“FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH” – WILD PATHS FESTIVAL 2021

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Community and tagged Artel, Ben Street, Biig Piig, covid 19, Cultural Recovery Funding, Do Nothing, epic studios, featured, Franc Moody, Gonzo's Tea Room, green energy, Jerome Thomas, live music, music, NiNE8, norwich, Norwich Arts Centre, Palace, pandemic, Pip Millet, Pom Poko, Shoe Factory Social Club, Sports Team, St Laurence Church, sustainability, The Wallow, up-cycling, War of Words, Wild Paths Festival.

By Rowan Gavin

Since its foundation in 2019, Wild Paths festival has quickly become Norwich’s premier multi-venue live music event. The hotly anticipated 2021 edition of the festival will take place over four days from October 14th-17th, with headliners including Sports Team, Biig Piig and Palace as well as dozens of other acts playing at over 20 venues across the city. With just over a week to go until the festival began, I spoke to Ben Street, festival founder and director, about his experiences of organising the event.

‘BUILD BACK BETTER’: GREEN NEW DEAL NORWICH’S PROJECT TO TRANSFORM THE CITY

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged build back better, Chris Saltmarsh, climate, climate breakdown, climate change, climate crisis, climate emergency, decarbonise, environment, environmental sustainability, environmentalism, Extinction Rebellion, featured, Green, green jobs, green new deal, Green New Deal Norwich, Green New Deal UK, Green Party, jobs for all, Leon Sealey-Huggins, Livvy Hanks, Norfolk County Council, norfolk network, norwich & district trades council, Norwich City Council, norwich green party, Norwich Greens, Norwich Labour Party, Sabine Virani, sustainability, UEA Labour, XR.

By Sean Meleady

Environmentalists and green activists in Norwich have been coming together to discuss ways in which the city could address climate breakdown, and how, in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the city could ‘build back better’. Green New Deal UK’s Norwich hub is part of a nationwide network of groups hoping to combat climate breakdown. Describing a Green New Deal (GND) as ‘our map for a future worth fighting for’, they have five key goals they hope to achieve within the next decade, which they describe as ‘a fork in the road for humanity’.

WHY NORWICH NEEDS A GREEN NEW DEAL

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Community and tagged accountability, air pollution, Alexandria Ocasio Coretz, austerity, build back better, carbon emissions, climate change, common ownership, coronavirus, covid, cycling, democracy, economics, featured, gloal justice, government, green economics, green new deal, Green New Deal UK, Green Party, growth, habitats, infrastructure, jobs, Labour, lewes, Liberal Democrats, london, norfolk, Norfolk County Council, norwich, Norwich City Council, pandemic, privatisation, recession, roads, schools, Sheffield, sustainability, uk, USA, wealth inequality.

By Olivia Hanks

Between 2013 and 2019, an era of ‘austerity’, most of us noticed a marked deterioration in the quality of our public spaces and infrastructure – existing roads and pavements not maintained, school buildings getting shabbier, public facilities closing. During that period, Norfolk County Council oversaw at least £725m of funded infrastructure projects. Incredibly, more than £650m of this was for building or widening roads.

POWER, FOOD AND LAND: SEEDS OF HOPE AND RESISTANCE – PART 2

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged agriculture, community supported agriculture, environment, Eves Hill Community Market Garden, food, food sovereignty, food system, La Via Campesina, local, Norwich Farm Share, resistance, soil, sustainability.

by Lotty Clare

We are all actors in a global hegemonic food and agricultural system that is increasingly undemocratic, unjust, and dominated by corporate interest in the hands of a rich minority. Part 1 explored how this has happened and the impacts of power concentration and intensification of agriculture globally. Much of the food we buy from supermarkets is packaged in plastic, , and has thousands air-miles attached to it as it has often been shipped across the world before reaching our trollies. The public has lost a connection to the land and lacks any kind of relationship to where its food comes from, and how it is grown, and indeed there is a great deal of ignorance around food production, nutrition, storage and even cooking. Sadly, it is ultimately the poorest and more marginalised people in society who are impacted the most by food poverty, having to buy and consume cheap food with poor nutritional value. Amidst rising levels of food poverty in the UK, we also have vast amounts of food waste on a household and commercial level, as about ⅓ of food is wasted.

BRITAIN AS A CO-OPERATIVE ECONOMY: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY?

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged co-operative, coalition, collective, conservative, consumer co-operative, consumers, cooperative, david cameron, development, economy, ethical, free market, growth, local, Madison, Mondragon, multinationals, neoliberal, shareholders, spain, sustainability, theresa may, US, Wisconsin, worker co-operative, workers.

by Oliver Steward

The UK’s free-market economy as a whole is facing one crisis after another. That is why policy makers and businesses need to consider the co-operative option which offers products and services to our economy. Our corporate and political culture’s lack of innovation and strict adherence to the neoliberal free market means this is sadly more of a dream than reality. However, other nations have successfully replicated this alternative economic model to adapt to their own individual needs.Continue Reading

DIRTY MONEY – HOW ETHICAL ARE OUR UNIVERSITIES’ INVESTMENTS?

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged BHP Billiton, BP, business, climate change, curriculum, direct action, divestment, education, energy, energy policy, Erasmus University, ethical investment, ethics, ExxonMobil, fossil free, fossil fuel industry, fossil fuels, global, global community, global warming, growth, higher education, hunger strike, innovation, investment, King's College London, lobbying, local, money, morality, non-profit universities, Norwich University of the Arts, occupation, People & Planet, progress, renewable energy, renewables research, research, research funding, Rio Tinto, Roger Hallam, Rotterdam School of Management, Shell, student activism, students, sustainability, tuition fees, universities, university community, University of East Anglia, venture capital.

by Laura Potts

Each university is different from one another. Moreover, they are very different from most other institutions of all types. On one hand they are educational institutions; on the other they are businesses. As businesses they make investments, though this is not something we would usually think of as a priority of educators. It is worth taking the time to investigate what your university is truly involved with and if their investments are ethical, not only for moral peace of mind but also to have a clearer idea of what your tuition fees are being put toward.

