Manchester Climate Monthly (MCFly) Strategic Plan 2012-13

for consultation until Feb 2nd 2012. mcmonthly@gmail.com

This document pertains to proposed action by a non-governmental actor for the dissemination of data among stakeholders throughout the Greater Manchester conurbation, the creation of a framework for the positive emotional affect among aforementioned stakeholders and finally the interpersonal and intra and inter-organizational connectiv.... Nah, we're jus' playing with ya. You are reading the strategic plan (2012-3) of Manchester Climate Monthly. It is written we hope in English, and not that muddy bureaucratese and PR-speak that you get in mission statements and outward facing policy documents and the like. This is a first draft, and we want your comments. You can put them in the comments boxes, or you can email us at mcmonthly@gmail.com. We doubt that we will take on-board every suggestion, but we WILL respond to you (unless you're a troll). We've split out the policy/truths we hold to be self-evident into a policy document. This strategic document is about what we are going to DO. We've also created a series of policy documents (about volunteers, training, funding and so on), which are referred to in the text below. If you're reading this on scribd, you're outta hyperlinking luck. What next? A final version of this plan will go up on the MCFly website on February 15th 2012. It can then be used as a stick to beat us with when (not if) we fail to achieve what we said we would. It will be renewed/refreshed/insert trendy buzzword here at the end of 2012. Plans are (fairly) easy - and fun - to write. But turning words into facts - well, in the words of a senior Council official back in early 2010 - it's implementation, implementation, implementation. Two quotes are always worth remembering - No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. And in the words of a Republican President of the United States Dwight Towe... Eisenhower, - Plans are useless; planning is essential.

1. Introduction
There are 8 parts to this document 1. Introduction (which you're starting to read) 2. Inform 3. Inspire 4. Connect 5. Beyond the Ghetto? 6. Measuring Success 7. Funding 8. Glossary 1.1 History and names

Manchester Climate Fortnightly ran from June 2008 to November 2010. It was mostly the work of Marc Hudson and Arwa Aburawa, with cartoons by Marc Roberts and some proof-reading by Sarah Irving. Intermittently, other people wrote for it. It died when Marc Hudson went (alright, flew) to Australia for a year's visit with his parents. Nobody in Manchester saw it as a priority to continue, which tells you something either about the value of the project or the priorities of Mancunian activists. Or both. Manchester Climate Monthly started up in October 2011 as a website and will by the time this plan is ratified - have published two paper issues. The project will run, at a minimum (barring accidents and the collapse of Western Civilisation), until the end of 2013. We hope it is still going (with different staff!) in 2020, when the Manchester Climate Change Action Plan has delivered its goals. We want you to get involved. Have a look at the Help MCFly section of manchesterclimatemonthly.net for the latest jobs that need doing (divided into simple and quick, complex and quick, simple and lengthy and complex and lengthy). Mickemis harder to say than MCFly, and we are extremely fond of the tartan fly that our cartoonist Marc Roberts drew as an icon, so we are going to keep calling ourselves MCFly. 1.2 To inform, inspire and connect. MCFly's tag-line is to inform, inspire and connect. We use that as the outline for the first half of this plan. To inform great, but who are we informing about what? How are we informing them? When are we informing them? To inspire again, who are we inspiring? What do we hope they will do with that inspiration? To connect who are we connecting? Where? How? Why? That's the first half of the plan. Then we want to complicate the whole thing with three more words beyond that tag-line. And those words are ... beyond the ghetto. 1.3 Beyond the ghetto, and measuring failure and success Anyone who has been to a few meetings about climate change in Manchester (actually, one meeting would be enough), will have spotted that meetings are attended largely by the usual suspects, and that the usual suspects are white and middle-class. This is not the basis for an effective social movement. What is to be done? We lay out a few things that we will do, and that we think other organisations bigger and better funded than us could and should do. How can we know if we are on track? We lay out, in section 5, the metrics that we will use. We intend to measure ourselves against these on a monthly basis, using a public audit. How will it be funded? Who are we going to take money from? See our website specifically http://manchesterclimatemonthly.net/about/funding/ for answers. What do these words smugosphere and ego-fodder mean? All good questions, to which answers are provided in the glossary at the end...

