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EDITOR IN CHIEFSARAH SANTHOSHAM

CREATIVE EDITOR MATTHEW ROBINSON

DEPUTY EDITORS FREYA BRADLEY

VIOLET BRANDVICKY CLAYTON

ILANA MASADLYDIA RAE

JAMES RAINEYYARA RODRIGUES-FOWLER

MAEVE SCULLION

ILLUSTRATIONS ALEXANDRA PULLEN

PHOTOGRAPHY MATTHEW ROBINSON

CONTRIBUTORSFREYA BRADLEYMOYA BURNSVICKY CLAYTON MICHAEL DAVIESCLAIRE FENNER BETH HANSON-JONES JENNA HOLDERALASTAIR MARSHABIGAIL MOTLEYEVE MCQUILLIANLYDIA RAEJAMES RAINEY MATTHEW ROBINSONROBERT SCHOONMAKER

PRINTERS OXUNI PRINT

WITH THANKS TOMAX RICHARDSONTHEO SUNDH

E&ECONTENTS

TRINITY TERM 2013 - OUSU PRESENTS ENVIRONMENT & ETHICS

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EDITORIAL

Every day we are faced with new research in-

forming us about the devastating effects of

climate change. Faced with such content, it is

easy to be overwhelmed and disengaged – the is-

sues are too complex, we’re not sure which sources

to trust, or perhaps we don’t think our individual ac-

tions can make a difference.

The truth, however, is that environmental and ethi-

cal issues needn’t be perceived as so complex, and

we don’t need degrees in Environmental Science to

understand what’s going on and how we can do our

part to mitigate the risks of climate change.

Environment & Ethics magazine stemmed from

an idea to challenge the doom-mongering way in

which literature on climate change is written, and

to make the issues facing us accessible, interest-

ing and relevant to students’ everyday lives. It is not

the intention of this magazine to tell you what you

should and shouldn’t do. Rather, we have provided

an approachable introduction to a range of topics

we regularly interact with – from food to fashion, en-

ergy to education – and have covered them from an

environmental and ethical standpoint. We’ve put to-

gether features on issues such as “can insects be our

new food source?”, taken a day trip to a recycling

plant and spent an afternoon with some College

gardeners to provide a more unusual and interest-

ing approach to the issues we come across so often.

Environmental and ethical work shouldn’t be op-

tional extras. As students, it’s up to us to engage in

the issues that will affect us all in the future. We hope

that your journey though these topics doesn’t end

with this magazine. Throughout, we have integrated

simple and practical steps you can take to make a

positive difference to the planet and its people. In

Oxford there are myriads of groups, both student

and community led, working on environmental and

ethical matters. If any of the issues covered have in-

spired you to take action and get involved, we’ve

profiled 18 local groups at the end to help you get

started!

Sarah Santhosham

Editor in Chief

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FAIR TRADE“Fair trade’s a nice idea, but I don’t really have the money to buy it, and whatever I choose isn’t really going to make a differ-ence - I can’t remember there being much in Tesco’s anyway.” A fair appraisal of what most Oxford students would say? Probably. A fair point? Absolutely not. We’ve all been there, with reps of every description ask-ing for our money, time, or even worse, that we give up stuff. When you’re busy, it is very difficult to care. But Fair trade is so much more than just a ‘nice idea’: if there’s just one good turn you do in your time at Oxford, changing your buying habits is a must. Here’s a brief explanation of why and how.Paying farmers a fair price for their produce is a sustainable way to empower the citizens of developing countries – by-passing the unfair trade rules imposed by the developed world. Fair trade is one of the only schemes to address the structural issues causing poverty and inequality in develop-ing nations. That’s a bit less patronising than doling out aid money, which bandages the problem but doesn’t change it. You have to do your shopping anyway – if fair trade is cheap and easy to get hold of, why not buy it? There are schemes in Oxford: oxcoop.com - which has an online or-dering system; or OxHub’s shop, open on Fridays, where prices are only 10-30 percent more than supermarket own brand (a matter of pennies). OxHub stock from a catalogue of over 482 Fairtrade products – everything from cereal to soap. Fairtrade@St Michaels, on Cornmarket, has beauti-ful gifts, clothes and crafts, as well as food. If you’re out for a coffee, google ‘Oxford fair trade map’ for a list of par-ticipating cafes: TSK, Greens and Art Cafe are favourites. Feeling more convinced? Ask your JCR to stock Fair-trade in their cafes, bars, and especially welfare teas (OxCoop do special deals) - then it’s not even your own money! Ask your E&E or charities rep. Sign up to receive OxHub’s weekly email which will tell you about fair trade events in Oxford – inspiration is key to keeping yourself on track when it comes to lifestyle decisions! Whatever you do, the important point is to get into the habit of consider-ing the effect your buying choices have on other people. So, if you want a way to make a difference, ‘give’ your money to spending a little more on food. This is something which will stick with you for life, and think how much cumulative difference, and influence, that could have.

EXPLAINEDTHE DEBATE

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

Fairtrade goods are expanding into all ar-eas of the global consumer market, and the sale of Fairtrade goods grew by 12 percent in 2011 – despite the economic downturn. It is clear that Western consum-ers are willing to pay the price to improve working conditions for farmers in devel-oping countries. But is fair trade actually doing all it can to help the world’s poor-est farmers? Is fair trade really that ‘fair’? The advantages of fair trade seem clear: it provides a higher, more stable price for farmers in the world’s developing regions. fairtrade boosts incomes, improves quality of life, and gives farmers the chance to in-vest in improving their own practices. The scheme allows farmers in the developing world to take advantage of, rather than lose out to, the global market. On top of this, fai trade protects workers’ rights by guarantee-ing minimum health and safety standards, freedom of association, collective bargain-ing and no discrimination or bonded labour. This provides a level of security for farm-ers often lacking in developing countries. There are further benefits, beyond the imme-diate financial ones. For Western consumers buying Fairtrade products, there is reassur-ance to be gained from knowing that the goods have been produced in a way that is

IS IT ALL THAT FAIR?

BETH HANSON-JONES is a fourth-year Chemist at St Hugh’s and was formerly the E&E Officer for OUSU

CLAIRE FENNER is a second-year Geog-rapher at Hertford and the founder of OxCo-op

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THE DEBATE

environmentally sustainable. 64 percent of consumers believe that Fairtrade has strict standards and 75 percent are familiar with the logo. Fairtrade has clearly had an impact on how consumers choose their products, con-tributing to ethical considerations in shopping. But there are also serious shortcomings to fair trade. Only five percent of the sale price makes it back to the farmers; even this five percent doesn’t always benefit the poorest. Fairtrade-certified cooperatives have to meet certain standards: this tends to mean that only richer farmers - who have skills, educa-tion and capital - benefit. In a recent article, Peter Griffiths, an economist and spokesper-son for the anti-Fairtrade movement, sug-gested that the majority of Fairtrade suppliers are in middle to higher income strata. More developed economies do seem to benefit most from fair trade: the three largest pro-ducers of fair trade coffee in 2011 were Peru, Columbia and Mexico. These Latin Ameri-can economies have a higher GDP per cap-ita, and a higher average wage rate, than most African nations. Fair trade, by fixing the buying price of produce, can incentiv-ize overproduction in a way that depresses the global market price and impoverishes poorer farmers not part of the scheme. Given this - is it really helping those most in need?

Perhaps ‘something’ to help developing world farmers is better than nothing. Here, the counter-argument is that fair trade can result in an excessive focus on increasing wages (by relatively insignificant amounts) rather than much-needed focus on trans-forming local economies through agricul-tural investment and social change. Devel-opment charities such as Wordwrite have criticized fair trade on this count, pointing out that - rather than fundamentally altering the system that produces poverty - fair trade locks farmers into that system and does lit-tle to change their situation in the long term. What Fairtrade does do, is provide a use-ful branding tool for companies that may otherwise be engaged in unethical prac-tices. Consumers buying Fairtrade prod-ucts feel they are doing their bit to solve global poverty, when the actual impli-cations of fair trade are far from clear. Despite its popularity across the world, Fair-trade has arguably done little for the world’s poorest farmers. Nor has it fundamentally changed the situation of those it does benefit. While Fairtrade has contributed to a boom in ethical brands and brought the sourcing of products to the forefront of consumers’ minds, it seems that on the whole Fairtrade has not lived up to its own selling point - of being truly fair.

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IT’S A PERSONAL CHOICE; LET’S MAKE IT AN INFORMED ONE

It’s very easy to justify our own actions. Talking earlier this

week with friends who happen to be vegetarian, the general

consensus was that, though we all had initially one specific

reason for choosing vegetarianism, we realised that the longer

we adopted the eating habits, the more reasons we adopted too.

