         
Kidlington
Find out how to get involved in Kidlington vs Climate Change
W e l c o m e to the website for Kidlington vs climate change! We are a group of locals with a shared interest in encouraging others to live more sustainably and minimise the impacts of climate change. We are also now a member of the Community Action Groups network (www.cagoxfordshire.org.uk). We catch-up informally at 8pm on the first Tuesday of every month, at the Squire Bassett Pub (used to be the Dogwood). You are welcome to drop in! *** NEWS-FLASH *** 2010 KIDLINGTON ECO-FAIR, SATURDAY 19TH JUNE, 1-4PM, EXETER HALL Please join us. We have a new exciting range of activities and ideas to share with you, including a chance to ride our Energy Bike, find out more about local recycling, local food & some interesting eco-products. To find out more, email us at kidlingtonvsclimatechange@yahoo.co.uk "C L I M A T E C H A N G E C O N D E N S E D - A Crash Course on Climate Change" workshop hosted by Kidlington vs climate change - Saturday 6th February, 2010 All you ever wanted to know about global warming but were too afraid to ask! If the science is so certain, why do so many people remain unconvinced? How will climate change affect the UK and the rest of the world? Can it be stopped and who should do it? All answered with a recipe mixing expert knowledge, group discussion and pair work. As guides to the issues, the course includes short video presentations featuring popular climate change journalists George Monbiot and Mark Lynas and high profile scientists with a gift for communication. Leave feeling inspired and confident with a personal strategy for tackling climate change. Saturday 6th February, 9.30am - 12.30pm, at Gosford Hill School Places are limited so please book soon: £10 for individuals; £24 charities and local authorities; £35 businesses. For enquiries and bookings please contact Kidlington vs Climate Change. Email kidlingtonvsclimatechange@yahoo.co.uk or phone Steve on 01865 379913. www.climatex.org/kidlington Organised by Kidlington vs Climate Change in partnership with COIN (www.COINet.org.uk) Age of Stupid - THANKS & DVD!Thanks to the large number of people who joined us for our recent "Age of Stupid" film night. We hope you found the film (and Q&A with climate change experts Chris Goodall & Oliver Tickel and our MP Evan Harris), very interesting. If you missed the film, or wish to recommend it to others, you can now buy the DVD at either Amazon or at the website (www.ageofstupid.net/product/the_age_of_stupid_dvd). It also may be on BBC TV before Xmas so keep an eye out & tell your friends! Kofi Annan in the New York tent for the US premiere of The Age of Stupid: "We know politicians do follow when the people speak up. Good leaders are good followers and if we shout loud enough they may follow. So each and every one of us should organise ourselves and get the message across." The Wave! 5th December 2009, London If the Age of Stupid film inspired you to get involved, or if you were thinking this way already, please join us, Nick Clegg, a few celebs & many thousands of people across the UK by jumping on a coach to London and joining a demo around Parliament to call upon our politicians to act on climate change whilst there's (just about) still time. How do you get there we hear you ask? Midcounties Cooperative is providing FREE (but limited) transport: leaving Exeter Hall 8.30am, returning from London 4pm, first come first served, for members. If you are not a member (yet) you can join on-line (http://www.midcounties.coop/) or sign up on the coach but do look on-line first to see what you would be signing up to! To book your place email http://uk.mc866.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Member.Communications@midcounties.coop giving your name, pick up point (Kidlington), membership/reference number or intention to sign up on the coach. When the FREE coach is filled there is still the option to take a Coop/Oxfam coach from Beaumont Street, Oxford, for £5, also leaving at 8.30am - book at www.co-operative.coop/ethicsinaction/takeaction/thewave/book-transport-for-The-Wave p.s. KvsCC led a Kidlington Scout Troop night in Oct about climate change, and have just started working with 10 senior Scouts towards a Global Challenge Badge. p.p.s. Food waste in Kidlington - Have you seen the new food recycling initiative in Kidlington from Cherwell District Council? More info is likely to be coming through your door soon if you've not yet heard. p.p.p.s. 5 members of KvsCC attended the Big Climate Event at Oxford Town Hall in November, with over 100 people & 25 Oxon community groups & organisations represented. Also a KvsCC member was involved in organising a recent 350.org event in Oxford, including a March to the Sheldonian. MP's Evan Harris (Lib Dem) & Andrew Smith (Lab) joined. *** READ OUR NEW ARTICLE - MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN *** http://climatex.org/articles/climate-change-info/make-change-happen We meet on the first Tuesday of every month at the Dogwood Pub at 8pm, so join us any time. If not, feel