2. Inform
News is something that someone somewhere wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising. Lord Northcliffe MCFly is in the news business. We are not particularly interested in running puff-pieces about organisations that should be asked tough questions. And it is not just councils, the public sector outfits and businesses that should be scrutinised. Social enterprises and community interest companies and the like often expect a free ride from the media because they like to think of themselves as Good People doing Good Things.. They are not going to get a free ride from MCFly. 2.1 Who are we trying to inform and how will we do it. Who How (in addition to youtubes/website/paper MCFly)

The activist/campaigner/ By getting our bulletins and monthly publication onto the email doing community lists/facebook profiles of relevant publications, with links on relevant websites. Councillors via Manchester Councillor Climate Change Communique Quarterly via engagement before during and after Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Council and Exec meetings, from both MCFly and MCFly's readership We will try to write MCFly in straightforward, non-jargon language, with a minimum of in-jokes. Encourage readers to forward/print off copies and give them to vaguely interested friends/neighbours/work colleagues etc Write letters to the Manchester Evening News, South Manchester Reporter and other relevant publications. Make contact with community leaders, be they chairs of TARAs priests, rabbis, imams, sports coaches, etc Seek opportunities to be interviewed on community, commercial and public radio stations. Answer non-troll* questions from Joes and Janes in straightforward language, not shying away from uncertainties, costs etc (that is, treat people

Joe and Jane Public

2.1.1 *A word about trolls We are not going to bother engaging with climate denialists. They want to waste our time and energy. We simply aren't going to let them do so. But we will run pieces on the psychology, neuroscience and sociology of denial, because those things matter. 2.2 What are we informing about Actions being taken in Greater Manchester by anyone (business, council, public sector, individuals) to reduce Greater Manchester's emissions of greenhouse gases in line with published plans and a 2 degree Celsius global target Actions being taken by anyone to prepare Greater Manchester for the inevitable changes that climate change will bring, from both direct (local) and indirect (global) changes to the earth's climate and

ecosystems. Lessons being learned as we in Manchester do mitigation and resilience work ; are we as government, businesses and citizens stealing the right ideas from elsewhere in the UK and the world? The intellectual tools that exist to help explain where we are at as a species and how we might get to a better place with social and environmental justice (practical theory, book reviews, article summaries, interviews and the like) The events are coming up that will allow new people to get involved in what needs to be a growing movement for climate and social justice. (The calendar) We will ask questions of other public and private sector bodies around their endorsement (or not) of the Manchester Climate Change Action Plan, production of their own Implementation Plans, and progress with their implementation of those plans. We will over action taken by community groups to improve the quality of life and reduce the carbon footprint, of Mancunians, and act in solidarity with people in other countries, and in solidarity with other species on this planet, the only habitable one in the Universe. 2.2.1 Within the rather severe constraints of our staffing levels, we will cover... the relevant meetings (especially overview and scrutiny committees, planning and highways, and Executive) of Manchester City Council meetings of the Environment Commission (when they are not canceled because of high numbers of apologies) meetings, where relevant, of the GMCA Executive meetings, where relevant, of the GM Scrutiny Pool meetings, where relevant and accessible, of other public sector bodies (we're open to suggestions) 2.2.2 Within the rather severe constraints of our staffing levels, we will try to cover what academics based in Manchester are publishing on climate change science, policy and the like, especially if their work concerns Manchester. What academics elsewhere are writing about Manchester Useful information for activists and policy-makers and Joe and Jane Public that is being produced by academics and other thinkers wherever they may be. We are aware that academics tend to write in academese. Where time and intellectual firepower allow, we will offer a translation service into English. Produce a monthly listing of relevant journal articles and books. 2.2.3 Greater Manchester Where possible, Manchester Climate Monthly will cover news in the other 9 local authority areas that make up Greater Manchester. We will do this by asking local authorities to add us to their email lists and then reprinting bits of their press releases. This is of course entirely unsatisfactory, so we will systematically encourage and support our readers who live in these local authority areas to become reporters for MCFly. 2.2.4 Beyond Greater Manchester We will cover national level policy developments where there is a clear impact on Manchester for example, the Green Deal. The circus that is the Green Investment Bank (decision due February 2012) we will cover primarily for the practice, the source-building and the lulz. Once it is established, it drops down the agenda, unless it is based in Manchester, in which case the lulz continue.