My ‘journey’ towards vegetarianism began with energy effi-

ciency. Remember those Year 7 biology lessons? Every time you

go up the feeding chain (from plants to animals, and animals to

humans) energy is lost, meaning that eating cattle which have

been feed on grain is far more energy-inefficient than eating

the grain ourselves. Energy efficiency may sound like an odd,

rather abstract and ideological reason to stop eating sausages

but the way I see it is that it has very real effects on lives of others.

Rising meat consumption around the world due to increasing

wealth has led to large scale deforestation to make way for

pastures to feed livestock. This has considerable environmen-

tal impacts including loss of biodiversity and the destruction

of habitats. Crucially, however, deforestation is a major con-

tributor to climate change: Indonesia and Brazil are now the

world’s third and fourth largest emitters of carbon dioxide not

because of industrial prosperity but due to the rate at which

forests are being burned for agriculture. As you may also know

(and have sniggered quietly at), cattle produce A LOT of meth-

ane, which has 20 times the impact on climate change when

compared with carbon dioxide. The effect of greenhouse gases

is already being seen in some of the world’s poorest countries.

I understand if biodiversity, energy efficiency, deforesta-

tion or animal rights sound very abstract, far away and ir-

relevant, but they have very real concrete consequences: you

can feed a lot more people on a vegetarian diet. The world

has enough food to feed everyone but yet a billion peo-

ple go to bed hungry every night. It requires on average six

pounds of grain to produce one pound of edible meat: five

extra pounds could go to feed humans on a vegetarian diet.

This is a very human-centric way of looking at it, but it’s my

way of looking at it. We can question whether we have the

right to use animals for our needs at all, and ask “why?” in-

stead of “Why not?” when we know that our actions cause

harm. These and a dozen other questions were considered

and answered. Though they were less central to my deci-

sion, I at least considered them: if one is born into some-

thing (including vegetarianism), it doesn’t mean that it’s

necessarily the best course of action. Ultimately, what one

eats is a personal choice: let’s make it an informed one.

VEGETARIANISM

VICKY CLAYTON is a second-year Human Scientist at New College where she is the Environment and Ethics rep

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Put concisely, foraging is collecting food or drink in-

gredients from the natural environment. More loosely,

it’s going outdoors into common natural environments

(e.g. hedgerows, meadows, footpaths, even carparks) to

responsibly gather small amounts of wild leaves, flowers

or fruit, for use in cooking.

WHY FORAGE? 1. It’s food for free (and there’s not even any rum-

maging in bins involved).

2. There are plenty of vibrant flavours that you just

won’t find in the shops.

3. Enjoyable exercise – a great excuse for a walk

outside.

4. It’s rather fun – once you’ve tried it a couple of

times, you’ll be hooked.

5. Your friends will love it too – who could say no to

an aromatic glass of rose lemonade?

Foraging perhaps used to be seen as a throwback

pastime belonging to a bygone rural age. However,

the opposite is true – many top chefs (such as Magnus

Nilssen at the renowned Faviken, one of the world’s

best restaurants) view wild ingredients and flavours as

indispensable to their dishes.

HOW TO FORAGE?Firstly, identify what you’re after – choose a particu-

lar plant you’d like to use, and keep an eye out for it.

There are several recipes on the next page that involve

common, easy-to-find wild ingredients. The internet is

a good resource, and there’s a plethora of cookbooks

that use wild ingredients in their dishes.

Secondly, establish where you’re likely to find it and

how to identify it. Correct identification is obviously of

utmost importance – however, as long as you follow

identification guidelines correctly you’ll have nothing to

worry about. If ever in doubt, don’t use it.

WHERE CAN I FORAGE?A garden, hedgerows along footpaths, and at sides

of fields are great places to start – but the best advice is

to keep your eyes open! You’d be surprised at the va-

riety and abundance of wild plants in mundane plac-

es. I live in a town, yet within five minutes walk I can

find a huge variety of edible leaves, fruit and flowers.

However, avoid areas immediately adjacent to busy

roads, and anywhere which may have been sprayed

with pesticides or weedkiller (e.g. formal gardens). In

addition, foraging is not necessarily permissible eve-

rywhere, so do check what’s allowed and what isn’t.

LEGALITY AND ETIQUETTEThe law dictates that one obtain permission from

the landowner before foraging. However, a common-

sense approach is required: if somewhere is very ob-

viously private property (a garden, a farm, etc.) then

absolutely do get permission first. The best foraging

areas are often footpaths or woods on public land.

Follow these points of etiquette:

• Never strip a plant of whatever it is you are pick-

ing – a rule of thumb is to take a maximum of one

third of the plant. If there is a group of plants, only

pick from every other plant.

• Never pull up plants.

• Don’t disturb obvious animal habitats, like birds’

nests.

• Only take what you need.

Foraging is not about being able to survive in the

wild – it’s about responsibly using small quantities of

wild ingredients to enhance cooking. There are simply

not enough plants around, for all of us to have a go at

being Ray Mears or Bear Grylls.

SAFETY

Always make sure you’re 100 percent confident that

you’ve correctly identified a plant before using it. If

in doubt, don’t use it. All the ingredients used in the

recipes which follow are easy to identify and have no

nasty lookalikes – but some aren’t so straightforward.

Plant height and appearance, leaf shape, fruit shape

or colour, flower shape or colour, and smell, can all be

used as indicators. An excellent pocket-sized identifica-

tion book is Food for Free which costs less than £5.

Remember to give all wild ingredients a wash before

you use them.

Naturally, some leaves and fruit will be tastier and

in better condition than others. A rule of thumb is: if it

doesn’t look tasty (e.g. a withered, browned, or with

speckled leaves), it won’t be.

WHAT IS FORAGING?

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Wild ingredients: Hawthorn leaves, hawthorn blossom

Where to find? Woods, hedges, scrubland, meadows.

How to recognise? Leaves: deeply lobed and glossy

green on spiky branches. Flowers: white/pink

When to gather? April to May for the leaves (earlier

the better), April to June for the flowers.

Use the leaves and/or flowers in salads with other

spring greens. They also go well in a cheese sandwich.

Wild ingredient: Lavender flowers

Where to find? Gardens – be sure to ask permission and only use if

no pesticides or herbicides have been used on the flowers.

How to recognise? Tight clusters of purple flowers on long thin stems,

growing up to three feet high, but usually less. Easiest way to recognise

is to smell whether the flowers have the distinctive lavender scent.

When to gather? May-August

20 lavender heads

500ml (18fl oz) boiling water

150g (5½oz) sugar

1.2 litres (2 pints) cold water

5 ripe lemons

• Check there are no insects hiding in the flowers. Give them a

gentle shake to make sure.

• Put the flower heads into a saucepan and pour over the boiling

water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes.

• Turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes.

• Strain the liquid through a sieve to remove the flower heads

• Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.

• Add the cold water.

• Squeeze the lemons directly into the pan – watch it turn pink!

– then strain again to get rid of any lemon seeds and pith

• Have a taste then, when serving dilute with water to your liking.

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The following recipes feature wild ingredients

that are:

1. Very common and easy to find

2. Easily identifiable (with no nasty lookalikes)

3. Distinctly flavoursome, but not too zany for

most people’s palates

I have made all of these before myself, and can

wholeheartedly recommend them! Use the il-

lustrations and descriptions provided to be sure

you’ve got the right plant.

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RECIPESALASTAIR MARSH is a fourth-year Materials Science student at Corpus Christi, previously serving as Environ-ment & Ethics Officer for OUSU

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• Makes 1.5 litres of lemonade

Wild ingredient: nettle leaves. Only use the youngest leaves at the

top of each stem.

Where to find? Footpaths, hedgebanks, fields.

How to recognise? Heart shaped, serrated green leaves – and a sting!

When to gather? Late February to early June.

About half a carrier bag full of young nettle leaves

50g butter

2 medium onions, chopped small

1 medium potato, peeled and chopped small

2 sticks celery, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped fine

1 litre chicken or vegetable stock

2 tbsp double cream – plus a little more cream to garnish

Salt and freshly ground black peppercorns, to season

• Wash the nettles in cold water. Be sure to remove any thick stalks.

• Melt the butter, and cook garlic, onion, potato and celery in a

large pan until they’re soft but not browned.

• Add the nettle leaves and stock to the pan and bring to the

boil (boiling water kills the stings).

• Cook for at least ten minutes (or until the nettles are soft).

