The Great Debate @ Green Phoenix Festival 2010
Devonshire Building, Newcastle University, 20 - 22 August 2010
The Great Debate's
Green Phoenix Festival
programme of debates and talks was held 20 - 22 August 2010
in the Devonshire Building, Newcastle University,
hosted by RCE North East.
The event, the first of its kind, consisted of a
full programme of debates and talks with activists, writers,
academics and practitioners exploring
a broad range of topics related to the themes:
Securing our Future [SOF], Sustainable Culture [SC],
Being Human in the 21st Century [BH21] & Pushing Limits [PL].
With over 30 speakers, 9 debates and 5 talks
on a huge variety of topics our packed programme had something
for everyone.
So, if you feel like exercising your grey matter,
and want to know more about the arguments then read on ...
in association with
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What is Sustainable Culture?
[SC, PL]
11:30am, Friday, 20 August
In 1987 the United Nations World Commission on Environment
and Development (WCED) published Our Common Future
(AKA the Brundtland Report), introducing the now classic definition
of sustainable development as
“development that meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Since then the term ‘sustainable’ has become increasingly common,
being routinely applied to everything from housing to jobs,
economics to culture. Has the term lost its meaning in the process
or does this change represent a real paradigm shift?
What role does Everyman play in this story?
Can we, as communities and societies, create a culture of sustainability?
Or have we already moved into the era of sustainable culture?
Does this take use towards a better future or does it trap us in the present?
Does this encourage us to accept limits or does it help us to push
against them? What role do imagination and innovation play in this story?
with
Jonathan Dawson,
Findhorn Eco-Village
Alex Hochuli,
writer, member of
Battle of Ideas
festival committee, researcher in ethical consumerism
Clive Lord,
founder member of the Green Party
Chair: Jon Bryan
What is Sustainable Culture?
proceedings by Caspar Hewett
Top of page
Are we masters of our own destiny? [BH21]
2pm, Friday, 20 August
For two hundred years the idea of the subject has had a
central place in Western thought about the special nature of
humanity. This is a description of human as active beings
doing things for reasons and shaping the world to their own ends.
Yet, in recent years, fields as diverse as neuroscience, literary
criticism and Evolutionary Psychology have converged on a very
different vision of what we are. We are now invited
to think of humans as machines; zombies experiencing the
illusion of choice and intentionality. Why is this?
Does this reflect a new understanding of what we really are or are
these interpretations more to do with the way we view ourselves today?
Is this scientistic view of what we are closer to reality than our
lived experience or are we truly masters of our own destiny?
with
Rita Carter, author
The Brain Book, Consciousness, Mapping the Mind
David Large, freelance philosopher,
founder member of Newcastle
Philosophy Society
Jeremy Taylor, author
Not a Chimp
Chair: Caspar Hewett
Click here for review of "Are
we masters of our own destiny?" by Jeremy Taylor
The Borders of Reality [PL]
5pm, Friday, 20 August
Reality or myth: a Shaolin monk can live for nine days
without food, water or sleep; a particle could be in one place
at one instant and at another on the other side of the galaxy
the next; the power of the mind can cure the most aggressive cancer?
Sometimes the real world can be more incredible than the stuff of
fairy tales. Quantum physics tells us that there is no distinction
between a wave and a particle and that it is impossible to know speed
and position at the same time. Modern telescopes show us the past,
enabling us to see the right back to the birth of the Universe.
Medical science tells us that placebos
can be as effective as established drugs.
So how do we decide what is possible and what is not?
Could things that we think of as fantasy actually be part of a
bizarre reality? Is it time to reassess what we call magic? Anyone for
Quidditch?
with
Irene D'Amico,
quantum physicist, University of York
Elise Jennings,
University of Durham
Martin J. Ward,
Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology Group,
Department of Physics, University of Durham
Chair: David Large
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Food and Water Security [SOF, PL]
11:30am, Saturday, 21 August
The threat that the changing climate poses to people's access to
drinking water and to agriculture is one that needs to be taken
seriously. This raises questions about how much we know about what
those changes might be and how we should respond to them.
How much do they affect us here in the developed world?