We will only cover international developments if we feel like it. People who want that stuff can (usually) easily get it from the mainstream media. If they want radical analysis, they can check out The Cornerhouse, IIED etc. Rio 20+ will be worth some laughs. 2.3 How will we inform Via the monthly magazine Via the regularly updated website manchesterclimatemonthly.net Via a twitter feed @mcr_climate Via a monthly brief bulletin (two paragraphs) about the city council/agma (in)action, that environmental and social justice groups can if they choose include in their email bulletins etc Via brief talks at other events that we attend,/are invited to attend Via weekly bulletins, published every Monday morning except the first Monday of the month. Via youtube videos that cover the governance structures and current state of climate plans in (Greater) Manchester. We hope to produce a monthly youtube that covers the contents of the latest issue. Via a two page Manchester Councillors' Climate Change Communique Quarterly that is sent to all 96 Manchester City Council councillors and selected officers, and (we hope) followed up by visits to surgeries from readers who live in wards within Manchester City Council. Via short talks/workshops/facilitations that we are invited to give by other groups (Have mouth, will travel.). We undertake not to death by powerpoint or ego-fodder anyone. (see the glossary) 2.4 When we are informing Monthly the clue is in the name for the paper magazine Quarterly the clue is in the name for the two page briefing to councillors Throughout every week of the year on the website. Immediately via our twitterfeed Whenever we are asked to do presentations/facilitate workshops (Either this is a climate emergency, in which case we have to work really hard and smart, or else it isn't. We are operating under the assumption that it IS an emergency.) 2.4.1 Our biases and transparency We will, under the name of the writer, announce connections financial, personal or membership that our reporter and MCFly has with the individuals/organisations being discussed. At present, one of the editors (Marc Hudson) is a member of Friends of the Earth. For our policy re: corrections and updates and right of reply, see http://manchesterclimatemonthly.wordpress.com/about/our-transparency/corrections-and-updates/ http://manchesterclimatemonthly.net/about/our-transparency/right-of-reply/

2.5 Actions
Magazine We will publish an 8 or 12 A4 page magazine on the first Monday of every month between January 2012 and December 2013. It will be attractively laid out, written in plain English, and contain a mix of news and features that informs, inspires and connects people. Stories that appear in the magazine will also be available on the website Website

We will publish a minimum of two news stories on Manchester Climate Monthly per week, in addition to puff pieces Twitter feed We will maintain a twitter feed, not because we believe twitter is a particularly useful movement building tool (but we could be wrong), but because it's all good experience for us. We hope to tweet every day or so, over and above the automated tweets that happen when we post to the wordpress site, but make no promises. But the editors are both busy people, and the signal-to-noise ratio on twitter is not good. So we will be pushing more than we are scanning... Audit We will publish, once a month, an audit of how we have performed around gender, race, class, geography, readability and other metrics that we like. Our relationship with the Council and the Freedom of Information Act MCFly has sought information from Manchester City Council on many occasions. We have been known to resort to using the Freedom of Information Act when we suspected our questions would fall on deaf ears. FOIA requests have resource implications for the Council. Executive Member for the Environment Nigel Murphy has offered to supply information without having to go through the rigmarole of FOIA. We are currently taking them up on this offer, without in any way renouncing our right to use FOIA. We don't think we are compromising our independence by doing this, but readers might think so, and they certainly have the right to know where things currently stand. We may well do some Mystery Shopper-style work, where a MCFly reader writes in to the Council with a question, and we see whether they get a reply and how long it takes to get that information... Then again, we might not. Jedi mind games!!