• Season to your liking, then remove from the heat. Blend

once it’s cooled a little. Stir in the cream and then reheat

without letting it boil.

• Serve with crunchy bread, and a swirl of cream in each dish

to garnish. Serves six!

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Wild ingredient: Rosehips

Where to find? At the sides of playing fields and hedgerows.

How to recognise? Red, oblong fruit about an inch long or less. Rosehips

are the fruit of wild roses, which are recognisable by their pink or white

flowers, which tend to bloom in June and July.

When to gather? August to November.

• Wash the picked rosehips.

• Either dry them on newspaper in the sun – or if the sun’s not out,

put on trays in an oven with the door open on a very low heat until

dry. When dry, they will have shrivelled, and will feel crinkly.

• Blend the dried rosehips in a food processor for less than 20 seconds

– the pieces should be large enough not to pass through a sieve .

• Sieve them until as many of the fine hairs from inside the hips

have fallen through.

• Done! Store in a glass jar. Use 1 or 2 teaspoons for a pot of tea

– leave to infuse for at least 5 minutes.

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Wild ingredient: Sloes

Where to find? Woods, hedgerows.

How to recognise? A small, round, very dark blue berry.

The tree it grows upon, the blackthorn, has distinctive dark

spines on its branches and small, oval leaves.

When to gather? After the first frost of the year (the frost

softens their skins) – usually around late October.

450g sloes

225g caster sugar

1 litre pint gin

• Prick the skin of the sloes all over with a knife and

put in a large sterilised jar (to sterilise, pour in a little

boiling water and slosh around).

• Pour in the sugar and the gin, seal tightly and shake

well.

• Store in a cool, dark cupboard and shake every

other day for a week. Then shake once a week for

at least two months.

• When you’re ready to bottle, strain the sloe gin

through a sieve (or a sheet of muslin if you have it)

into a sterilised bottle.

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RECIPES

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My foray into the world of eating insects – entomophagy

– started with ambitions of becoming a restoration

ecologist. The colossal forests which cloaked Britain

and Ireland following the retreat of glaciers around 10,000 years

ago, and the rich tapestry of grassland and fen which replaced it as

human influence increased, have been reduced to tiny fragments by

the spread of modern agriculture. In order to reduce the likelihood

of continued local extinctions in our remaining habitat patches, they

need to be joined up once more. So why does entomophagy come

into this you might wonder? It all comes down to meat snobbery.

Conventional meats pose serious threats to the future wellbe-

ing of humanity and the diversity of life on Earth. Not only is

the livestock sector the largest source of water pollution and soil

erosion, but a massive 30 per cent of the planet’s land surface is

dedicated to it - a percentage that is still increasing, and there-

fore driving deforestation and preventing ecosystem restoration.

In spite of this, conventional meat production is highly inefficient

- if crops were diverted from feeding cattle to nourishing people

directly, the protein value per kilo could be increased ten-fold.

Thankfully, not all meats are equally bad: rather than squan-

der ten kilos of feed to generate copious amounts of dung and

one measly kilogram of beef, I could invest in producing a nine

kilo army of six-legged land prawns. And a tasty army at that,

beloved by 80 percent of the world’s human population, but for

some accident of history rejected by Western Europeans, who

prefer delicacies such as bee vomit (honey) and I-can’t-believe-

it’s-not-horse burgers. It makes me sad that our culture permits

the consumption of a few species of mammal and bird, whilst

ignoring the almost 2,000 species of known edible insect.

If even a small proportion of curious people decided to taste

test the various hexapods on offer, and subsequently replaced

one portion of beef per week with a plate of delicious cicadas,

ants, or beetle grubs, a significant area of agricultural land could

be freed up, and allowed to transform. Perhaps a forest type

which once occurred on the pre-agricultural soils could be resur-

rected, preferably one with a suitably poetic name, like Fraxi-

nus excelsior-Acer campestre-Mercurialis perennis woodland. A

reduction in the required animal feed could also relax drivers of

deforestation elsewhere, particularly in the tropics.

With so much to be gained from expanding our meaty ho-

rizons, my insect eating experiment was launched just over a

year ago: mealworms, sourced from the local pet shop, were

fattened up on Rice Krispies whilst I searched for recipes. Then

they were frozen, flash fried, and dipped in sauce. For a first at-

tempt (by someone with no culinary skills whatsoever), they were

pretty good. Hopefully, more professional suppliers will top me

up in future, as adventurous foodies increase demand for our

most diverse meats.

MEAT SNOBBERY AND THE RISE OF INSECTS

JAMES RAINEY is a first-year Biologist at Balliol and OUSU E&E Chair

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FLOWER POTSWant to give a handmade present?Dos Family have some great ideas for handmade presents, like this one: save some old tin cans, give them a new life with some colour and add a plant!dosfamily.com

SCRUBBING GLASS MADE EASYReal Simple has some top tips for reusing all the aluminium foil we use for cooking. Scrub out the dish you used with the scrunched up ball of foil!realsimple.com/new-uses-for-old-things

NEED A USE FOR AN OLD SHIRT?Cut it to size, add a trim and voila! You have a shirt apron! This is from a Russian website: ht tp://www.l ive internet . ru/users/3173294/post145479436/

WANT TO DO SOMETHING ACTIVE?Oxford Conservation Volunteers is a voluntary organisation that car-ries out practical work conserving the wildlife and traditional land-scape of Oxford. They organise work parties every weekend. Sign up for one of their upcoming events!ocv.org.uk

NEED SOME MOTIVA-TIONAL GREEN WALL ART?Do The Green Thing is an en-vironmental charity that uses creativity to inspire people to be more sustainable. They have a range of posters designed to spur viewers to action.dothegreenthing.tumblr.com

BRIGHT IDEAS FOR REUS-ING LIGHTBULBS! Renew purpose is another great blog with creative ideas for giving a new lease of life for old domestic items. Their ideas for resuing lightbulbs are par-ticularly innovative, like these salt and pepper shakers (though please take care when hollowing out lightbulbs!) renewpurpose.com/blog

HATE FOOD WASTE? Need ideas for cooking with leftovers?Every year 7.2 mil-lion tonnes of food and drink is thrown away in England, most of which could have been eat-en. Love Food Hate Waste have launched an app for iPhone and Android, which allows you to keep track of food planning, cooking and making the most of leftovers. england.lovefoodhatewaste.com

No excuse! Green Upgrader is a handy website featuring fun and simple ways of leading a more green lifestyle. Create your very own “green wall” or herb gar-den using just a shoe organiser!greenupgrader.com

NO ROOM FOR PLANTS?

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SAVING ENERGY IN THE HOUSE

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AWAY FROM HOMERefreshing your wardrobe? Swap clothes with friends or donate old clothes to charities and buy new ones second hand. Not only does this save you money, it benefits others and you could find vintage items that are not on the high street.

For long journeys try to take the train rather than a plane. A London to Paris train journey results in 90 per cent less CO2 per passenger than the equivalent flight!

. Defrost frozen food in the fridge. Frozen food will help cool the fridge, reducing its electricity requirement

. Oven cooking a meal can use five times the energy of microwaving one. When baking, cook multiple portions of food at once. You’ve now created your own handy ready meals which you can later reheat in the microwave

. Wash clothes at 30oC rather than 40oC to use 40 per cent less energy and only use the washing machine when there’s a full load.

. Air dry clothes rather than using the tumble drier. Your delicate, heat-sensitive fabrics will thank you

. When showering, turn down water to half flow. For each five minutes of your usual shower time, you will save enough power to run a small hair drier for a few minutes, which might be all the time you need if you...

. Towel dry hair thoroughly to cut down hair drier time

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. Turn lights off when they are not needed. The power saved from one 60W light bulb could run a MacBook Pro

. Close your curtains at dusk to keep heat indoors

RECYCLING PLANT TOURWE TOOK A TOUR OF A RECYCLING PLANT AND SAW WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR RUBBISH

Before visiting the Milton Keynes Recycling Facility,

I hadn’t realised there were so many recycling

skeptics. According to my fellow minibus pas-

sengers, however, there are a lot of us who resist the

inconvenience of sorting our rubbish because we

believe that it all ends up as landfill anyway. Tours of

the Materials Recycling Facility – satisfyingly known as

a “merf” by the experts – are open to all groups and

are tailored to educate the public on what exactly hap-

pens to their cereal box. My companions had visited

other recycling facilities too – they regaled me with

tales of a huge stomach which spins food waste into

liquid gold (and methane) and the giant mechanical

diggers which graze on our garden waste.

