It’s the season for an overstretched seaside metaphor: with around three months to go I’m beginning to sense a gathering swell of interest in the Copenhagen climate talks later this year. We’ll all be hearing plenty more about ‘COP 15’ (the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties in the UN climate policy negotiations) in the weeks to come. Tempting to bring in plenty more storm (teacup?) surf (opportunity?) and shipping analogies but I’ll resist. Enough now just to note down a few thoughts about what I anticipate about the conference and its significance. I’ll be going as a member of an OU team that will be working to make sense of the event and to analyse and communicate day by day.

2008 UNFCCC conference in Poznan.
[Image © copyright Oxfam International, some rights reserved]

COP 15 is going to have some people crying from the rooftops that this meeting decides the fate of all humanity and others sniping about another pointless UN junket. The truth is that this meeting does matter - a great deal - but it needs to be put in perspective. This is a significant moment in the development of an international political process that started in the early 1990s, and is set to go on for many years into the future. The Copenhagen meeting aims to set the next bundle of targets, timetables and mechanisms when those outlined in the Kyoto deal of 1997 run their course in 2012.

Many things are different this time around. International climate politics is more complex but also more mature. It is no longer simply a matter of the rich North admitting 'mea culpa' and obsessing about mitigating their own emissions and funnelling some 'clean tech' cash to the developing world. The booming manufacturers and sprouting middle classes of the developing world giants of India and China have made them major CO2 polluters. Political leaders and publics in the South are also much more aware of the potentially huge consequences of climate change for their societies.

Things have moved on in the North too. Levels of awareness of the science have increased, but along with this an awareness of the awkward questions raised by it (wind farms and more nuclear waste in your backyard? Higher electricity and fuel bills?). These changes and challenges North and South are neatly summarised in the shifting US and Chinese positions. The financial crash is significant too: it has revived a sense that the state has both responsibility for and can have some power over the economy and it has breathed life into phrases like 'green new deal'. Hence these talks are going on in the context of a much more cautious and critical view of unfettered markets.

But with climate change going up the public agenda around the world government ministers are now working in the full glare of media attention. The media want conflict, event and personality, and in looking for these they can distort the (dull but important) work of international policy development. Bluntly, the talks are about who cuts emissions by how much and when. Every move has consequences and it’s no longer enough to talk glibly about 'low hanging fruit' of easy emissions cuts. To meet climate change with the kind of energy and imagination that will be required will need us to rethink and rewire almost every aspect of contemporary life. The 24/7 short attention span world of the media may not allow much political space for this.

Nevertheless we are helped by the fact that plenty of new people have joined the climate change story since the talks that produced the Kyoto Protocol in the 1990s. Lord Stern is one of them. This respected economist was commissioned by Gordon Brown and Tony Blair to lay out the options for a mainstream western government. Stern found that early action to cut emissions and avoid warming ends up much cheaper than delaying action and paying big bills later to cope with the effects of climate change. And cutting emissions later is also tougher.

So the arguments have been piling up in favour of a robust deal this year. But we shouldn't raise expectations too high: as one wise head noted how people always overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade. Also, focusing on the international politics can distract us from the fact that there are many other creative and determined responses to environmental change in play. On that note, my next post will be about a new Open University project - Creative Climate - that will work to capture the human story of environmental change from 2010 to 2020. We’ll be hoping that plenty of people in the OU community – students, associates, staff – will contribute to that work. More on that soon.

About the author

Joe Smith is a lecturer in the environment at the Open University and chair of Interdependence Day. He has written books on climate change and sustainability, the media and global issues, and the green movement.

Subscribe to Joe Smith's posts

 

One of the hardest jobs of filming observational documentaries is making sure you are in the right place at the right time. Unlike dramas and archive documentaries things cannot be planned and scripted in the same way. It is real life we are filming so we have to react to what happens rather than dictate it.

With so many people living in this village, all of them old needless to say, staying on top of their lives proved quite a challenge. Being the senior side of the spectrum of life not many had mobile phones, such a beneficial way of staying in touch with people these days. E-mail is also another system of communication that was not an option as many did not have e-mail addresses and those that did possess them did not check them to the same degree the younger generation do. They certainly struggled to grasp the fact I could check mine on my mobile.

