John Payne
We have a smallholding and manage woodland. I am part owner of the local village shop and produce firewood and kindling. I oppose intensive livestock units and support the Forest of Dean XR group.
Location Lower Wye Valley Wales
Activity
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John Payne made a comment
The median amount of MPs/day has been quoted at 553 particles/person/day. Sperm concentration and subsequent fertility has declined by 1/7 since the introduction of the widespread use of plastics (Mann U., Shiff B., Patel P. (2020). Reasons for worldwide decline in male fertility.)
Does this affect other species, particularly oceanic ones? What other modern... -
I am not surprised, I live in a village that experienced the very first pangs of the Industrial Revolution, particularly the first coal smelting of copper https://www.wyevalley-nl.org.uk/exploring-wye-valley-aonb/heritage/industrial-wye-valley/
The housing built on the site of the old tinplate works had to have all the top soil removed, I would not grow veg... -
John Payne made a comment
I found it interesting that in the literature soya was found to be often contaminated with TAs ( 30% in some cases) often from Datura seeds. Cocaine is also described as a TA, but doesn’t seem to cause harm in cola drinks.
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John Payne made a comment
We live on a Welsh forestry track, there is an intensive dairy and beef unit at one end of the track and our woodland in the Forest of Dean is despoiled by a Feed mill and large IPU ( intensive poultry unit) . We have contributed to closing that down because of its damage to the woodland with its Ammonia emissions and pollution to the River Wye.
Intensive... -
John Payne made a comment
Wales, I am part of “Save The Wye” preventing water pollution and woodland damage by ammonia from Intensive Poultry Units.
We are very conscious that agriculture contributes as much to climate Degradation as the Fossil Fuel industry.
Just as we have to move away from Fossil Fuels we must transition away from intensive industrial animal husbandry. -
John Payne made a comment
1. An XR Samba Band meet at Lydney Docks in the Forest, could explain about river pollution and likely sea level rise in the Severn Estuary. 70 people signed up
2. Band outside the COOP in the same time, generally not the same engagement with different audience, less relevant venue -
John Payne made a comment
Governments do everything to keep a positive spin alive!
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John Payne made a comment
I agree broadly with what are said to be survey supported connections, but they reflect views that human society is linear in its acquisition of knowledge, useful infrastructure and rationality.
Unfortunately this may not be the case as in the past societies were cyclical and experienced periods of decline and even extinction.
We are entering a downward path... -
John Payne made a comment
Catastrophic inevitable technology
Software baulked and crashed at my suggestions! -
John Payne made a comment
COP 26 in Glasgow, left feeling depressed at the fate of the indigenous peoples who were part of the protest and should have been included in the dialogue
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John Payne made a comment
When our group went to Lydney Docks to protest against River pollution and highlight Climate Change issues
https://www.facebook.com/groups/XRFOD/permalink/1249435789105315/ -
John Payne made a comment
How do we engage with big businesses that have unsustainable and climate wrecking policies, like Avara, Cargil and Noble Foods whose activities have killed the Ecosystem of The River Wye that I live beside
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John Payne made a comment
To be more effective in getting the message across and finding a better way than scaring everyone with apocalyptic gloom.
Using music with the message, I play the Tamb in an XR Samba Band -
John Payne made a comment
Here is my effort on a project that I am involved in using the UN Tripartite Guidelines on Zoonotic Disease.
https://prsm.uk/prsm.html?room=ALJ-RMW-MNX-JLZ
I think you can create different levels of connection between the factors? Useful to add notes, about the technical features, but quite different from mind map -
John Payne made a comment
This is easier to use than Mindmaps. I am in the process of mapping a Multi sectorial coordinated framework to illustrate how to assess Intensive Poultry Units for Zoonotic diseases, taking the approach offered by the UN Tripartite Guidelines for Zoonotic Disease.
The resource does seem to involve System Thinking, but it lacks a way to aggregate all the... -
I have to say that what makes Wales such a great place to live, is it’s regionality and lack of speedy transport corridors!
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John Payne made a comment
Mind mapping has been very helpful to me for understanding and retaining information. Looking back at mindmaps that are now twenty years old I can get a clearer sense of where I was and what I was thinking.