Recycling from Oxford all initially goes to Enstone

Recycling Centre, and then a percentage of it moves

on to Milton Keynes. The recycling arrives on lor-

ries which are weighed on their way in and out on

a ‘weighbridge’. The lorries unload the recycling

onto the floor of the ‘tipping hall’, while glass bottles

and jars are taken off to the glass factory to be re-

melted into jars and bottles for another day. The ‘tip-

ping hall’ is essentially a mountain of recycling, kept

constantly moist to prevent fire, where a digger truck

loads it into the bag-splitter all day. The bag-splitter

is just the first of many machines which invoke mem-

ories of vintage Robot Wars: after the bags are split,

the recycling falls onto a conveyor belt which car-

ries it towards the ‘Ballistic Separator’ and the ‘Titech

Polysort’. First though, large items which would block

up the machines are removed in the pre-sort cabin

– human hands are essential to the sorting process.

Textiles are sent to be made into clothes or insulation

for cars and furniture. The ballistic separator sieves

the recycling into two groups, cans and plastics then

paper and cardboard, by shaking a set of moving

metal slits called screens. Round and heavy objects

roll off the screens, while flat light objects travel over

the top of them. Tiny objects fall through holes in

the screens.

The paper and cardboard ends up in the paper

cabin to be sorted by staff from a conveyor belt. Pa-

per is recycled for newspapers and magazines, card-

board is recycled into…cardboard. Cans and plastic

bottles continue the journey under a huge magnet,

and then through an eddy-current separator to en-

sure metal and plastic are not mixed. Cans could

become other cans or car parts, while aluminium foil

is given to a local charity, who use it to raise money

for their work with local teenagers. The Titech scans

plastic for its size and density as it travels at 2.71cm

per second, using powerful air jets to blow it into a

storage bunker. Workers in the plastic cabin check

that everything has been sorted correctly and pick

out coloured plastic bottles – unlike clear bottles,

many of the coloured ones become underground

water pipes!

Huge bunkers store the sorted recycling until it is

sent to the baling machines, where it is squashed

into big cubes and stacked in the yard to be quickly

sold on to factories. Anything that didn’t get properly

sorted is sent through the system again, and rubbish

which cannot be recycled (around seven percent of

non-recyclable rubbish is mistakenly put into recy-

cling bins) is sent to a power plant to create energy.

The process is extremely thorough: everything finds

a place; nothing is wasted. Huge creativity goes into

transforming the rubbish into new products – all over

the UK and in Belgium, Germany and Sweden. The

extra few seconds of sorting our waste ensures an

industry and prevents more hopeless landfill sites. It

really is worth it.

WE TOOK A TOUR OF A RECYCLING PLANT AND SAW WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR RUBBISH

FREYA BRADLEY is studying English and French at Wadham and is on the Oxford Living Wage Campaign Committee

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RECYCLING PLANT TOUR

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Up-cycling, the process of making what’s old new,

has become a trend in its own right, after high

street giants like Marks and Spencer launched

a new ‘Shwopping’ scheme to encourage the

continued use of unwanted cast-offs and to re-

duce the relentless production of the modern

consumerist world.

You don’t need to introduce radical struc-

tural and political changes to create true en-

vironmental change; just to induce a psycho-

logical change in our insatiable materialist

society. Much of the Western world is driven

by consumption and buying - clothes being

the ultimate indulgence and luxury for the

majority. But when these clothes are produced

in distant countries and continents, under

distinctly exploitative conditions, can we re-

ally justify our incessant buying? With many

sweatshop workers in South-East Asia earning

under $5 a day for 12 hours of work, we can-

not claim that this is something that we want

to endorse. This is exactly where up-cycling

plays its part.

When we spend hundreds of pounds in char-

ity and vintage shops filling our wardrobe with

clothes which are essentially the clothes of our

parent’s generation, you begin to wonder

whether there is any need to buy them at all.

Now is the time to dig out our parent’s old

clothes and make them our own; in a time

which cherishes mis-matched, ill-fitting fash-

ion, there really is nothing to worry about.

The boundaries of up-cycling are truly end-

less, as domestic and sartorial reinvention

overlap: old shirts can be used to create new

cushion covers, whilst old curtains can be

used as material to create home-made dress-

es. And it’s not as hard as you would think

- by simply cutting the sleeves off an old over-

sized shirt and adding a belt, you can simply

and quickly create a summer dress. So even

those with minimal sewing skills, or, indeed,

those lacking the determination to make new

clothes from scratch, up-cycling really can in-

volve minimal effort.

Equally, numerous shops now feature a swap

scheme, giving you the opportunity to bring in

old, quality clothes, in exchange for credit on

other clothes. This creates a form of sartorial

co-operative, and a fluid chain of clothing ex-

change where vintage shops no longer have

to rely on external producers, which helps to

create shops that are increasingly independ-

ent and self-standing. The shop is therefore

supplied by and made for shoppers. There

is more clarity in clothes production and no

hidden production methods, which has been

seen behind the commercialisation of vintage

clothes in national vintage shops, such as Be-

yond Retro. And whilst swap schemes still al-

low you to indulge in vintage consumerism,

your clothing is no longer finitely owned, re-

maining in circulation, and therefore reducing

production.

So whilst the prospect of making your own

clothes might seem too daunting, the simple

choice of where you shop is not. And with

some of the highest quality swap scheme vin-

tage shops located right by Notting Hill Gate

- an hour and a half on the Oxford Tube -

there’s really no excuse not to change your

consumerist habits. Simple changes to con-

sumer and social habits like this will have an

indelible impact on the fight to end exploita-

tion found at the very the core of the fashion

industry.

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MATTHEW ROBINSON is studying French and German at Somerville College and is creative editor of this maga-zine.

Ethical fashion, much like free

range organic food, may

seem like more of a luxury

than a sacrifice, reserved only

for those well enough off to cover up their

materialism with faux-environmentalism.

This simply doesn’t have to be the case!

Environmental fashion is not something to

shy away from and push onto the upper-

middle class, middle-age subsection of

the population; even those of us strapped

for cash can indulge our insatiable mate-

rialism in a slightly more environmentally

friendly way.

The obvious way to avoid mass produc-

tion and the exploitation of foreign labour

is to give in to our penchant for vintage

second-hand clothing; not only does this

reduce production, but it gives our clothes

a second lease of life, stopping them being

cast onto the rubbish heap and becoming

obsolete. Not to forget the price; whilst

iconic vintage hotspots like Brick lane and

Camden have seen prices soar to heights

parallel to the high-street, charity shops

remain a bargain, and whilst you may

have to sift slightly harder than in vintage

warehouses, gems are still to be found.

The trick is to head to the affluent areas

you’d normally avoid at all costs; go to

the King’s Road and Knightsbridge, swal-

low your pride and, rather than splashing

thousands on designer labels, delve into

the plethora charity shops on offer. The

clothes are donated by locals and sourced

from the surrounding area, so whilst

prices are still shockingly low, the quality

is incredibly high, allowing you to snap

up designer items at a fraction of the cost.

And in a time that celebrates past eras and

vintage style, this might be the key to your

new wardrobe.

It’s not only well-established charity shops

that offer unparalleled bargains, but also

the new craze of pop-up shops and pop-

up fashion markets which are appearing

all across East London. Found in base-

ments, unused warehouses and empty car

parks, they can sometimes be hard to find,

but they are nevertheless worth the effort.

They offer vintage clothing at a frac-

tion of the price and above all escape the

commercialisation of vintage second-hand

clothing that is increasingly seen across the

capital. Furthermore, your money supports

local market workers rather than being

sucked into the conglomerate empire, and

so you are supporting a local community

rather than greedy executives.

Most importantly, rather than being

mindlessly and apathetically sucked into

the national and international conglomer-

ates that we see so readily on our high-

streets, it’s worth while researching ethical

brands that offer modern clothing for af-

fordable costs, which, by virtue of our cur-

rent consumerist tendencies, don’t find a

place on our fashion streets. Brands such

as Indigo offer contemporary and de-

cidedly on trend fashion for competitive

prices, and so the stereotypical image of

ethical fashion as a mix of hessian and

sandals is far from the truth. And in this

light, there is very little excuse for not con-

templating a shift in your consumerism.

But if you can’t bring yourself to buy ethi-

cal fashion on the grounds of its aesthetic

and are drawn to the high-street conglom-

erates, you can at very least recycle your

old clothes; for every new item you buy,

there is undoubtedly one which you don’t

need. This way, whilst you may still be en-

dorsing global brands which undoubtedly

exploit foreign labour, you are still sup-

porting second hand charity shops which

promote a more environmentally friendly

form of consumerism.

