Asad Rehman, the executive director or War on Want, gave a fascinating talk, ‘ Green Energy – Costing the Earth’, at our meeting on 16 March 2022. War on Want have recently published a report, ‘A Material Transition’ about the materials that go into the production of the things we are using for our green transition – like windmills, solar panels and electric cars. Asad said that we don’t want to introduce another disaster in order to sort out the one we are trying to fix. In other words, if we grab land in poor countries in order to carry out exploitative mining etc. just so we can continue with our unsustainable lifestyles, we won’t be better off than we are now. We need to think about things in the round. For example we need to get rid of planned obsolescence, ensure products can be recycled, look at the circular economy and how we could reorganise society so we live within planetary boundaries. Asad is optimistic that we can create a better world.
You can find the full report on the War on Want website: https://www.waronwant.org/resources/a-material-transition.
23rd April: Beanpole Day 2022
Sat 21 May: UK Day of Action on Corporate Courts
Sat 4 June: Waterfest
Sat 18 June: Winnersh Fete
Sun 26 June: East Reading Festival
Future meetings:
At RISC, 35-39 London Street, RG1 4PS
Wed May 25 – Tim Brierly with an update on the Pharmaceutical Campaign
Wed July 20
Wed Sept 28
Wed Nov 23
