumpkin at the People’s Kitchen, we’ll replant it at Bathampton’s Community Support Agriculture project and award a prize to the best in a few months time!

Join us at Bath’s Green Park Station, between midday and 3pm on Thursday 5th April 2012. Whether enjoying the school/university holidays or on your lunch break, everyone is welcome!

Click here to hit ‘attending’ and share on Facebook.

"It’s an extremely reactionary film. It tells the story of a good normal guy. He knows..."

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:12:03 +0000

“It’s an extremely reactionary film. It tells the story of a good normal guy. He knows it’s stupid to be a king. Your Australian guy teaches him to be stupid enough to believe he really is a king.”

- Slavoj Zizek on The King’s Speech

"It merely reinforces a picture of evil as attributable to a couple of individuals somewhere else,..."

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:26:29 +0000

“It merely reinforces a picture of evil as attributable to a couple of individuals somewhere else, which we will go and fix. It is the ultimate comic book approach to evil: find a colourful villain and beat him up rather than tackle the structural causes of crime.”

- David Leon on the ‘Kony 2012’ campaign, in Ceasefire Magazine.

Although this article’s headline is rather over the top in its condemnation, it’s very perceptive in its highlighting that Kony 2012 entirely neglects the socioeconomic backdrop that allow situations like to happen across the globe - instead pinning all world’s ills onto a single man. It’s simplistic and paternalistic.

Then again, bloody good video.

! good: Suspended Bouncing Tennis Balls Spanish visual...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:35:54 +0000

good:

Suspended Bouncing Tennis Balls

Spanish visual artist Ana Soler used 2,000 tennis balls for her most recent work, Causa-Efecto (Cause & Effect). These frozen-in-motion balls are strung throughout the Mustang Art Gallery in Alicante, Spain.

(via Colossal)

This is why young people are essential at the UN climate talks....

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:56:25 +0000

This is why young people are essential at the UN climate talks. This is Mohamed Aslam, Environment Minister for the Maldives, an island nation that will go underwater in the next few decades due to climate change. He came to Durban to argue for the survival of his people, and for two hours, young people occupied the conference centre and made sure the spotlight was shone on him and others speaking for those most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. We cannot negotiate for them, but we can raise high those who negotiate for what is right.

Idea of the week: give free bicycles to school pupils

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:53:56 +0000

This is my idea of the week, a very simple one. Each year schools pay for bus passes for their pupils, costing hundreds of pounds per pupil. My simple idea is offering the same value in bicycle to pupils as an alternative.

Advantages for the pupil:

Shiny new bicycle!
No additional cost
Can use it to travel at weekends, when bus passes doesn’t work
Can travel to/from school around extra-curricular activities, not bus timetables

Advantages for all of us:

After the first year, money could be saved on school bus passes
Less carbon
Healthier schools pupils
The more cyclists there are, the safer cycling becomes
Could promote buying of British bikes, boost British manufacturing economy.

All this week People & Planet and the UK Youth Climate...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:30:45 +0000

All this week People & Planet and the UK Youth Climate Coalition have been campaigning to prevent oil from the Canada’s Tar Sands - a huge fuel deposit that requires decimation of the Canadian wilderness to extract - from being sold in the EU. This oil’s extraction is at least five times more carbon-intensive than usual and, if Canada’s tar sands are fully exploited, according to NASA climate scientist James Hansen it’s “game over for the climate”.

Europe is on the verge of banning this and other especially damaging fuels from being sold within it’s borders - but the UK is obstructing progress! Join me in calling on the UK government to support the European Fuel Quality Directive preventing the sale of tar sands oil.

"Beauty is in the eye of the gasholder"

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:17:02 +0000

Two weeks ago Bryan Chalker (author of the terrible/amazing pun above), the Mayor of Bath, wrote to the Bath Chronicle suggesting the reuse of Bath’s soon-to-be-demolished gasholder as a space for education, community and creativity. He referenced this incredible project in Vienna where old ‘gasometers’ have been beautifully refashioned into housing and community space.

This week my letter supporting the proposal, and bemoaning Bath’s lack of community space, was published in the Bath Chronicle:

The city of Bath desperately lacks space for the community. In the search for tourism and international acclaim, Bath’s council has forgotten its residents.

Our city centre is no longer a space for the community – high rents and council bias have meant our city centre is now a space reserved for boutiques and large chains appealing to visitors from outside the city.