ETHICAL FASHION ON A BUDGET

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The Living Wage, currently stand-ing at £7.45, is a rate calculated annually by the Centre for Re-

search in Social Policy as the pay level necessary for a worker to provide the essentials for their family. It’s calcu-lated by identifying what items peo-ple need for a minimum acceptable standard of living; these prices are checked at national chain stores, and then minimum costs for nine types of households are identified, with clever averaging and balancing factors, such as the age of children, so as to reach a single number. The campaign began in 2001 with London Citizens, and has been taken up by a myriad of employers from Amnesty International to Barclays, from KPMG to the Church of Eng-land. There is a campaign in the USA to fix the Federal Minimum Wage by indexing it to the local cost of hous-ing throughout the country. Closer to home, Oxford City Council is an ac-credited Living Wage employer. Many of our colleges have paid and are paying a living wage, and recently, after years of lobbying by the Oxford Living Wage Campaign, the University increased the pay of its lowest paid employees, guaranteeing all staff di-rectly employed by the University at least £7.45 per hour. Why have so many – including the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition – endorsed this move-ment? David Cameron called the Liv-ing Wage “an idea whose time has come”, while Ed Miliband credited the “necessary” campaign with “do-ing so much to change attitudes to our economy.” Firstly, there is the ethical argument: it is unjust that there are those who cannot afford to provide for their

family even though they are em-ployed. For single parents especially, there is often an impossible choice to be made between earning enough to support their children and being physically present when they get up, return from school, or go to sleep. A cleaner at the Social Science Library was happy to tell the Living Wage Campaign here in Oxford: “It is very difficult to see my son… Sometimes he leaves notes saying, ‘Mum, where are you?’” Low pay and poor hours can lead to the paradoxical and undesir-able situation where the family would be better provided for if a parent were not in work. This is an unfair position in which to place parents who want the dignity of working hard and pro-viding the best possible quality of life for their children. Being paid fairly for work is not only good ethics, its good business: 75 per cent of employees reported increases in work quality as a result of receiving the Living Wage. In Lon-don, more than 80 per cent of Living Wage employers believe that the Liv-ing Wage has enhanced the quality of the work of their staff, and Living Wage employers see large declines in absenteeism. Not only that, but there is an increased recruitment and reten-tion rate, good press as an ethical em-ployer and low turnover of contractors – the list of business benefits goes on. In a city like Oxford, where two huge universities employ such large staff, and many residents take on more than one minimum wage job to keep up with the high costs of living, it is particularly essential. A cleaner at the Radcliffe Science Library pointed out that, even on the Living Wage calcu-lated for the rest of the country, Ox-ford compares more to London in the cost of rent and utilities.

It is urgent that the University de-partments and colleges listen. The directly employed staff who have had their pay increased are a rela-tively small percentage of workers: most are provided by contractors, and so the chain of accountability for fair pay becomes difficult to navigate. This is where students can help, there is lobbying to be done at every level: colleges, departments, central University policy – those in charge need to be shown the social responsibility and the fiscal profitability of pay-ing a Living Wage and including employees in decisions about pay and benefits. If your college does not pay a Liv-ing Wage, or doesn’t listen to the needs of its staff, you have the op-portunity to work alongside scouts, cleaners, kitchen staff and porters to lobby for change. JCRs often have a lot more power than they realise, and successful living wage campaigns in many colleges – Bal-liol and Brasenose, for example – show that staff and students can engage in this common enterprise. If your college does pay a Living Wage, and its employees are hap-py with their pay and conditions, why not lobby for accreditation? This will ensure a lasting benefit for the college long after you are gone, an effect which is impos-sible, despite the transient nature of student life. This is not ideal-ism. Over 45,000 families have already been lifted out of work-ing poverty because of the Living Wage. It is warranted, it is practical and it is possible.

LIVING WAGEA VERY LOCAL ISSUE

FREYA BRADLEY is studying English and French at Wadham and is on the Oxford Living Wage Campaign Committee

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GREENING SPIRES / EDUCAT iON FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability is often

pigeon-holed as a

special-interest –

only for people

who enjoy digging

organic vegetable

gardens, taking trips to recycling

centres, boycotting Starbucks, and

not washing. Part of this pigeon-

holing is down to a difference in

interests but, for the most part, I

believe it comes down to differ-

ences in underlying assumptions

and a miscommunication of what

these assumptions are. This mis-

communication is something that

Education for Sustainability seeks

to address.

Sustainability addresses con-

cerns about our current rate of

development. Currently, the

wants (rather than needs) of the

present are compromising the

ability of future generations to

meet their own needs. Living a

sustainable life is about think-

ing about how we behave in our

everyday lives (what we eat, how

we move, what we consume and

produce) so that we – and all fu-

ture generations – can continue

to live fulfilling and healthy lives.

It requires mass action: we need

to think big here. For that reason,

in 2005, UNESCO launched the

‘Decade for Education for Sus-

tainable Development’.

Education for Sustainabil-

ity (EfS) is a movement to put

thinking about sustainability on

the educational curricula for all

levels of learning – even higher

education. It seeks to develop

skills and encourages ‘critical

thinking’ among students and

the general population about

the so-called three pillars of

sustainability: environmental,

social and economic issues.

It is designed to equip us – as

“citizens of the future” – with the

ability to tackle the “global is-

sues of tomorrow.” It has been

widely integrated into the Scot-

tish curricula, and in England,

the University of Gloucestershire

is pioneering such curriculum

development. Even our very own

‘Teach Green’ project in Oxford

teaches primary school children

about environmental issues.

Proponents are keen to avoid

a didactic pedagogy of knowl-

edge transfer: simply telling

people hasn’t worked, so criti-

cal engagement is encouraged,

and the very fact that Education

for Sustainability is on the agen-

da for curriculum development

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illustrates a bias towards its im-

portance over other imagina-

ble university-wide schemes like

foreign language teaching for

all students. Whilst it is not nec-

essary for everyone to partake

in schemes such as language

learning, I believe it is particularly

important for everyone to engage

in working towards sustainability.

I think this can be done: the pre-

cautionary principle states that if

an action has a suspected risk of

causing harm to the public or the

environment in the absence of

consensus on that action, then

the burden of proof that the ac-

tion is not harmful falls on those

taking part. Whilst I am a lover of

languages, the same risk of harm

is not as apparent: the world will

not go to pot if I misremember

my French conjugations.

The aim of EfS is empower-

ment through critical thinking

and capacity-building to achieve

change. Critical thinking and

capacity-building are what uni-

versities do – and have done – for

hundreds of years. The aim of

achieving change assumes that

the current situation is inappro-

priate and also, I would argue,

assumes a certain outcome for

the change. Change is a means

to an end, not an end in itself.

Change could see people decid-

ing that the human species has

no real sustainable future and

deciding to go out with a bang

– End-of-the-World parties on

steroids. “Change” in the eyes

of Education for Sustainability,

it seems, would adopt a specific

type of change. The Scottish gov-

ernment’s review of the country’s

progress in 2010 outlined the

following vision: “it’s about en-

suring our children grow up to be

responsible citizens in a fair and

equitable society.’’ So yes, a spe-

cific type of change is envisaged.

I believe in empowering peo-

ple: there is, however, a “but.” I

think a danger lies in assuming

that, with similar experiences,

people will come around to your

way of thinking, and contribute

to your vision. If empowerment

is a means to an end then one

becomes too focused on the end

and doesn’t really listen. Part of

the value of empowering others

is that it challenges your thinking

and your values, forcing you to

revaluate your position. This is

scary for those of us set on saving

the world through sustainability

but so worth it.

GREENING SPIRES / EDUCAT iON FOR SUSTAINABILITY

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VICKY CLAYTON is a second-year Human Scientist at New College where she is the Environment and Ethics rep

People often assume that to encoun-

ter exciting and charismatic wildlife,

it is necessary to travel across the

world to far-flung exotic countries. How-

ever, the UK is home to some truly fantastic

wildlife, much of which can be found right

here in Oxford. In the rush and stress of

deadlines, tutorials and the gossip from

Wahoo last Friday night, it’s easy to forget

the wonderful species we live alongside,

and yet British wildlife truly needs our help.

Habitat fragmentation, introduced species

and climate change are just a few exam-

ples of the issues facing our native wildlife.

As students, we have the privilege of living

in colleges with beautiful grounds, and

these can easily be adapted to encourage

and support biodiversity around the city.

