Ruislip and Northwood Community Action Network

andy_ross

website team CRAGger Glasgow Leamington

Dear Nick

Thankyou for your email and your interest in CRAGs.

As the front page of our website [http://www.carbonrationing.org.uk/] says, we are “a network of local groups who support and encourage one another to reduce our carbon footprints. We share knowledge and skills in lower carbon living and seek to promote awareness and practical action in the wider community.” It is an attempt to implement the idea of Contraction and Convergence at a local level.

Our network is not currently constituted as an organisation in any legal sense, we have no funding and each group operates autonomously within the wider network.

The good news for your initiative is that there is an active CRAG in Islington whose members might be able to offer advice and support to a group thinking about embarking on a similar journey in Ruislip or Northwood. I have copied their yahoogroup list in on this email. I am also posting this correspondence on the website forum in case members of the wider CRAGs community feel able to offer you assistance.

Good luck with your initiative.

Regards

Andy (CRAGs website team)

Dear Nick,

Firstly, great to hear that you’re interested in what we’re doing, and that you’re working to set up a community action network to engage people in climate change.

One of the major strengths of CRAGs is that they are grassroots, and thus independent of official govt involvement – not a trivial issue, given that many people are of the view that the govt is only interested in climate change as a way to raise taxes. There is a pressing need for such independent action that demonstrates committed personal and group action without govt involvement.

The best I can offer therefore is my reflections on the startup experience of Peckham CRAG, which was founded in Sept 2007 by three people who had never met prior to meeting at the CRAG workshop at Heathrow Climate Camp. I hope others find them useful in their own contexts.

Location – if you’re trying to set up a public group, what’s the best public venue for all your community? Effective meetings about complex topics can rarely be held in pubs, and using church halls may exclude members of other faiths. There probably won’t be hordes at your meeting, so you don’t want a huge hall either. Peckham CRAG is trying to be a local community resource, and thus we need to be locally accessible to all, so we meet in a “pod” in our fab local library. This has problems – we have to pay even though we have no funds – and it shuts at 8pm – but strategically, it makes the point that we really are for everyone.

Local networks – make use of any local pre-existing networks. In addition to the fab CRAG forum, the following have been really good for us: Bellenden Residents’ Group which sends out periodical briefings for local residents, East Dulwich Forum [a website], Peckham Voluntary Sector Forum [has given us training in being interviewed on radio, airtime on local radio, plus networking opportunities with 72 other local orgs]. Is there a Green Drinks group in your area whose members might be interested in getting involved?

Attend local events – we’ve only attended two so far [Peckham Green and Healthy Living Fair, Goose Green Wintergreen Fair] – different sorts of people at each, but we have recruited new members at each, and had useful conversations with interested members of the public and found out what others are doing and shared ideas. People seem to be quite attracted to the idea of a friendly group that meets regularly to support the members in taking action as a group.

I’m very impressed indeed with George Marshall’s recent book “Carbon Detox”, which clearly describes why and how people are resistant to engaging with the issue of climate change, and describes effective ways to deal with this issue. Two main issues – firstly, climate change is an unclear, long-term and complex threat and thus we find it very difficult to fully recognise when we are far better at dealing with precise short term threats; secondly, we tend to have different core values, and we need to understand what those values are in order to engage people. I suspect for instance that many of the people who voted for you to be the Conservative MP for your consistuency would * tend * to have the values George Marshall describes as being those of “survivors”, “traditionalists” or “winners”, rather than the more left-wing leaning “strivers”. I enthusiastically recommend this book. George Marshall was the founder of COIN [Climate Outreach and Information Network] which has the aim of engaging the general public with climate change – they run very useful training events, and their understanding of effective ways of communicating is superb.

Expect a slow and erratic response – but keep in touch with people by e-mail.

Money is less useful than ideas, enthusiasm and friendliness – but expect to make some financial committment yourself upfront.

You may find that a “hard core” and “less hard core” emerge. You will also need to pay careful attention to group dynamics and that everyone’s contribution feels valued.

You will need to think about how you can make the group attractive to join – we’ve had relevant activites each time, which we’ve tried to make fun, which have taken some considerable time for us to devise.

At the same time, we’ve tried to keep our focus – we need to establish a carbon year, carbon target, carbon accountant[s] and a transparent process for those formalities agreed by consensus. Roll on our fourth January meeting when we’ll start getting down to brass tacks…

Have you discussed your plans with Colin Challen MP who I understand was instrumental in founding the well-established Leeds CRAG?

I would also like to offer the following potentially difficult comments respectfully. If you yourself are trying to set up a local action network encouraging people to take action * themselves * to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, I strongly argue that you, * personally *, will have to walk the walk AND BE SEEN to do so. If you do not do this, the entirely admirable and necessary network you propose will be dismissed out of hand as being a bunch of hypocrites. I don’t mind hypocrisy being exposed, but I don’t want the wider climate change personal action movement to be damaged by association. Perhaps you could start by publicising your carbon footprint on your webpage and blogging about your reaction to it? [Thanks Ian from Sevenoaks CRAG, for mentioning this idea at the national march last Saturday!] That would massively contribute to the cultural shift we need.

Finally, despite all the hassles of getting involved with Peckham CRAG, I have loved every minute of it – because I have met loads of people with similar concerns to myself, and started to make useful links to further the actions are needed, at both individual and formal levels. It’s an exciting ride!

Good luck!

Best wishes,

Anna