All this meant we had to return to good old fashioned conversation and this is partly the reason why it was so good to live there. Although conversations would take longer to garner the information required I found it refreshing to meet and greet people face-to-face, something that is getting rarer and rarer in modern society. Besides when you did speak to a resident on a mobile it would normally involve both of you speaking at high volume as they struggled to grasp how to hold these new found devices.

We need to be across 30-odd people’s lives during the filming period making sure we don’t miss any developments but also, be on top of all other developments in the village in case any new story lines develop. Of course it is inevitable that we would miss things, naturally people would forget to inform us of things and that is not just those with Alzheimers.

In these situations you need to film around these events so you get the information in a way that is palatable to the viewer. Once I saw a resident one day but not the next. I visited him the day after to discover his cat had passed away which was of huge significance to his story. In these cases you are extremely annoyed but have to remember there is nothing you can do and just do the best you can.

During some days we would just walk around apartments and the village having conversations with residents, sitting in the café in the day and the bar at night. Once we knew what people were featuring we could schedule in specific filming events for the week, avoiding clashes, and in the free time just film events unfolding. Although you can plan, events and situations would arise unexpectedly or things would happen simultaneously. Someone might just casually mention they are on their way to an event or - in the extreme - might suddenly fall ill and go to hospital.

At these times you have to make judgment calls as to what you need to film which is relevant to the story of the person’s life you are trying to tell. Ultimately it comes down to priorities and sometimes you make the right call and others you don’t. The trick is to make the right calls more often than not.

Find out more

Discover more about the people and the series: Silverville

Add your voice to the debate about paying for care: Take the Price Of Old Age survey

About the author

Bart grew up on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. After studying film at University he joined BBC Bristol in 2004. Since then he has been a researcher on a number of prime time documentaries. In this series of blogs, Bart is sharing his personal experiences. His views do not necessarily reflect those of The Open University or the BBC.

Subscribe to Bart Corpe's posts

 

We often hear about the multitude of environmental challenges facing the world: be it water, energy and/or biodiversity crises. But it is not only the earth’s physical and biological resources that are at peril, but also cultural diversity.

Kaapse Klopse Carnival in Cape Town, South Africa. Behind the diversity of performers is Table Mountain, part of the Cape floristic Region (one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots).
[image by Yoseph Araya © copyright Yoseph Araya]

Simply defined culture could mean the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behaviour that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. Cultural diversity is a driving force of development, not only in respect of economic growth, but also as a means of leading a more fulfilling intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual life. [UNESCO defintion]

The disappearance of cultural diversity can at times be even worse than that of other biological diversity. For example, Professor Sutherland in his paper, Parallel extinction risk and global distribution of languages and species, notes: "Over the past 500 years, about 4.5% of the total number of described languages have disappeared, compared with 1.3% of birds and 1.9% of mammals."

Often the factors that determine the diversity of life and culture are very much similar. For example forest cover, tropical climates, heterogeneous topography and prevalence of pathogens are known to be associated with higher cultural diversity.

This emphasises the need to address the world’s heritage of biological, cultural and linguistic diversity together - as biocultural diversity.

Why?

There are many compelling scientific reasons for conservation of biocultural diversity – some of which relate to ecosystem of goods and services vital for our very existence on earth.

Moreover, extinction is forever, as the epitaph at the death of the very last Hawaiian snail in captivity sombrely reminds:

Here lies Partulina turgida: 1.5 million years BC to January 1996”

Lastly, on a more personal level, the earth is a very complex and fascinating place to live in and appreciate. The loss of a species, or the loss of human language diminishes the beauty of the world simply by removing a little of that complexity).

What can be done?

We should combine resources from all walks of life and work together to save our biocultural diversity. There are many approaches that could be tried.

Bringing awareness, documenting and sharing diversity knowledge go a long way in alerting experts as well as the general public.

Another approach is to explore new ways of linking cultural and biological diversity conservation schemes. There is currently growing interest as such e.g. religious communities are increasingly being involved into conservation activities and activism.