What do they mean for people in the developing world?
Does the transition movement have the right idea in focusing on
reducing fossil fuel use and drastically reducing carbon emissions?
Should we move towards community agriculture or expand intensive farming?
Should we concentrate on how to provide everyone with food and water now
and in the future or should we accept that there are too many people
on the planet today as some commentators have argued?
What legacy do we want and expect future generations to inherit
in terms of food and water security?
with
Tony Allan,
2008 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate,
founder of London University's Water Issues Group
John Gowing,
Reader in Agricultural Water Management, Newcastle University
Paul Quinn,
Senior Lecturer in Catchment Hydrology, Newcastle University
Chair: Caspar Hewett
Energising Innovation [SOF, SC, PL]
2pm, Saturday, 21 August
In the context of climate change and peak oil the discussion of energy
provision is focused on moving away from reliance on fossil fuels.
Renewables such as solar, wind and wave power will clearly be part of
the picture, but how reliable are they and how much of our energy
requirements can they provide? Nuclear power has a new found popularity,
yet there is still the problem of what to do with the waste.
So what can we expect over the next few decades? Are we going to
see any real change in the way we supply and use energy? What sort of
innovative thinking could take us beyond where we are today? Is there a
new paradigm waiting around the corner?
with
Niel Bowerman,
co-founder and former Executive Director,
Climatico,
co-founder, The Climate Justice Project
Kola
Liadi Mudashiru, Research Associate in the clean use of
fossil fuels, Sir Joseph Swan Institute for
Energy Research
James Woudhuysen, visiting
Professor of Forecasting and Innovation, De Montfort University, author,
Energise!:
A Future for Energy Innovation
Chair: Dave O'Toole
Top of page
Limits to Imagination [PL]
5pm, Saturday, 21 August
Since the dawn of time the imagination has played a huge role
in improving the human condition, from great literature to the
way we use resources to inventing new ways to organise society,
always taking us beyond where we are now. So, just how powerful
is the imagination? What can we learn from other cultures about its
potential? How much does it affect our reality? In an age in which
education has been redefined as job and skills training are we at
risk of stifling our imagination? How can we reinvigorate the
imagination to ensure that the future is better than the present?
with
Andrew Calcutt,
University of East London
Jonathan Dawson, Story teller
Chair: Mo Lovatt
The Legacy of Multiculturalism [BH21]
11:30am, Sunday, 22 August
The idea of multiculturalism first emerged in the 1970s,
emphasising and celebrating cultural differences as a counter to
racist ideas, and replacing the notion of race with ethnicity.
Its advocates argue for the acceptance of multiple ethnic cultures,
and advocate extending equitable status to distinct ethnic and
religious groups without promoting any one set of values.
Is this a form of relativism that undermines the possibility of
finding universal values? How does the celebration of difference
square with the idea of equality? Has multiculturalism brought people
together or driven them apart? What is the legacy of multiculturalism?
with
Suzy Dean,
journalist, researcher and writer on democracy,
multiculturalism and cities
Diana
Mavroleon, film-maker, producer-presenter,
Resonance fm, contributor,
Confluence Magazine
Amir Saeed,
Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies,
University of Sunderland
Oscar Watson,
Director, Intercultural Arts
Chair: Mo Lovatt
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Limits to Growth in 21st Century [PL]
2pm, Sunday, 22 August
The 1972 Club of Rome report The Limits to Growth
warned that oil was running out and that more generally
the resources we use were going to become increasingly scarce.
Nearly forty years later many of the projections in this ground
breaking report have proved greatly exaggerated yet the sense that
limited resources represent one of the most important challenges
to humanity is stronger than ever. Today the term ‘unfettered growth’
is often used with disdain, and those who argue for continued growth
are accused of encouraging greed, damaging the environment and
widening social inequalities. So, what are the limits to growth that
we face today? Are they social or natural? Should we accept them or
attempt to transcend them?
What sort of world do we want for present and future generations?