THE AMAZON

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged biodiversity, BNDES, Brazil, carbon, carbon sink, climate change, co2, deforestation, drought, environment, indigenous rights, nature, planet, rainforest, sustainability, The Amazon, World Bank.

by Gunnar Eigener

The Amazon contains just over half of the world’s remaining rainforest. Home to some 390 billion trees, one in ten living plant and animal species and annually absorbing approximately 1.5 gigaton of carbon dioxide, this rainforest is one of the last few significant land carbon sinks. The effects of climate change were demonstrated when the Amazon briefly lost its ability to absorb carbon dioxide during severe droughts in 2005 and 2010.

The Amazon has long been a poster-child for the environmental movement and its importance has never ceased, although other causes have taken some of the coverage and media interest away. The time has come to refocus on the Amazon before the damage becomes irreparable. The consequences of losing it would be globally catastrophic.Continue Reading

THE FAILINGS OF GREEN GOVERNMENT – AN INTERVIEW WITH CARL SCHLYTER OF THE SWEDISH GREEN PARTY

Posted on April 16, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Carl Schylter, caroline lucas, climate change, coalition, economy, environment, environmental sustainability, environmentalism, gdp, Global Greens, Global Greens Congress, GMOs, goal, Green, Green Party, Green Party of England and Wales, green politics, greens, Gustav Fridolin, immigration, Isabella Lovin, Jonathan Bartley, Lib Dems, Liberal Democrats, liberals, migrants, migration, military, miljopartiet de gronne, Nato, politics, privatisation, sustainability, Sweden, Swedish Green Party, swedish politics, Swedish Social Democrats, tax.

By Olivia Hanks

There were inspiring stories from Green parties all around the world at the Global Greens congress in Liverpool, but arguably one of the most uplifting came from Isabella Lövin. The Swedish Green Party spokesperson has been minister for international development cooperation since her party entered government in coalition with the Social Democrats in October 2014.

Lövin recounted how, despite being by far the junior partner in the coalition (25 seats in parliament to the Social Democrats’ 113), the Greens have brought about numerous changes in policy: “We have put forward a climate law obliging all future governments to achieve net zero emissions by 2045,” she told delegates. “We also have a broad cross-party agreement to have 100 percent renewable electricity by 2040. And, mind you – without nuclear power!”

TRANSITION UNIVERSITIES – THE STUDENT RADICAL #8

Posted on January 28, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged biodiversity, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University, energy, energy efficiency, experimentation, food, Heriot-Watt University, higher education, mental health, reuse, Scotland, skillshares, St Andrews, Stirling University, student activism, student life, student radical, students, sustainability, transition, Transition Network, Transition Universities, travel, university, University of St Andrews, university staff.

A decade and a half into the 21st century, many believe that the metamorphosis of student into consumer is complete. The student activist and the radical student movement are consigned to history. Despite the hiccup of the anti-fees protests in 2010, the modern student is more concerned with getting their money’s worth in education than they are about changing the world.

So some would have you think. Over the two years since the first run of this series, the student movement has grown further in depth, diversity and scope. This new set of articles seeks to explore the student campaigns that are redefining our time: what they have achieved, what they mean for the student movement, and their impact on the Higher Education sector as a whole.

By Maria Cooper

I went to university in St Andrews, Scotland. Well, in a sense I went to two – the old conventional institution you’ve heard of, and the far more inspiring Transition University of St Andrews. Transition started out for me as something I just did to survive – it was cheaper to grow food than buy it, cheaper to swap clothes and books than buy them, and being outside planting trees or mending bikes was a life-giving contrast to the stuffy library and theoretical learning that otherwise filled my days. Besides, many of my friends and I often felt that sort of depression so prevalent among students. What difference am I making in the world? Who cares about yet another essay, being read by one tutor and then put on the pile of student pride or shame never to be looked at again?

SUSTAINABLE GROWTH: THE MYTH AND THE PARADOX

Posted on December 2, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged climate, climate change, climate crisis, david martin, ecology, economics, economy, environment, environmental, environmental sustainability, environmentalism, european committee on international trade, european union, fossil fuels, growth, hinkley point, MEP, molly scott cato, sustainability, sustainable, sustainable growth, trident.

by Olivia Hanks

The graph that emerged recently showing the unprecedented fall in global sea ice coverage was a chilling sight for many. Not, though, for Labour MEP David Martin, author of a European Committee on International Trade document celebrating climate change as creating new opportunities for the economic development of the Arctic”.

The comment, spotted and lambasted by Green MEP Molly Scott Cato, might seem extreme in its suicidal logic: we’re burning down the house, but look, we can use the newly exposed rafters for more firewood!

sustainability

‘BUILD BACK BETTER’: GREEN NEW DEAL NORWICH’S PROJECT TO TRANSFORM THE CITY

By Sean Meleady

WHY NORWICH NEEDS A GREEN NEW DEAL

By Olivia Hanks

BRITAIN AS A CO-OPERATIVE ECONOMY: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY?

DIRTY MONEY – HOW ETHICAL ARE OUR UNIVERSITIES’ INVESTMENTS?

THE AMAZON

TRANSITION UNIVERSITIES – THE STUDENT RADICAL #8

SUSTAINABLE GROWTH: THE MYTH AND THE PARADOX

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