See, for example, BBC News reports on Faith leaders urging climate curbs or Beyond Belief: Linking faith and conservation from the WWF.

Watch: International Union for Conservation of Nature: Live Culture - An expert speaks

Not least is getting involved when possible or otherwise supporting organizations working towards this aim. Some notable examples include Terralingua and Global Diversity Fund.

Last word:

The well-versed advertisement for Patek Philippe, the Swiss watch company goes: “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely take care of it for the next generation.”

Taking this analogue, it would be a great shame (if not a crime) to bequeath an impoverished earth to our future generations.

Find out more

Saving Britain’s Past

BBC News: In defence of 'lost' languages

Terralingua: Index of Biocultural Diversity

Ecological influences on human behavioural diversity: A review of recent findings
Daniel Nettle, writing in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 2009

Parallel extinction risk and global distribution of languages and species
W J Sutherland, writing in Nature 423

Introducing Environment
Alice Peasgood and Mark Goodwin, Open University/Oxford University

OpenLearn: Diversity and difference in communication - free learning materials from the Open University.

About the author

Dr Yoseph Araya is a plant ecologist and associate lecturer at the Open University. He works on the biology and conservation of South African fynbos vegetation. Environmental education and the role of the public in research is one of his key interests.

Subscribe to Yoseph Araya's posts

 

When spending eight months working in one location with one group of people, well give or take a few changes, making sure you achieve the right work-friendship balance is important, not only for your contributors but for yourself as well.

Before moving into a retirement village where every resident is over 55, the majority being in their 70s, I have to say I didn’t think I would make any good friends, where we had any common interests. I have been surprised by the variety of people there and although we talk about different things to my friends and me, electronic drone music not being high up on their agenda, the conversations are still interesting and to be honest it is a privilege to have access to all this history. Obviously we don’t do the same things that I would normally do when socialising, expectations are different and nights not quite so late, but it is an insight into what you can and can’t do in later life.

Over 300 people live in Lovat Fields Retirement Village, so it is inevitable there are going to be some people that I get along with very well. The fact there are 300 people though throws up its own problems. In an enclosed space, such as this retirement village, word spreads very fast and this is something you are particularly aware of very quickly. This means you have to be very wary of what you say at all times, even after a pint or two. If you said anything out of turn about anyone, you can guarantee they will find out about it very soon. As we are filming observational documentaries you are never sure who might be involved in the stories, so you need to make sure everyone is onboard with the programme all the time.

When working and living with people, boundaries need to be set within yourself and it is important that these are rarely crossed. For example, people you know who have a disability might ask you to help lift them into bed and you need to be aware that by trying to help them you may cause them harm and in today’s litigation culture, face a lawsuit. Sometimes, as much as you want to help them, it is safer to call the carers who are trained in these things, no matter the contributor’s grievances about it just being put to bed.

Recently, I have faced a very tough situation with one of our contributors we have been filming for the whole period. Over the last few weeks he has started to deteriorate steadily. He was getting thinner, not eating and generally starting to appear more distant and vague. I would try and encourage him to eat and occasionally make him some food but obviously I still had a job to do so couldn’t sit and ‘nurse’ him all day. It is in these situations where it becomes tough, because you just want to look after them, but you still have your job to do.

The contributor in question has a history of cancer and had an appointment with a consultant. We wanted to film this, so, we filmed around the hospital visit and sat with him and waited while he had his appointment. On coming out he didn’t seem to understand what had been said to him and at this point I realised something was really not right, so upon returning to the village, asked them to look into a care package to keep an eye on him. I kept visiting through the week to check on him and he wasn’t getting any better, so at his next appointment the following week, I went with him again but this time, sat with him in the appointment so someone knew what was being said.

The news was not good at all so I got him home and into bed and relayed the information to the relevant people so further steps could be taken for his care. The other problem was that I was soon to move out of the village, so was genuinely worried about who would be looking out for him in our absence. At times like this it is hard to maintain a professional relationship where you don’t get too involved in interfering with people’s lives, but as a friend and a human being I had a duty of care to this person. Some things are more important than work.