3. Inspire
"If you go to one demonstration and then go home, thats something, but the people in power can live with that. What they cant live with is sustained pressure that keeps building, organisations that keep doing things, people that keep learning lessons from the last time and doing it better the next time." Noam Chomsky "You know enough already. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions." Sven Lindqvist We want to inspire people to get involved, to stay involved, and to get their friends and family involved in making Manchester far greener and fairer than it currently is. 3.1 What is inspiring, in our opinion. And what is not. 3.1.1 Effective action Effective action that stops stupidity from happening (see glossary for the difference between protest and demonstration). We define stupidity as anything that locks Manchester into a high-carbon pathway. Airport City, much? Effective action that demonstrates how things could be done better within existing resource constraints Effective action that is happening in other parts of the UK and globally, that could and should be imitated by Manchester's government, businesses and people (please note that we did not use the phrase best practice or talk about league tables) We are especially inspired by people and organisations that have displayed innovation, resilience and persistence in getting to where they are, and have credible plans for getting better at what they do. 3.1.2 Ineffective and dis-inspiring action Examples of ineffective action (that we would not feel obliged to report) would include boring top-down meetings that focus on getting people to attend marches/camps etc outside of Greater Manchester's boundaries, greenwash-style announcements of projects that are unlikely to happen groups that go up like a rocket and down like a stick other cack events. 3.2 Encouraging the sharing of lessons learnt We will, via our publications and personal communications, encourage local government and the public sector, business and campaigning/activist groups to reflect on both their successes and their failures, in public, so that other organisations can learn from their experiences. We think the website www.admittingfailure.org is fabulous. We will walk the walk, by publishing audits of our work, and commissioning independent critiques of our publications. We welcome criticism Our weekly bulletin will include a section entitled lessons we like to believe we've learnt this week 3.3 The difference between honesty and negativity http://manchesterclimatemonthly.net/about/negativity/ 3.4 Spreading the love training and volunteers There is a major skills deficit, in our opinion, among campaigning groups in Manchester, especially around meeting design, facilitation, communications and the like.

Decent (reliable, diligent) volunteers inspire us. We hope we inspire them. 3.4.1 Training MCFly will run a training programme in 2012 around the following themes - investigative reporting (including how to cover meetings, how to read documents, how to use the Freedom of Information Act and other tools, the ins and outs of interviewing) - the why and how of participatory meetings the making of very simple (low-fi youtube videos other training as requested by a sufficient number of our readers 3.4.2 Volunteers MCFly is already running a volunteer programme. As of mid-December 2011 we have three formally inducted volunteers. Because we are new at this, we are going - for now - to cap the number of volunteers we have at any one time at five. When volunteers decide to end or significantly reduce their commitment to MCFly, we will advertise for new volunteers. We will be explicit about who we are looking for, and what they can expect to be asked to do. To attract and keep volunteers, we think that MCFly needs to be unmistakeably growing.learning, organising, winning We need to be able to offer these volunteers work that is appropriate (in time and difficulty) worthwhile, challenges them in useful ways. And offers opportunities for autonomy, mastery and purpose. We are big believers in legitimate peripheral participation - we do not expect volunteers to attend long boring meetings.

Actions
We will try to be the change we want to see and other hippy bollocks. We will make sure that we get some sort of balance between news (which is usually not so inspiring!) and puff piece in the weekly mix of stories published on the website, and in the monthly publication. We will label puff-pieces as such. A puff-piece is an article that we have commissioned from a campaigning or doing organisation, or an article we have largely/entirely based on a press release. We will always attach a public health warning to puff-pieces, and create a category as such. We will make sure that puff-pieces are then the basis of us (and other people?) asking comparable organisations why aren't you doing this? and Why aren't you doing better than this?