A key issue facing colleges in encour-

aging biodiversity is finding a balance

between the expected formality of an

Oxford college garden, and establish-

ing wilder areas to encourage wildlife.

Worcester and St Hugh’s have risen to

the challenge extremely successfully. Af-

ter spending two afternoons with Simon

Bagnall and Martin Brandom, the Head

Gardeners at Worcester and St Hugh’s

college respectively, it is inspirational to

see how changes in the management

of college grounds can create a positive

impact for wildlife.

Both colleges have focused on plant-

ing species of flowers that both look at-

tractive and encourage pollinators, such

as crocuses, snowdrops and anemones,

producing highly attractive flowerbeds

that are literally buzzing with activity. At

St Hugh’s college, planting rose beds

with species that require minimal spray-

ing has reduced the impact of pesticides

on surrounding flower beds. Wood chip-

pings from tree debris collected on site

are used on many flowerbeds, providing

both attractive and sustainable bedding

compost. This avoids the excessive use of

artificial fertiliser, which can lead to ac-

cumulations of nitrogen and phosphorus

in the soil that may damage plants and

seep into water sources.

At Worcester College, stumps of dead

trees are left in the ground, providing mi-

crohabitats for insects, woodlice, fungi,

lichens and mosses. Birds can use these

dead trees as food sources and nesting

sites, and woodpeckers are commonly

seen (and heard!) in the grounds. In-

deed, both colleges have installed bird

boxes, and sheltered log piles around

the site provide hiding-places for frogs,

toads, grass snakes and slow worms. St

Hugh’s even have hedgehog hiberna-

tion houses, and one is definitely inhab-

ited by a certain prickly resident named

Bono Jesus!

However, are the efforts at Worcester

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and St Hugh’s working, and can they be replicated

in other colleges?

The diversity of species seen in both college

grounds is staggering. Foxes, hedgehogs, grass

snakes, slow worms and amphibians have been

spotted at both sites. Worcester has become an

essential summer residence for goosanders,

a species of diving duck, as well as a home to

kingfishers, herons and owls.

Whilst not all colleges have access to such

large and open spaces, the littlest things, such

as putting up bird boxes, bat boxes or establish-

ing a small flowerbed of meadow flowers, can

make all the difference to encouraging wildlife.

Even college sports grounds could develop

wildflower borders, providing habitats for in-

vertebrates and reptiles, and foraging areas for

birds and mammals. There are so many ways in

which wildlife can be encouraged, and we, as

the residents of our colleges, have the power to

establish such schemes.

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Abigail Motley, from St Hilda’s College, is a first-year biologist and Events Organiser for the Conservation Society.

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BIODIVERSITY It’s not just within the city bounds that beautiful displays of wildlife can be found; wider Oxfordshire is home to a variety of habitats rich in biodiversity. Whether by bike, foot or bus, there are places eve-ryone can reach. Here are some suggestions for every season:

A walk amongst bluebells in wood-land is one of the true joys of spring. A great place to see this yearly phe-nomenon is the famous Wytham Woods. This ancient woodland was bequeathed to Oxford Uni-versity in 1942 and has since be-come one of the most researched woodlands in the world. Wytham is not just a research haven; it is criss-crossed with walking trails and open to visitors year-round. Before visiting you will need to obtain a free permit from www.wytham.ox.ac.uk. Once you have your permit in hand, Wytham is just a half hour cycle away across Port Meadow.

Summer is the perfect time to ven-ture a bit further afield. On the edge of the Chiltern Hills, about 20 miles from Oxford, sits Aston Rowant Na-tional Nature Reserve. This is a rem-nant of chalk grassland, a rich habi-tat type once spread widely across the country. Spend a sunny day here and you are likely to see swathes of butterflies, including the Chalkh-ill Blue, and Red Kites soaring on updrafts along the escarpment. Aston Rowant can be reached by taking the Stagecoach Ox-ford Tube service towards Lon-don and getting off at Lewknor Village. From here the reserve is a short signposted walk away.

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together in the reed beds on this wetland reserve.As dusk approaches birds

swoop in from all directions, gathering together in ever-growing swarms. They ro-tate and twist, rise and fall, in an hour long display most evenings during November. It is not just the visual spec-tacle, but the gentle sound of thousands of bird wings beating in unison which will take your breath away. This is an event you should see at least once in your lifetime.RSPB Otmoor is just a 15

minute drive north-east of Oxford. Directions can be found at: www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/o/otmoor/

BIODIVERSITY BEYOND OXFORD

Shotover Wildlife Reserve hugs the eastern edge of the city, just beyond Head-ington and Cowley. This beautiful and diverse re-serve is a must visit at any time of year, but in Autumn as the trees turn to vary-ing shades of amber the woodland really comes into its own. Take yourself up there on a crisp autumn afternoon to enjoy the stun-ning views across Oxford.Information about the re-serve and how to get there can be found at: www.shotover-wildlife.org.uk

When you haven’t seen sunlight for what feels like years and are drowning under a seemingly never-ending slog of assignments you need a spectacle of nature to snap you out of the winter blues. Luck-ily for Oxford residents one of nature’s most phe-nomenal spectacles oc-curs every winter right on our doorstep: the Starling murmurations at Otmoor. This is essentially a winter ballet as tens of thousands of Starlings flock to roost

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Politicization of the romantic Gaia Theory – which proposes that life on earth creates ideal

conditions for further life, in order to explain the vast differences be-tween earth and other planets – led to a series of fringe movements that claimed the world was a single or-ganism called Gaia with motives and desires. Similarly it seems that politicization of computer simulations on climate change has caused them to be used as precise predictions, despite the fact that such simula-tions are flawed, and inaccurate even when predicting past data [1]. Presenting these results as evidence is scare-spinning and doom-mon-gering, say the critics, which exists to drum up support and funding so lazy climatologists can keep their job.

However strong motives also exist for denouncing climate change, and one must be equally careful in assuming that green-house gas emissions do not change the climate. The consen-sus is that greenhouse gases are different to other gases in the at-mosphere, and that putting more in will change the workings of the climate; all that the results show is that in an earth-like system changes will appear. The truth is that nobody knows what will hap-pen, though it seems inevitable that something will occur. What is more the creation of greenhouse gases is not reversible: once they are emitted they are not easily re-absorbed, and so we should be sure what the effects are before-hand. As Raymond Blanc states when talking about water-based chemistry: “Don’t put too much salt in the soup; remember you

can always put it in, but never take it out”. From this perspec-tive the anti-climate change posi-tion seems absurd, as if it expects Gaia will sort it all out, or per-haps has itself designed both us and modern industry anyway and that no harm will be done.

So here is the bottom line: the next time you read an article about climate change, read the source material as well, and if you cannot understand it, do not assume that it is correct. When discussing, “I heard” and “It is thought” mean nothing unless you say from whom or how, and you should expect the same from people presenting information to you. With the promise of cheap and secure energy and food, and industrial opportunity and pros-perity for the poor, the rewards are too large to ignore fossil fuels, but the risks are equally huge.

References[1] G. G. Anagnostopoulos, et al., Hydrological Sciences Journal 55:7, 1094-1110 (2010).TH

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THE TRUTH IS THAT NOBODY KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN, THOUGH IT SEEMS INEVITABLE THAT SOMETHING WILL OCCUR.

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But the Climate has always been

changing…

Exactly! From ice ages through to

super warm periods, from sopping wet to

being dryer than the cinnamon challenge,

the climate has been constantly changing for

millennia. All of this was caused by natural

phenomena such as, to name but a few,

the earth’s elliptical orbit, sulphur particles

from volcanic eruptions acting as coolants

in the atmosphere, the reflective qualities

(albedo) of the earth’s surface and so called

‘greenhouse gasses’ (GHGs) such as meth-

ane and carbon dioxide which act to warm

the atmosphere.

But why should we be worried about CO2

levels now?

These natural processes create a (rough-

ly) 100,000 year cycle in carbon concen-

tration in the atmosphere. We know this

from looking at trapped CO2 in ice air

bubbles, the composition of oxygen iso-

topes in ice, tree ring data and many other

methods. These natural cycles had atmos-

pheric CO2 concentrations ranging from

180-280 parts per million (ppm). Today,

we’re at 340ppm, surpassing anything the

planet has experienced before. By look-

ing at the isotope ratio of past and present

atmospheric carbon, the large amounts

of CO2 seen today are from burning fos-

sil fuels. This increase in CO2 (and meth-

ane, which is actually roughly 25 times

stronger than CO2 in acting as a GHG)

cannot be balanced out using natural pro-

cesses. Plants can ‘capture’ CO2 but we’ve

massively reduced these natural ‘lungs’

through deforestation.