As we have been approaching the end of our time here in Lovat Fields, we have needed to get people used to the fact that we were not going to be around as much as before. Over the last couple of months we have been a less visible presence in the village and this coupled with our repeatedly telling them that we will soon be departing eases the impact of our departure.

Withdrawing from these people’s lives does fill you with a sense of sadness and guilt, but it comes with the territory of the job, so it becomes something that happens once a year. I will still come back to visit a number of people in the village in my spare time, when I get a chance, not only out of duty but because I want to stay in touch with the people I have forged relationships with.

Find out more

Explore grief, loss - and how society deals with death on The Open University course Death and Dying.

Read more about Silverville.

About the author

Bart grew up on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. After studying film at University he joined BBC Bristol in 2004. Since then he has been a researcher on a number of prime time documentaries. In this series of blogs, Bart is sharing his personal experiences. His views do not necessarily reflect those of The Open University or the BBC.

Subscribe to Bart Corpe's posts

 

The facts appear all too depressingly familiar. The behaviour of Brits abroad used to be more of a national embarrassment during the silly season but now it is becoming more of an all year round problem.

Drinking in a bar

At home we seem to binge drink all-year round, if we are to believe the more sensational reports of the tabloid red tops. Britain now has binge drinking etched throughout its national rock. Now our binge drinking culture – not simply confined to holidays, football matches, and stag and hen parties - has become an export industry as wave upon wave of British tourists head for the Mediterranean and the urban centres of old and new Europe opened up by low-price air fares. The British binge drinking culture has even reached Dubai where a surge in British arrests has been reported since 2007.

Newspaper headlines tackle the problem with gusto and relish!

• 'Brits behaving badly: they came, they drank, they peed'
• 'Brit teenagers are the binge-drinking champions of Europe'
• 'Curse of the boozy Britons'
• 'Arrests up among British travelling abroad'
• 'Wish you weren‘t here, Greece tells tourists'

In late July this year the Foreign Office urged UK holidaymakers to curb their alcohol consumption and avoid the risks of travelling abroad. The campaign warned Brits that there was 'another side to paradise' and drew attention to the dangers they may encounter. For some it could be a night in the cells. For others it could mean hospital, or worse. This week, in Greece, a Greek woman was accused of setting fire to a British tourist after he allegedly pulled down his trousers in front of her. Drink less and you improve your prospects of not becoming a victim is the Foreign Office mantra.

I have friends who plan their holidays around those times when it is more likely that their historic cultural destination will not be invaded by drunken British tourists. I am always impressed on holiday in Italy, especially in Sardinia, how different cultures generate completely acceptable behaviour in young and old alike rather than the boorish British excess of rowdy drunkenness. Is it any wonder that our European neighbours are becoming increasingly more unwelcoming?

The Foreign Office campaign, aimed mainly at 18-30 holidaymakers, distributed leaflets and posters across the tourist hot spots of Europe, especially new destinations such as the Baltic States and Turkey, and the more familiar sun-seeking paradises of Spain and Greece.The leaflets urge holidaymakers to 'know their limits'. Flyers, beer mats and business cards reading ‘If you drink too much, things can get out of control’ have been handed out to British tourists on Greek islands as part of the campaign.

The Foreign Office has also funded English lessons for police officers in Greece, where 70 per cent of consulate cases involve British tourists who have got into difficulty, including in May this year, a group of men dressed in Nun habits who were arrested for baring their bottoms in Crete. According to Foreign Office data, 16 to 20-year olds represent a third of all Britons visiting Greece, but account for more than 70 per cent of Britain’s annual 800-900 consular cases there. Even tee-shirt companies have muscled in on the market.

Greece’s conservative government vowed to clean up resorts last year, saying much drink-related misconduct was due to profit-hungry bar owners supplying tourists with drinks adulterated with industrial alcohol. This export industry works both ways. The downside to a thriving local economy fueled by British tourist currency is the problems which often come with drunken behaviour, and the cost of coping with it, which according to one authoritative source now is as high as £100bn a year.

A range of European capitals have also suffered during 2009. Historic monuments seem to attract some of the worst activity. On August 6^th the Mayor of the Latvian capital of Riga added his name to a long list of exasperated civic leaders, when he said, after a group of British tourists urinated against the city’s Monument of Freedom: ‘stag parties urinating against the country’s most revered national monument was particularly offensive’.

