Star attraction was Dave Hampton, The Carbon Coach - an expert consultant in personal and corporate carbon reduction targets. He regularly demonstrates to audiences of all ages the scale and significance of our personal carbon emissions with the help of some specially designed purple helium-filled balloons. Unfazed by a gaggle of overenthusiastic schoolchildren, Mr. Hampton patiently explained ‘Contraction and Convergence’ and the significance of their participation in the shoot. Contraction and convergence (C&C) is a proposed strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. Conceived by the Global Commons Institute in the early 1990’s, the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of reducing overall emissions of greenhouse gases to a safe level, ’Contraction’, where the global emissions are reduced because every country brings emissions per capita to a level which is equal for all countries, ’Convergence’. It is intended to form the basis of an international agreement which will reduce carbon emissions to avoid climate change."There is something deeply unifying and healing about C&C, if we can let it into our hearts." C&C is Beautiful Dave Hampton “One person one balloon” was the way I used to describe the climate change solution* in school classrooms back in the 2000s. As ‘Carbon Dave’. 🎈 *C&C - Contraction and Convergence was ‘discovered’ (and delineated) by Nobel prize nominee and dear friend Aubrey Meyer in the 1990s. It was and is the vitally important ‘climate peace’ and #climateJustice breakthrough of the century (1900s) that never happened... (or at least, not yet)... the principle of justice without vengeance. Aubrey has devoted his life to it, and remains stubbornly** of the belief that it is the only peaceful pathway forward. As am I. (** probably because it is!) An end to Carbon apartheid. Of course we have left it very late: it now requires a very rapid societal carbon descent, of almost 20% per year. Back in the 1990s a slow carbon detox of just 5% a year would have done the trick. #carbonDetox #comeOffIt No one ever disputed that he had come up with the (only) fair equitable and agreeable solution. And one that would get *all* our young safely back home. 🌍 (in a time travel sense) But there were those of us with more than one balloon (most of us) who found endless creative (flawed) reasons or excuses why we didn’t much like the idea of equity in practice (“equity and survival”), although we loved fairness as a concept, of course. But not for us, at least, not for us yet. We’d like to eat our privilege cake a while longer despite we’re already tucking into all grandchildren’s cake share, and have been for a century. Perhaps humanity’s very recent enthusiasm for fessing up more honestly to ALL of our ill-gotten privilege, (whether deriving from our species, our colour, our gender, our religion, our background, or arising from imperialism, colonialism, dominion over nature or other theft, the worst of which is theft from the future, (intergenerational injustice) and the one blatantly unfair indefensible but taboo to mention “-ism” that is still defended: ‘capital-ism’ which is much the same as ecocide. A way of pulping the whole beautiful infinity of Earth creation into... a stack of grubby dollar bills in the hands of fewer and fewer sad scared sick humans. This new openness and vulnerability and willingness to learn of our own history opens up a portal of possibility that all who share this planet (unfairly) *can* survive, (we just need to pass through the eye of a needle) as equals. One person. One balloon. #spiritLevel #ubuntu What would Ghandi Do? C&C STARTS to reverse the process of growth of EXPANSION AND DIVERGENCE (the whole rich get richer dream/nightmare) and it starts to heal and reconcile and unify and take us forward not in fairness - but towards fairness. It's unreasonable for rich to ask poor to back it - but I sure hope they do. Aubrey Meyer points to MANDELA words it being about JUSTICE without VENGEANCE? I love C&C and I hope that all our leaders learn to love it and lead with it and soon. What Would Gandhi Do? Dave Hampton the Carbon Coach in Carbon Sense Dave Hampton says, “It’s all common sense really, and it’s reality, so it’s common sense reality I suppose - another kind of CSR?!” Contraction and Convergence Back to UNFCCC Submission Back to Signatory List Yes please, I support this proposal Dave Hampton The Carbon Coach MA (Cantab) C Env C Eng Board Member of The Society for the Environment RIBA Sustainable Futures, The Edge, Marlow FM Radio