I want to thank all of you for your vivid and inspiring participation in the last green bug lectures. Two thumbs up for all of you who already signed in the "seal the deal" campaign!
Unfortunately I do not have the time to present an elaborate summary of the last lecture here. As provisional measure I make the PowerPoint presentation availible, so that you might have a look at the links again or maybe feel reminded at interesting topics you want to investigate further. I hope to provide more interesting material here in future. Of course all contributions are highly welcomed and appreciated. Get informed, get organized, get engaged! ;-)
There is an international umbrella organisation of NGOs concerned about climate change, the climate action network (CAN). They provide a lot of material on their homepage (under „policy and information“). Look for their "ECO" newsletter, short but very well written crtical comments on ongoing negotiations.
Official site of the UFCCC, which is a vast source of information. There is also a webcast of important meetings of the ongoing climate change talks in Bonn.
The german NGO german watch is very active in fighting for climate justice, but they also provide a lot of material.
A very good and critical report on carbon trade can be found here („this publication takes a broad look at several dimensions of carbon trading. It analyses the problems arising from the emerging global carbon market pertaining to the environment, social justice and human rights, and investigates climate mitigation alternatives. It provides a short history of carbon trading and discusses a number of ‘lessons unlearned’. Nine case studies from different parts of the world provide examples of the outcomes.“)
Discussion paper of „Bred for the world“ (a german NGO) on financing climate adaption.
It has been announced for a while and finally the time has come: “The Green Bug Lectures” go Copenhagen.The coming Tuesday we will talk about climate change policy. We gonna try to answer questions like: Where are we after the Kyoto protocol? What to think of “Carbon emission trade” and “clean development mechanism”? What should we demand from Copenhagen? There will also be first hand reports from the climate action day, taking place this weekend during the “Bonn Climate Change Talks - June 2009” (preparatory meetings for the Copenhagen conference in December).
We are back at the TMS this Tuesday. And even better: F.R.E.S.H will serve food. Therefore, look forward to an informative and inspiring evening in good “out-of-lecture-hall” atmosphere!
Thank you all for your contributions after the movie. Unfortunately so far the discussion did not go on after this evening, although certainly further exchange could be fruitful.
I am gonna make a short contribution: for those of you speaking German, it might be worth to check the Wikipedia article about the movie (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwins_Alptraum). The controversy around this movie is well documented with “external links”. If you follow the links to Arte, taz, or “Freundeskreis Bagamoyo” you will find the whole range of criticisms.
I am still sort of undecided. From a “scientific” point of view the movie has certainly distinct weaknesses. On the other hand it is art, and the main massage passed (“look, there is suffering in other parts of the world, and Europe is part of the cause”) holds true never the less.
I want to stress the point Katrin brought in, that education might be the only way out of the misery some people in Africa find them self in. One day later I talked to a friend of mine, who is very much engaged in “informal education” in Germany as well as in Africa. He does not run a highly-professional-mirror finish NGO, but he is very engaged and has interesting ideas. He always looks forward to talk to people and tries to motivate them to launch projects in there home countries:
This Tuesday is the third time we meet. Unfortunately the TMS is blocked today, so we will meet at the Tropenzentrum (H20). This time we will have a movie, presented by the Tropennetzwerk. It is called “darwins nightmare”. “Darwin's Nightmare is a tale about humans between the North and the South, about globalization, and about fish” is how the director describes the film. It is a documentary with drastic pictures about the situation at the Lake Victoria in Tanzania and was nominated for the 2006 oscars as best documentary. However, it caused some controversy, and will certainly give reason to interesting discussions.
A short summary (key points) of the last “green bug lecture” should be provided here. It will neither be complete nor give details. I will try to represent the view expressed during the presentation and only share my opinion in comments afterwards.
Main purpose of presenting a summary is to offer a possibility to pick up some arguments again and to comment. So please: comment!
Presentation by Pavlos Georgiadis (F.R.E.S.H):
-characteristics that food should have brought into the discourse by the slow food movement: good, clean fair
-characteristics that might as well be important: honesty, knowledge diversity, responsibility
-responsible eating is a contribution to save our planet (it can diminish our ecological footprint)
-it is important to see the whole production chain behind the food procession: e.g. although flour might be processed in Germany, the wheat might be imported from India; or soya might be imported to feed German pigs
-Thus, the ingredients for a pizza might all together have travelled over 80.000 km
Consequences related to “unsustainable foodproduction”:
-conditions of animal production
-working conditions/ human right violation (immigration worker on farms/ in green houses)
-loss of biodiversity
-market control of companies
-depletion of water resources
-use of agrochemicals
-use of additives
What to do:
-Merge the consumption of organic AND regional produced food
-Honesty: be informed and claim your right to be informed
-Change academic culture (so far Hohenheim as one of Europe's leading agricultural universities is not setting a good example)
-Reform land use based on scientific knowledge and local wisdom
-Rediscover eating as pleasure for all senses
-See what F.R.E.S.H is doing
“Clusters” of discussion.
-Dumping of food into 3rd world countries, food sovereignty, fair trade
-Market power of companies, market power of consumers, non-cooperation
-Social implications: can people afford to buy slow/organic food? Valuation of food
-Political implications: isn’t a complete change in the economical/ political system a prerequisite for fair food production and consumption?
The Kulturgruppe of Asta and FRESH are inviting you to the second part of the 'Green-Bug Lectures' series with the title
Where was your Food last night? Very often, in our modern culture, we are disconnected from the production processes that bring goods of mass consumption to our door. If one is asked, where does the milk, the bananas, the apples that he/she eats come from, the answer is usually simply 'from the super-marker'. From how many countries do the products that fill our basket come? How many kilometers does our food have to travel between the field and our plate? What are the consequences to the environment, society and economy? How can we as agriculturalists of the future pass the message of sustainable eating to the simple citizen in the street?
presented by Pavlos Georgiadis (FRESH). On Tuesday, May 12 at 19:00 at the Tropenzentrum.
