Henley in Transition
Developing Resilience and Sustainability
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Dave Hampton: Carbon Coach

+ "Carbon - what's that?”
+ “Carbon - Why me?"
+ “Carbon – the HOAX!”

Everything you wanted to ask about carbon - but were afraid to know!
The evening will be lively, informative, inspirational, but most of all fun.... (and memorable). Our guest Dave assures there will be plenty of jokes – as well as plenty of horror! :o)

If CO2 were purple we would have witnessed the sky change colour in our lives

Carbon – what’s that?
Dave will make carbon fun simple and relevant to you - whatever the state of your prior knowledge and awareness – and will assume ZERO prior knowledge of carbon footprints and all that...
Everyone is welcome, especially people who suspect they may have quite ‘large carbon feet’... you are not alone – please also come if you (so far) have no idea whether you are a 1 tonner, a 10 tonner or a 100 tonner... or more. Many of the people I coach are > 100 tonners. I don’t call them that though :o)

Carbon – why me?
Well because we are all in same boat... whether the scientists are right or not, the risk applies to all
Dave will explore psychological links to his passion for energy efficiency and renewable energy (equiv anaerobic excercise) from his GB lightweight rowing days, where inputs and outputs meant winning!

Ok but why JUST me?
Obviously there are 7 billion people on the planet so my personal footprint simply cannot be remotely relevant! It’s a drop in a vast ocean. So I need not worry. Phew. But what if we all think same way?
What if the only thing blocking transition: ( global, regional, national, organisational, local, community, street and family home).. and change.... was YOU!!
Dave likes climate denialists... whatever that term means
Like most of us – he too is in denial about the extent of the scientific reality.
He is also healthily sceptical about climate scepticism.

Job vacancy: Save the world: (Apply within!)

PREVIEW : Dave believes he is a Hummingbird (poor boy!)

Today "I am doing the best i can"... a little bird tells me you are too...
thank you... let's all help put the fire out.

Carbon is an interesting word.
A few years ago the word would have conjured up images of soot, charcoal, or ash.
It’s over-use in the last few years has given many of us ‘carbon fatigue’ – we are fed up with hearing about it – often because soon after the word is used we often end up feeling got at, challenged or otherwise less happy than we were before the word was used! *Often in association with footprint.
But truth is – carbon is life. We breathe it, we burn it in the shape of hydrocarbons, and much of the stuff in our world, including our bodies – are made of it. Even DIAMONDS.
Add the tag -dioxide, CO2 and people can rapidly descend into heated circular arguments about whether climate change is real or not, and whether naughty scientists are making it all up.
But regardless of one’s conclusions about the desirability or otherwise of humans unleashing (25 billion tons a year of) fresh CO2 each year into our air stream, from our newly acquired habit of burning up all the fossil fuel as fast as we humanly can, there is also the little subject of Peak Oil. Oil is Half Gone. Likewise Peak Gas Peak Fossil ... modern life is still all about Carbon.
Hydrocarbons are (or soon were) the lifeblood of the modern (post industrial revolution) economy. It is time to bravely face the Post Oil Era together, the longest ever party in the history of the galaxy (a la Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) is coming to an end.