Thomas Jackson's Website

PANTISOCRACY AND PANTISOCRACY GROUPS

What kind of a world are our children going to inherit?

We must hope that the climate sceptics are right.  But what if the great majority of the scientists are right?  Their fear is that unless mankind decisively reins in fossil fuel emissions the global warming we are experiencing at the moment will escalate into irreversible runaway climate change.  If they are right, what would this mean?  Nobody really knows, but the scientists think that average global temperature could rise by anything between two and six degrees.  At two degrees we will, without doubt, see severer droughts and floods.  Beyond four degrees some parts of the globe might be uninhabitable and coastal cities, including London, could be threatened with inundation. The last time global temperature rose by six degrees ninety five percent of existing species perished. 

  Orthodox methods of awaking the public from its torpor having failed, we have to try unorthodox ones. Fed up with laying on science lectures to which nobody came, Rossendale Climate Change Group started a strictly non-profit business selling ethical pants and socks.  Every garment has a tag attached saying ‘Await the great climate catastrophe in our pants and socks.  Still better let’s go all out to avert it’.  We called it Pantisocracy.  Pantisocracy was a word invented by the poet Coleridge to describe a utopian community he wanted to set up in Louisiana.  Roughly speaking it means a fair world for all, but, needless to say, as is the way with utopians they started quarrelling even before they started.  But what a name for a firm selling pants and socks!  We now want to extend the idea into a network of small local communities dedicated to living the kind of lifestyle we need to lead in a time of climate change and arousing concern about this issue. 

  Isn’t ‘a great climate catastrophe’ a bit over the top and somewhat hysterical?  We must hope so.  But unfortunately the likelihood is that it is not.  If you go to the websites of the International Panel for Climate Change, the Royal Society, NASA, the Tyndall Centre, the Met Office at the Hadley Centre, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Climate Unit at the University of East Anglia and pretty well every  other official  scientific body in the world, you will find that they all think that global warming is man-made and they all support the IPCC’s forecast that, unless fossil fuel emissions are decisively checked, global temperatures could rise anywhere between two and six degrees.  We must hope that they are wrong and the much smaller body of scientific sceptics, so abundantly quoted by newspapers, are right.  But is it likely?   What kind of a fool disbelieves nine fire officers who tell him his house will catch fire and his children might be burnt to death one night and does believe the tenth who tells him there is no problem, without looking at the evidence produced by the nine very seriously indeed?

  Unfortunately there is widespread misunderstanding as to what the climate problem is.  We are not pumping so much carbon into the atmosphere that it is forming a blanket around the earth so thick it is causing global warming.  Compared with nature’s own emissions ours are miniscule.  But nature almost exactly balances the vast amount of carbon that it emits with cooling mechanisms.  These are primarily three, forests and ocean algae which soak up carbon and the polar icecaps which reflect sunlight back into space.  The trouble is that the balance is extremely delicate. What we are doing is disabling the cooling mechanisms.  The scientists talk of a tipping point of two degrees, beyond which the cooling mechanisms will have become so weak there is a real danger that nature itself might start to warm the globe irreversibly, on a scale that would be far beyond any we could bring about.   If average temperature rose not very much above what it is now, the frozen arctic tundras might start melting.  If they did they would release billions of tone of methane.  Methane is twenty three times more dangerous a greenhouse gas than CO2. At present rates of fossil fuel emission we could reach the tipping point even as early as 2015, although even if we did the effects would not become apparent until about 2030.  But they will be extremely difficult to reverse if we allow things to get to this point.  Do we really want to take this risk?

  In any case, it is crazy to go on relying on fossil fuels.  As oil becomes more costly to extract and two billion Chinese and Indians grow more affluent and want to drive cars, the cost of oil will escalate sharply.  It will devastate economies, raise the cost of food dramatically and very possible lead to vicious resource wars.  On any argument, we need to make the huge effort to get out of fossil fuels a.s.a.p.

  There is a still better reason.  Renewing our energy base would be so radical it would be like beginning again.  We could create a new and much better world.  Climate change is not just a threat, it is a wonderful opportunity.  But we have to grasp that opportunity and we have to do it now.

  Is renewing the UK’s energy base really feasible?  It will be immensely difficult.  Think how expensive and inconvenient it would be to renew the UK’s whole energy infrastructure.  Is it really technically and financially possible?  Absolutely.  The technical alternatives to oil and gas are legion.  If every house in the UK were properly insulated and equipped with solar roof panels (a very simple technology) the saving on energy would be considerable. Offshore wind could generate up to a third of the UK’s energy needs (technically not at all straightforward but certainly possible.  See George Monbiot’s Heat for a very balanced discussion of this issue).  There is hydro power.  It is thought that now long distance DC cable has been invented, pv tiles attached to mirrors in the Sahara could meet the whole of Europe’s energy needs.  Carbon capture will make coalmines largely carbon neutral.  Electric cars are already being manufactured.  Craig Venter’s synthetic biomorphs will be developed to neutralize carbon.   All these alternatives to oil are only waiting to be developed.  But they all need huge investment and they need it now.  Is it financially practical?  One might reply: is it financially practical to let your house burn down?   In fact, it is the other way round.  Oil is going to become so expensive, countries that have weaned themselves off it will enjoy a huge advantage, and the money borrowed to finance the investment will be paid off by future savings in energy costs.                                                                                                          

  Is there any point in the UK doing all this when in China they are opening two new coal fired power stations every week?  The answer again is yes, absolutely.  If the UK set an example other countries would follow.  The Chinese are well aware that climate change is likely to hit them harder even than it will hit us.