But a warming of 2°C or so would actually

be quite nice…

2°C melts ice; seas rise; warmer seas

have a reduced capacity to store CO2

which actually means more is released

into the atmosphere; oceanic currents that

are partly governed by the law that cooler

liquids and denser liquids sink are messed

up by changing temperatures and an in-

flux of melted fresh water ice (thermohaline

circulation), which then also changes wind

patterns and weather systems. So a warm-

er atmosphere, even by an amount that

seems so small, doesn’t necessarily mean

a warmer UK Some countries will get hotter

and dryer, but the UK will likely be colder

and wetter and more miserably British. We

might even have some deathly heat waves

to complain about.

But I’ve heard Antarctica is actually gain-

ing ice…

It is and that’s because ice melts from

underneath from warmer seas, not from

on top. The seas under East Antarctica are

cooler and help form ice. But the seas un-

der West Antarctica, and those circulating

around the Arctic, are much warmer and

are melting ice a lot quicker than it can be

formed. So even though there is ice form-

ing in East Antarctica, the melt rates in

other places drown it out.

But the science isn’t certain...

Greater accuracy and precision doesn’t

mean greater certainty. A great scientist

will be able to give the probability of the

‘impossible’ occurring. Just because they

cannot be 100 percent certain that the

probable will occur (by factoring in that

‘impossible’ factor), doesn’t mean the

quality of their science diminishes. If any-

thing, it enhances it. Science’s foundation

is built upon questioning. So the fact that

97 percent of the world’s climate scientists

agree that the recent increase in global

average mean temperature is due to an-

thropogenic activities should be of at least

some value. What they’re not certain about

is exactly what future warming path we’re

heading down. They can give us their best

guess and their best guess is not pretty.

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OXFORD CAMPAIGNERS

THE QUESTIONS WE ASKED

1. What inspired you to get involved with community action?2. If you could solve one environmental /ethical problem what would it be?3. Which book would you recommend for people who want to learn more?4. How can students make a difference?5. Which is your favourite environmen-tal charity / social enterprise / venture?

MAKING THE CITY GREENER

WE’VE PROFILED FIGURES FROM THE UNIVERSITY AND THE LOCAL COMMU-NITY TO SEE WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO MAKE OUR TOWN GREENER

WHAT IS OXFORD DOING?

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1. I wanted to do a job that made a differ-ence and I was really passionate about en-vironmental issues like pollution. Working in the environmental sector seemed an obvious choice – tricky problems with lots of different solutions and plenty of working with people.

2. I’d like to see us all swapping and shar-ing more. I think initiatives like Freecycle and the University Swap Shop are amazing but we need to step it up a gear and get sharing more.

3. ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson but aside from books, I would also rec-ommend watching ‘The Story of Stuff’

4. Student should arm themselves with in-formation about the things they’re passion-ate about - that is, if they want to persuade the University to do something, check they’re not doing it already. Find out what other or-ganisations and universities are doing it and look for ways that their idea might work. We always happy to talk to students about their ideas – email sustainability@admin.ox.ac.uk

5. I think Sustrans are brilliant. Transport has a huge impact on our carbon emissions so Sus-trans promote lower carbon transport choices like cycling and walking which are not only healthy for individuals but they make our com-munities more sustainable. Their vision is that four out of five local journeys will be made by walking, cycling or public transport by 2020.

1. We live on a planet that is more than ca-pable of providing every person with a worth-while and happy life, but instead we see both startling inequality and short sightedness. I am a strong believer in grass roots com-munity action; the only way to enact change is to stand up and make your voice heard.

2. If I could only solve one thing I would make global trade and business more transparent. I really think that if consum-ers actually knew how the products they bought were being produced they would think seriously about buying them again.

3. The book that inspired me was ‘The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future’ by Elizabeth C. Economy.

4. Yes, definitely! There are loads of groups around Oxford such as OxGrow, Environment & Ethics, the Ox Co-op, The Living Wage Campaign and many more to try out. Just pop along to one of their meetings, from my experience they are always really friendly and welcoming.

5. The Inga Foundation is a small but grow-ing foundation dedicated to stopping the process of slash and burn by working with local farming communities. Watch ‘Up In Smoke’ if you want to know more about it.

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HARRIET WATERS HEAD OF ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY, OXFORD UNVIERSITY

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1. Doing lots of volunteer-ing with various projects got me really interested in the idea of mutual benefit. Acting on simi-larities, rather than differ-ences, is my inspiration for community action.2. Consumption – the fab-ricated need to have all of this stuff simply because it’s what we “should” want.

3. ‘The Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ by Paulo Friere, beautifully lays out a differ-ent way of collaborating and creating with others.4. Students can make a difference by realising that they don’t have to make a tangible difference right now. Read, learn, discuss, form your own opinions so that when the oppor-

tunities come along, you can truly express yourself in your response rather than doing what you think is expected of you. If you do that then you will al-ways make a difference.5. People & Planet give young people the space and support to form their own opinions on potentially terrifying global issues.

1. I have always had a passion for the environ-ment and green issues, and I wanted to work in a job where I felt like I could make a difference. 2. Global warming and the issues associated. 3. ‘How bad are Ba-nanas? The Carbon

footprint of everything’ by Mike Berners-Lee4. Students can spread the word on waste and recy-cling issues, ensuring oth-ers think about what waste, if any, can be reduced, re-used or recycled. They can also volunteer within local communities to support the many environmentally-con-

scious charities in Oxford.5. Emmaus, a charity op-erating in Oxford, relies on donations of furniture and household items. It’s a great example of a charity diverts items that might have gone to landfill into support-ing homeless people as they rebuild their lives.

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1. Joining Food Justice was an obvious and easy way to make a difference. As soon as I did my first shift volunteering with the Ox-ford Food Bank, I realised the scale of food wasted in Oxford and the number of charities in Oxford that ben-efited from the Bank, it was clear that Food Justice’s ac-tivities are worthwhile and in many ways necessary.

2. The problem of the over-packaging of consumer goods and food.3. Tristram Stuart has writ-ten a couple of high profile ones (and also has a good TED talk).4. Whether you cook your-self or eat in hall, wasting less is an easy way to make a difference. Small choices like eating more locally pro-duced food, less meat, and

foods with less packaging can all add up to a signifi-cant difference.5. The Oxford Food Bank – ran entirely by volunteers from the Oxford community – have a very simple and effective system for turning waste into a really valuable resource for local charitable organisations. The benefits are vast both environmen-tally and socially.

1. I wanted to provide a proactive solution for peo-ple who want to live a life with as little negative impact on other people as possible, but don’t know how, and also give people who’ve never considered their buy-ing choices a wake-up call: that what they buy might ex-ploit someone else.

2. If humans didn’t want more stuff all the time, that would solve a lot of the world’s problems.3. ‘A Life Stripped Bare’ by Leo Hickman. It follows a witty Guardian journalist trying to “live ethically” for a year.4. Students can think about environmental choices in their everyday habits which if

you change now will last for a lifetime. It requires a bit of research, some solidar-ity with like-minded people, and a lot of commitment! 5. Tearfund’s Rhythms web-site gives you little environ-mental/social justice actions to do (e.g. give up meat for a day). Though based in Christian teaching, the ac-tions are accessible to any-one of any/no faith.

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PETER SINGER: THE PROFILE

Michael: Let’s start by

looking at your choic-

es; why do you choose

to donate to the Oxfam group?

P eter: I began giving to Ox-

fam when I was a graduate

student here in Oxford. I

was impressed with the work they

were doing towards poverty alle-

viation and how they were going

about it, so it seemed like a good

place to start. This was before

organisations such as GiveWell

emerged, who subject charities

to more rigorous impact evalu-

ation. Such groups calculate the

efficiency of a charity, often by

looking at the effect of each dol-

lar donated with reference to a

measure such as quality-adjusted

life years [QALYs], i.e. how many

years of healthy life each dollar

donated to the charity can pro-

duce. The Against Malaria Foun-

dation [AMF] comes out as one of

the most cost-effective charities ac-

cording to such a measure and so

I now split my donations between

the AMF and the Oxfam group.

Michael: Why not make

all your donations to

the AMF if they’re the

most cost-effective charity? Is there

more to the value of a charity than

QALYs?A

Peter: I don’t think it’s a

question of QALYs or not.

I’m quite happy to say that

the test of a charity should be

how many QALYs it produces.

The question is: what do you do

with charities where you can’t

measure the number of QALYs

produced? Organisations such

as GiveWell don’t recommend

Oxfam. The broad scope and

nature of their work means that

it’s very difficult to evaluate them

and, in any case, they recom-

mend more specialised charities.