This episode is yet another example of the way some British tourists show disrespect to other cultures. The Monument to Freedom commemorates Latvian dead in the struggle for independence and is a symbol of resistance during Soviet rule. ‘It’s sacred to Latvians’, explained the Mayor, ‘even the Soviets daren’t touch it.’ And if that is good enough for the Soviets, no enemy to alcoholic excess themselves, it should be good enough for the rest of us. Riga is just one destination in new Europe opened up by cheap flights to old Europe. Most of the tourists who visit east European capitols are British. The exasperated mayor of Riga concluded: ‘If we had other tourists, then British visitors who **** about all of the time would not be as noticeable.’

The latest Foreign Office data published in 2008 shows the scale of the problem. As tourist destinations widen so too does the problem of British drinking behaviour. Arrests in Spain and Greece for binge drinking are rapidly increasing. In France, British arrests rose by over 42 per cent in a single year and in Spain there was a 33 per cent increase.

What are the reasons for these increasing tends? No doubt they are culturally and socially rooted, and complex. The Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) published research this year suggesting the problem is a domestic one. We are simply exporting abroad a British phenomenon. In the last 10 years binge drinking in the UK among girls, for example, has increased so much that the UK now ranks second to Denmark in the girl binge drinking European league table. IAS estimate the cost of British drinking behaviour abroad now exceeds 125 billion Euros a year.

Another survey by the health charity Developing Patient Partnerships (DPP) revealed over a quarter of Britons drank alcohol with the sole intention of ‘getting drunk’, and the proportion doubled for those in the 18-24 year old age group. The IAS report recommends raising taxation, and raising the price of alcohol, curbing the power of supermarkets to sell strong alcohol cheaply, ending happy hours, placing greater investment in public education and increasing voluntary partnerships to ensure a greater understanding and respect for overseas cultures. In the UK alone, Government figures suggest that between 5 and 9 million UK children are living in families damaged by alcohol while nearly 10,000 UK deaths occur each year to bystanders and passengers from drink-driving.

Of course, Britain is not alone of course in having a drink problem. Alcohol misuse is a problem in many states in the European Union. But I do not see groups of European nationals indulging in group alcoholic excess while holidaying in Britain. Alcohol fuelled anti-social behaviour seems increasingly attached to British tourism. The victims can be the perpetrators but more often than not it is the host community that has to bear the full impact.

Find out more: Alcohol and human health

About the author

Richard Skellington edits Society Matters for the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University. He’s an administrator who manages the Environment, Development and International Studies programme.

Subscribe to Richard Skellington's posts

 

As a young, well youngish, man who has grown up in the modern world one thing older people would always say to me is “it’s not like it used to be in our day. People were friendlier”. When I moved to a retirement village this was one ideal I could finally dispel as myth or prove as something my generation has missed out on.

When I would sit and chat to people they would always recall their home lives with fondness. People will always talk about their former neighbourhoods and the people that populated them. Even though times may have been hard they always seemed to help each other out when they needed it. This attitude of knowing all your neighbours and helping people out in their hour of need seems to have translated here to the retirement village.

People say hello to everyone else and know the majority of residents. When someone needs help rather than waiting for someone else to sort it a fellow resident will step in from installing televisions to walking dogs when someone is in hospital. Most of the people living here have a tie to the war, be it fighting in it or growing up during it and the aftermath of it. In those times of nothing it’s easy to see how unity can be generated. Something such as war can be a great leveller and create a spirit impossible to recreate.

I wonder why our generation does not have this community spirit and willingness to interact with strangers - of course I’m generalising here; but it just seems in shorter supply. I guess our transient busy lifestyles don’t allow it to the same degree. I have been infected by it here. Everyone says hello to me with a smile and I am happy to help them whenever I can as they do to me. Near total strangers offer to make you dinner for no other reason than kindness. Since I moved out of home I haven’t got to know any of my neighbours wherever I have lived. From being here this is something I hope to change once I move back home out of the village.