free to share ideas via our email address kidlingtonvsclimatechange@yahoo.co.uk. **** MOVIE NIGHT: THE AGE OF STUPID (12A), Wednesday 30th September *** When & where: 7:00-9:30pm, Exeter Hall Contact: Anthony Simpson, kidlingtonvsclimatechange@yahoo.co.uk, 01865 841146. Tickets: £3 Adults, £2 concessions (incl complimentary glass of wine) Kidlington vs climate change presents "The Age of Stupid" eco film starring Pete Postlethwaite. Please note the film is classified as a 12A. KIDLINGTON GALA, SATURDAY 18TH JULY, 12-5, EXETER HALL Come and meet us at our stand! KIDLINGTON SUSTAINABILITY FAIR 2009 - Saturday 13th June, 1-4pm We're pleased to confirm your free invitation to a sustainability fair on Saturday 13th June, at Exeter Hall, between 1pm and 4pm. So what is a sustainability fair (I hear you ask. Well some of you anyway)? It is an opportunity to bring the community together to share the many ideas we each have to live happier, healthier, less financially strained lives. Having read some excellent articles in the Kidlington News, I know there are many like-minded people who hold strong ethical values - and wish to preserve depleting natural resources for future generations. We will have lots of interesting stuff from Cherwell District Council telling you everything you need to know about recycling. The Facilities are improving all the time so well worth keeping up to date. Maybe you are considering changing your car. Did you know there are 9 cars on the road with a listed fuel efficiency of 70-86 miles per gallon - including Ford, Mini, Seat, VW & Smart. You may get to see one or two (http://www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk/). Do you even know the expected mpg of your car? Did you know that if you adapted the way you drive your existing car - you could save up to a third in fuel costs? I used to be able to drive 480 miles on a full tank. In the same car, without spending a single penny or doing any modifications, I now make the same tank stretch 655miles, and that's 9 miles per gallon better than my listed mpg!!!! Come along and you might just find out how. Perhaps you're a keen gardener and would like to know how to produce your own free compost, or to tell others how they can. If growing is not for you, perhaps you could find out how to source locally produced food, so it's not being shipped half way around the world. Are you a numbers person? Did you know we currently emit 10 tons of CO2 per person every year in the UK? Did you know that we need to get this down to 1-2 tons if we don't want our weather and climate we've taken for granted our entire lives, to change permanently? Sounds daunting, but we're a clever lot in Oxford. Sometimes measuring things has a huge impact. Since adding my electricity and gas meter readings weekly to the excellent, free, Oxford created website http://www.imeasure.org.uk/, I'm now competing with the many other people signed up to this site, and my energy bills are tiny. A good thing too as energy prices are likely to rise again in future as cheap oil and gas runs out. In the past month I've spent £4 on gas and £8 on electricity (which equates too about 85kg of CO2). I know many people paying over £100 every month on energy bills. It amazes me when people wish they had more money to spend. Most of it is complete and utter waste. If you halved your bill, imagine how else you could spend the money? There'll be loads of energy saving tips on the day. Also I want to learn about how to live more sustainably from you. Please come along and share your thoughts. If you want to share any in advance, please email us at kidlingtonvsclimatechange@yahoo.co.uk. Finally, I would like to thank the Parish Council, and Cherwell District Council for supporting this event. Please make a note in your calendar RIGHT NOW! Remember - I know where you live! See you soon! Anthony Simpson & sustainable friends ________________________________________ FIND A LIFT-SHARE MATCH & SAVE MONEY NOW..... There are now over 230,000 in the UK registered looking to share lifts, each with varying journeys and working hours. However unusual your journey/hours - it's well worth checking if there's any potential sharers at http://www.liftshare.org/. you enter your journey and it shows a nice map of similar journeys others are doing. BUY A GREENER CAR! FREE FREE FREE!!! As we all feel the pinch from increasing energy & food prices, I encourage you to continue giving and receiving your goods via Freecycle. Sign up to both the Oxford and Kidlington freecycle groups. Andy Swarbrick has done an excellent job establishing the Kidlington group and is about to reach over 100 members so please support this excellent initiative & sign up today: Kidlington Freecycle http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Kidlington-Freecycling-Group/ Oxford Freecycle http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oxfordfreecycle/ ECO-PRODUCTS & HOME - Get new ideas at Eco-St http://www.eco-st.co.uk_____________________________________________________________________ Read on you will find out how I'm saving £1125 per year -maybe you could to! 1. First Tuesday of the month! To make it easier (for me) to remember - we've agreed to meet on the first Tuesday of every month at the Dogwood at 8pm, so you can update your diary for the rest of 2008! 