Video of proceedings
with
Daniel Ben-Ami,
author Cowardly Capitalism,
Ferraris for All: In Defence of Economic Progress
Richard Dyer,
Transport and Climate Campaigner, Friends of the Earth
Phil O'Keefe, Professor
of Economic Development and Environmental Management,
University of Northumbria
Chair: Dave O'Toole
Limits to Freedom [PL]
4pm, Sunday, 22 August
How important is the idea of freedom in our time? The last few decades
have seen an unprecedented attack on our individual and collective
liberty, from limits on our right to party through to the loss of
the right to silence. Today’s politics even sets out to limit
what we think through controls on language and restrictions on
what ideas we can be exposed to. Yet there is little real discussion
about what freedom is and why we should defend it. Is freedom just
the right to be left alone? Is it primarily about formal rights,
or lived experience? What about competing freedoms such as the right
to free speech versus the right to not be offended?
Why does freedom matter anyway? What limits to freedom is it
reasonable to accept?
with
Suzy Dean,
journalist, researcher and writer on democracy,
multiculturalism and cities
Alex Lockwood,
University of Sunderland, specialist in practice and
theory of green journalism
David O’Toole,
The Great Debate
Chair: Caspar Hewett
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This programme is part of
thegreatnortherndebate
project, ratified by the
United Nations University Institute
of Advanced Studies as a
Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development project.
The Green Phoenix festival itself is the first festival of its
kind in the UK to be ratified by RCE North East.
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Comments on The Great Debate Green Phoenix festival programme
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Virtual water and footprints: down from five to two point five
“I have been invited to speak on two occasions at the Great Debate in 2010.
Both were very lively and deeply engaged affairs. It was evident that the
ideas were new on issues which everyone has some awareness and strong opinions.
My point was to show that our awareness is almost always incomplete and not
very useful in shaping personal consumption. Everyone got the message that
the food we eat each day has a lot of water embedded in it. And that what
we eat has an impact on the consumption of water. Someone who eats a lot
of grain fed-beef has a water footprint of 5.0 cubic metres per day.
A veggie only consumes 2.5 cubic metres per day.
“It was clear that everyone was listening and this was confirmed by the questions
which more than filled the time for debate. It was good to see how the ideas –
often uncomfortable – were received.”
Tony Allan, 2008 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate,
founder of London University's Water Issues Group
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“It was indeed a great debate. My experience of the Great British Public
is that only ¼ 'buy' the climate change/sustainability paradigm (up
from less than 10% 35 years ago), but embedded in the other ¾ are 10% who
actively oppose it. It was therefore a shock to meet so many articulate
opponents, among the attenders, not just the hand-picked speakers.
Very good to be put on the spot. Each of us see ourselves as the under-dog.
They feel that steady state is the new orthodoxy, we on our side think that is
barely skin deep, and that the pro-growthers still represent the status quo.
To be continued?”
Clive Lord, Founder Member, Green Party
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“Taking part in the Great Debate is always a deeply challenging personal experience.
This time was no different. I had not thought enough about issues of
freedom and choice in the past year, as one tends to do when work and life
are so full. The Great Debate offers valuable time to step out of the day-to-day
and really think about significant issues that affect our cultures and societies,
issues we often barely give a second thought. So I thank The Great Debate Team
and the sponsors and supporters, especially RCE North East, for the opportunity
to do just this.
“All the debates I attended, including the one I took part in on the
Limits to Freedom,
were stimulating, open and fair. People gave of themselves freely and
unselfishly in their opinions and their willingness to listen to those of others,
despite the essential tensions that such debates generate. It is, however, the tension
between authority and freedom that I think is the most important thing
The Great Debate allows us to discuss, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to say
a few things on the subject, as unimportant as my single voice may be.”
Alex Lockwood, University of Sunderland
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“The Great Debate is a wonderful opportunity for the Renaissance man
within us all. It provides an open platform for discussion on a wide
range of subjects touching on human nature and society and on our
perception of and, indeed, our connection with the Universe we find
ourselves in. It can throw light on the power of understanding and
imagination. A friendly meeting of minds, nourished by the invited speakers,
specialists in their own fields and themselves forced by the debate to
answer to the bigger picture! Attendees cannot but help feel that they
have been given a mental workout and feeling all the more alive, stimulated
and aware because of it.”
