Tag: Teesside Climate Creatives

What about the whatabout?

Last week I put out a blog that contained twenty small and small-ish changes individuals and households could make to get a little more planet-friendly – things that me and my friends actually do; that lots of people do. It prompted some really interesting conversations on my socials, and highlighted a very real and common reaction that many people have …”what good will individual action do, when governments and corporations do nothing? What about systems change?“

I mean, yes. Absolutely. Absolutely systems change, absolutely governmental duty, COP pledges, absolutely environmental laws, absolutely corporate accountability, yes yes yes.

But also, the need for the big doesn’t invalidate the benefit of the small. “What-aboutery” is the name for the kind of reaction that sounds like an intellectual, rational, realistic, politically sophisticated response to any suggestion that we make individual changes. But it’s also a deflection, an emotional opting out, a shifting of blame that cuts the difficult journey of change dead in its tracks. Going straight to “what about” can snuff out the flame of hope, which we desperately need if we’re to remain committed, resilient, united and innovative in the storms to come.

Society is made up of individuals moving together in culture shifts…

I vote, but I am not a government.

I purchase, but I am not a corporation.

Where does my sphere of influence actually extend?

How am I willing to act within it?

In documenting those actions, who might I take with me?

In asking others for their experiences and ideas, what strength might I gain?

So, here ‘s a couple more ideas and stories of individual actions with wider implications. First up is this article just dropped into my inbox by Triodos Bank, with a bunch of festive sustainability tips for you. You’ve probably seen this kind of thing before? I’ve been doing charity shop and home-made gifts for years, mostly because I work in the arts and have sod-all money, but hey I’ll take the eco-credit for it too!

But seriously, what do you do with your money, those of you who have any? Triodos supports a Friends of the Earth initiative called Money Movers, which shows you how to use your current, savings and pensions accounts to help support climate action. Individual action, collective results. Systems are made up of people, we can play our part with intention.

Secondly I want to share OFFSHORE, a fantastic short film about oil, gas and wind powered energy industries – no really, it’s phenomenal! Beautifully shot, fascinating footage on the rigs, and an absolutely brilliant insight into how some highly-skilled rig workers themselves are making the move to, and the case for, wind turbines. The dangers, challenges, and systemic/economic barriers to change are all laid out in the most gripping and relatable ways, please take a look and see how individuals and this system inter-relate.

Fossil fuels and community cohesion are in the DNA of the north east. I live on the so-called East Durham Coal Coast. I wrote this a while back with a community group at Hawthorn, County Durham, thanks to a commission from No More Nowt.

We come from a land of beauty and blackness -
Wooded denes and fertile fields, 
wide rivers, far horizons, and the soft limestone coast
where the east wind draws mists from the sea and rainbows arc;
Black coal threaded below, ugly and precious,
ancient plants pressed into seams of fuel.
We come from a land of villages, of community, of closeness,
people linked together in work and in love.
A land of regeneration, making the best of what we have,
Strong and caring, a kind and canny land

Finally, I’d like to show you this resource created by Bridget McKenzie, founder of Climate Museum UK and co-founder of Culture Declares Emergency. I’m currently doing Bridget’s Earth Talk training, learning more about how to hold difficult climate conversations with folks both inside and outside my echo chamber. I’m very much a beginner, very much prone to doom-loading and freaking out, but I really want to find a way to hold space for all of the complexities of fact, myth, and emotion that we all feel. This infographic helps me to think about where my different actions and choices fall, and where there might be opportunities to make a difference that are both meaningful and sustainable. What do you see in this wheel? Where are you? Would you like to talk about it with friends? Drop in on me at ARC Stockton, 2-4pm every Thursday or email me on teessideclimatecreatives@gmail.com

White House, Orange Peril, Green Future?

With the world’s biggest climate change denier strutting back into power over at the world’s second-biggest carbon emitting nation, it’s a grey day to be thinking about the very niche impact of poetry as climate activism. Or so I thought, as I took my lunchtime walk around the wintery streets of Stockton, preparing for my second weekly Declaration drop-in.

Wandering down Silver Street, I saw that there were people doing exciting things with sewing machines and pattern-cutting in the gorgeous yellow Institute of Thrifty Ideas, the activities hub of Festival of Thrift. Popping in to say hi to tutor Lindsay and her group, I learned something that made me so happy – poetry was exactly the comfort some people sought when the news of Trump’s re-election hit!

