We have finished our latest series of local Carbon Conversations – exploring personal choices for carbon reduction in travel, home energy, food and in general consumption, all in a friendly and non-judgemental way. There were even some laughs, in a subject where gloom and self-denial seem to be the norm. But gloom and denial are hardly good motivators for change…!
Many thanks to Graveney and Meadow at 40 Mitcham Road, Tooting Broadway, for the free use of their space on the Monday evenings: much appreciated by all. Catch a glimpse of the cosy atmosphere (and the wild wallpaper) in this picture from the ‘Food’ meeting:

In this past week’s meeting on Consumption, we briefly looked at the relationships between carbon reduction and wellbeing. For anyone who wants to spend more time on some of the background, here are some of the books, videos and websites we referred to:
Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism, MIT Press, Cambridge, USA, 2002
Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff, Constable, 2010
The Story of Stuff video, 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLBE5QAYXp8
Mike Berners-Lee, How Bad Are Bananas?: The carbon footprint of everything, Profile Books, 2010
Voluntary Simplicity: one site is http://www.context.org/iclib/ic33/luhrs/