I was taught the SOAP concept at VGH ( Vancouver General Hospital) in the 1970s.... -
I own woodland and one very poor quality field, with the Demise of The Common Agricultural Policy and the introduction of EWCO there has been a complete change in policy, now it is about Environmental Goals and Public Benefit.
For Natural Colonization or Re Wilding, one third of a very generous grant is for Public Access. One of my brothers fails to... -
John Payne made a comment
3.3 either I am very honest or just so old that I reflect and am infused with a post war (WW2- not that old) spirit of rebirth and hope!
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John Payne made a comment
Although it may not be a very objective statement and does increase the gulf between academic research and personal experience, it is clear to me that educational achievement, political affiliation and personal achievement and autonomy all are major contributions to the richness or flatness of our minds.
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John Payne made a comment
Since my retirement I had focused on filling the “empty spaces” in my day and life. My previous life had no interstitial gaps, work, children, woodland and often having to work at night, leaving the house in the early hours.
I found That with COVID I was forced to slow down, think more critically and not pass off my numerous poor decisions as just stemming... -
For too long society has seen itself as powerless and has valued the “status quo” rather than opting for radical change. Russia is such an example where Totalitarian control has sidelined political discourse and produced a mindset where the decision making processes are left to the leader. Iran has been controlled by Religious Ideologues, the USA by huge ...
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John Payne made a comment
We have to also think from a European perspective, and here I distance myself from Brexit , an analogous state to Trump and the GOP.
Faith doesn’t resonate in the UK as it does in the US, something Gus does mention as having the capacity to be transformational. I have found the comradeship of Extinction Rebellion mind altering, enhanced by the experience of... -
John Payne made a comment
I like to think now that when I joined Extinction Rebellion in 2019, turned up with a few people at the northern end of Waterloo Bridge on a Monday morning that I was exerting leverage on the system. The bridge, a major commuting avenue into London was held for five days, despite repeated efforts to clear it by the police.
Donella’s contribution I find too... -
My local MP David Davies who opposed the Welsh Government’s plan to stop all new major road projects in Wales, particularly the M4 relief road in Newport and the plan to build a new bridge to Anglesey.
He would prefer to encourage road traffic in the interests of his ideological pursuit of free enterprise and personal freedom of choice.
The Welsh government... -
I do like the way that the Climate Co- Benefit Portal only gives two adverse trade offs but many Benefits from ecologically sensible measures. Whilst it maybe that most adaptation and mitigation measures for Climate Change are positive, I am more than concerned that market forces and ingrained habits may actually result in far more deleterious trade offs.
We... -
John Payne made a comment
Chicken waste dumped on the land adjacent to the Wye, fueled by large IPUs ( Intensive Poultry Units) funded by US food corporations has turned the Wye into a dead river.
Even in the presence of a huge price rise in fertilizer prices it is not economical to move these mountains of waste because they are mainly water.
Here is Avara’s solution... -
We should concentrate on Sustainable goals 1 and 8, reducing poverty and providing decent work and economic progress. But that does mean that developed economies need to stop growing and act more sustainably. Humans flourish in being occupied with physical work that unities family units and communities and not working in new, and growth led technologies that...
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John Payne made a comment
In the autumn I attended a Venture Capital Event at The Shard in London to go live ( without their knowledge) on their nationwide Zoom event, to make a plea on the behalf of Extinction Rebellion for them to embrace Disruptive Technology. But here I was thinking of new housing with point pillar foundations rather than concrete ones, abandoning fossil fuels and...
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John Payne made a comment
The subsidizing of fossil fuel prices, the promotion of huge road projects by our local Tory MP and the expansion of IPUs by large US Poultry corporations in the promise of providing an income for small family owned farms.
The only good sign is that our Welsh Government has had the sense to cancel a vast road programme, they have been reading and... -
In the UK our landscape is only about 12-13,000 years old. I own an ancient wood in the Forest of Dean with my brothers, it contains remnants of the huge Forests of small leaf lime that used to dominate Post ice age Britain.
Our landscape is dominated by farming communities, from the sheep ravaged uplands to the huge agricultural plains in East Anglia.
It... -
John Payne made a comment
Matt Ridley is a pernicious example of self interest, he owns a coal mine!
