Quantock Eco held its Annual General Meeting on 28 April 2023 at Crowcombe Village Hall.
It was fairly well attended and good to see many familiar faces. We covered the usual items although since becoming a Charitable Incorporated Association there were a few additional requirements on us to include.
A formal report to the Trustees is available along with a statement of our accounts. The key items were that the management team agreed to continue for another year. Jem Gibson has also joined the team to act as an event coordinator which has allowed Julian Anderson to relinquish some of his workload and step down as co-Chair. Ian Myers will be the sole Chair moving forward.
Our long-standing Chair, co-Chair and founding member Julian Anderson then gave a comprehensive and engaging talk entitled ‘Climate Crises – Paradise Regained’. It was a fantastic and enlightening presentation. It not only laid out the fundamentals of our climate and ecological emergency but successfully added in paradigms and thinking from a range of different perspectives. Despite being very clear about the challenges humanity now faces it also set out a positive way forward. Julian made some key points which are summarised below.
The talk started with defining the problem as observed by Julian over many years which is something many of us have done. We have been presented with similar facts and depressing predications of our future before – we all appreciate the trajectory we are on. Julian systematically set out how our forests and oceans are under threat with the global rise in temperatures melting permafrost and icecaps and leading to increased GHGs and extreme weather events.
The solutions to these impacts are available. Julian suggested a rapid move away from fossil fuels with replacement by fuel cell technology and the restoration of nature through rewilding and regenerative agriculture. We needed to fund these changes and penalise polluting activities – we currently do the opposite. We also have to address the issue of population control by empowering and educating women and we can expect and need to manage inevitable migration. Much of this will be achieved if we create a far more conscious society based on reciprocity and regeneration.
We can expect a push back – there always is when new ideas are suggested although many of the changes Julian set out are not that new – many have called for similar approaches. The fossil fuel industry supported by vested interests and the global banking system is holding the world and its future to ransom – we now need to act to save humanity from itself.
What was perhaps different was Julian setting these issues as a conflict between the paradise of the earth and humanity. Our greed and our collective myopia despite our obvious intellect is gradually and progressively taking us in the wrong direction. The well entrenched culture of consumption is or will impact adversely on our lives. We have of course left it late – we need to do ‘everything, everywhere, all at once’. Perhaps the real starting point for all this is a change in our mindset.
In summary Julian’s talk added some real value to how we now need to live our lives, how to think and behave – I’d urge you to read it in article form – to be published as a Special Issue in July, and share it.