4.0 Connect
Only Connect EM Forster By emphasising the network form McLeish argues that the flows of information and interaction between groups and individuals are more important that (sic) the points of convergence. The nodes the points at which multiple flows connect may represent a key moment during a movements history but have a tendency to create ossified traditions, incapable of reacting to changing political opportunities. Organisers thrown up by events, who find themselves serving or surfing these waves of history narcissistically imagine themselves their authors. Last years bright creative movement becomes a fossilized bureaucracy or an inert ritualistic subculture. page 279 of Meaning in Movement: An ideational analysis of Sheffield-based Protest Networks Contesting Globalisation and War by Kevin Gillan. We are NOT trying to turn everyone into a full-time activist. We believe in Legitimate Peripheral Participation. We believe that it is the responsibility of activist/campaigning organisations to make sure that busy people can be involved, and feel involved, without having to be at soul-suckingly boring meetings once or twice a month. 4.1 Who are we connecting ? Individuals with other individuals who live nearby to each other, or are interested in the same topics by running meetings with this explicit aim, by encouraging meetings in people's homes etc. Civil society organisations to other civil society organisations Individual constituents to their elected councillors, by encouraging readers to attend their elected representatives' surgeries to discuss climate and sustainability. via asking readers' postcodes and therefore being able to alert them to when their councillor is involved in a climate-related meeting at the City Council or AGMA level 4.2 Connecting civil society organisations and individuals with each other Reporting on the actions of groups, supplying websites, emails, phone numbers and dates of next meeting. Always asking and reporting - how can people get involved? and what can a volunteer/new person expect to end up doing? when covering stories. Creating a map of who is doing what. We will try to give comprehensive coverage in MCFly and its calendar of events happening in Greater Manchester. When we write articles about organisations taking action on climate change, we will include websites, emails and where appropriate phone numbers, so readers can get directly involved without having to go via us. When we encounter, in our foragings, information that would be of use to individuals and campaigners, we will email them directly, rather than waiting to put it into an already over-packed weekly bulletin. We will try to connect readers who live near each other, without breaching their confidentiality. If we

notice two readers are close, we will write to one saying we noticed that there's someone with a postcode very close to yours. Can we email you both, giving your email address to them? Encourage MCFly readers to hold an open house in their living rooms, and invite their climateconcerned/interested friends and neighbours about what can be done in their immediate area. We would publicise the event, and if invited attend, either as participants or to run a workshop/give a brief opening talk (but no sage on the stage Via MCFly book club (first Monday evening of the month, in the Waterhouse, Princess Rd). The book club will discuss novels and factual books that are accessible to a general reader. It will be structured in a way that encourages participation from the less confident. Write letters for publication on a weekly basis to the Manchester Evening News and the South Manchester Reporter, and encourage other readers to do the same. 4.3 Connecting civil society organisations and the City Council/public sector 4.3.1 inform people about what the council is (and isn't) doing via the coverage of council meetings, reports on website, twitter account and paper magazine encourage readers to engage with their elected officials on a regular rather than spasmodic basis, via emails, surgeries and public meetings 4.3.2 Encourage council to improve how it engages with (rather than talks at) the general public 4.3.2.1 Council documents MCFly will run annual award for the best and worst council documents. Based on readability, frequency of weasel phrases and jargon. We will run official documents through a grading system for what level of education is needed to understand them. Where a document scores particularly poorly, we will write a translation, and encourage the relevant councillors to ask the authors to write more clearly in future. Encourage the publication of all minutes of EAP, ESPB etc meetings in a timely fashion, and in an easy-to-find place 4.3.2.2 Communication from Councillors Encourage Exec Member for the Environment to maintain a weekly blog (the Leader has a one) The Executive Member for the Environment blogs about upcoming and recently passed events that he attends in his official capacity, with hyperlinks to documents on the Council's website where appropriate (this would include EAP, ESPB, full Council, Executive and relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committees, as well as conferences and events he attended.) Encourage the Leader to write more frequently on environmental issues 4.3.2.3 Encourage bi-monthly meetings between relevant councillors and officials and members of the public at a bi-monthly or quarterly public meeting. 4.4 Culture change to tackle climate change Most meetings suck. They suck time and energy and motivation out of individuals. Instead of coming

away informed, inspired and connected, a significant proportion of people come away even more isolated, alienated and dispirited. 4.4.1 Via a Meetings charter and related activities, MCFly will try to change the culture and expectation of public meetings in Manchester. It will try to move away from a default setting of 'sage on the state followed by Q and A' towards genuinely participatory processes that inform, inspire and connect. 4.4.2 In the first half of 2012, running or supporting workshops on how to run decent meetings, both for organisations already running meetings, and for those who would like to. To then review the changes that do or don't occur in the second half of 2012 via the MCFly website and monthly publication. 4.4.3 Holding organisations that run Forums to their word, making positive suggestions that these organisations can adopt or ignore as they see fit.

