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Culture change
On Saturday 6th December we went on a Climate Change March as part of the Global Day of Action. We carried "No new coal" banners, didn't do much shouting (but sang along with Smallbeds' excellent improvised protest songs), and listened to speeches from Nick Clegg and Caroline Lucas before going to find somewhere to defrost our fingers and toes.
I don't know how much difference such demonstrations really make (Kate Griffin asks the same question, and provides a far better commentary on the issues than I can) but going to this one at least meant that I had a good reason to mention climate change in conversation at work, and as a result found a fellow 'greenie' to talk to. I already knew he was a Good Egg but it turns out he was also involved in all sorts of environmental initiatives in his previous job and has good ideas to bring to the newly-formed Energy SIG. So Green Bloke and I have agreed to do a screening of The Age of Stupid at work when it's available to hire, which might be more useful (and would certainly be more interesting) than me ranting at plane-happy colleagues.
We got back from London just in time for the Oxford Bach Choir concert that we'd booked tickets for -- Vaughan Williams, Holst, and Parry, a rich-textured mixture of mysticism and majesty -- and found to our delight that not only were other friends of ours in the audience, but they had brought mince pies to share. Doubly welcome for us as we hadn't had time for dinner, but we made up for that after the concert by nipping to the Organic Kebab Van for an incredibly tasty burger before joining our friends from the audience (and other friends from among the performers) at the Far From The Madding Crowd for tasty beer.
I fear that a culture that includes Vaughan Williams and mince pies and tasty organic burgers and beer (and the internet!) is not globally sustainable, though I wish it could be, and will keep on hoping that it is; but if it isn't, I hope I won't selfishly cling to the specific good things that we have now instead of working towards a fairer future for everybody.
I don't know how much difference such demonstrations really make (Kate Griffin asks the same question, and provides a far better commentary on the issues than I can) but going to this one at least meant that I had a good reason to mention climate change in conversation at work, and as a result found a fellow 'greenie' to talk to. I already knew he was a Good Egg but it turns out he was also involved in all sorts of environmental initiatives in his previous job and has good ideas to bring to the newly-formed Energy SIG. So Green Bloke and I have agreed to do a screening of The Age of Stupid at work when it's available to hire, which might be more useful (and would certainly be more interesting) than me ranting at plane-happy colleagues.
We got back from London just in time for the Oxford Bach Choir concert that we'd booked tickets for -- Vaughan Williams, Holst, and Parry, a rich-textured mixture of mysticism and majesty -- and found to our delight that not only were other friends of ours in the audience, but they had brought mince pies to share. Doubly welcome for us as we hadn't had time for dinner, but we made up for that after the concert by nipping to the Organic Kebab Van for an incredibly tasty burger before joining our friends from the audience (and other friends from among the performers) at the Far From The Madding Crowd for tasty beer.
I fear that a culture that includes Vaughan Williams and mince pies and tasty organic burgers and beer (and the internet!) is not globally sustainable, though I wish it could be, and will keep on hoping that it is; but if it isn't, I hope I won't selfishly cling to the specific good things that we have now instead of working towards a fairer future for everybody.
no subject
They brought mince pies? Truly you have wonderful friends.
Meanwhile, I sometimes get the feeling that the world has turned on its axis and changed out of all recognition while I wasn't paying attention. To whit: Organic Kebab Van. WTF? I grew up in the days when you knew exactly what you were getting from Tasty Griddled Snacks and other decommissioned bio-warfare gunboats of the Ottoman Navy - cardboard pitta wrapping rancid meat of indeterminate origin with that psychedelic oil-on-water sheen, slimy lettuce and anaerobic yellow-spotted tomatoes, flies mummified in hardened fat, and ketchup with brown chewy bits that fizzled on your tongue... All served by a grease-encrusted grinning 'chef' with blackened fingernails and particles unknown to physics or biology raining out of his moustache in intermittent showers.
Organic Kebabs? Dear God, I feel old.
kebabra
no subject