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The Revolution
This is a revolution. If you want to shut an airport then stop flying.
Want an end to factory farming? Grow your own. An end to pollution?
Change to renewables. An end to war & poverty? Microgenerate. Life
for your childen? Stop needing oil. YOU have THIS Power. You do not
need Government. Seize the initiative. Bring democracy to your
community. Be an example to your children. Take responsibility.
Change for good today. |
About Us & FAQ
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So here it is -
everything you have ever wanted to know and frequently asked. Or
whatever we thought you would want to know. Carbon Cutters started in 2007 after
we read Mayer Hillman's "How we can Save the Planet". In
this book Mayer described an idea for local communities coming
together to monitor their Carbon Footprints. He described this
as a form of "Weight Watchers" for Carbon. This seemed like such
a good idea - but, where to start? We thought it was an idea whose time had come. So
we put together this Web Site as a focus point to start spelling
out our ideas for this new organisation - and to start
recruiting. Our
primary wish is to reach a new target audience that wouldn't
normally be reading anything about 'environmentalism'. After
years of freely available data only 1% of Electricity Consumers
ever switched to a renewables tariff. Only 1%! Where are the
other 99%? We hope to succeed where others may have failed. Our
target is the other 99%. |
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Who the hell are you?
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Carbon Cutters was founded and funded by the Father and
Daughter partnership of Mark & Milla Brown (pictured left).
The reason? We felt lonely! We believe in carbon cutting
passionately but just didn't seem to meet anyone who shared
our point of view.
So we built this web site to share with you what we had
already done, and what we wanted to do. If we can do stuff
then so can everyone else. Carbon Cutters leads on..... |
Who is this 'other 99%' you talk of?
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The other 99%
are the people outside of the immediate clique of concerned
people. For example, Chris Goodall described his frustration
that when he went to public meetings, about Carbon
reduction, that the only people there were the elder members
of the community. Where are the young people, the teenagers,
the Business leaders? What are they doing that could
possibly be more important? The bitter truth is that the
other 99% are ignoring the problem. Oh, they hear about it
everyday but they say "What can we do?", "I will do
something when I have to" or "The Government should tell me
what to do, but they aren't."
So the 99% live
in blissful, self enforced, ignorance because, well, it is
somebody's else's problem. Isn't it? In truth the combined
tragedy of Climate Change and Peak Oil is like a million
Godzilla's rampaging through our cities. It is hard to
imagine that they could be ignored. But that is precisely
what the other 99% do. Hence we must break down this
barrier. It is no longer a question of the threatened
habitat of some squirrel in some place we have never heard
of. The habitat under threat is our own. It is the Human
species facing extinction.
Here, at Carbon
Cutters, we wish to reach that 99% through frank talking and
by offering a solution. There are things that everyone can
do. But we cannot pretend that the problem is vague and
happening elsewhere. It is happening NOW and to US. |
Why is everything gold and not green?
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The colour of
this web site represents the Sunset on Oil and the Sunrise
for the new low-Carbon economy. In order to connect with the
other 99% who haven't yet done anything we don't use a
'traditional' set of words or concepts. Hence you don't see
the words 'green', 'habitat', 'environment', 'ecology',
'conservation', 'nature', etc., on this web site. We choose more
mainstream terms such
as 'economics', 'food-supply', 'ethical', 'invest', 'price', etc.
Carbon Cutters is simply not about the traditional minority
view of resource depletion. We go beyond the old ideas of
preserving wildlife and make a direct connection between the
choices we make and the near-future for US. |
What have you got against our leaders?
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Our leaders would be
just great - if they actually offered any leadership. Here, at
Carbon Cutters, we feel that Political and Governmental
Leadership is irrelevant. Elected officials in most countries
have their hands tied and are systemically unable to actually do
anything. They actually rely upon the general public to lead
them. Their excuse for doing nothing is that the Public simply
won't vote for them next time. Our mission is to provide
grass-roots leadership free from any affiliation. We need to
establish a new "norm" in society so that the
Politicians will
follow the people. Doing nothing is not an option. |
Are you Political?
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Far from it. If
anything we are completely apolitical. We support no Political
Organisation or Party. We can only implore our Carbon Cutter
Groups to Vote sensibly. |
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Do you make money out of this?
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No. This is a
non-Governmental and not-for-profit organisation designed to
inspire and lead. We ask for no money, however, we expect
local groups to fund-raise for their local needs as they see
fit. |
Do you Campaign?
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We do not campaign at a
national or international level - well, not yet. We do campaign
(or let's say recruit) at a local level. We intend to have a
presence on the high street and Community Events. We want to
hand out leaflets and balloons. Anything to get people to think
and form local Groups. We need to persuade our friends,
nieghbours and colleagues to Cut their Carbon. Our mission is to
create a low carbon life as the new 'norm'. This is worth telling
people about. |
Are you anti-market or anti-progress?
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 Like everyone else
in the World we too would like to pretend that there isn't a
problem. However, there is. In our search for solutions we learn
that certain "norms", we take for granted today, have a very short
expiry date. One such example is Globalisation. This will be
replaced by 'localisation'. This is not because we dislike
Markets. It is because we will have no choice in the matter.
Free markets and free enterprise are excellent mechanisms where
supply meets demand at a price LOCALLY. Modern neo-liberal
attitudes towards the market suggest that individual consumers
will make rational choices to maximise their own welfare. This
fixes the price. These decisions are short-term and do not
include the long-term cost. Our price
mechanisms have been distorted by cheap oil. In truth we have no
idea of the real cost of anything because we have externalised
the cost. As soon as that is internalised our future will be a
very different one from our present. |
Why so bleak?
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It is NOT our
attention to be some minority "end of the worlders". We do not
believe that our current actions will lead to the end of the
World. In fact the world will get on just fine without us. The
reality is that we are quite capable of wiping out ourselves and
90% of the other species on the planet in the blink of an eye
through nuclear destruction. If we can recognise that then why
do we have such a problem accepting that our end could be a
long, drawn-out and protracted affair brought about by resource
depletion? This idea has come over from the extreme to the
mainstream. We actually believe that Mankind can overcome all
such problems and prosper. We just need to DO something! |
Millablog
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I was born at a water-shed in history. I am a Peak Oil baby.
Within my lifetime the Oil will be gone and mankind will face up
to Global Climate Change. What does the future hold? I will find
out. My Dad created this web site for me. We have Solar Power
for me. Low Energy light bulbs for me. When we live with less he
will be the one who actually did something.
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What about FOE or Greenpeace?
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Please support
them. Absolutely! We do too. There are many organisations
and lobbying groups at the national and international level
that deserve our support. However, Carbon Cutters is a
voluntary organisation designed to lead and persuade people
with lots of good ideas. The result is a local grass-roots
organisation that forms local groups for local purposes. |
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