5. Beyond the Ghetto

Manchester Climate Monthly could do all the above and still fall flat on its face. In fact, if we ONLY do the things above, we WILL fall flat on our face. To be effective, we will need to move beyond the ghetto. This will involve 5.1 Meeting people where they are politically Talking about climate science will get you nowhere. Talking about energy bills and food prices and lack of responsiveness from local authorities might. But that in itself assumes there will automatically be an easily-found shared reference point. It may be more difficult than that... 5.2 Meeting people where they are geographically Holding meetings in settings comfortable to the usual suspects (city centre venues, for instance)) and expecting large numbers of non-usual suspect people to attend is futile and delusional. Therefore will need to meet at schools, churches, mosques, community halls, in front rooms of people willing to hold a meeting. Listen as much (more!!) than talk, and never ever preach. Have relevant facts in useful formats (on paper, on youtube, using local information, analogies and metaphors (no sres graphs etc, with the exception the Keeling Curve) Support (but don't lead, smother, patronise) local activity on climate and social justice. Patronising includes holding established organisations to a lower standard than comparable organisations made up of people who are not BME. 5.3 Learning on the job We will reflect on how each meeting with groups outside the usual suspects has gone, in a systematic manner. Share those reflections and try to improve the ability to connect with people not already deeply engaged in these issues, and who have other calls upon their time and energy (for example, low-paid work that demands long hours, caring duties etc)

6.Success metrics
How can we tell if we are winning? Well, our outputs will be relatively easily measured. Outcomes? Not so much. We welcome anyone's ideas on how this can be done. 6.1 Our outputs 6.1.1 MCMonthly comes out on the first Monday of every month. No tpyos Readable by the average 12 year old Clear in what readers can do to get involved in the existing campaigns, how they can help MCFly 6.1.2 Our website has a minimum of two stories a week, with a mix of news and puff-pieces Wordpress (average of 500 hits per week 70 per day) by March 2012. Average of 700 hits per week by September 2012, maintained until December 2013. Comments per week (not including MCFly replies) 5 per week by June 2012. 8 per week by December 2012 (See the movements.org thing about 9 social media metrics to look at) 6.1.3 Twenty-four brief youtube videos made and uploaded in 2012, (this target includes monthly This month in MCFly videos) Video news reports uploaded within half an hour of the completion of specific meeting , (with a standup outside Manchester Town Hall, by Arwa Aburawa!) 6.1.4 Workshops delivered on following topics the Climate Change Action Plan on the culture of meetings the typical trajectory of community and campaigning groups the impacts of climate change in Greater Manchester and beyond Freedom of Information Act Requests how, when, why etc other workshops as requested/suggested Audit culture A monthly Gender, Race, Class, Geography audit will be conducted and published on the website, with recommendations as to how to improve. Ideas and comments will always be welcomed. Questions will include - Who is writing for MCFly? What stories are we covering? Who is being quoted? What areas are being covered? Is it all Chorlton and Didsbury, or do we also talk about Harpurhey, Gorton etc. Part of this will be a reflection of the heavily male culture of many of the official groups that we cover (the Executive of Manchester City Council is currently 8 to 1 male, for example), but this reason can easily slide into an excuse...

6.2 Not that we have any direct control over the Council, but... A change in the culture of overview and scrutiny committee meetings so that all reports contain a section on goals that have not been met and challenges for the future the direct questions of elected members are met with simple direct answers that do not waffle instead of simply saying We don't know or No or Yes or I don't actually have the information to hand, councillor I will get back to you. relevant climate reports are uploaded as b climate change as a regular (quarterly) item on the agenda of full Council and of the Executive. All overview and scrutiny committees have considered climate change impacts within their area by the end of 2012 The Executive Member for the Environment blogs about upcoming and recently passed events (see 4.3.3.2) The ESPB publishes its minutes in a timely fashion so that they are available for all including members of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committees to see. The Environmental Advisory Panel either becomes the critical friend it was ostensibly set up to be, with oversight function over the ESPB, or else it disbands.