Inequality seems to directly stem from the process of worshiping economic growth for its own sake.
We have yet to find a politician who can square personal happiness, health and economic equality with the material aspirations of a wealthy society. -
John Payne made a comment
I am a forestry worker and have been pretty stressed by the whole process of delivering firewood and kindling on a “ Just in Time” basis. The huge demand this winter with the energy crisis has drained me!
3 days ago, before I started the course I decided I was going to concentrate on doing batches of drying and packing, rather than assembling orders. I also... -
The death of the River Wye which flows below the forestry track which separates our small holding from the river.
Caused mainly by IPUs spreading the chicken manure on fields in the catchment area and also by illegal
Sewage discharges. -
John Payne made a comment
Polycrisis, such an evocative term caused by the poly effects of a single species which dominates the world.
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John Payne made a comment
For me it’s about acting as a citizen rather than a consumer and agent for large corporations and political parties that are chasing economic growth.
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John Payne made a comment
I am a woodland manager and firewood producer, I also have a professional interest in Zoonotic Disease, such as Covid and the new threat posed by avian flu.
I work with Save The Wye and oppose IPUs (intensive Poultry Units) in the Lower Wye Valley. -
John Payne made a comment
I already do think differently since joining The Forest of Dean Extinction Rebellion group in 2019!
What is interesting is that the general public are no longer hostile or dismissive. -
John Payne made a comment
I live (just) in Wales and manage woodland, run a small business selling firewood and kindling and have a financial stake in the local community village shop and Post Office.
I am a member of Extinction Rebellion and am acutely aware of changes in the weather and landscape as I am pretty old!
My wife runs a pressure group opposing IPUs ( intensive poultry... -
John Payne made a comment
I am too busy carving a sustainable living on my smallholding, I have already made the leap from reflection to action, it has taken me at least ten years.
What hope is there for those with the demands of a younger family, rising costs and the forced commitment to work that envelops all one’s time and energies. -
The SDG are useful, but the discussions will flounder because few nations have a viable energy policy to supplant fossil fuels.
They are also wedded to the mantra of growth and personal wealth.
We are just starting to reach the era where these two aspirations can no longer be achievable in the developed world. The developing world has already failed to see... -
John Payne made a comment
I start in the village I live in and take as the focus the village shop, I own 1/8 of the community business and provide the Fuelwood and kindling.
I see the village as a unit, hopefully a resilient unit.
The next step up from the village is the District Council area, it is only just recently that the Council have started to listen to the voices of the... -
Climate action as this has been my focus for the last decade and sums up the critical problem of unsupportable growth, both in consumer behaviour and ur effects on other ecosystems.
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John Payne made a comment
Twice last month when I marched with the Forest XR Samba Band to Parliament Sq and two weeks later to Downing St to protest at “short termism” and lack of action on environmental issues.
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John Payne made a comment
Robbie is talking about the framework that we have to acquire and then experience to enact change. You get all of this, including the important social connections and reaffirmation of values if you join a protest group.
A very good example in our area of The Marches is the “ Save the Wye” movement that works to restrain the intensive poultry industry. -
John Payne made a comment
I am increasingly becoming more challenged by the frustration that I see in listening to politicians, both local and national who don’t seem to get it, it being ecological and landscape breakdown.
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John Payne made a comment
This chimes with what I have found, I have embraced more pro social views by joining Extinction Rebellion in 2019, this channeled my energies into meeting more ecologically and socially aware people
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John Payne made a comment
I am a member of Extinction Rebellion and recently have learnt to drum in our Forest of Dean Samba Band. It is joining a movement that enables one to grow emotionally and increase a knowledge base in a community of people whose priorities are being sustainable not are afraid to take affirmative action to realize them.
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John Payne made a comment
The timeline was important to me, I often feel that my life is on a continuous loop, having such a small place on the 45m line, at about a third of the width of a human hair reminds me of my place in the linear progression of history.
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John Payne made a comment
Muesli, dried figs from Turkey, yoghurt and two slices of home baked bread with honey. Coffee and oatmilk.
I am a veggie, since 1988 when I met my wife. -
John Payne made a comment
Fight industries such as the intensive poultry units and engage others so that they understand it’s impact upon rivers and woodland by the pollution generated from the IPUs. Use this example as a model to understand why some practices and industries are unsustainable.