Though it’s important to go with

the evidence, this attitude might

be a bit too stringent and there’s

reason to believe that the work

Oxfam does produces a high

number of QALYs, even though

this is difficult to evaluate. Take,

for instance, Oxfam’s advocacy

work. They’ve recently been suc-

cessful in lobbying the US gov-

ernment to change its Food Aid

policy, but how do we measure

Oxfam’s specific impact? It’s

hard, but I think we need to look

at organisations such as Oxfam

which address the causes as well

as the symptoms of poverty. I like

what Oxfam are doing and so

continue to donate to them in

addition to the AMF.

Michael: You propose a

form of preference util-

itarianism – the idea

that the right action is that which

satisfies the most preferences.

You weight the preferences of all

sentient beings (not just humans)

according to the intensity of their

preferences and the degree to

which they exhibit the “essential

characteristics of personhood”,

such as self-consciousness, ra-

tionality and autonomy.

You conclude, on this view,

that killing a baby is less morally

deficient than killing an adult

because they don’t exhibit such

characteristics. But this has wor-

rying implications for arguments

for environmental activism.

Such arguments centre on the

well-being (or rights or prefer-

ences) of future generations. But

these potential people have no

preferences or person-like char-

acteristics as of yet. This “non-

identity problem” is an issue if

you want your ethics to justify

environmental activism, isn’t it?

PETER SINGER is one of the world’s most influential philoso-phers and writes extensively on the subject of practical eth-ics for both philosophers and the general public. Here he joins two PPEists in a discussion about the moral philoso-phy behind choices in environmental and ethical activism.

46

PETER SINGER: THE PROFILE

Peter: That’s a nice point. It’s

quite reasonable to suppose

that I am a preference utili-

tarian as I have been for most of

my career. Now, however, I’m less

confident that that’s right and may

be shifting towards classic, hedon-

istic utilitarianism (the idea that the

right action maximises pleasure and

minimises pain), though I haven’t yet

written about it.

This is one of the areas where

hedonistic utilitarianism trumps

preference utilitarianism, as it’s not

clear how preference utilitarianism

can respond to these objections.

There’s also the problem of volun-

tary extinction; what if the human

race decided as a whole that it no

longer wanted to continue? Lots

of preferences would be satisfied,

but the utility of future generations

would not be realised. which is

another rationale for embracing it

over preference utilitarianism.

Michael: This will be

something to think

about for those who

are already convinced that they

should care about ethical and envi-

ronmental activism. But how would

you convince someone that they

should care at all?

Peter: Imagine a scenario where

you see a child drowning.

The vast majority of people

would accept that the right thing to

do would be to help the child, even

though it might ruin your clothes. We

should help someone avoid great

suffering if doing so only slightly in-

conveniences us, right? Poverty al-

leviation (or indeed environmental

activism etc.) is about stopping hor-

rible suffering over buying or doing

something you don’t really need to.

I don’t have much to say to those

who don’t think they should help

the drowning child, but I find very

few people are of this ilk. Essen-

tially, if you think you should save

the drowning child, it follows that

you think you should ease other

suffering through activism and

philanthropy.

MICHAEL DAVIES is a second-year PPEist at Somerville, former RAG Vice-Pres-ident and the current OUSU Community Outreach and Charities Officer

EVE McQUILLIAN is a second-year PPEist at Somerville and President of Oxford University Amnesty International

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180,0000 Hours

info@80000hours.org

80,000 Hours aims to help people have a career that makes a difference in an effective way by providing careers advice, sharing re-search and maintaining a global community of mem-bers who want to make the world a better place. Within Oxford, they organ-ise events to promote their ideas and research and host inspiring speakers.

18Environment & Ethics

Campaigneande@ousu.org

OUSU’s E&E Campaign is the focus of environmental action amongst students and lobbies the University for environmental and eth-ical changes. Recent suc-cesses include establishing the Recycling with Honours campaign and prevent-ing the University’s logo from appearing on un-ethically sourced clothing.

2Abundance

abundanceharvestsoxford@gmail.com

Abundance works to pre-vent needless food waste and promote awareness of the abundant urban harvest available in Oxford. They organise foraging trips, run skill-sharing workshops and share recipes.

3Broken Spoke Bike

Co-opcassiope@bsbcoop.org

This co-op was founded to strengthen the culture of cycling in Oxford-shire by teaching peo-ple to become proficient in bicycle maintenance and cycling. They run classes, organise group cycle maintenance ses-sions and provide activi-ties for vulnerable mem-bers of the community.

. . .

. FEELING INSPIRED? AN INDEX OF GREEN GROUPS IN OXFORD

4CWW Cooperative

Trustcwwcooperative@yahoo.

co.uk

The CWW Co-op is a social enterprise to manage not-for-profit social, community, en-vironmental, educa-tional projects for the benefit of the commu-nity. They run a com-munity bus for groups in Oxfordshire and have stalls at local markets.

.

17Food Justice

foodjustice@gmail.com

Food Justice coordi-nates volunteers for the Oxford Food Bank, col-lect food for the Com-munity Emergency Food Bank and raise aware-ness of food waste.

16Geology for Global

Developmentgfgd@gmail.com

GfGD aims to encour-age young geoscientists to use their knowledge of the Earth to fight poverty and improve lives. Their activities include termly seminars, careers advice, involvement in GfGD’s national campaigns and organising internships with charities and NGOs.

15Green Broom

joe@greenbroom.coop

Green Broom is a South Oxfordshire sustain-ability project, which stewards a beautiful open meadow. They co-ordinate volunteers to create a place where people can enjoy the wildlife and learn about living sustainably by en-gaging in their projects.

. .14

Hogacrehogacrecommon@gmail.

com

Hogacre is an 11 acre site in Oxford and a resource for people who want to act locally to reduce Ox-ford’s carbon footprint. It features field, woodland and aquatic habitats and hosts low carbon commu-nity activities and events.

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9Oxford Living Wage

Campaignlivingwage@ousu.org

With recent success lob-bying the University to pay a Living Wage to its staff, OUSU’s campaign focuses on lobbying Col-leges to pay their staff an amount they can afford to live on, currently £7.45 per hour. The campaign works with a number of locally based groups and organises events to raise the profile of poverty pay.

.FEELING INSPIRED? AN INDEX OF GREEN GROUPS IN OXFORD

13Oxford Microfinance

Initiativecontact@

oxfordmicrofinance.org

This student-run consul-tancy provides free ser-vices to microfinance in-stitutions, by organizing teams of students to work on projects. They also arrange speaker events on microfinance and the developing world.

12Oxford Students for

AnimalsOxfordStudentsForAnimals

@groupspaces.com

Oxford Students for Animals run a numbers of campaigns on ani-mal issues. In addition they lobby for greater meal options for veg-etarians and vegans across the Colleges.

11Teach Green

oxfordteachgreen@gmail.com

Teach Green aims to raise awareness of lo-cal and global environ-mental issues by host-ing weekly sessions at Oxford primary schools. Run by volunteers, they teach environmentally focused lessons featur-ing discussions, games and hands-on activities.

10ThinkClimate

ben@thinkclimate.org.uk

ThinkClimate is a stu-dent-run ‘think-and-do’ tank focusing on climate change and the intergen-erational equity issues surrounding it. They con-duct research on these issues and lobby deci-sion-makers to take ac-tion on climate change.

5Just Love

tomas.christmas@lincoln.ox.ac.uk

Just Love seeks to en-gage the Christian com-munity in social jus-tice issues. Their four projects are homeless outreach, campaign-ing against human traf-ficking, fighting global poverty and encouraging leading a life that is con-scious of social justice.

6Orinoco the Oxford-

shire Scrapstorehowie@oxorinoco.org

Orinoco is a local char-ity that collects and re-uses good quality, com-mercial waste materials from businesses across Oxfordshire. The charity promotes re-use, art and creative play through ed-ucation and direct action.

7OxCo-op

oxfordfoodcoop@gmail.com

The Oxford Co-op com-munally bulk-buys more socially and environ-mentally sustainable food. They run an online shop for students and a weekly pop up shop. Their activities also in-clude thinking about where food has come from and its impact, through film screen-ings and discussions.

8OxGrow

mail@oxgrow.org

OxGrow is a crea-tive edible laboratory where volunteers ex-periment with organic, climate-friendly grow-ing techniques. Their aims include increasing knowledge and skills of food-growing by pro-viding a space where members of the com-munity see different ways of growing food.

. . ..

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