PowerSwitch

"ECONOMIC CRISIS, ENVIRONMENTAL OPPORTUNITY: THE PATH TO A GREENER EUROPE"

I suppose only a tiny number of people will watch and listen to the speech by Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for the Environment. I don't suppose many people in Britain have even heard of him. I don't suppose many people even have much idea what the EU does. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVIEmvz0KBI (And you get to see Shaun Chamberlin too. )

Who has heard of Stefanie Siebert, Executive Director, European Composting Network? (about 45 minutes into the video for those wishing to learn about the EU Compost Heap)

Downloaded for watching at leisure. Ta Biff.

Shaun made a good comment in the Q&A near the end.

Shaun's contribution was especially refreshing, though all speakers had something positive to say. Shame it wasn't organised so us viewers could see the slides!

Let's hope some of this talk is translated into action. It's about bloody time - for instance, the focus on road building throughout the EU has to stopped, even twenty years too late of course. Something that struck me is the barely-mentioned 'energy independence'; I know they were talking in terms of energy reduction but still, fracking.

A politician friend of mine harps on about the 'poor parking facilities' in our county town, when it's actually awash with them. I look forward to some of the thinking outlined in the presentation filtering down to our level.

I liked the first question from the audience - from Andy Myles of Scottish Environment Link:

Would you agree that, in Europe and North America in particular, we're really more than rich enough already; we have vast quantities of wealth; there's about 72 trillion dollars sitting untouched in tax havens and that is the product of our economic growth over recent decades. Would you agree with me that the time has come to understand that economic growth, which we seem so desperate to return to, is not, in fact, the solution. It is the problem. Economic growth and the endless pursuit of economic growth seems to me to be the paradigm that we really require to shift. If it's not the paradigm that requires shifting, what is?

This man needs to talk loud and clear to everyone. More power to him.