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John Payne made a comment
Core to sustainability is the concept of a knowledgable local community that acts to be resilient, whilst at the same caring for the landscape and its inhabitants. Define unsustainablity as the pursuit of individual gain and consumption.
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John Payne made a comment
Sustainability for me, comes down to the practical struggle of running a smallholding and woodland with fun, where I try and temper my consumer drive and support my bank balance.
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John Payne made a comment
I am a climate activist living just inside Wales in the Lower Wye valley, we own and manage woodland in the Forest of Dean. I run a small business selling firewood, kindling and making charcoal. Eight of us own the village community shop and Post Office.
Despite being retired, the government keep maintaining me on the active medical list, ( do they fear... -
John Payne made a comment
Online learning on issues like sustainability, climate change and the subsequent economic and social consequences are best discussed and then related to local landscapes and events. Having interested friends or a local Extinction Rebellion group can really help bridge the gap that is often felt between the short term politician’s field of vision and normalcy,...
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John Payne made a comment
I would read Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy first!
Mars has immense highlands, how could one cope perceptually after a month in a cramped spaceship, how easy would it be to use a plasma propulsion unit to slow down when there is almost no atmosphere to slow the descent onto the planet surface? -
John Payne made a comment
We should move to Bioregional economies, where the energy resources are matched to local resources and money is used as a transactional force for change rather than a means of investing in speculative ventures whose costs are obviated by inflation.
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John Payne made a comment
What is the ultimate efficiency of the fusion reactor, the ratio of energy consumed in the process compared to the yield?
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John Payne made a comment
So what is gravity? It seems to affect solids, gases and fluids, but does it influence plasma?
Are electromagnetic waves more powerful than gravity, or is gravity only a property of objects in the supra atomic world? -
John Payne made a comment
I am perplexed by the apparent virtual reality of matter at the subatomic level.
Is this the result of the limitations of my human physiology, perceptive apparatus and data processing abilities, or is it because we do not have access to the programmes that assembly our reality out of the apparent chaos of fundamental particles and their properties? -
John Payne made a comment
I am also 73 yrs young, retired from medicine in 2009. FutureLearn has helped develop my interest in Climate issues and Zoonotic disease.
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John Payne made a comment
There has been a huge expansion of knowledge in fundamental science over the past 120 years. But can we be really confident in the Provenance and Confidence of this knowledge, I hope this course will help me decide.
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John Payne made a comment
Some of our schools are so huge, it was only after our youngest daughter left the local comprehensive at 16 years old that she gained confidence and realised her potential.
Rural settings can be quite socially isolating with long transit times. This kind of work, looking beyond educational attainment goals helps develop the person and give them their voice. -
John Payne made a comment
We live in one of the less diverse parts of the UK, the Forest of Dean.
Inertia and sequestration of BME communities has an effect upon an understanding and interaction to meet these goals. -
John Payne made a comment
I was struck by the comment that Zarina made about Climate Change not being an abstract concept, but rather reality for many people from diverse backgrounds. My wife reminds me that it is best not to lump people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds together. The label that aggregates them is discriminatory.
Their interests are best discovered by... -
John Payne made a comment
I am reading “ The Dawn of Everything” by David Graeber and David Wengrove
, they describe a time when the inhabitants of Britain, at a time in the past, roughly in tune with the erection of Stonehenge changed their life.
They were finding the hard, restricting and burdening toil of farming less preferable than the old life of hunting and gathering wild... -
John Payne made a comment
I have a lifetime of trying to persuade people to see themselves and their problems in a different light. I had a role in a Substance, alcohol and Miss Use Team as well as working in a Community Day Hospital for the Elderly.
It was only when I retired and went back to college to work part time on a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy course that I understood the... -
John Payne made a comment
Yesterday a friend sent me a link for a zoom meeting to the Climate Action Group which is co-ordinated by The Forest of Dean Council’s Climate Emergency Officer. It has the following remit-
“How can the outcomes of COP26 support the net zero ambitions of businesses, policy makers and communities in the Forest of Dean District?”
I think the question is flawed... -
My sustainability issue is food, particularly the unsustainability of intensive livestock factory units.
