Ecological and economic crises in Bristol

Bristol’s eco-revolution was born out of struggle. Many of its grassroots organisations sprouted during Britain’s 1970s recession, with echoes of the past being felt today.

You can buy your tickets to the SMALL IS THE FUTURE event in Bristol on Saturday, 17 June 2023 here.

Some of the most powerful moments of our times were seeded by small movements. In the same way, our existence is sustained by some of the smallest creatures on the planet, such as bees and ants, or the microbiological life of healthy soil.

The slogan ‘Think locally, act globally’ comes to mind when considering ways of responding to our current ecological, economic and cultural crises.

Philosophy

I want to take you back to 1970s Britain – not that I was around then, but we can look towards those who were. In much the same way as we are now, the UK was deep within an energy crisis.

Rampant poverty, unemployment and homelessness were driven by fuel scarcity and rising prices that hit the most vulnerable first. Bristol was run down, choked with cars, and buildings were caked in black soot, many pulled down through disuse.

Fast-forward 50 years to today, and the UK plunges into a recession driven by soaring energy prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The resemblance to the 1973 oil crisis, which was triggered as a result of Saudi Arabia’s weaponising of its oil supply during the Arab–Israeli conflict, is uncanny. The similarities can be felt through economic uncertainty, public expenditure cuts, and high rates of unemployment.     

E.F. Schumacher’s book Small is Beautiful was published in the same year as the 1973 oil crisis – and turned the capitalistic ‘bigger is better’ philosophy on its head.

Famine

Schumacher argued that the modern economy was unsustainable, natural resources aren’t infinite, and we need local economies rather than globalised ones. Schumacher’s ideas gained traction in Bristol, a city in which his ‘small is beautiful’ theory lives on through The Schumacher Institute.

Crisis is often a catalyst for action, and so it was that the 1970s saw the flowering of Bristol’s social justice and environment movements.

A growing squatting scene was a radical reclamation of a broken housing sector – perhaps one not too dissimilar to what we are experiencing today, except that squatters’ rights have since been decimated. Squatting was an opportunity for communities to form, ideas to be shared, and communal living to become a new normalised lived experience.  

Bristol Friends of the Earth and Avon Friends of the Earth began campaigning in 1971, seeding new ideas and new projects and setting fertile ground for further projects to form. Urban regeneration was born from struggle and propagated by ideas for a radical transformation.

Similarities can be seen across the world today – from the recent situation in Sri Lanka, where home gardens have become a popular response to wide-spread famine, to farmers taking back ownership of their land in Palestine.

Revolutionary

St Werburgh’s City Farm is one of the communities working to protect their green spaces. The story of the struggle to keep St Werburgh’s alive is told in The Bristol Cable.

The spirit of activism is strong today in Bristol, and its alternative culture attracts new residents every year, squeezing its already desperate housing situation. Its art and music scenes provide a haven for exploring new ways of living and connecting in an urban sprawl.

Bristol is at the forefront of grassroots mobilisation in the UK. Movements such as Shift Bristol, Growing Futures, Bristol Good Food Alliance, Grow Wilder, and Bristol and Avon Wildlife Trust are very much alive and kicking.

Organisations such as St Werburgh’s City Farm and Lawrence Weston Community Farm are growing food that nourishes local supply chains in what is perhaps one of the greatest revolutionary acts of our times.

Collapse

Although Bristol has been classified as a ‘green capital’, it’s far from sustainable. Its badly designed streets are clogged with traffic, and in some parts the air is heavy with pollution, from which its depleted green spaces offer little refuge.

And whilst Bristol is at the forefront of environmental and humanitarian activism, its wealth is very much built upon the slave trade, of which it was once one of the biggest centres not only in Europe, but also in the wider world. Something important to recognise when celebrating a city that is not without its dark history.  

Although there are so many parallels with the past, today we face even greater complexities. At the time when Small is Beautiful was published, global heating was not part of the mainstream conversation.

Since then, it’s gone on to become a scientifically recognised reality that dominates world headlines. And as temperatures creep higher each year, and we dance on the edge of ecological collapse, politicians carry on with business as usual.

Forefront

Downscaling our economies, taking back public ownership and challenging dominant narratives is not a romantic ideology, but a transformation that will ensure our future survival.

Our SMALL IS THE FUTURE event in Bristol on Saturday, 17 June 2023 will discuss some of the biggest questions of our time through the lenses of regenerative economics, policy and systems theory.

Speakers include Dr Ann Pettifor, author of The Case for a Green New Deal; Charlie Hertzog Young, a contributor to The Ecologist; Professor Herbert Girardet, a trustee of Resurgence Trust, which publishes The Ecologist; Helen Browning of the Soil Association, Dr Gareth Dale, editor of Green Growth and Dr James Meadway, director of the Progressive Economic Forum. 

We would love those who are at the forefront of Bristol’s grassroots movement to join the conversation. You can buy your tickets to the SMALL IS THE FUTURE event in Bristol on Saturday, 17 June 2023 here.     

This Author

Yasmin Dahnoun is the assistant editor of The Ecologist. She tweets as @dahnoun_