See following chapter, available from Post Carbon Institute as pdf:
HEALTH: Human Health and Well-Being in an Era of Energy Scarcity and Climate Change Brian Schwartz Cindy Parker (Published Oct 12, 2010)
Also interview with author.
I'm not going to write anymore, cos I've just become a Dad! So it's his health and wellbeing (current and future) that I have to think about now!
Wednesday 27 October 2010
Saturday 23 October 2010
Travel survey in Eastham
The Merseyside Transport Partnership is currently consulting with the public on it's preferred strategy for transport for the next 14years (and short term targets for 2015). The straplines that they have come up with include 'creating a new mobility culture' for a 'thriving international city'. I would argue that we shouldn't be emphasising 'mobility' as it has nuances of driving freedom, but rather 'accessibility'. Having goods and services at convenient locations within our community is a better approach than improving 'mobility' for people to get to large shopping and entertainment centres (which generally favour out of town supermarkets and commerce parks).
Transition Town West Kirby have started their own mini-survey to find out whether people would prefer investment in car infrastructure or investment in walking and cycling. We repeated the idea at 3 Transition Village Eastham and Bromborough events and had 50 responses. People attached a sticker to a chart indicating whether they would like to see more investment in car infrastructure or cycling and walking. The colours correspond to age categories (data not shown here). It is evident that a majority of people would like more investment in infrastructure for cycling and walking. But there are many balanced opinions - wanting 60% investment in cycling, or 80%, unlike my own view of 100% !
Transition Town West Kirby have started their own mini-survey to find out whether people would prefer investment in car infrastructure or investment in walking and cycling. We repeated the idea at 3 Transition Village Eastham and Bromborough events and had 50 responses. People attached a sticker to a chart indicating whether they would like to see more investment in car infrastructure or cycling and walking. The colours correspond to age categories (data not shown here). It is evident that a majority of people would like more investment in infrastructure for cycling and walking. But there are many balanced opinions - wanting 60% investment in cycling, or 80%, unlike my own view of 100% !
Tuesday 19 October 2010
Transition Hospital
Just been listening to Podcast from Andy Williamson who has realised through his medical treatment for kidney disease the resource needs of healthcare and hospitals. He suggests that hospitals could see themselves as communities and become Transition Hospitals, to help find positive approaches to the transition to low carbon healthcare.
He gave this podcast to a medical meeting of kidney doctors run by Campaign for Greener Healthcare. In the questions he talks about the benefits of getting data over the internet (information communication technology, ICT) for accessing data. Also the support of social networking to communicate with fellow patients.
He gave this podcast to a medical meeting of kidney doctors run by Campaign for Greener Healthcare. In the questions he talks about the benefits of getting data over the internet (information communication technology, ICT) for accessing data. Also the support of social networking to communicate with fellow patients.
Land access
I'm writing this in response to Rob Hopkins Transition Culture blog which asks whether Transition Towns groups can access land. Here in north west UK we have some opportunities for accessing land, although we are facing the usual obstacles:
Green Infrastructure - it seems the north west have been leading in developing a regional green infrastructure. Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) have been involved with this, as well as local organisations such as Mersey Forest, and local council organisations (eg Liverpool Vision). Amongst the motivations for such a project of course are the usual suspects, to tackle dereliction and enhance economic growth, but climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and biodiversity (green corridors) also do get a mention.
Health benefits have also been highlighted - not only physical activity in greenspace, but also mental wellbeing from being in the natural environment, or even the therapeutic effect of seeing 'greenery' out of the hospital window (see NHS forest).
All of these initiatives are opportunities for community groups to get involved in growing food, medicinal herbs or to create relaxing places. An exciting development in Liverpool is the Greater Liverpool Food Alliance. A social enterprise: UrbanAg have been involved in linking together: people with land, people who want to grow, and people who want to sell with customers in Liverpool. The local health people, Liverpool Primary Care Trust have also expressed an interest in working with the alliance to improve people's access to fresh food (as I mention Liverpool PCT - they also support allotment growing in the city - so it may be worth linking with your local PCT). Transition Livepool's allotment could well be one of the suppliers to this food alliance, and there are plans to set up food co-ops.
Although I believe these are great possibilities, there are still the usual hurdles. I have recently heard how a community project that Transition Liverpool is working with to create a community growing space is having difficulty accessing the land. The project has been successful with funding, but now is in danger of stalling due to contractual wrangles over access to council-owned land. Issues such as security, liability etc can be sticking points for such projects, which require technical expertise and sensitive management. I've just seen a response to Rob's blog which describes toolkits that Community Council of Devon have created to tackle some of these issues.
Finally, my local transition initiative; Transition Village Eastham and Bromborough, has recently been working with the local adult day centre; Eastham Centre. Many great growing programmes have been run at the centre previously and they have several greenhouses on site! However, due to lack of capacity, these have mostly been stopped. The management are now keen for community groups, like ours, to get involved and use the facilities! So this is a great opportunity, and if some of our projects can also include clients at the centre - then everyone's a winner! The centre also links with local country parks, so we have even more growing opportunities.