What we do not need is new space created. The city occupies a large area already. What we need to do is use our space more intelligently. Our city is filled with old, disused buildings that with a bit of imagination, could provide Bath with space for the community and for creativity. The empty shops of our high streets and the empty offices of London Road could easily become lively space for events, exhibitions and social enterprise. At present they stand empty – some for a matter of years – while inspiring community projects are cancelled because they cannot find affordable space in the city centre.

Recently, the Mayor of Bath, Councillor Bryan Chalker wrote to the Chronicle to propose the reuse of the city’s remaining gasometer as a community space. This is exactly the sort of ambition and imagination the city needs. The structure is a part of Bath’s heritage, and with a bit of imagination and architectural skill (provided by one of the many architects resident in the city) it could become a gem in our skyline. But more important is what could fill it.

A concert venue. Housing. A new school. These are some of the ideas being thrown around. Personally, I would like to see a space open to the whole community – a space for creativity and social enterprise. A space for discussion, exploration or even performance. A space to bring Bath’s currently separate communities – of young people, families, older people, students and others – together. A space the community can come together whether it can afford to spend money in Bath’s expensive businesses or not.

I hope others in the city see the true potential this project has.

"The urge to knit is surely the most moral force in the world."

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:31:21 +0000

“The urge to knit is surely the most moral force in the world.”

- The Guardian, 10th February 1961: “Teenage knits: two thirds of teenagers are knitters, says survey”

Matt Adam Williams: Decisions, decisions

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:32:17 +0000

Matt Adam Williams: Decisions, decisions:

What is the role of a conservation organisation in debate around national public projects? A great piece from my friend, Matt, on the stance of the RSPB. I find the case in the extract below particularly uplifting - all too often ‘conservation’ gets itself confused with ‘conservatism’ and panders to NIMBYism. Great work, RSPB.

mattadamwilliams:

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve come across a lot of public projects that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has had an outspoken public opinion on. The voice of a conservation organization making mainstream media is a very welcome sight. At times, however, the position can be a little more complicated than just sticking up for the interests of wildlife.

…

Today, a piece in the Guardian focuses on local residents’ criticisms of the RSPB which is refusing to oppose plans for wind turbines near its Bempton Cliffs seabird colony reserve. The RSPB sensibly says that there is no evidence the wind turbines will have an adverse effect on wildlife and that “in wider terms, energy from windpower is clean and renewable, and if there is one overwhelming threat to wildlife and conservation, it is global warming.” I couldn’t agree more that the conservation movement should stop cutting off its nose to spite its face when it comes to renewable energy developments. However, local residents seem disappointed that their nimbyism can’t freeride on the back of concerns about wildlife.

"The root causes of economic and social injustice and climatic degradation are identical: an economic..."

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:12:08 +0000

“The root causes of economic and social injustice and climatic degradation are identical: an economic system for which people and planet are no more than raw materials in a machine driven by short-term gain for a few.”

- Peter Coville in The Occupied Times. I concur.

From the article: “3 Reasons Why The 99% Must Now Take the Lead on Climate Change”.

Occupied Times: "A Diplomatic Occupation: Reclaiming the Debate at the UN Climate Talks"

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:44:28 +0000

The Occupied Times is the newspaper of and for Occupy London, an incredible, independent publication that perfectly demonstrates the creative and collaborative energy behind the Occupy movement. For their latest issue (see #10, PDF), I wrote an article about my experiences at the UN Climate Talks in Durban, South Africa and how we used the principles and methods of the Occupy movement to push for change in a diplomatic setting.

The following is the opening of the full article which you can read here.

On 9 December 2011 we came, we saw, and although we didn’t conquer the United Nations, for two hours it felt as if we had.

Towards the end of last year I travelled to the United Nations climate talks in South Africa. I had received funding from people in my local community and went to push the negotiations forward, not to obstruct them. I am 18, and I joined hundreds of young people of a similar age at these negotiations, all of us looking for a political solution to climate change to match the technical and social ones that already exist.

Young people attending the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) climate talks ran an open, inclusive, consensus-based process, meeting every morning and working to actively facilitate new participation. Teams of experienced activists spent hours one-on-one with those entering, unprepared into the perplexing world of international climate politics, building in them the confidence and skills needed to enable full participation.

…

Keep reading here for the exciting stuff!