Here is a small review of a selection of BIG Green Week events, some attended in a Greenpeace capacity, more attended because they looked interesting. The Bristol-themed events looked at how Bristol has been shaped by its natural environment, and how it continues to evolve. The global-themed events took a wider view of ongoing global environmental challenges.
Bristol’s Hidden Water
Bristol’s Hidden Water was a walk organized by Bristol Green Party and guided by Tony Dyer. It aimed to explain the “city centre’s watery history”.
Walking along the original course of the Frome was a very useful way of understanding the Saxon layout of Bristol, the walls of the town being largely shaped to a curve in the river. Tony also pointed out the Norman walls and how they served a different function from the Saxon walls. The Saxon walls protected the town, Norman walls encircled the castle to enable subjugation of the town.
Another topic was the importance of a clean water supply, the Frome and the Avon having been tidal and filthy. A well in Castle Park was augmented by conduits built by the monks who controlled tracts of land around the old city, hence the areas of Whitefriars (Carmelite), Greyfriars (Franciscan) and Blackfriars/Quakers Friars (Dominican).
The M-Shed website has some information about medieval conduits but I really recommend going on Tony’s next guided walk!
Cabot Tower & Harbourside Walk
This walk was an Active Bristol NHS walk led by Jon Lucas as part of a Walking for Health programme.
The walk started with a brisk march up Brandon Hill to Cabot Tower. This was the first time I had been up Cabot Tower since the Tower re-opened after 4 years of enforced closure due to corroded steel. I was delighted to find the views from the top more fascinating than ever, many new buildings such as Cabot Circus and The Harbourside having been added to the skyline (for good or ill).
Brandon Hill is claimed to be the oldest “municipal” park in the UK, having been given to the townspeople for grazing by William of Gloucester in 1174.
The walk was a good follow-up to the Hidden Water walk in that it talked of the diversion of the Avon to the “New Cut” to create the floating harbour in 1809. As we walked a complete circuit of the harbour, Jon explained the historic engineering challenges of keeping the non-tidal harbour silt-free and sewage-free.
The harbour has its own website:
http://www.bristolfloatingharbour.org.uk/
What next for Bristol?
This talk about the future development of Bristol as a sustainable city was part of the Retrofit City programme at the Architecture Centre and took place on the Thursday preceding Big Green Week.
The event was introduced by George Ferguson (PPRIBA) and chaired by Paul Finch (Design Council Cabe). Each gave a short presentation before the event was opened up for audience Q&A.
George Ferguson touched on several strands:
- He suggested that improvements to settings of existing landmark buildings can have massive impact rather than the current “obsession” with creating new landmark buildings. As an example, removal of superfluous road carriageways around St Mary Redcliffe church would allow space for both landscaping and densification.
- As an ideal, communities could be retrofitted so people do not need to leave their local area for jobs, leisure, residential or retail. He clarified the definition of regeneration as opposed to redevelopment – regeneration should unlock existing potential.
- Furthermore, to be a true “sustainable city”, a modern city needs a larger metropolitan area to be self-sufficient in food provision or waste disposal in so far as this is possible in a globalised economy.
Paul Finch talked of the malign effects of carbon in global warming and the energy efficiency improvements required to buildings as a result. By 2050 an 80% reduction in carbon emissions is suggested as necessary (by Bristol 2050*). On the other hand 80% of today’s built environment will remain in 2050 and will need retrofitting to achieve this reduction in energy use. Paul Finch mooted the “heretical” idea that, considering the amount of investment required to achieve this, would it be cheaper to simply build the required amount of non-carbon based energy generation capacity?
The Q&A session touched on the future of Castle Park. This open space was previously the densely built-up heart of Bristol and exists as a result of the Blitz. There is ongoing discussion around whether some proportion (5%) of the green space should be “sacrificed” to re-create the medieval street pattern and raise funds to improve the park.
Other audience contributions mentioned the Bristol 2050 idea to place a barrage across the Avon Gorge for flood defence, renewable energy generation and transport links. One audience member described how the tidal movements of water around the Cumberland Basin were to him important to the essence of Bristol, almost as if the city were breathing in and out.
As a final point, Paul Finch and George Ferguson agreed that a time of recession provides opportunities as it enables a broader range of individuals and organizations to gain control of buildings and land. Less pressure on short term profit also allows more time for “Slow Architecture”, an offshoot of the Slow Food movement. Slow Architecture is created gradually and organically and is often combined with an environmentally sustainable approach.
*The Bristol 2050 plan was put together by a group of business leaders: www.bristol2050.co.uk
Bristol’s BIG Market
The rain held off for Bristol’s BIG Market on Saturday. It was lovely to see the regular St Nicholas and Harbourside Markets linked by a colourful river of stalls down Corn Street and along Broad Quay.
The suitcase stalls on Narrow Quay suffered from the lively breeze and struggled to keep their wares under control. The charity stalls on Broad Quay, including Greenpeace, were nearly blown into the fountains!
This event really showed the heart of Bristol’s old city and waterfront at its vibrant best.
Patterns of Change
Researchers from Bristol’s Cabot Institute highlighted the changing world from large-scale environmental trends to social and economic patterns. Illustrated talks were interspersed with clips from films Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance and Powaqqatsi: Life in Transition (soundtracked by Philip Glass).
