Mini Mag Climate Issue 2021

| If it’s offbeat and in Cardiff then it’s in here |

| December 2020 Issue 1 |

Cardiff Underwater: What climate predictions tell us about the future of Cardiff

Alt.Cardiff

| News |

Online running community set to take on Cardiff’s half marathon route | Mindful Running |

The Running Punks are a community of runners inspired by music and personal development over goals and winning

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unday the 20th of December will bring together the Running Punks to head bang their way through a half marathon route in Cardiff. The runners who avoid limits and training plans whilst listening to punk music will join together for a final run before Christmas.

The unique running group came to be when Welsh 800m record breaker, Jimmy Watkins, bumped into an old bandmate on a run last year and the old friends decided to create an honest and supportive run club for all abilities.

Jimmy had left competitive running to get back into being

in a band and inevitably fell out of shape. While old friend, Rhodri, was just entering the running scene but struggling to find a welcoming club.

“You don’t start running if your life is perfect” After that, Jimmy explains they built a running community that isn’t working towards a time or distance but about forming an egoless community.

Results from a study carried out by Asics during the pandemic reveals that 82% of runners say running helped clear their mind.

In addition, 78% feel more in control and calm after a run.

The Welsh athlete acknowledges that fitness is more often than not triggered by mental health.

Credit: Paul Grace

| Support local |

Tŷ Caws cheese supports farmers

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Tŷ Caws, local cheese distributor, provides a trading platform for British farmers in crisis. The company has and continues to sell British produced cheese to Cardiff amidst the 2020 pandemic.

British farmers are subject to price cuts and deferred payments during what has been a challenging year for the industry.

In a statement by the Welsh Parliament, Member of the Senedd Paul Davies says the dairy sector is a crucial component in agricultural production. This year’s pandemic has caused a realignment in the supply chain.

Owen Davies has spent 18 years in the cheese industry and brings what he has learnt back to his roots in Cardiff.

Farmers have had to diversify and branch out into cheese making.Tŷ Caws, meaning cheesehouse, celebrates the technicality that cheese-processing requires,

“I’ve made cheese and it’s a labour of love”, explains Owen.

The cheese loving expert sells a collection of cheeses made by small independent businesses every Saturday at local Cardiff Markets across Roath, Rhiwbina, Pontcanna and Riverside.

The man behind the cheese Credit: Owen Davies

“You don’t start running if your life is perfect but running definitely pushes you in the right direction and then you just keep on going,” notes Jimmy.

The first lockdown in Wales made Jimmy recognise his own anxieties. Coming close to packing his daily runs in he discovered the joy of reviewing music as he runs.

Filming himself running and shouting as he reviews an unfamiliar album became a distraction for himself and entertains and inspires a larger online group.

The musical element helps motivate people of all ages, sizes and abilities to get their trainers on and work on themselves in an enjoyable setting.ww

Welsh brewers fight the ‘big boys’ Small craft breweries face losing vital support from the Small Brewers Relief scheme as larger breweries demand a reform on the current tax break.

A collection of larger, more established breweries have formed a group called The Small Brewers Duty Reform Coalition. They wish to reform the reduced rates of duty offered to micro-breweries.

Since 2002 the original relief scheme offers reduced rates to breweries producing less than 60,000 hectolitres of beer.

The threat of the tax reform threatens to stifle ambition, says Neil, but Bang-On Brewery are thriving in other creative ways to promote growth. Neil and the business have had to diversify otherwise the “big boys” will, “Stifle growth in the brewing industry,” he says.

| Interview |

‘I miss collectively experiencing something with people’: Life in lockdown When lockdown forced her creative business space to close, Jessa Mae Beret mourned the loss of connection with friends and is planning to leave the city that’s been home for two years

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espite the difficulties Jessa Mae Beret faced during lockdown, today she sits curled up in her exotic yet cosy space with a vibrant grin ready to discuss her journey from living off the land, to running a business in Cardiff.