Finally, finally, I just want to add something about connection with the earth. I remember some reference about connection with the earth being important for social structure in developing countries and growing cities. For transition in (small) towns food projects are relatively easy first 'hands-on' success stories. City transition finds it a little more difficult. But maybe it's even more important to regain that connection to the earth for dwellers in the concrete jungle and suburbia. The contraction of cities like Liverpool creates redundant spaces, however although we may dream of turning these into green oases, the obstacles can seem insurmountable. However, hopefully by linking different programmes, working with councils and private companies we can make progress and everyone can get a handful of earth on a regular basis!
Green Infrastructure - it seems the north west have been leading in developing a regional green infrastructure. Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) have been involved with this, as well as local organisations such as Mersey Forest, and local council organisations (eg Liverpool Vision). Amongst the motivations for such a project of course are the usual suspects, to tackle dereliction and enhance economic growth, but climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and biodiversity (green corridors) also do get a mention.
Health benefits have also been highlighted - not only physical activity in greenspace, but also mental wellbeing from being in the natural environment, or even the therapeutic effect of seeing 'greenery' out of the hospital window (see NHS forest).
All of these initiatives are opportunities for community groups to get involved in growing food, medicinal herbs or to create relaxing places. An exciting development in Liverpool is the Greater Liverpool Food Alliance. A social enterprise: UrbanAg have been involved in linking together: people with land, people who want to grow, and people who want to sell with customers in Liverpool. The local health people, Liverpool Primary Care Trust have also expressed an interest in working with the alliance to improve people's access to fresh food (as I mention Liverpool PCT - they also support allotment growing in the city - so it may be worth linking with your local PCT). Transition Livepool's allotment could well be one of the suppliers to this food alliance, and there are plans to set up food co-ops.
Although I believe these are great possibilities, there are still the usual hurdles. I have recently heard how a community project that Transition Liverpool is working with to create a community growing space is having difficulty accessing the land. The project has been successful with funding, but now is in danger of stalling due to contractual wrangles over access to council-owned land. Issues such as security, liability etc can be sticking points for such projects, which require technical expertise and sensitive management. I've just seen a response to Rob's blog which describes toolkits that Community Council of Devon have created to tackle some of these issues.
Finally, my local transition initiative; Transition Village Eastham and Bromborough, has recently been working with the local adult day centre; Eastham Centre. Many great growing programmes have been run at the centre previously and they have several greenhouses on site! However, due to lack of capacity, these have mostly been stopped. The management are now keen for community groups, like ours, to get involved and use the facilities! So this is a great opportunity, and if some of our projects can also include clients at the centre - then everyone's a winner! The centre also links with local country parks, so we have even more growing opportunities.
Finally, finally, I just want to add something about connection with the earth. I remember some reference about connection with the earth being important for social structure in developing countries and growing cities. For transition in (small) towns food projects are relatively easy first 'hands-on' success stories. City transition finds it a little more difficult. But maybe it's even more important to regain that connection to the earth for dwellers in the concrete jungle and suburbia. The contraction of cities like Liverpool creates redundant spaces, however although we may dream of turning these into green oases, the obstacles can seem insurmountable. However, hopefully by linking different programmes, working with councils and private companies we can make progress and everyone can get a handful of earth on a regular basis!
Monday 18 October 2010
Eco-Schools, Healthy-Schools
It's really exciting to see so many eco-projects or health-projects going on in primary schools around Liverpool! I'm just starting to recruit schools for a research study looking whether Year 6 (age10/11) children 'engage' with my message of 'Low Carbon Healthy Lifestyles'. Two simple examples are:
I'm also linking up with 2010 Year of Health and Wellbeing in Liverpool city region:
Contact me for more details on this project.
- walking to school - reduces pollution & improves health and fitness.
- eating local veg & growing their own - reduces food miles, avoids potentially nasty ingredients like palm oil (linked with deforestation) & improves diet
I'm also linking up with 2010 Year of Health and Wellbeing in Liverpool city region:
Thursday 14 October 2010
Quango cull affects health and environment most
No surprise, but Conservative voices in the coalition government (UK) have no doubt influenced choice of quangos (QUasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations) to have their funding cut.The figure shows in grey the current proportion of quangos linked to each government department (so for example Dept for International Development and Government Equalities Office only had 2 quangos to these will be relatively unimportant in this analysis).
Departments which have seen the greatest loss of quangos (red bars) include health, communities and local government, environment farming and rural affairs, transport and education.
Departments which have seen the most quangos retained include defence, home office and justice.
It is noticeable that departments with the greatest amount of dithering (green - 'under consideration') are education and foreign and commonwealth office. Education may be particularly sensitive after previous cuts and reinstatements...
Is there a pattern here? Is this evidence of a move towards a 'secure' state and away from egalitarianism?
Good news is that Department for Energy and Climate Change and Department for Culture Media and Sport have survived relatively well.
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