Sitting in my pickup with the dog for an hour, I counted the 44 tonne HGVs going down a small country lane to an IPU for Turkeys and a Feedmill. I counted four in an hour, one was a huge oil tanker to run the mill, the remainder were carrying feedstock for... -
John Payne made a comment
My circle of influence has been quite small, but this week it is hopefully enlarging as I took part in a TV report on intensive poultry units and their effect upon so many Ecosystems as well becoming an untouchable, totemic emblem of consumerism. BBC West news at 6pm on Monday 13th Dec.
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John Payne made a comment
Well for me it is overcome my total loss of musical ability and persevere to learn to play the High Surdo drum in our local Extinction Rebellion Samba band. Emotion and solidarity are important components of generating change and I want to use it to contribute to the dialogue on Climate Change.
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John Payne replied to John Payne
Stonehenge which was built some 5000 years ago showed that the prehistoric mind felt a sense of moment, it bothered enough to construct tenon and mortise joints in the stone uprights and lintels.
Don’t we need to make a statement, perhaps not in a stone circle, but in our daily life to recognize the importance of this moment? -
John Payne made a comment
Today, listening to the news that there could be a million cases of the new variant of Covid before the end of the year in the UK I am making plans for Xmas, buying food for the freezer, ordering more lateral flow tests.
But this is a urgent threat, underlying these thoughts are a much more chronic level of anxiety, that of Climate Change. It seems that the... -
John Payne made a comment
I have done the Futurelearn courses on Climate Change over the past five years, my perspective was set in March 2019 when I joined Extinction Rebellion and started to become a climate activist. I encountered the initial ridicule and distrust at demos, it is interesting how my views have become mainstream and respectable over the last two and half years.
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John Payne made a comment
I want to work on the System approach as defining our area, The Forest of Dean as a discrete Bioregional economy, with its own resources.
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John Payne made a comment
Sustainability is not factored in when planning decisions are made, Ecosystems are treated as having isolated and not dependent components.
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John Payne made a comment
I chose IPUs, in particular a local Feedmill and Turkey factory farm.
The effects were Environmental Degradation of the surrounding ancient woodland, diminished Biosecurity, destruction of the SSSI bat habitat, danger and pollution from HGV traffic, death of the River Wye and damage to the local tourist industry
The causes are the need for cheap food, the... -
John Payne made a comment
If poverty is the major restraining force related to flagrant consumption, then logically, redistributing wealth is not going to make the world more sustainable. We need a national baseline living income and then some mechanism to prevent the wealthy spending their money on conspicuous consumerism, think cruises, frequent flying and other non sustainable...
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John Payne replied to Lynn Sproat
Natural systems are resilient, have no leader and are capable of repair and adaptation, man made systems have not had the eons of existence to prove themselves and pride themselves upon having goal directed central leadership. Whilst natural systems appear to be fragile, they do not have the brittleness of human organizations.
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John Payne made a comment
In our village there is a shared experience of extreme weather (Storm Arwen left it without electricity for 42hrs at the weekend), the meeting places, the two pubs and the shop.
I went round to the shop to bag up all the spoiled food and take it away in my pickup. I noticed that nearly all the bagged wood had been sold and realised that I had a small part in... -
Our own community discussions revolve around the now dead, pea green river that cuts through our village, it was a stopping place on the Save the Wye Campaign. The focus was on the sustainability of cheap food, in this case chicken farms.
Storm Arwen left the village without power for 42 hours, my task today is to shift the spoiled food from the village shop. -
John Payne made a comment
I wish I had time for reflection! My own journey is with a group of people that live and breathe the issues, I am left always at the stage of what is the best course for Climate Mitigation Action and how effective are the actions already completed.
It is very helpful to look at the SDGs, but I suspect that the next chapter has to be in taking part in overtly... -
These SDG require to be grouped into a rational framework, firstly the aspirational values that all communities and individuals should attain, then Resources, ecosystems and the economically challenging goal of restricting consumption and increasing sustainability.
Unfortunately we need a separate SDG for all political and national organizations. Most of... -
John Payne made a comment
I am concentrated on the green lifeless appearance of the River Wye where I have lived alongside since 1989.