2. Be kind to Kidlington - Just say NO to plastic bags! Catharine Arakalien has been a busy bee, working on an idea to promote the extinction of plastic bags here in Kidlington. On average we each waste 300 bags each per year which is an astonishing 5 million by Kidlington residents - generating a sizable and avoidable amount of waste, due to the huge resources required to manufacture it, transport it to us so we can take something home, and then the long and damaging time it takes to breakdown in our environment releasing toxic chemicals. Catharine is organising a door to door mailer in Kidlington to promote this idea and ask for feedback from local residents and businesses/organisations. Catharine is hoping we can engage local schools to support the scheme and add their artistic skills to the designs of the bags. Cherwell School have already offered assistance. Please email in if you would like to support or get involved with this campaign in any way! LEARNING OPPORTUNITY - A test of your assertiveness skills! Next time a shop attendant puts your 2-3 items in a bag, say "I don't need one thanks". You've just taken the decision to reduce rather than accelerate climate change! Every little action makes difference. 3. Grain Silo - Grundon's Materials Waste Recovery facility Andrew Hornsby-Smith discussed Grundon's planning submission to construct a Materials Recovery Facility by the Grain Silo & Kidlington park and ride. This basically means a place where they sort and process the waste collected from domestic households. This does pose a couple of thoughts:
I found this link which gives a little insight into this.... http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/display.var.1836761.0.waste_plant_planned_in_green_belt.php 4. Info Desk update Catharine has kindly loaned me some marketing stands that we can begin to populate information for our stand in Kidlington. We now need your help to populate material for the stand so our volunteers have more than a blank panel to promote! *** SITUATIONS VACANT + free cups of tea *** Please join one of our virtual mini-teams to help collate materials for our stand (and web site) to encourage positive actions locally. Email me your area of interest and I'll connect you up together:
Don't panic, you won't be abandoned to do everything yourself! If you wish to pop over and/or meet at my house to bounce ideas or place some of your materials on the stand, I have plenty of fair-trade tea bags & coffee and I'm not afraid to share them! I'm looking for pretty pictures and interesting facts so Kidlington shoppers actually choose to talk to us! 5. Events & stuff
More on http://www.theoxfordtimes.com/display.var.2062332.0.county_likely_to_get_eco_town.php. 6. And finally .... I'm £1125 richer & 1 tonne of CO2 lighter! I've purchased Mark Lynas's Carbon Calculator (Wolvercote climate guru - http://www.marklynas.org/) to see if I can figure out my carbon footprint. By lift-sharing to work I'm saving £20+ per week (£1,125 per year!!!) and over 1 tonne of CO2 per annum! How did I work that out? It's easy on the internet to find out the grams per KM your car emits. In my case:
... and no, I'm not spending it on a holiday to Australia! Can you lift-share - even 2-3 times per week? A small amount of flexibility goes a long way both to your pocket and to reducing your carbon footprint. Also allowing my lift-sharer to sound off about the day's frustrations allows me to charge her husband a sizable fee for defusing the incoming hurricane ;-) Having reduced my water bill to £6 per month (thanks to a water meter - down from £30), and my electric bill down to £14 per month (no standby, eco bulbs blah blah blah), my gas bill is my next priority. I'm investigating so send me your ideas! Thanks to you all, Anthony & friends P.s. There's now nearly 30 cars on the company car list where I work that do over 60 MPG, and all the 4x4's have been removed! The big cheeses have taken out a contract on me (hee hee). You can now buy a VW Polo or Seat Ibiza with a 1.4 Diesel engine which has a listed economy of 74 MPG!!! Apart from a vastly reduced fuel bill - for these 2 cars you don't even have to pay car tax! Buy very wisely. P.p.s. Did you see the Panorama programme about bottle water being about 600 times as carbon consuming as tap water? Please don't buy a load, then pop it in a plastic bag! In climate terms that's officially an own goal! