Transition Network News
Transition Network Diversity Newsletter - September 2010
Transition Network Diversity Newsletter
WELCOME to the first edition of the Transition Network’s Diversity newsletter. You’re receiving this newsletter, because at some point over the last four months, you’ve signed up for it! Please forward it onto anyone you think may be interested and encourage them to sign up at the subscription link below.
A lesson from AD400...?
From Christine Patton, the Peak Oil Hausfrau who co-chairs Transition OKC (Oklahoma City, US). Me - I'm still chuckling from her last paragraph! You can also check out the original article.
Ben.
The Gathering Hordes, Rome, Italy - CE 400Proponents of the so-called "barbarian invasion" theory today warned of the "potentially disastrous" effects of hundreds of thousands of Visigoths, Huns, and Vandals plundering the imperial capital, including death, despoilment and dismemberment of the populace, and destruction of the city's ancient architecture and temples.
Senator Titus Claudius scoffed at the authors of the Foreign Barbarian Invasion: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management report, saying, "Obviously, these people have warned of barbarian invasions before - and look - Rome is as rich and prosperous as ever."
Diverse roots of belonging conference with Transition Scotland
Transition Diverse Roots of Belonging conference – booking opening in the next few days (keep your eye on this page)
Transitions: diverse routes to belonging
November 20th and 21st 2010,
John McIntyre Conference Centre, Edinburgh
August round up of what's happening in Transition
Two months’ worth of round up in quick succession… normal service will be resumed next month. So, let’s start this roundup in Europe, with an interview with Ellen Bermann of Transition Italia, sat on a terrazza somewhere with a rather nice view (understanding Italian an advantage…).
(This also appears on Transition Culture)
Transition in Germany is going on well, with another successful training and a further one coming up on 9 October in Bielefeld, so if you’re interested do get in touch with them....
Training for Transition 25 September inLondon
The next 'Training for Transition' course is taking place in The Hub, Islington, London on the 25th and 26th September.
There are still some places available on this course. Due to funding from the lovely people at Lush, we are able to offer some bursaries. Hurray!
Local Sustainable Homes - A new title in the Transition series.
Local Sustainable Homes - How to make them happen in your community.
Our homes are a major source of carbon emissions and therefore of global warming. And they are poorly equipped to cope with the problems that climate change and peak oil will bring.
But there is some good news. We don’t need to discover a ‘magic bullet’ or invest billions in new technologies or smart materials to make our homes more sustainable. Everything we need is already here and thousands of individuals, groups and organisations are busy turning their homes into low carbon exemplars and pushing the boundaries to cut carbon emissions far beyond government targets.
Free stalls at The Big Sustrans Party
Our friends at Sustrans are holding their 'Big Sustrans Party' next weekend in the grounds of Caerphilly castle to mark the 15th anniversary of the fabulous National Cycle Network.
They have kindly offered their partners (Transition Initiatives included) the opportunity to have a stall free of charge. You'll need to provide your own gazebo or tent but other than that you are welcome to come along and share what you are up to.
July round up of what's happening in Transition
(This is copied directly from Transition Culture)
Here is July’s round up, August’s will be along shortly, we are still catching up after the break. We’ll start this with a plea to all you Transition initiatives who have wonderful projects that you’re not telling us about! The plea is to add them to the Transition Network Projects Directory here so everyone else can see them too, and get new ideas for what they can do…
US based online mag looking for contributions from Transitioners
We love to see new communications and voices telling the transition story, and there's a new one soon to be launched over in the US.
Transition Voice is an emerging online magazine devoted to peak oil, Transition culture, and climate change that is looking for content contributors.
Transition featuring in Bioneers Conference in Findhorn
Transition is going to feature prominently at the Bioneers 2010 conference in Findhorn, starting on 30-Oct.
In various roles - presenting, training, facilitating, discussing - roles will be:
A New Zealand Transition Pioneer reflects...
This little article is an intro (and a bit of a birthday honoring) to an extremely engaging article by James Samuel about the first three years of transition in New Zealand.
James Samuel was the second person from New Zealand ever to contact Transition Network. It was in late Autumn 2007 and we were a fledgling organisation barely moved into our scruffy offices in Totnes. James was initially focused on setting up a transition initiative in his own community of Waiheke Island.
I recall back then being slightly astounded that we were getting interest in transition from that far afield, and that the people contacting us, particularly James, seemed to "get" the ideas and principles so quickly and naturally.
Ecomotion looking for partner to grow their beta online social enterprise
We've worked with the uber-ethical Ecomotion crew since the very early days of transition and their youthful input and influence to our work is always welcome.
They're at a stage now when they need to ramp up their operation to move beyond beta and into the mainstream.
Here's their partner invitation:
Calling all faith practitioners
Do you practise a faith? Whether you’re a Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Quaker or practising any other faith, we’d love to hear from you.
We’re in the process of building links with different faith groups and partners.
Plans afoot include a Quaker Transition conference in June 2011 and a Green Muslim event later this year, hopefully leading to a large scale national Green Ramadan Festival in 2011.
New video from Stroudco Food Hub in UK
Stroud has always been a pioneering community. They were one of the very early adopters of the transition model and have been working on relocalising food production for many years. Nick Weir, a key member of the f3 food social enterprise, has been a long term supporter of Transition Network, presenting at several of our conferences.
2050 pathways analysis call for evidence
The Department of Energy and Climate Change has just released its '2050 Pathways Analysis Call for Evidence'. We recommend you take some time to have a good read of the report and try out the calculator.
Transition Together project results
The Transition Town Totnes group have been up to all sorts. As well as their recent publication of the Energy Descent Action Plan, they have been busy with their 'Transition Together' project and related Transition Streets project (which was one of the winners of the Department of Energy and Climate Change's (DECC) 'Low Carbon Communities Challenge'...
Sunrise Festival write up
Summer in the UK means festivals. To many people (and promoted in the mainstream media with big mainstream sponsors) this means rowdy rackety noisy big stages, bands, cider, big speakers, late nights and other excitements.
Now that's all very well, but we're watching festivals with a more 'conscious' edge with great interest. One of these cutting edge (if you're thinking about peak oil, climate change and financial insecurity) festivals is Sunrise, and its deeper partner Sunrise Off-Grid.
Bees in Transition
Recently bees have been disappearing in their millions, affecting not only the production of native honey in every country but the bees' great task of pollinating the trees, fruit, vegetables and herbs that make up two-thirds of what we eat every day. In response to this local and global crisis, several of us formed a working party within the Transition initiative, Sustainable Bungay, to help the threatened honey bee.
Suffolk Digest The Transition Conference
Last month eight Suffolk initatives and 1 Norfolk (Diss) came together under the umbrella of Transition Suffolk to discuss how to share resources and skills between initiatives and to feedback ideas from the 2010 Transition Conference. Charlotte Du Cann reports:
Engaging local business with 9carrots
If you are interested in working with your local businesses, and haven't heard of 9carrots, it's worth your consideration. It's a simple enough idea whereby local shopkeepers can add themselves to a map, and when customers visit and mention the map, the shopkeeper puts 10% of the takings aside for energy efficiency measures (more on their 'how it works page').
Some of the 9carrots team came to the 2010 conference and found a lot of interest in the idea. Since then, Annesley and Jonathan from 9carrots have been working on a starter pack for Transition Initiatives, and Graham Truscott and others from Transition Training and Consulting are looking at. Here is Graham's outline: