16 C O N T E X T 1 1 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 9 IHBC Annual School 2009 IHBC Annual School 2009 IHBC Annual School 2009 Ellis saw the issue of climate change as both an individual journey, and one which leaves us ethically challenged. He said that his views were hardened by the importance of the issue, and that the way forward was one of integration rather than balance. He suggested that those of us in conservation should meet those with a green agenda more often, and informally. In that way views can be exchanged, and changes in practice instigated, quietly and without conflict. He was not afraid to have a tilt at the present government and its policies.He described thePathfinder new homes initiative as devastating both socially and environmentally. He criticised deregulation, and particularly the Barker report, which he considered to be A-level economics applied to complex issues. We needed to recognise that dependence on a market economy did not always work. He was understandably sceptical about the concept of carbon credits. There were murmurs of assent from delegates when he suggested the Labour government would do well to remember the writings ofWilliam Morris. On the other hand, he acknowledged the current planning system’s main achievements as being those of urban containment and protection of the historic environment. Ellis warned of the dangers of complacency, and of common misapprehensions about the perceived benefits of climate change to the temperate northern hemisphere. He cited the 30,000 deaths in the Paris heatwave and the potential disaster of rising sea levels to Belfast, which is built on reclaimed land. He more light-heartedly suggested that Doncaster was about to build a pier to encourage its urban regeneration. He continued with his serious message in suggesting that we should look to Freiburg in Germany as a model of sustainable policies. It had the dubious ‘benefit’ of having been bombed by the RAF during the second world war, which has given it rather more of a clean sheet in terms of development than other more historic cities. Freiburg had taken advantage of this by having some exemplary policies which linked development with transport infrastructure. Returning to the UK, he suggested that we needed to go further than the Climate Act, and that even to meet current targets we would have to reduce carbon emissions by nine per cent a year from 2012. We would have to build 6,000 two-megawatt wind turbines by 2020 as a minimum. For those of us who might be daunted by such targets, he gave the analogy of aircraft production during the second world war, which increased dramatically as the war went on because we had to do it. Finally he acknowledged that the green movement could learn much from the historic environment, but emphasised the need for urgency of action in relation to climate change by reference to a number of wellknown films. To me, the most pertinent was that from Lord of the Rings. Gandalf tells his assembled warriors that there appears to be no hope of success against the forces of evil and they are all facing certain death. There is silence, until the indefatigable Gimli pipes up: ‘When do we start?’ David McDonald, principal conservation officer for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Is conservation of the historic environment a sustainable activity? (Part 2) Derek Latham There was a touch of irony in the title of this presentation. To have someone like Derek Latham asking if conservation is sustainable is a bit like an archbishop asking if God exists. You think you know where he is likely to be coming from but are not absolutely certain where the discussion will go. Any doubts were quickly dispelled as the speaker took up the reins and trotted through a range of examples. In fact he galloped through them so fast that I longed for the luxury of Pitman shorthand or the long-forgotten personal versions that we all developed in the faroff days of frantic note-taking before everything was googled, cut and pasted. Latham’s backgroundwith Shelter was not an obvious precursor to a long involvement in conservation, but every journey starts with some sort of step. One of his first initiatives was to establish a materials recycling bank in Derbyshire. Building on this local perspective, he expounded on the broader context of conservation, emphasising the interactive nature of our discipline and its significance at both micro and macro levels. Within this broader picture he brought in references to the significance of landscape and transport, changing materials, technology and tastes, all of which are part of the morphology of buildings and townscapes, areas and landscapes. Sustainable solutions for existing council houses and their landscapes outlined by Derek Latham.
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