Dr. Richard Fong, University of Durham
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“A really stimulating event that asked the participants to dig deep, to question
their deepest assumptions and to think outside of the box – all in an atmosphere
of relaxed conviviality.
“Festivals of ideas are something we need more of – thanks for showing the way.”
Jonathan Dawson, story teller, Findhorn Eco-Village
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“I welcome debates like the one on Limits to Economic Growth. They enable
a wide variety of people to engage in the really big issues that affect us all.
“There was clearly a wide variety of ages and a big diversity of views
represented in the audience, which can only be a good thing”
Richard Dyer, Friends of the Earth
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“It was a privilege to take part in the recent RCE sponsored debate
“The Legacy of Multiculturalism”. The panel invited were clearly passionate about
the issues and the debate with the audience was stimulating and challenging.
The event itself was run a professional but open manner. Such events can only
enhance the reputation of all partners and people involved. Given the current
socio-political climate these events are all the more necessary for people to
engage and debate new ideas.”
Amir Saeed, University of Sunderland
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“I had great fun participating in the Great Debates both at the
European Geosciences Union in Vienna, and in Newcastle, sponsored by RCE Northeast.
The debates were lively and thought-provoking, and though I came with an intention
of persuading others, the audience caused me to think twice about a few issues.
“The debates use lots of audience participation, which helps ensure that the
trickiest issues don't get ignored. I would recommend for everyone to go along
and engage with the biggest questions for our generation.”
Niel Bowerman, co-founder and former Executive Director, Climatico, co-founder,
The Climate Justice Project
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“I agreed to do this date, long in advance of knowing that it exactly coincided
with Newcastle United’s first home game of the season. The Regional Centre of
Expertise (RCE) in Education for Sustainable Development has a long and distinguished
history of establishing platforms for debating world futures in the context of
North East England. But a commitment is a commitment, even if, as I arrived,
I could hear the St. James crowd in the background minus my voice.
“But what a crowd for The Great Debate Green Phoenix Festival. Long balls from
the environmentalists, short stabs from the growth merchants, bewildered social
dreamers in the middle. A crowd that was incisive and knowing with a range of
experience that exceeded that of the formal speakers. What kind of growth?
What was the role of finance capital? Was decoupling economic growth from resource
use necessarily the road to a bleak future? The interchanges were swift and sure
and I admired again the quality of intellectual exchange that is possible in Newcastle.
“Newcastle won 6-0: RCE won by a rugby margin, 25-0.”
Phil O'Keefe, Professor
of Economic Development and Environmental Management, Northumbria University
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“I first came upon 'The Great Debate' a couple of years ago when a friend
told me about an event called 'Agents of Change?: Darwinian Thought and
Theories of Human Nature'.
A fairly new arrival in the North East, I had up to this point been rather
disappointed by the excessively scientific edge to the public debates I had
attended up to this point. Science is, after all, what we do best in the
North East apparently! I was thus pleasantly surprised to find a mix of
philosophers, scientists, engineers and academics approaching the debates
from a variety of angles. I remember leaving the event with my head buzzing
and some of my more concretely held assumptions about human nature deeply
challenged. Having been to a number of other events held by 'The Great Debate'
since then, I have always been impressed by the range of topics covered
(from quantum physics to multiculturalism; from biodiversity to economic growth),
the quality of the speakers and the unfailingly warm and friendly atmosphere
that encourages audience members to contribute to the debates.”
Anthony Morgan
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The Open Air Laboratories (OPAL) Network
How healthy is your local pond or lake?
The creatures that live there can give important clues about the water quality
OPAL North East is based at the University of Newcastle
and is part of the
Open Air Laboratories network, an England-wide
project funded by the Big Lottery Fund. OPAL aims to create a new
generation of nature lovers by encouraging people to explore, study
and protect their local environment.
OPAL has launched its national Water Survey and we want everybody
to get involved! Creatures living in the water can tell us a great
deal about how polluted the habitat may be. By telling us what life
you see in your local pond you’ll discover more about the water's
health and contribute to valuable scientific research.
Water survey packs and further information on how to take part will
be available at the OPAL stand. You can also visit
our website.
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