All of this would cost huge sums of money, but above all it needs determination and enthusiasm.  The purpose of Pantiscocracy groups is to generate that enthusiasm.  What could be more worthwhile and exciting than saving the world? 

Pantisocracy Groups

The idea is local groups of no more than fifteen to twenty people.  They would be encouraged to cut down drastically on industrialized meat and dairy, change to green energy suppliers and shop locally and ethically (for more info about lifestyle see notes at end).  They would keep in close contact with each other through e mail and social networking sites, and meet once a month for social purposes and to pool ideas and plan strategies. The solution to climate change can only be political, so an important part of their purpose would be to put pressure on politicians.  They would study the science in so far as they can.  They would spread concern about climate change through giving talks, writing to newspapers and promoting climate events.  Above all they would spread determination and optimism.  As soon as they grew above fifteen to twenty in numbers, as it is hoped they would, they would found new groups.  If you see the importance of the climate issue, think these groups are a good idea and would like to start one with a few friends or join an existing one, please leave a message on the contact form on this website.

The Pants and Socks. 

Of course, the important thing is the groups, but the pants and socks which were the beginning of all this still have their place.  They are a tangible symbol of intent and a good way of spreading the message. 

The garments are stylish, extremely comfortable, very reasonably priced for organic and fairly traded products and wash well.  They are manufactured in accordance with the Fair Wear Foundation code of practice, which means that everybody is properly paid at every stage of the production process and is able to work in clean and healthy conditions.

Our boxers, knickers and briefsare made from cotton but cotton with a difference.  Conventionally grown cotton uses more chemicals per hectare than any other crop and is characterized by high levels of forced and child labour.  This cotton is grown in a valley in India where it is hand-worked in the fields.  Energy comes from wind turbines and pests are controlled by organic methods, intersowing the cotton both with other plants that the cotton pests prefer and plants that attract predators which in their turn prey on the cotton pests.   No air transport is used in conveying the manufactured product to the UK.

What is really exciting about these products is that they give us a window into what the far better, healthier, happier, more peaceful and ultimately wealthier post-fossil fuel world could be like, once we had made the effort to move to it.  But we need to make that enormous effort and we need to make it now.

Our socksare made from bamboo and are amazingly soft and comfortable to wear.  Bamboo is an extremely environmentally friendly plant.  It is very fast growing and only needs rain water, so no irrigation is required. It yields ten times as much per hectare as cotton and is a huge converter of greenhouse gas.  Currently, however, there is a problem with its manufacture. The fibres of the plant can be separated and sufficiently softened for weaving into a fabric either by chemical processes or by crushing.  The former is more environmentally damaging, but at the moment, even for a fair trade firm only looking for very small profit margins, the latter is commercially quite unrealistic.  However, as bamboo clothes become more common, economies of scale will begin to apply and more research into better ways of processing the fibres will be done.  So even though, it has to be said, the manufacture of these socks is not as environmentally friendly as we would wish, overall, taking into account the other virtues of bamboo, the ethical principles of fair wages and good working conditions that have been followed and the economies of scale that wider sales will bring, we feel that these socks are a good ethical buy.  You also need to weigh bamboo against the environmental and social damage perpetrated by conventionally grown cotton crops.                                                                                    

Socks are unisex between sizes 4 and 10. They sell at £4.00 per pair and are available in green, red and purple stripe.  Mens’ boxers sell at £10.00 per pair, ladies briefs at £6.50 and ladies’ thongs at £4.00.  In every case the cost of p&p is £1.00 extra.  

‘Await the great climate catastrophe in our pants and socks. Or still better let’s go all out to avert it.’

Currently we have a problem in that our suppliers are no longer willing to supply the small amounts required by the modest  levels at which  we have so far traded.  We still have stock left and if you would like to buy any you can do so through e bay. But since we don’t want to be left with three thousand pairs of pants and five thousand pairs of socks in the attic when we buy in again, what would really help us is if you were prepared to leave an indication on the contact form on this website that you would like to buy when the new products become available, stating which product you prefer and what size and colour.  As soon as we have built up a reasonably large order form, which we have every confidence will be soon, we will buy in again and dispatch your order. 

Notes on lifestyle.

Cutting down on industrialized meat is important because rainforests are being torn down to grow soya for cattlefeed and soya fed cows produce more methane.  But ut doesn't necessarily follow that meat prodcuts have to be abandoned altogether.  Grass in long established meadows grows deep roots which soak up carbon and grasss fed cows produce less methane.  Eating slow grown meat is a positive environmental benefit.   There is, however, the issue of food scarcity.  Far more nutritional value, acre for acre, can be grown in the form of vegetables than meat.

Nor is it necessary to give up all flying.  At present aviation only produces 2% of overall emissions.  An occasional flight, even to Australia, is going to make little differnce to global warming.  The problem is expansion.  At present rates that 2% will be 20% by 2030.  Fly, but not often.  Buy locally produced food and avoid food that has been flown vast distances over the globe.

It is a good idea to buy food from small local producers where possible.  Supermarkets expend huge amounts of energy transporting and chilling food, which in any case does little for its taste. 

Vegetarian shoes are a good idea.  Curation of leather is extremely environmentally damaging.  Buy ethical soap products.  Many industrial soaps are made from palm oil that has been grown where rainforests used to be.