To view the PDF version of this update, click here.
Community Action MK climate change info
For a whole host of local information and resources https://communityactionmk.org/climate-change/
LINKS FROM TRANSITION TOWN MK
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TransitionMK/permalink/5207280692705625/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TransitionMK/permalink/5212626108837750/
https://mailchi.mp/e702e76ec310/eco-design-consultants-news-9513169?e=7797e3c1eb
NEXT UK REBELLION
For information – extinctionrebellion.uk/next-uk-rebellion/
To volunteer – volunteer.extinctionrebellion.uk
If you are thinking of going to any protests and would like to travel with the MK group then please email us.
JUST STOP OIL
JSO has attracted significant attention of late with its blockades of fuel depots and motorways. JSO also held two meetings in MK recently, and is running NVDA (non-violent direct action) workshops across the country.
Arrestable roles and plenty of support roles are available. To register for one of the Zoom talks (Tuesdays at 7pm and Sundays at 5pm) and for the current JSO event calendar click here.
To follow JSO for the current JSO event calendar click here.
CLIMATE CAFE MK
Are you Dreamin’ of a green Christmas? The next CCMK event is a Green Fair on Saturday November 19th from 2-4:15pm at The Old Bathhouse in Wolverton. See here for the event flyer.
Volunteers needed – for details email climatecafemk@gmail.com
Greta Thunberg to skip ‘greenwashing’ Cop27 climate summit in Egypt
LISTENING CIRCLES AND ACTIVE LISTENING SESSIONS
If you are interested in finding out a bit more and organising or joining a circle or session, please contact Christina (for listening circles) at sparklingmind@hotmail.com or Patricia (for active listening sessions) at patricia@goleencottage.com. “With the gift of listening, comes the gift of healing.”
NEXT XRMK meeting and outreach/leafletting dates for 2022
Next regular monthly meeting – Monday November 14th from 7-8:30pm – please email us for details.
Our next outreach is on Saturday 19th November at the Climate Cafe MK event – please see details above.
Why climate and anti-war campaigners have a common cause (by Chris Coppock)
- CC doesn’t respect borders: tackling it depends on international co-operation, not competition or conflict.
- The colossal financial and human resources wasted on weapons and warfare could instead go to combat or ameliorate CC. In the UK for example, as military budgets increase overseas aid is cut.
- The scramble for fossil fuels drives great-power tensions, e.g. Arctic Ocean, pipeline routes anywhere and arguably the war in Ukraine.
- Fossil-fuel producing states often lack human rights/democracy, with troops used to suppress unrest e.g. the Gulf states, Iran.
- In poor countries CC impacts (e.g. drought or floods) cause displacement, tension and war. The former colonial powers (e.g. UK, US or France in C. Africa) respond with special forces, drones and securitizing our borders against refugees. “National security” trumps human security.
- Militaries have huge C-footprint even when not at war—estimated at 6% of the global total—yet this is excluded from C-accounting (e.g. Paris Agreement) and poorly reported if at all. The US military (over 800 bases worldwide, 13 in Britain) is the world’s largest C-emitter and a major polluter. The F35-A fighter now arriving (with new US nuclear bombs) at “RAF” Lakenheath, Suffolk, burns an unprecedented 1,480 gallons per hour. “Greening” the military, if at all, is purely for tactical advantage.
- Wars—including post-war reconstruction–greatly increase the C-bootprint, also pollution and ecosystem disruption.
- Even a “limited” or “localized” nuclear war (the 40 x 100kT warheads on one UK Trident sub are enough) could cause massive CC by injecting soot into the stratosphere and wrecking the ozone layer. Global average temperatures could drop eight degrees (a “nuclear winter”) crippling global food production so billions – if they survived – would starve.
(Nuclear power is not the answer: it was developed to provide weapons-grade material and requires military-style security.)