Peak oil, climate change and the role of local communities

Tony Juniper is the executive director of Friends of the Earth UK, and a seasoned environmental campaigner. Recently down in Totnes teaching part of the three week Climate Change course at Schumacher College, he also spoke in town as part of the TTT programme. I managed to grab 15 minutes of his time to ask him a few questions. It was very interesting to hear his take on peak oil and climate change, the dangers he identifies of linking the two refers more to what I call

How do you see the link between local ground-up initiatives and top down initiatives? What is the role of ground up inititatives like TTT?

Is it top-down leadership or is it grassroots action, or is it coalition work, or is it international agreement or is it EU policy we have to focus on? I think the answer is all of it, and we have to do it simultaneously, and we have to be combining activism from the public with political change alongside even the corporates joining in, moving their businesses into a different place. It