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7247130.stm P.p.p.s Are you finding these updates worthwhile? Do you have any suggested improvements? Please let me know if you are as happy as Larry, or whether you would like me to return to my day job and allow you to drown in peace! P.p.p.p.s. any inaccuracies or grammatical failings are the responsibility of myself, my parents & Gosford Hill School ;-) ______________________________________________________________________________ KIDLINGTON VS CLIMATE CHANGE - Our second get together Thanks for supporting our second get together - 16 attendees is hugely encouraging and twice the number of the first! You might think there are a lot of words below - but I'm one of the slowest readers in Kidlington and it didn't take me long (unlike the exercise of deciphering my eco-friendly tiny handwritten notes from the meeting!) Before moving on to the points of discussion - please ensure our next get together is in your diary: TUESDAY 4TH MARCH, 8PM, DOGWOOD PUB 1. LEARNING FROM WOLVERCOTE Chris Gowers kindly gave up his evening to share his experiences from Wolvercote. It is difficult to do justice to all of the points he made, but here are a few key points:
i. Food (farmers market - local organic produce, allotments, orchard) ii. Waste - Waste surgery at Farmers market info desk, waste centre at the old Mill for non-doorstep recyclables & transfer arranged to Redbridge for recycling e.g. scrap metals, batteries, Tetrapak, light bulbs. iii. Home energy (Low Carbon group) - Copse wood for stove burners, light-bulb libraries, selling discounted eco-bulbs at Farmers Market, incentive to switch residents to Good Energy (renewable). iv. Travel - Informal car share club (people pay agreed rates to borrow a car), encouraging use of bikes, walking, public transport. Raised £500 for good local causes by having a Toll day for cars going through the village! One of the most important things was the Info Desk at the Farmers Market. This provides an excellent opportunity to listen to residents, provide information and respond to queries, and to find out what is important to them. They have 6 people on a rota and emphasise the importance of good training, although it isn't necessary to answer every question providing we record it, find out the answer & then contact them. Advice for Kidlington:
2. ECO-ST, Yarnton Nurseries Liz Parry gave a brief history of the ideas behind Eco-St, which has initially created two shops. One opening in Chinnor last May, and a second nearby at Yarnton Nurseries in October. They have an ambitious plan to open many outlets across the UK to provide accessible information and the ability to buy a wide range of eco products, including 100 different light-bulbs (I took two strange ones including a halogen type to test them last weekend - and they came up trumps on both!), also natural paints, cosmetics & toiletries, books, cards, energy meters, fun gifts from recyclable materials and products/refills for many of the Ecover cleaning range to name just a few. Liz is keen to engage with us to look at potential initiatives, e.g. to offer discounts when people bring old bulbs back to be recycled and replace with new. They are also working on a number of projects with local schools around energy monitoring / reduction. 3. COMMUNITY ACTION GROUPS (CAG's) Simon Kenton attended from CAG's and can help us network effectively in Oxfordshire. As was mentioned above, CAG's have provided effective support and training to assist the impressive progress made in Wolvercote. 4. KIDLINGTON INFO DESK! Following further discussion, it was broadly felt that perhaps a more effective and consistent way of engaging face to face with the residents in Kidlington, instead of organising another a one-off event, was to set up an Info Desk as they have in Wolvercote in the centre of Kidlington to understand what is important to our residents, share information on recycling and energy conservation etc. This raises some important questions so brace yourselves! 1. Frequency: Initially we felt a monthly stall ought to be achievable providing sufficient members commit to supporting this; 2. Location: We need to explore (affordable) highly visible central locations we can obtain permission to go. Steve Gerrish said he may be able to enquire about the space in front of Barclays Bank. He has also stated there maybe an opportunity to use the space at the car park end of the Co-op. It would also be useful to know if the Parish Council has any advice / suggestions on this. Any thoughts Nicky? 3. Volunteers: We need about 5-6 members to commit to joining a rota to attend every 2-3 months so we have two people in attendance each time. Please confirm if this is of interest to you. 4. Purpose / content: We need to clarify our purpose, and also need to compile some initial content we can display at a stall. Please let me know if you either would be interested in compiling a stand and/or would like to research a particular area to input materials - e.g. to research the various recycling options in the local area or ideas for minimizing energy use. 5. Training: We can work with Wolvercote & CAG's to develop appropriate knowledge for volunteers. If we have sufficient interest, i.e. enough people able to commit either to be on the stand or to take responsibility for compiling information to display, I would like to propose we initiate a plan to begin our stand during May 2008. 5. OTHER ACTIONS/NOTES: Simon Kenton (CAGS)
Catharine Arakelian
Anthony Simpson (and others?)
