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September 2019 Newsletter
In The Mix in September:
Sun 1st - 10am - 2pm Scoopzerowaste 🍜 dried food pop-up shop.
Tues 3rd - 7 - 9:30pm Monthly Craft Night ✂️
Sat 7th - 10am - 1pm Repair Cafe 🛠️ and 2 - 5pm Go with the grain - pallet upcycling 📏
Tues 10th - 7 - 9pm. Get to know your sewing machine 
Wed 11th - 9:30am - 2:30pm Intro to upholstery course starts 💺 and 7:30 - 9pm Mindfulness meet-up 😌
Thurs 12th - 7-9pm Lino printing workshop 
Sat 14th - 10am - noon Resource Bank - fabric rummage 
Mon 16th - 9:30am - 2:30pm Upholstery course starts 💺
Tues 17th - 7 - 9pm Get to know your sewing machine...a bit more!
Wed 18th - 9:20 - 11:30am French conversation and coffee  ☕
Sat 21st - 10am - 5pm Mosaic workshop 🔲
Mon 23rd - 7:30 - 9:30pm Mosaic evening course starts 🔲
Wed 25th - 7:30 - 9pm Green Drinks ☕
Thurs 26th - 7:30pm - Sustainable Wantage Meeting 👥
Fri 27th - 7-9pm Letcombe Brook Bat Walk (meet at The Mix) 🦇
Sat 28th - 10am - 1pm Upcycle your t-shirts 👕
For more info or to book on any of the courses or workshops at The Mix, email Jo, call 07768 767787, or visit the Mix website.
This month we are collecting old jeans that are too broken for charity shops (for our Denim Day workshop 12th Oct) and kitchen roll tubes.
Market Garden open for visitors
Don’t forget, the Market Garden is open every Sunday (2 - 4pm) to visit, meet the gardeners and see what is growing. Find the garden behind the Wantage Community Support Services building, Charlton Village Road, Wantage, OX12 7HG. Wantage Market Garden is a partnership project between Sustainable Wantage, Style Acre and OCC. For more info email Olwen.
Councils Update
Wantage Town Council has unanimously voted to acknowledge the climate emergency. Here is the proposal that was voted through:
 "To consider proposition that this Council acknowledges that a ‘Climate Emergency’ exists that requires urgent action and will aim to ensure that all strategic decisions, budgets and approaches to planning decisions, are in line with a shift to zero carbon by 2030. We will work with and support local organisations and partners, through encouragement, sharing resources and provision of grants, whose aims are aligned with increasing sustainability and reducing the carbon footprint of local activities, amenities and businesses. To consider the appointment of a sub-committee to progress the policy.
"It was noted that the sub-committee could have members who were not councillors. This would be for the sub-committee to determine."
Invitation - Global Climate Strike
Adults are being asked to join young people in striking for climate action.
On Fri 20th September people all over the world will take part in a huge mobilisation calling for action to tackle the climate emergency. The following week, world leaders will meet at the UN Climate Action Summit.
Greta Thunberg has sailed across the Atlantic to participate in the summit without flying.
The more people who take part in the strike, the stronger the message that we expect our leaders to move forward with bold, positive actions to address the climate crisis. If you able to set aside that day to take action, please consider doing so; some people will book time off and others will strike.
The UCU have called on TUC affiliate unions, student unions, politicians and community groups to support the call for a 30 minute workday stoppage on 20th September in support of action on climate change - this motion has been submitted to the TUC Congress which takes place from 8th-11th Sept.
Probably our nearest demonstration will be in Oxford - at Broad Street from 11am - 2pm.
If you are unable to attend a demo on the day, here are some other ways you can support the call for action:
* Tell your friends and acquaintances about the demos happening across the country - details here and here.
* Write letters asking leaders, companies and organisations to act on the environmental emergency.
* Extinction Rebellion 'Remote Rebels' are coordinating some actions people can do from home.
There will be a public meeting in Oxford on 5th September to build support for the strike (more details in the 'Out and About' section).
Café Scientifique - Observing the Earth from Space
Tues 10th, 7:30 (doors 7pm)
The Beacon Café
Portway, Wantage OX12 9BX
The modern world relies heavily on observing the Earth from space, but few people realise just how much it impacts our everyday lives. We all use weather forecasts, we want to know how the climate is changing, and we certainly eat food. All of these make heavy use of data from space.
Peter Allan is an honorary scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, where he does research on astronomy and space science. He will describe how we build scientific instruments to monitor our planet in order to navigate (literally) our way through life in the modern world.
Entrance limited to seating capacity.
More details at cafescientifique.org.
In Brief
Do check out the new zero waste and eco store which has just opened in Arbery's Arcade - visit the Going Green Facebook page or email Going Green. Remember to take your containers for refills! They're having a launch party on 14th September.
New Local Food List - Sustainable Stanford have compiled a list of more sustainable food sources, including locally produced, plastic-free and free food. Although centred around Stanford it covers Wantage too.
As the Amazon rainforest burns, Brazil's president Bolsonero has come under increasing international pressure to change his policies which encourage the destruction of the forest. Under his presidency fines for environmental crimes have dropped which may have emboldened people wanting to light fires to clear the forest. This forest influences water across the whole continent and provides 20% of the oxygen we breathe. Here are three petitions on the subject: one, two, three.