7. Funding
Money is nice, not essential. We won't take money from anyone we might conceivably want to report on. That would be messy. For more details, see our funding page

Glossary
Activists and campaigners People who try to get local/national government and/or corporations to change their behaviour. Usually without any reflection on how the activist/campaigning group is itself in desperate need of behaviour change. Oh, the irony... Adaptation (Definition from IPCC) Adaptive Leadership Adaptive Leadership is a practical leadership framework that helps individuals and organizations adapt and thrive in challenging environments. It is being able, both individually and collectively, to take on the gradual but meaningful process of adaptation. It is about diagnosing the essential from the expendable and bringing about a real challenge to the status quo. Adaptive Leadership will require openness, transparency, iterative learning, trust-building etc etc PR spin and automatic assumptions of secrecy are the enemy of adaptive leadership. Death by Powerpoint Presentations that go on with endless slides and graphs and acres of small-print. Demonstration (as distinct from protest) A demonstration is what happens when a social movement demonstrates its strength in being able to veto

something/raise the cost of doing something to the powers-that-be. Or they demonstrate a different/saner way of doing things. Protests are demonstrations that fail for lack of numbers, imagination etc. Most marches and camps are protests, not demonstrations. Sad, but true. Denialists Folks who don't accept the overwhelming scientific evidence (link to BEST etc) that the planet is warming. Folks who do not have an explanation for why the build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the last two hundred years should not have an impact on surface temperatures. Doers people with (non-metaphorical) dirt under their fingernails. Usually people who never saw the point in protesting, but instead just get on with doing stuff. Or else kicked themselves out of the smugosphere. Ecological Modernisation The fairy-tale belief that with a bit more efficiency and a bit more techno-wizadry we can continue to treat very finite resources and services offered by the planet as if they were infinite. We laugh at people who believe in the Tooth Fairy, but not in those who subscribe to Ecological Modernisation. Go Figure... Ego-fodder The audience at any public event (big or small) which has not been structured by the organisers to provoke the highest possible amount of participation, engagement and mingling. Event Reports MCFly will try (and often fail) to report on events and meetings in Greater Manchester in a timely fashion, with clarity as to what happened, what went well, what could have gone better. If our reporter has a personal interest to declare (e.g. membership of the host organisation), this will be clearly indicated under her or his signature. We are immune to emotional blackmail to be upbeat, so don't waste your breath. Greenhouse Gases The gases released by natural and human activities that are causing an increase in the thickness of the atmospheric blanket trapping heat, and warming t'planet. Legitimate Peripheral Participation Ability of busy people to be involved in and be recognised to be involved in the work of a group, without giving up all their free time to become involved in a clique Mitigation Action taken to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (via lowering energy demand via insulation, behaviour change, or switching to low-carbon energy sources such as wind, solar, etc) News Something that someone, somewhere, doesn't want you to know. Problem-Solution Ratio The ratio of time and energy spent on explaining (and complaining) about the nature and causes of a problem versus possible practical solutions/counter-measures. Puff Pieces Stories that are not news, but based on press releases and publicity. Although puff pieces has a pejorative sound to it, we can't think of anything better... Puff pieces will be tagged as such, to distinguish them from news. Reflective practice

Thinking about what you're doing is it working, is there a better way of doing things? Will there need to be a different way of doing things in the future? Resilience How long have you got? Resilience in the narrow sense is being able to bounce back quickly and 'surely' to a pre-existing way of doing things. Yes, but what if that pre-existing way of doing things is a big part of the problem in itself, eh?! Sage on the Stage An intelligent person and/or acknowledged expert or star who stands at the front of a room full of people and expounds his (usually his, sometimes her) beliefs at great length, and then engages in a Question and Answer session Social learning Social learning is learning that takes place at a wider scale than individual or group learning, up to a societal scale, through social interaction between peers. It may or may not lead to a change in attitudes and behaviour. More specifically, to be considered social learning, a process must: (1) demonstrate that a change in understanding has taken place in the individuals involved; (2) demonstrate that this change goes beyond the individual and becomes situated within wider social units or communities of practice; and (3) occur through social interactions and processes between actors within a social network (Reed et al., 2010). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_learning_%28social_pedagogy%29 Social movement The environmental movement is simply a particular example of a social movement, and Italian sociologists Mario Diani and Elisa Rambaldo tell us that a social movement has three distinctive elements: dense networks of informal exchanges between individuals and/ or organisations; shared collective identities; and conflict with opponents. http://wellsharp.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/what-is-the-environmental-movement Smugosphere The Smugosphere is not a place youll find on a map. Its a state of mind: its the place where deeds are done not so much because they might actually have a positive effect on the world but because they will raise the status or self-esteem of the person/group doing them.