Events & stuff:
And finally ........perhaps the most encouraging sign at our get together was the diversity of attendees across the community in terms of age groups and mixture of experience in business, local government and sustainability & community action initiatives. Thanks again for your support - and my apologies to Tom for spilling his entire drink all over myself. Thankfully my Ecover did the trick ;-) Kind regards, Anthony P.s. After completing many energy reduction steps at home, I'm going check out my cavity wall & loft insulation situation (with someone like http://www.instafibre.co.uk/). A couple of friends have done this recently and said it's made a big difference in retaining heat and reducing their fuel bills and was much cheaper to do than they expected! Why not get yours checked out .......! p.p.s. Thanks Janet for your proof reading & for not slating these draft notes for the many grammatical errors I've undoubtedly made. p.p.p.s. SEE YOU ON TUESDAY 4TH MARCH --------------------------------------------------------------------*** NEWS-FLASH *** Informal get together to share ideas - MON 10TH DEC @ 8PM, Dogwood Pub WELCOME to the web site for Kidlington vs Climate Change! On Wednesday 24th October we organised a community viewing of Al Gore's "An inconvenient truth" to raise awareness about climate change locally. > So did anyone turn up to the Al Gore movie event on 24th October? We were amazed by the response! 150+ attended the event, organised to raise awareness about climate change. THANKS to everyone who took time out to join us, and to the many individuals & organisations that helped to make the event a big success. We would particularly like to mention the Parish Council for providing the venue, Al Shaw (Oxford University) & Jo Hamilton (ClimateXChange) who took the VERY tricky questions - and the encouragement provided by Low-Carbon Wolvercote (and tea & coffee from the Midcounties Co-operative). > How do I find out more? Nearly 40 people left their email addresses to find out more about our future activities. If you wish to keep in touch, apart our articles here - there are several methods you can use:
> What happens next? We are planning a get together to share ideas with interested individuals. You can join our community group for a periodic get together - or instead contribute via the communication methods above. OUR FIRST GET TOGETHER WILL BE ON MONDAY 10TH DEC AT 8PM IN THE DOGWOOD PUB, KIDLINGTON! > I was initially enthused - but others around me are cynical. What can I do? By all means challenge them to explore their thoughts on the subject. You could buy the Al Gore film for just £3.99 if you look around - or let us know if you would like to borrow the DVD for a local viewing. Alternatively if you wanted someone to come along for a discussion, Q&A or to present on the issues & opportunities that climate change presents - please let us know. We are happy to meet local businesses or community groups to help communicate the importance of taking action - and to highlight the multiple benefits you can gain. This is not simply by significantly reducing household & business energy/fuel costs, but also the marketing / recruitment opportunities. You'll be surprised just how many people care! >What can I do about climate change? Obviously there's some simple stuff like switching things off, driving less & recycling more. However look for opportunities that suit your strengths. For example some people are excellent at writing letters. Can you write a letter/email to your MP or to any business you are either happy or unhappy about their environmental impact? I asked a bar manager on Tuesday why for every drink sold they put a serviette under the glass - then binned it 5 seconds later as soon as the customer lifted their drink up. "Head office policy" was the response. I've emailed "Head Office" and asked them to justify this as it contradicts their environmental policy published on their website on "cutting waste wherever they can!" Yeah right. A rubbish response will mean I won't return to their pubs again; Lastly, think of the opportunities when Xmas shopping. Would your aunt prefer a local beauty treatment - or a fondue set manufactured & imported from China that they'll use once if you're lucky. We are really looking forward to hearing your creative ideas & stories, so we can tell others. Thanks for your support! Anthony & Janet P.s. Remember - Say NO to plastic bags. Their manufacture / disposal is so unnecessarily damaging! The UK wastes 10 billion per year.
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