What will holidays be like in a low carbon world? Will we feel the need to escape so much if we are living less stressful, more community-focussed, local lives that give us greater well-being? We speak to Laura Burgess, editor of a new directory called Ecoescape which brings together sustainable accomodation, eateries, and environmentally-focused places to visit in the UK. We also speak to artist Lottie Child who has been developing the practice of “street training” with people of all ages and exploring creative approaches for interacting with, and feeling at home in, our own localities. Continue reading →

Could doing nothing be an easier and more pleasurable way of saving the planet? We discuss this contention with author and editor of The Idler, Tom Hodgkinson.

Making the transition to a low carbon economy necessitates a fresh look at the skills we have and the jobs that we do. What activities are going to be most valuable in a world without fossil fuels? How will we organise ourselves in a world that is less wasteful, more local, and more about self-sufficiency and community resilience?

What interested me in talking to Tom Hodgkinson was the fact that the ideas he had been exploring about freedom and a life of leisure matched increasingly closely to some of the visions that are emerging of what our low carbon future will look like. In a sense, Tom has been beavering away on the development of a philosophical justification and historical precedents for environmentally-friendly lifestyles.

Check out Tom’s books – “How to be Idle” and especially “How to be Free”.

Freedom Manifesto

Growing Communities is a pioneering social enterprise based in Hackney, North London that provides sustainable food for local people. It also serves a best-practice model for our future, low-carbon food production. In partnership with farmers on the outskirts of London their organic box scheme supplies 300 households with fruit and veg for as little as £6 a week. Most of the salad leaves in the boxes are grown on Growing Communities’ urban market gardens which is the only organically certified growing land in London. Their farmers market in Stoke Newington is the only weekly, fully-organic market in the UK. The Low Carbon Show met up with co-founder and director, Julie Brown to talk about food swaps, seasonal feasts and community orchards.

Continue reading →

The UK is writing carbon dioxide targets into law. But the draft Climate Change Bill is insufficiently strong to ensure the UK plays a fair role in avoiding dangerous climate change. We interviewed the then Environment Secretary, David Miliband, and put his responses to Dr Alice Bows (Tyndall Centre) and Martyn Williams (senior parliamentary campaigner, Friends of the Earth). – Why is the government using a target that is based on outdated science? – Is it right that the Bill would allow the government to meet 50% of its targets by buying up emissions credits from abroad? – Why aren’t emissions from aviation and shipping included in the Bill?

Related Links:
Ask your MP to support a strong Climate Bill
Tyndall Centre Briefing
Tearfund Briefing
Draft Climate Change Bill

The Low Carbon Show catches up with Mukti Mitchell on his zero-carbon
journey around the coast of Britain in his self-built, micro-yacht. Mukti is
the creator of what is widely regarded as the best online calculator for
measuring your carbon footprint. He is stopping at 40 ports en route to give
talks about the benefits of low carbon living and to promote his new
downloadable publication “The Guide to Low Carbon Lifestyles”. PLUS: We
manage to squeeze in some expert advice on carbon offsetting and green
electricity from last week’s guest, Chris Goodall.

Related Links:
Download Mukti’s “Guide to Low Carbon Lifestyles” at: http://www.lowcarbonlifestyle.org/downloadables.html
Calculate your own carbon footprint at what is widely regarded as the best
carbon calculator on the web: http://www.resurgence.org/carboncalculator/index.htm
For Climate Radio’s top tips on what you can do, go to the Resonance FM
Climate Action page: http://resonancefm.com/climate-action

Chris Goodall is the author of what the New Scientist calls “the definitive guide to reducing your carbon footprint.” Climate Radio takes a trip to Oxford to meet him and find out some of the book’s key messages on aviation, consumption, personal travel and food purchasing habits.

Chris’s website: http://www.lowcarbonlife.net

The Low Carbon Show focuses on the emerging green shoots of our post-fossil fuel future. The programme is produced by Phil England for Climate Radio.

“The Low Carbon Show” springs into life with an interview with Mark Lynas, author of “High Tide: News from a warming world”, “Collins Carbon Counter” and “Six Degrees: our future on a warming planet”. An informal interview taking in Mark’s review of the scientific literature on the impacts of global warming and how his own low carbon lifestyle affords him a “supreme” quality of life. A kind of “ghost of Christmas future” apparition before we concentrate on the green shoots of our post-carbon future.

Download this show

Related Links:
Mark’s blog: http://www.marklynas.org

Summary of Six Degrees from The Guardian

IPCC (Working Group II) “Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability” – Summary for
Policy Makers