Our Climate Conversation

Every time we visit the supermarket or the petrol pump or stare at the pay cheque, we are reminded that the old economic system is broken. Those who work hardest for the economy (working people, unpaid carers and small businesses) benefit the least from the way the economy works at the moment – losing out to billionaires and big corporations. To end the current era of profligate consumption by the few that has consequences for the many, we have to change the way we think about pretty much everything: wealth, power, joy, time, space, nature, value, what constitutes a good life, what matters, how change itself happens. Let’s focus on the well-being of communities rather than the profits of corporations. We deserve a story that gives a sustainable future for our families, that concentrates on things like insulating our homes and improving the social care system paid for by taxing extreme wealth and obscene corporate profits. As Dora Meade of New Economy Organisers Network says:”We can have an economic system that tackles inequality, protects the planet and properly funds the schools, hospitals and communities we all rely on”

We also have the right to ask our political representatives, who fundamentally are employed by us, to work for us to implement this system, and engage us in the conversation, something they have abjectly failed to do so far. We should look forward to a new devolved system where power and resources are distributed to regional and local level, and make plans to show readiness. When money becomes available we must be able to bid for it, not like Worcestershire County Council that was zero-rated by Active Travel England and failed to secure bus route funding.

Two North London artists set up the Power Station movement as a Community Interest Company and by clubbing together and guaranteeing a minimum number of installations all in essentially the same or adjoining postcode they brought the price per install (insulation and solar panels) in each house down by 50%. Bromsgrove, you could do this. Identify the communities and streets and the people with the skill sets, and make the case. Let us also support the Community Shop due to open in the town shortly (we hope), the 144 Bus Campaign, and request more free Warm Welcome spaces that are sadly in short supply in our district.

So fellow citizens, it is time to make a choice about what future we really want. Will it be a fair society and a citizen-led end to the fossil fuel era OR continued harm to all humans and the planet, locked in by greedy elites? We rely on each other – let us fix the system, it’s not hard! And build an unstoppable momentum for change. It's up to us.