Cat Scrumpie snoozes peacefully behind her.

Jessa, 26, Cardiff born, speaks colourfully about discovering nonhierarchal communities around the UK and learning to live off the land around the Welsh countryside. Describing her parents as, “Hippie,” she says that she fell into the anarchist scene young. “I got taken to the Forest of Dean for a party, which was this massive land squat and I was like ‘I need to be here. This is where I want to be.’” Jessa says excitably, “So I moved a few months later.”

Having learned how to coexist in forest societies where authority and hierarchy do not exist she looked to apply her newly learned anarchist values and ways of life back into Cardiff. So she moved into a city squat.

“It was really…scruffy. We didn’t really know what we were doing,” she laughs on reflection.

Jessa and many others thrived off the community feeling, it was like “Everyone’s living room,” she says.

The pandemic hit Wales and the consequent lockdown marked the end of events for the café and the

“It was really...scruffy.

We didn’t really know what we were doing”

Returning to her roots The lack of unity she and the rest of Cardiff faced this year has encouraged Jessa to nourish the principles learned from living out in the country communities.

The 2020 Zoom craze enabled her team and old regulars at the shop to enjoy open mic nights, albeit online.

However, Jessa feels the death of in person community during lockdown has pushed her to leave the city again and rekindle the simpler joys found in

“I definitely want to go back to living off grid.”

Organised chaos

In 2018, Jessa and a group of friends found space in Queens Arcade to setup a popup shop. What began as a makers market to sell local artists work, soon turned into a coffee shop, called Polarity, with a three-year contract.

Lockdown has led to the disappearance of social communal structures and we are faced with creating new ways of collaborating without physically being with one another says Jessa.

business could no longer survive.

Jessa grieves the business, but the loss of communal experience has been the biggest challenge of lockdown,“I have really missed the community. I miss collectively experiencing something with people.”

The death of face-to-face social interaction offered Jessa vital time to check in on herself and re-assess her values.

living off the land.

She leaves behind, “Little pockets of wholesome community settings” that she has built in the city but is eagerly returning to living off land with cat Scrumpie.

“I definitely want to go back to living off grid and existing within communities like I used to. I know that that has to happen… it [the nudge] has just happened a lot sooner than I was expecting”, smiles Jessa.

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Idle climate action

THREATENS

| Long Read |

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the future of

Photo: Tom Martin/Wales News Service

WALES

Cardiff could be below sea level by 2050 if the nation fail to address this climate emergency | Words by Jessica Downey | Photography by Tom Martin/Wales News Service |

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rdering an oat milk latte from a funky tattooed barista or taking a photo of a cauliflower steak makes us look moral in our carefully composed Instagram stories. Yet, there is a climate crisis requiring greater assistance than our online image.

Undoubtedly cruelty-free food alternatives are becoming popular. This is evident in the rich variety of vegan food option in Wales capital city. However, predictions reveal that Cardiff could be underwater in just 30 . years as a result of climate change

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Welsh Government declared a climate emergency and unfortunately the crisis intensifies. The small nation causes great harm through farming practices and imported commodities, for example palm oil, coffee, beef, chocolate and soy. If Wales wish to achieve a ‘net zero’ nation by 2050 then a change in climate behaviour will be crucial.

Size of Wales (SOW), a Welsh charity fighting climate threat, emphasise the emergency in stating, “Wales’ ecological footprint is five times the size of Wales”.

A year has passed since the

Input = Output

Wales’ ecological footprint is five times the size of Wales

Did you know, according to WWF, that 50% of packaged products in supermarkets contain palm oil? Sadly, the bread, soap, butter, shampoo that fill our baskets most likely contain palm and come at a devastating cost.

Deforestation occurs when we clear forestry to grow and source commodities like palm oil. Rainforest Alliance say that 10% of worldwide emissions are released through tree clearing.

A second internal problem for Wales is the agricultural

industry. The nation economically profits from Welsh farming. However, it largely contributes to the output of harmful emissions.