What was the poem they sent each other to express solidarity, to offer solace, to remind each other of the need for renewed hope and commitment to nature? This one, of course…

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Later that afternoon I was joined by the lovely Amy Lord – author, blogger and digital marketer. We had a fascinating chat about the carbon footprint of digital work now that AI is everywhere, sucking up lakefuls of coolant. How can she mitigate against this in her work as a freelance marketer? With a Declaration, might she use her own stated climate ethics as a way to connect with clients who share her values? Can she use her marketing powers to tell the good stories of organisations who are embedding sustainability? As an author and blogger, will she lend her weight to the cause of Fossil Free Books in the wake of the Baillie Gifford litfest-funding kerfuffle? All brilliant thoughts and questions, which Amy has taken away to ponder further…

And for myself, I finally made a Declaration, one which will serve to connect me to the CDE community while I work on a larger creative response and continue to audit my practice. Its a start!

For you – a drawing in progress inspired by Klimt’s forests; looking for the peace of wild things at Billingham Beck nature reserve; close-up of a Van Gogh seen at the National Gallery this weekend.

My next Declaration drop-in will be a walk-and-talk on Tuesday 12th November, meeting 10.00am at the Whitewater Way car park for Portrack Marsh Nature Reserve – location and parking info here.

Want to be in touch about Teesside climate stuff for creatives and cultural practitioners? Email me

Join me on a journey to Declaration

Today I began looking in earnest at why and how to join Culture Declares Emergency, something I’ve been considering for most of this year; and I’m looking for other Teesside creatives to join me, because frankly I feel like we all need a bit of solidarity, accountability, and witness for this kind of stuff.

I’m starting by exploring Declarations other individuals have made, and I’m loving this durational intervention by Johannes-Harm Hovinga, who made confetti out of the huge official climate collapse reports that every government is ignoring. It makes me want to do a piece of durational blackout poetry, something I’ve fancied for ages but not known what source document to use. Hmm, ok, log that as Idea #1…

An inspirational individual Declarer local to me is Justine Boussard, who is an Amateur Ancestor – great concept! – coming at Climate Emergency through the lens of museum curation. I love the clarity and verve of her declaration – something I’m definitely going to try to emulate. And of course there’s the brilliant Lady Kitt, whose mentoring I hope to write about later…

Or how about the mysteriously-monikered XYZ Poetics? I love how their Declaration talks about joining the dots, which makes me imagine experimental ways to format my eco-poems as text-art installations dot-linked like murder investigation boards. Hmm, (overly-ambitious) Idea #2…

And I’m very exited by this STONKING Declaration from Threads In The Ground, a self-described “climate hope organisation”. They are one of the artist/groups to receive a Culture House commission – a list that also includes me and my colleague Ellie Clewlow working together on a recycled junk mail/community poem project. (I’ll blog more about that on another day)

The other thing I’ve done today is I’ve eaten delicious soup and had fascinating conversations with ARC staff at their monthly Climate Cafe, a space for sharing both anxieties and good news. We talked about everything from the hidden water costs of AI searches to the absolute swag available in Stockton for charities through a council scheme that re-homes unwanted office equipment and computers – I’m now hungry for a free whiteboard, to UNLEASH STRATEGIC PLANNING upon!

I applied for a small climate-themed commission from ARC Stockton‘s ‘Make New Work’ grant scheme, and although I wasn’t successful, I ‘m profoundly thankful that they liked my ideas enough to find a chunk of change down the back of their metaphorical sofa and offer me support towards opening up a space for Teesside Climate Creatives to connect in an informal way while I try to keep myself on track with my own thinking.

I’m going to hang out at ARC most Thursday afternoons for the rest of the year, working my way through Culture Declares Emergency resources and toolkit blueprint for change. I’m going to reflect on my personal practice, my organisation (Tees Women Poets), and what I can do in terms of environmental policies, processes, manifestos…and I’m offering an open invitation to any creative or cultural practitioner in Teesside to join me whenever they can. Together we can hopefully come to our individual Declarations.

If all goes well, I will write a Declaration that is a long-form poem. I will then write out that poem in liquid papier mache and let it dry into large sheets of paper lace, which will then get exhibited in ARC’s gallery next February. If lots of other artists join me, perhaps there can be a group exhibition of art that makes a Declaration of climate emergency, and which communicates our resolve to be part of meeting that emergency head on with all the creative tools at our disposal.

If you’d like to be involved, you can email me here for all the dates I’ll be here.