 It's not just the Amazon that has been suffering with fires this month: Indonesia is witnessing a similarly devastating ecological tragedy, Angola and DR Congo both had even more fires than Brazil last week, a scorched Gran Canaria is seeing 'unprecedented' wildfires, and an area the size of Belgium has been engulfed by wildfires in Siberia.
 Meanwhile the push for tree planting in other parts of the world has been increasing. Trees for Climate Oxfordshire aims to work with around 20 local organisations this winter to plant trees across the county. This is part of the Friends of the Earth campaign to double the UK's tree cover.
Still using Google? The search engine Ecosia has planted 65 million trees in the last ten years. Most of the time it does the job very well, but if you do want to revert to Google sometimes, you can just add #g to your Ecosia search.
 Copenhagen aims to be carbon neutral in just six years, planning substantial infrastructure projects. They already have an impressive network of cycle paths with lanes wide enough for two or three bikes. This 'build-it-and-they-will-come' mentality has led to a huge surge in the popularity of cycling in the city in recent years. 62% of residents now commute to work or school by bike, pedalling a total of 800,000 miles a day. There are a dozen cycle superhighways - higher-speed traffic-light-free bike paths for those riding in from the suburbs.
 Dams not built for extreme weather. Following the damage to the dam at Whaley Bridge, which was caused by exceptionally heavy rainfall, there are concerns that many other dams around the world may not be built to withstand our changing climate. California's Oroville Dam, which failed in 2017 due to high water exacerbated by climate change, cost $1.1 billion to repair and 190,000 people had to evacuate. Repairs at Whaley Bridge are likely to take years, and costs will be in the millions.
Refill app expands. The app currently shows where you can refill water bottles for free. It is expanding to include places to buy other sorts of refills: drinks, food, cleaning products and toiletries. They're launching a pilot in Oxford and Bristol soon, with the aim of rolling it out nationwide in 2020. You can have your say in shaping it - there's a survey.
Iceland held a funeral for its first glacier lost to climate change, with scientists warning that many more risk the same fate. They put up the following memorial plaque:
Insect-based food 'better for pets than top steak'. Protein from insects could be a more environmentally sustainable way of producing pet food. Like meat and fish, insects contain taurine, which is essential for cats. 1 tonne of insects can be grown on 20 square metres of space in 14 days, making it many times more efficient than meat production. There are already some insect-based pet foods available in the UK, although with production volumes still low, prices are currently higher than most pet food.
Using public transport to... heat your home. Warm air from London Underground tunnels will be used to support a heat network supplying heat to around 1000 homes and businesses by the end of the year. Although district heating networks are unusual in Britain, they provide heat to 63% of Danish homes. Networks of pipes under Danish towns and cities collect waste heat from factories, server farms, transport systems and power stations, heating it further in more efficient large boilers, and distributing the heat to homes.
Out and About in September
Cycling UK Wantage have frequent rides in and around Wantage, suitable for different levels of fitness. To be added to their mailing list, email Cycling UK Wantage.
Thurs 5th - Stop Climate Breakdown - Public meeting at Oxford Town Hall to promote the 20th Sept strike. Speakers include George Monbiot, Ian Hodson - National President of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union, Suzanne Jeffery - Campaign Against Climate Change and Keith Hamilton - South Central Postal branch of CWU.
Mon 2nd - Climate Walk, Warneford Meadow and orchard, East Oxford.
Sat 7th - Like Riding a Bike: Co-creating a cycling environment for 9s to 90s.
Tues 10th Sept - Achieving Net Zero Public meeting at Oxford Town Hall, OX1. Speakers include Craig Simmons, Lord Mayor of Oxford City, Radhika Khosla, Research Director of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development and David Hone, chief climate change adviser for Shell.
Sat 14th - Hedgerow Survey - short course about how to survey hedges. Chimney Meadows, near Bampton.
Every Saturday between 14th Sept and 2nd Nov - Let's Talk About Climate. Suggested participant age 15-19. Six free interactive workshops - review the evidence first hand, talk to experts and respond.
Wed 18th - Climate Change and AI, Oxford OX1.
Sat 21st - Stanford Repair Cafe, 2-4pm at Stanford Coffee Shop. For more details email Derek or call him on 01367 710283.
Fri 20th - Global Strike for the Climate. Demonstrations across the country, including Broad Street, Oxford, from 11am - 2pm.
20th-23rd - Thames Waterblitz.
Dates for your Diary
Sun October 6th - 2-4pm. Wantage Market Garden plant sale. There will be herbs, veg and flower plants for sale, all grown by the gardeners. There will also be a cake sale, teas and coffees, garden trail and pebble hunt. Full details in next month's newsletter, or email Olwen.
7th - 19th October - Extinction Rebellion Autumn Rebellion. The movement will use non-violent direct action in key cities to press for action on the climate emergency. XR Oxford. XR Wantage.
Wed 25th Sept
7:30pm - 9pm in The Mix, Mill Street
Bring your own tipple. All welcome.
This month questions and answers on the climate emergency with Mike Landy.
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