Mondays at 7.00pm. From March 2020, because of the coronavirus emergency, the sessions will take place on line, using Zoom. Previously at: Clockhouse Community Centre, Defiance Walk, London SE18 5QL (10 mins walk from Woolwich Ferry roundabout).
THE NEXT SESSION:
Monday 16 August, 7.0pm on zoom: Attacks on the right to demonstrate and how we are fighting back. Speakers include Raj Chada, human rights lawyer, partner at Hodge Jones Allan. At this session we will talk about how the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill, which is now going through parliament, might impact our civil rights – and how social movements have confronted and confounded other anti-protest laws in the past. To attend, please sign up FREE on eventbrite here.
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STUFF TO READ, relevant to our discussions, and audio of some of the past talks, now available here
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PAST SESSIONS
Monday 16 September 2019, 6.30pm, Clockhouse Community Centre. Understanding climate science, with Ryan Clark (Climate Reality Project).
Monday 30 September 2019, 6.30pm, Stir Cafe, 23 Anglesea Road, Woolwich, London SE18 6EG. Fossil fuel use and how to stop it, with Simon Pirani (author, Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption) and Dario Kenner (author, Carbon Inequality)
Monday 21 October 2019, 6.30pm, Clockhouse Community Centre. UK climate policy and how we can change it, with Greg Muttitt (Oil Change International) and Samantha Mason (PCS, the civil service trade union)
Monday 25 November 2019, 6.30pm, Clockhouse Community Centre. Climate change and the global south, with Dorothy Guerrero (Global Justice Now)
Monday 16 December 2019, 6.30pm, Clockhouse Community Centre. “What is biodiversity? Why does it matter? why are we loosing it? what can be done?” with Ted Benton (naturalist, philosopher, professor (Essex University, retired).
Monday 20 January 2020: “Achieving climate justice and social justice. What works and what doesn’t” Shaun Day (Reel News) will show film clips from his tour of the USA, where he met community groups fighting for “just transition” away from fossil fuels.
Monday 17 February, 7.0pm: “Climate science and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – an update” at: Clockhouse Community Centre, Defiance Walk, London SE18 5QL (10 mins walk from Woolwich Ferry roundabout). Discussion opened by Joanna Haigh (former co-director of the Grantham Institute and head of physics department at Imperial College, retired).
Monday 23 March: “Economics and climate change: the Green New Deal and degrowth”. Conducted on line
At this session we will think about: what economic policies are needed to stop climate change? What would a “green new deal” look like, and can it do what needs to be done? And is tackling climate change compatible with “economic growth”. The discussion will be opened by Colin Hines a co founder of the Green New Deal group, co-director of Finance for the Future, and an occasional advisor to Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas.
Monday 20 April, 7.0pm: “Deadly air pollution and what to do about it”. The coronavirus emergency means that the volume of traffic in London is at an all-time low, and much of the city’s air pollution has cleared. But when the lockdown ends, pollution could return with a vengeance. We discussed this on a zoom session with our panel of speakers: David Smith of Little Ninja UK, Stewart Christie of the Stop the Silvertown Tunnel Coalition and Ryan Clark of XR Greenwich
Tuesday 12 May, 7.0pm: “The Greenwich borough decarbonisation plan. How we can give it teeth.” – on-line session. View on youtube here. The borough of Greenwich, responding to campaigns by XR Greenwich among others, last year declared a “climate emergency”, and in January the council agreed the outlines of a decarbonisation plan. At this session we looked at it in detail. The discussion was opened by Denise Scott-McDonald (Greenwich councillor – Labour), David Gardner (Greenwich councillor – Labour), Andrew Pendleton (New Economics Foundation) and Chloe Jeffries (Manchester Climate Emergency). More on XR Greenwich interaction with the council here.
Monday 22 June, 7.0pm: “Coronavirus, climate justice and the next international climate talks” Speaker: Asad Rehman (War on Want). At this session we discussed how we can make common cause with those fighting for climate justice and social justice in the global south. The discussion was opened by Asad Rehman, executive director of War on Want, a committed and prominent campaigner on these issues for many years. You can view Asad’s talk on our youtube channel here.
Monday 20 July, 7.0 pm on line. How to make our electricity networks fossil-fuel-free. Electricity in the UK is produced mainly from gas, nuclear power and renewables. But we will need more of it, the gas will have to be phased out, and energy poverty will have to be tackled. And it’s not just a UK problem. Our discussion on electricity for the post-fossil-fuel era was led by Nadia Smith (South East London Community Energy) who researches community energy and fuel poverty issues, and David Hall (University of Greenwich/ Public Services International Research Unit), who has researched electricity ownership issues for many years.
