| The theme of the
Bristol 2002 Schumacher Lectures is ‘a positive response to
globalisation’. With the Earth Summit highlighting the impact
of multinationals on the environment Pooran Desai, co-founder and
co-director of BioRegional Development Group, will be speaking alongside
Dr Caroline Lucas, Green Member of the European Parliament, and
Zac Goldsmith, the editor of The Ecologist; to find creative solutions
and discuss strategies towards building a future based on sustainable
commerce.
Working with a wide range of partners,
independent environmental organisation BioRegional has been creating
some of the solutions we will need to create sustainable business.
Projects range from instigating the UK’s largest eco-village,
supplying local wood products to a multinational retailer at the
same time as increasing the wildlife value of woodlands, developing
new, competitive, small-scale technology to pulp wheat straw, hemp
and flax for paper and initiating innovative local paper recycling
schemes.
Pooran Desai comments; “the
BioRegional approach is a practical expression of thinking globally
and acting locally. Localising the supply of products and services
enables us to increase local recycling and reduce unnecessary transport
and to create more stable regional economies, protected from the
destructive swings of globalisation.”
Sustainability won’t be
achieved on the basis of current economic development models. In
a global market the price of many of the products we buy does not
take into account the damage they cause to the environment and communities.
Schumacher’s response to this is ‘selective re-localisation’
or using local production for local needs where appropriate, a philosophy
which lies at the heart of BioRegional. International trade has
a place but we should move away from unnecessarily transporting
low value commodities which can be produced locally, to trading
in higher value, environmentally sound products.
Pooran Desai, and co-director
Sue Riddlestone are authors of Schumacher Briefing 8, ‘Bioregional
Solutions - for Living on One Planet’. The Schumacher Briefings
are carefully researched and clearly written booklets on key aspects
of sustainable development that offer decision makers and opinion
formers an understanding of the issues concerned and an overview
of policy implications and implementation in the UK. BioRegional
Solutions is available to buy online from www.bioregional.com or
tel. 020 8404 4880.
The lectures will be held on Saturday
2nd November at the Victoria Rooms, Queens Road, Bristol. On Sunday
3rd November a day of Sunday Sessions at CREATE Environment Centre,
Bristol will explore how the strategies discussed at the Schumacher
Lectures can be translated into positive practical initiatives at
the local level.
Tickets may be booked through
the Schumacher UK national office at the CREATE Environment Centre,
tel/fax: (0117) 903-1081. E: admin@schumacher.org.uk. Contact UK
office for further information.
Three of the UK’s leading
ethical investment institutions, Triodos Bank (banking), Holden
Meehan (independent financial advisors) and Rathbones (stockbrokers)
are supporting the Bristol 2002 Schumacher Lectures.
Notes
The speakers:
Zac Goldsmith has been the director and editor
of The Ecologist magazine since 1998. He is the associate director
of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC). He
has participated in numerous television and radio programmes and
his writings have been published throughout the world.
He states that… “the
trouble with globalisation is that it sounds so good. Global village,
unification, harmonisation – all sounds so benign at a time
of conflict, poverty and environmental degradation. But the primary
beneficiaries of economic globalisation are multinational corporations
whose power is now greater than any other force on earth, second
only to nature herself.”
Dr. Caroline Lucas became the
Green Party’s first MEP in 1999. She is vice-president of
the European Parliament’s Delegation to African, Caribbean,
and Pacific countries,and its Animal Welfare group. Caroline has
written extensively on globalisation; co-authoring “The Euro
or a Sustainable Future for Britain – a green critique of
the single currency” amongst others titles
She states that… “the
crisis of the EU is more than a simple communications problem which
can be remedied by a little more transparency. The EU must re-diversify
national and local economies and provide society’s needs in
an environmentally sustainable manner. We must put social and environmental
justice at the heart of Europe’s domestic and international
policies. To do this we must promote strong, diverse, self-reliant
regional economies”.
The Schumacher Lectures have been
run in Bristol for the past 25 years. As ”Britain’s
premier environmental gathering” (The Guardian), they bring
together individuals, organisations, cultures and ideas from all
over the world to present and discuss positive solutions to the
environmental crises of our era. At the Bristol Lectures, the annual
Schumacher Award is presented to an ‘unsung hero’ of
the UK environmental movement. Dr Fritz Schumacher most popular
book was ‘Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered’
published in 1973.
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