In a response to the UK Committee on Climate Change, The National Farmers Union Cymru’s president John Davies disclosed, “Welsh farming contributes 12% to Wales’ overall emissions”.

Imported soy largely feeds into Welsh agriculture as most reared meat (including beef, chicken and pork) is fed with soy. Emissions are

released through traditional farm practices in Wales and elsewhere through imported animal feed.

The Welsh Governments Low Carbon Delivery Plan, importantly outlines, consumption emissions generated through goods bought from oversea are not included in targeting and budgeting for Welsh emissions.

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Inevitably, the proximity of

the climate crisis is surfacing inside Wales itself.

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| Long Read | What is palm oil & why is it so harmful?

The Size of Wales report leading the nations trajectory to change

-Palm oil comes from pulp -Palm oil is inexpensive to found in the fruit of the oil grow and quick to collect palms through the ‘slash and burn’ agricultural practice -It contains more saturated fats than other oils.

-This directly leads to Therefore it withstands deforestation. Forest loss heat better and grows releases alarming volumes easier of harmful emissions into the air -It contains 0 trans fats.

Therefore people deem it -Unfortunately palm oil healthier is often disguised . Try avoid the following: octyl palmitate, palmytil alcohol, palm kernel, palm fruit oil, palm stearine Credit: Size of Wales

Actions = Consequences

This year alone Wales has seen flood levels surpass any projections. Kevin from SOW describes this as a “once in a 100-year flooding”.

South Wales saw residents flee their homes three times over.

Wales first minster Mark Drakeford states that the damage could cost up to £180m.

Climate predictions estimate that rising sea levels will place Wales capital city underwater by 2050.

This is unless the output of emissions begins to reduce. Kevin emphasises, “You can’t pretend that climate change doesn’t have an impact here.”

Furthermore, SOW’s Making Wales a Deforestation Free Nation report explains the more habitats we clear, the more space we create for zoonotic diseases to spread. A zoonotic disease is one transmitted from an animal to a human. Much like the suspected source of the coronavirus outbreak, when one virus jumps from a family of viruses present in an animal, into the human population.

The unexpected outbreak of covid-19 in 2020 has addressed the power and fragility of the world. In tackling climate change Wales will protect itself from future pandemics.

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What Next Former head of policy at the Sustainable Food Trust, Honor Eldridge, believes Wales has the potential to ensure the future of the environment for generations to come.

“Wales need to ensure that the new support system for farming is designed to transition Welsh farming towards climate-sensitive agriculture”, specifies Honor.

Action begins as the National Farmers Union Cymru responds to the Welsh governments call on a climate emergency. They set the ambitious aim to reach net zero greenhouse gasses across Welsh agriculture by 2040.

Bleddyn Lake, the campaigns and development manager at Friends of the Earth Cymru (FOE), recognises a need for change. He says, “We are on the general trajectory to change but climate change is just sitting there like this big beast. It doesn’t listen to what government targets are”.

One thing that FOE Cymru are pushing for is ‘climate labels’ in supermarkets. Similar to how food packaging list sugar and fat numbers, it would include the emissions released to produce an item.

Global Responsibility

If Wales reduce its output of emissions it will fulfil the role of becoming a globally responsible nation. The Welsh Future Generations Act outlines this. The act was enforced in 2015 to better the long-term decision making for public bodies.

It will also allow the small nation to demonstrate leadership at COP26, the annual UN climate change conference, next year.

So, continue to stay trendy and food options. But let’s look beneath the nice photo it will take and seek the journey behind the

nations produce.

Kevin from SOW believes that collective action towards bettering the Welsh supply chain could be revolutionary. He says, “We know we are a small nation. If we cut deforestation out of our entire supply chain tomorrow, we might not save the Amazon, but we can go a long way to leading other nations to do the same”.

Find Size of Wales’ report here: https://sizeofwales.org.uk/education/ deforestation-free-nation/