Professor Jonathan Bamber (Glaciology) described the rapid changes to ice cover in the Arctic/Antarctic. By 2040 Arctic ocean could be ice free in summer which will have massive impact on the Inuit, wildlife and ocean systems
The Greenland Ice Sheet is 3km thick – a complete melt would raise global sea level by 7 metres. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is on average 2km thick – a complete melt would raise global sea level by 60 metres. These are hypothetical scenarios to illustrate that even a small percentage of this melt could have severe implications. Realistic forecasts of a sea level rise of 1m by 2100 would affect almost 10% of the world’s populations – over 500 million people live in vulnerable areas.
Professor Kathy Cashman (Vulcanology) described how lava flows have multiply re-surfaced the earth including the ocean floor.
Professor Colin Taylor (Civil Engineering) talked of the challenges of dealing with changing natural environments using as examples recent Welsh floods and Japanese earthquakes
He also discussed the potential Severn Barrage/Lagoons as an example of a large-scale engineering project that requires reference to many stakeholders. The main driver for the project is the need for renewable energy. Political, economic, technological and environmental factors all contribute to decisions on the development of such a complex scheme.
Professor Wendy Larner (Geographical Sciences) and Professor Bronwen Morgan (Law) talked about how globalization changes patterns of economy and society. They used Co-exist/Hamilton House and Transition Towns as examples of resilience through alternative living in the context of environmental uncertainty.
The Q&A raised amongst other issues the risk that people feel a sense of disempowerment in the face of climate change. The panel suggested that we need to design maximum resilience into all systems to prepare for change. Also as lecturers they were encouraged by their contact with the next generation who will continue to deal with evolving challenges.
The End of the Line
Thursday took us to The End of the Line, a film shown at Triodos Bank. In this 2009 documentary filmmaker Rupert Murray examined the devastating effect that overfishing has had on the world's fish populations. The film showing was followed by an informative Q&A session with Dr Steve Simpson, marine biologist from University of Bristol.
The film described the “endless bounty” of cod off Newfoundland where explorers described around 1500 how “you could walk across the water on their backs”. From the 1950s 40 years of factory fishing culminated in a collapse of cod population in the early 1990s and a moratorium on fishing. Recent research vessels have found that despite the moratorium, there are still minimal volumes of cod in the area, the cod having been fished to a level from which it could not recover. The local ecosystem is now dominated by crab, shrimp and lobster.
Dr Simpson cited for comparison the north-east Atlantic where Icelandic cod fisheries have been subject to quotas since the early 1970s. Populations remained initially low after the introduction of these strict quotas (enforced by Icelandic Coast Guard) but since 2009 populations and catches are recovering.
For 1.2 billion people fish is a key part of their diet. In West Africa, coastal people and even interior people depend on fish. But stocks of fish have declined massively in the last fifty years. The film showed fishermen in Dakar, Senegal struggling to make a living whilst governments on the same shoreline sell fishing rights to supertrawler operators from developed nations for quick cash.
By extrapolation of current trends, fish stocks will collapse by 2050. However, in response to questions in the Q&A, Dr Simpson spoke of his hope that improvements can be achieved:
- Aquaculture can become more sustainable. Farmed fish accounted for 10% of fish production in the 1990s, and accounts for 50% of global fish production today. 4-5 kilos of anchovies need to be caught to feed 1 kilo of farmed salmon. Other sources of protein could fill the feed gap, such as farmed ragworm rather than fishmeal. Also, there is a move to farming other species more suited to aquaculture, eg, herbivore equivalents rather than predators, eg, filter feeders like mussels.
- To avoid “the tragedy of the commons”, “ownership” of fishing grounds can be given to local fishermen. They will then take a longer term view and be mindful of future generations of fishermen.
- Quotas need to follow catch limits determined by science.
- Currently marine reserves cover a tiny percentage of oceans. A network of marine reserves with a complete ban on commercial fishing could lead to good recoveries in fish populations across the oceans. Australia recently announced the largest “marine reserve” to “set a benchmark for environmental protection”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/14/australia-largest-marine-reserve
- In the UK, we consume a narrow range of fish species. As climate change warms the Atlantic, cod and haddock are moving north and a wider range of fish are moving into UK-fished waters. Our tastes may broaden to consume other species such as red mullet, red gurnard and john dory.
In summary, overfishing is a relatively simple problem to solve. If solutions are implemented urgently, there is a chance of fish stocks recovering. As individuals, we can exert political pressure as voters and economic pressure through consumer choice.
Mind Bomb
It’s Friday so it must be Mind Bomb, a film shown by Greenpeace at Hamilton House. This Greenpeace documentary shows how public attitudes can be changed by dramatic footage and images of eco-crimes. The images included whaling, nuclear waste disposal, overfishing and deforestation.
The film was narrated by Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, who observed that for change to happen, individuals have to be “moved to be agents of change rather than observers”.
Summary
The Bristol-themed events demonstrated how city-wide change is ongoing and inevitable. The environmental-themed events illustrated change on a global scale. A recurring theme arose: in the face of uncertainty, we don’t need to wait for grand solutions to problems. We can take local and individual actions.
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