Monday 24 August, 7.0 pm on line. Feminism and climate change. With Orthalia Kunene (XR South Africa), Laura Schwartz (University of Warwick) and Silvia Semezin (feminist campaigner, Italy). View these talks on Youtube here.
Monday 21 September, 7.0 pm. “Is climate-induced social collapse inevitable? What the science tells us”. Discussion to be opened by Tom Nicholas (XR scientists / York University) and Galen Hall (Brown University (USA)). See some reading related to this session listed here.
Monday 26 October, 7.0 pm. “How can we achieve carbon-free transport?” Discussion opened by Chris Todd (Transport Action Network) and Lisa Hopkinson (independent researcher, Lorax Environmental).
Monday 23 November, 7.0pm. “Organising climate action in the Covid-19 pandemic”. Discussion opened by Swan, a participant in the “HS2 rebellion” protest; Sarah Lunnon, CEE Bill campaign; Jess Currie (Plumstead resident and participant in People Against the River Crossing (1993)); and James Marriott (Platform London and co-author of The Oil Road).
Monday 14 December, 7.0pm. “Citizens Assemblies, and what sort of democracy we want”. We will discuss ways of broadening democracy, which is essential to tackling climate change and achieving social justice. Speakers: Kathie Conn (XR Citizens’ Assembly Working Group and Transition Kentish Town); and Aileen O’Carroll (University of Maynooth, Ireland), who was active in the campaign for the 2018 Irish abortion referendum, when citizens’ assemblies were organised.
Monday 25 January 2021, 7.0 pm. “The Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill”. The Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill, supported by 88 Members of Parliament, maps out the sort of actions the UK government would need to take to tackle dangerous climate change. Sarah Lunnon of the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill Alliance and Robert Palgrave of Biofuelwatch opened the discussion. View their opening talks on youtube here.
Monday 22 February, 7.0pm on zoom: “The UK government’s techno-fixes: how they damage the fight against climate change.” The discussion was opened by Ellen Robottom (Leeds Trade Union Council) and Simon Pirani (energy researcher and author of Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption). View the opening talks on youtube here.
Monday 29 March 2021, 7.0 pm on zoom. “How degrowth can tackle the climate and ecological crisis”. A brief introduction to the idea of degrowth: how it seeks to address climate and ecological crisis; and how it relates to and diverges from concepts such as “green growth” and the “Green New Deal”. The discussion was opened by Joe Herbert (@joefherb), a doctoral researcher in Human Geography at Newcastle University, who is active in the international degrowth movement, is on the degrowth.info webteam, and is a supporter of XR. View Joe’s talk on youtube here.
Monday 26 April, 7.0 pm on zoom. “Soil: the missing ingredient in the climate challenge.” At this session we discussed how soil degradation contributes to climate change, and how and why much of the best land is suffering erosion. The discussion was opened by Charlie Clutterbuck, author of Bittersweet Brexit: Land, Labour and Food After Brexit (Pluto, 2017). Charlie was an Honorary Fellow in Food Policy at City University London, and is a board member of Incredible Farm in Todmorden and The Larder in Preston.
Monday 24 May, 7.0 pm on zoom. Working through our feelings about the climate emergency. The climate bubble of denial is bursting, and people are finding it hard to manage their feelings about the climate emergency. What can help us to face climate reality? How can we recognise what we feel, and work our feelings through about this threat to our survival? What sort of framework do we need to be able to think proportionately about our responsibility for damage already caused to our climate system? This discussion was opened by Sally Weintrobe, a psychoanalyst with the British Psychoanalytical Society, a founder member of the Climate Psychology Alliance, and chairs the International Psychoanalytic Association’s Climate Committee. She has written and lectured widely on climate change. Her new book, Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis: Neoliberal Exceptionalism and the Culture of Uncare, came out in April.
Monday 28 June, 7.0pm on zoom: How the financial system helps fossil fuel production, and what to do about it. The panel opening the discussion will include Maaike Beenes, climate campaigner at BankTrack; Pascoe Sabido, a researcher and campaigner with Corporate Europe Observatory; and Andy Gheorghiu, a climate campaigner and policy advisor who works internationally against fracking and gas infrastructure and to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Monday 26 July, 7.0pm on zoom: The COP26 climate talks, and what they mean for the Global South. Global heating is not a danger in a far-off tomorrow, but a reality that threatens hundreds of millions of people in the global south now, with floods, drought and crop failures. In the run-up to the international climate talks in Glasgow in November, how can we make common cause with communities fighting to defend themselves? On the panel opening the discussion was Harpreet Kaur Paul, co-editor of the recent Perspectives for a Global GND https://global-gnd.com/, and Dottie Guerrero of Global Justice Now.
Extinction Rebellion Greenwich 