Home is a strange concept here. Some people have moved all there stuff from their houses in to their smaller flats and tried to recreate their homes with their possessions. Indeed, one flat is piled high with boxes still unpacked as there is just not enough space for it but they still don’t want to get rid of the possessions they have had all their lives. Other people have had a complete change. All the furniture has gone, possessions sold to be replaced by a more modern uncluttered style to go with their modern apartment. From speaking to a lot of residents they don’t necessarily refer to here as their homes more as their apartments. I think there are a few factors for this. One, they share the building with 100s of other people, two, they have possibly lived in their previous homes for a great many years and three, it’s a final resting place which must stop it feeling completely like home.

The community spirit and willingness to help others is something the younger generations could learn not only to the benefit of themselves but also to the benefit of older generations too. As their friends and neighbours move on or pass away the elderly often find themselves isolated and lonely through no fault of their own. If we could engage with our community then we might not only be benefiting them but get something in return. As they say ‘if you help me I’ll help you’.

Find out more

Visit the Silverville site

You can explore the issues with The Open University: An introduction to health and social care

Try some free, hand-on learning with OpenLearn Silverville

About the author

Bart grew up on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. After studying film at University he joined BBC Bristol in 2004. Since then he has been a researcher on a number of prime time documentaries. In this series of blogs, Bart is sharing his personal experiences. His views do not necessarily reflect those of The Open University or the BBC.

Subscribe to Bart Corpe's posts

 

“How have I kept this healthy at 91? Eat a lot of tomatoes.”

I moved into a retirement village at the age of 26. Since becoming 27, a degree of reflection upon my age and future was inevitable. I had never considered my own age before, it is just not something I thought about. What difference did it make to me how old I was? From being here, I have had both feelings of there being many exciting years ahead of me, but also fears that time is running out.

When you see people approaching their 90s, yet are still fit and active and seemingly enjoying life, I think bloody hell what’s the rush to do everything now, I still have another 60 years of life to live yet. It is something that is hard to fathom, having that many years ahead. What’s going to happen to me in the next 60 years? What will my life be like? What will I achieve? I have started to realise age is just a concept. Physical afflictions can affect your life at any age, they are just more likely in older life. What is important is how you live your life and what you do. Do you stay active and busy or do you retreat in to yourself? These are things that you can decide yourself, it is your age that decides that. I have found the residents that do the most and stay sociable and active seem to get the most of their lives and I think this is true for me at my age now, as well as in the future.

I am confronted by the ageing process on a daily basis. I go to people’s apartments and look at photos of them when they were younger and sometimes I can see no resemblance what-so-ever. How will I look in forty or fifty year’s time? What sort of ailments will I get? My joints seem to make a lot of noise when I stand up now so god only knows how much arthritis I will have in later life. I have had to wear glasses since I was 14, so I can only imagine how bad my eyesight will get, I might even end up blind.

I guess what living here has made me really think about is, am I looking forward to getting old? The answer to that is simple. Not really. It seems to be a question of pot luck. If you are lucky, you live to a ripe old age with little or no problems at all, enjoying life to the full. On the other side it can be a very lonely existence where you don’t get to do much living in any meaningful way, depending completely on others to survive.

Some people say to me that being surrounded by so many elderly people must make me feel young. Well no, quite the opposite in fact. I have been absorbed into their world, living the lives they lead and conversing with them about the things they talk about. Sometimes if I go back home and see my friends I think I am boring and that I have nothing to contribute to conversations. I feel I am out of touch with them. I have been living here for so long now, I don’t know any difference. Then I realise I am writing this at quarter to midnight and still can’t sleep much before the start of the new day. I can’t be that old yet.

Find out more

How do we cope as we got older? What are our options - and how can we pay for them? Order your free Price Of Old Age booklet

And add your voice to the debate by taking the Price Of Old Age survey

Want to know more? Investigate The Open University course An Introduction To Health And Social Care

About the author

Bart grew up on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent. After studying film at University he joined BBC Bristol in 2004. Since then he has been a researcher on a number of prime time documentaries. In this series of blogs, Bart is sharing his personal experiences. His views do not necessarily reflect those of The Open University or the BBC.

Subscribe to Bart Corpe's posts