It is caused almost equally by the unauthorized sewage discharges and the waste from 22 million chickens upstream, the sheds are cleared after each cycle and dumped as manure in the river catchment area. The land is now saturated with nitrogenous... -
John Payne made a comment
I was outside COP 26 with a large banner earlier in the month when one of the scientific delegates came out and talked to us passionately about the Partial Pressure of oceanic oxygen.
I had never thought much about the pp of a Oceanic oxygen before, but of course it is vital for respiration in oceanic creatures, if I am using the right terms to describe... -
John Payne made a comment
Good work!
Social skills, confidence and high self esteem enable the youth to participate in activities such a climate protest and sustainability projects that will then see them moving into having significant roles in their communities and Local Authorities. -
John Payne made a comment
It’s so unfortunate that in the UK we have a populist leader who came to power on the tacit exploitation of the political popularity of “maintaining British cultural” identity.
There are also huge geographic differences in the UK, visiting London from rural Wales illustrates the powerful influence that education has upon uniting communities with their diverse... -
John Payne made a comment
The power of conformity, normalizing one’s garden appearance to fit in with the neighbours and the expectation that doing so increases the the value of the property as a financial investment.
In 1960s Birmingham racism was driven both by the fear that other cultures did not have similar safeguards on behaviour and morality as the indigenous population as... -
John Payne made a comment
Can institutions like Edinburgh University pursue a top down approach to instill sustainability into society, demonstrate allegiance and compliance with SDGs?
Yes, of course it can, but it is unlikely to be effective without the active support of the decision makers and the market. Society has been moulded by them, not by academics. -
Climate Action, the other goals are the subsets that comprise the process of becoming a sustainable global community that puts the emphasis on local solutions to prevent significant climate warming.
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John Payne made a comment
The last time I took action was two weeks ago when we boarded the train to Scotland to support our local Samba band at COP 26 and stand for hours holding a beautiful banner our group had made.
I understand climate degradation from a scientific viewpoint and see how we prioritize economic growth over scientific and emotional regard for the planet. -
John Payne replied to Deen Le Coz
This was what I learnt from listening to the indigenous people at COP 26. They often referred back to colonial destruction of their culture, leaving one speaker to say “ Burn churches rather than our forests”; this referred to the practice of boarding the indigenous young in religious boarding schools in Canada
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John Payne replied to David Hopcroft
After having attended as a protestor for a week, this is a very pertinent comment, we are taking action on a local IPU and feed mill over the ecological death of the River Wye.
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John Payne made a comment
I had not heard of Peter Reason before http://peterreason.net/ and his Action Research
For me the concept of Presentational knowledge, when you share your different viewpoints about the experience are hugely important as is the act of then taking action.
But I would build upon the importance of not being a lone voice when reflecting upon Sustainability, we... -
John Payne made a comment
For me it is independence and resilience that rate highly, also trying to cultivate an enquiring mind and rejecting external and didactic ideologies such as political and religious eternal truths.
For a more just and sustainable world I would agree with others that empathy is important with mindfulness and reflection creating a quieter and and less agitated... -
John Payne made a comment
Great video which illustrates how the commercial media has “normalized” our hectic unsustainable lives.
It always amazes me how boring mundane tasks like processing and packing firewood can be far more satisfying than watching TV or aimlessly browsing You Tube videos.
Being passively entertained seems a tedious guilt trip, but active participation in an... -
One approach is to invite discussion on the fallibility of politicians, in the UK we have the example of Brexit and the initial handling of Covid.
You can then gently extrapolate to imagine a “what if scenario” when you take sea level rise and storm surge effects upon the local community, for example our council’s Local Plan failed to take into account that a... -
I believe that there was huge hidden disquiet about the suppression of knowledge of the ecological damage to the planet that had been building up for years. This was subsequently released by the Direct Action Movement.. Firstly in the Occupy Movement and it’s creation of protest communities amongst the world financial centres and then by Extinction...
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John Payne made a comment
These authors seem a long way from the Climate action working group of Newland Parish Council in The Bell last night!
But we did dare to talk about affordable homes for young people, homes that weren’t provided by developers or social housing organizations. Homes that didn’t need concrete foundations and could be self builds, supported by families who wanted...
