This is my last post for Community Care, and I'd like to thank all readers, especially the few who have written interesting comments, and my employers at Community Care who have been so good to me.
I quite like the idea of Lent, despite my not being Christian. I like the idea of giving up stuff... eating less... perhaps no chocolate, or stopping something more 'sinful' like smoking... Anything which can reduce our profligate consumption has got to be good, and if this reduction helps our health, even better.
I was brought up as an atheist, but as an adult and a scientist, I believe that we cannot prove the non-existance of a Deity, and I have lots of people in my life who have assorted faiths, so being overtly atheist somehow seems wrong to me, so I'm officially agnostic; I'm a 'don't know'. This seems to be a respectful and honest position to take.
Regular readers will remember that a year ago I managed to secure an appointment at The Maudsley Hospital to find out if my unusual spectrum of behaviours meant that I had ADHD. I had self-diagnosed up to 10 years previously after friends kept on mentioning it to me and I'd seen some livlely 'labelled' kids when working as Professor Fiddlesticks, whose demeanour reminded me of my own childhood. However, at that assessment, I was told that I may have had ADHD as a child but didn't have it now... but might be on the Autistic Spectrum, such as Aspergers Syndrome with hyperactivity. This was a shock, as although I'd recognised I had some Aspergery traits, I had never considered that I might actually be Autistic!
I only learned about the new 'Early Years Foundation Stage' a few weeks ago, catching up on a Summer Edition of Green World which had got lost in my cluttered day bag. I was appalled to find that very young children are now, by law, being compelled to explore ICT technology and are subjects of targets and literacy goals.
I subscribe to a number of email newsletters, and one came through last week with news of an eco-calendar which has caused a bit of controversy. Ethical Junction member Flipside Vision have produced a 'Calendar of Climate Change' for 2009 with a plethora of wonderful images depicting our world, many of which have significant connections to climate change themes. For instance, February has an image of a Dutch painting of a windmill and a canal, and alongside this, a smaller picture of modern windmills which generate electricity.
I am not an economist or a businessman, and although many of my posts are partly about saving money, I'm certainly no expert on what's happening to the economy. To me, it looks like some peoples' greed has caught up with them at the same time as peak oil has started to bite and our unpredictable and changing climate has caused a string of poor crop years. And, although it's not 'our fault' as individuals, we do collectively share some of the responsibility for heavy resource use, high carbon emissions and purchasing homes with mortgages many times bigger than our income. So we're all feeling the impact of this 'credit crunch' or economic slowdown.
A greener life is not just about recycling, using public transport, buying fair-trade and having a pot of basil on the windowsill. I place quite a lot of importance on creativity, health and a well-stimulated mind. Therefore I have a lot of time for art... I especially like looking at (and touching!) sculpture, and there are certain photographers I like too.
What this planet and its supportive ecosystems need is for people in developed countries to change their current consumerist fossil-fuel-hungry ways and move swiftly towards a low carbon economy. But many people need a trigger to initiate that change and take action. People also easily find arguments to not take any action or just small easy ones.
One of the arguments I hear most often against the West cutting their own carbon emissions is the growth of emissions in China and other developing countries. But about a third of China's emissions are directly attributable to exports... so these should really be counted as the importer's emissions. To see the size of these exports and where they are going to, I suggest using the services of Worldmapper, who produce distorted and morphed world maps based on many different variables. For example, look at World toy exports, and you'll see that China and the Far East are by far the biggest producers. Then flick to toy imports, and Noth America and Europe are the biggest consumers. If we consumers want to help cut global carbon emissions, we need to buy less stuff overall, and especially imported stuff which has it's own shipping and airfreight footprints.
I find these maps fascinating, as it gives us a whole new perspective on the world. One of my early triggers which changed my life for the greener was travelling around Zimbabwe in 1990. I saw the inequalities first hand; the poverty, pollution, misgovenance, differing values about human life, and other hugely positive differences such as generosity, the importance of celebration and music, creativity and much more. Travelling to a developing country might be one way of understanding some of the problems the World has, but it has it's downside too, mainly air travel, so my second best bet is to watch documentaries, read books and magazines and visit websites.
There's a lot of subjects I could be writing about this week... the upward spiral of fuel prices (don't expect them to ever come down again), the latest famine in Ethiopia partly caused by high food prices... but I want to alert you to something very positive. I have discovered that a new 'Facebook for the Mental Health Community' has just been launched, and I have interviewed the developer, Richard Alan Cowling. He's from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, which is where MESOMOCO CIC is based.
NET.MESOMOCO CIC stands for Network Mental Health Social Enterprise Mobile Computing Community Interest Company. It is a free web-based social network for individuals involved in mental health, including service users, carers of mental distress sufferers and those who have experience of mental health issues. Users of the network are able to connect with others with similar experiences, find resources and support, use fora, blogs, community groups and the mental health wiki and keep track of upcoming events such as conferences. The MESOMOCO CIC is a 'gated community' to reduce the chance of spam or abuse, and moderated to strengthen users privacy. To join, send an email to the team who will reply with instructions.
The Community Interest Company plans to raise funds a number of ways, including the development of a comic-book type game suitable for mobile phone users, and hopes to help a small group of mental health service users and ex-users by enabling them to develop computer skills (based on 'Jamie Oliver's 15' apparently!) and add to their CV's and help their employability. All in all this is a very interesting concept, with potentially beneficial results for those wishing to network and communicate about their mental health issues. I wish Richard the best of luck and hope that the scheme is successful.
