"...we can create alternative systems by channelling our consumption and investment and convince others these are great ways of living, and consistent with what we're trying to achieve long term".
Transition Companion book - Rob Hopkins
Events
History of Oil + In Transition - Thurs 24th November
- Robert Newman's History of Oil - http://www.robnewman.com/ - The brilliant Robert Newman comes to grips with the wars and politics of the last hundred years - but rather than adhering to the history we were fed at school, places oil at the center stage of all the cause of all commotion..... full of laughs and some sobering truths.
- In Transition - ‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun. And I might add totally inspirational.
Time: 7pm
Venue: Community Centre, White Hart Lane, Wellington.
Donations gratefully received and refreshments provided. For more information call Holly Regan-Jones on 01823 660161.
Transition Drop-in Café - Sat 26th November
This month we have decided to take a break from the drop-in because there are just so many more exciting things happening! We will be having a Transition Mull sometime in December... a little reflection on what we have done.... what we would like to achieve for the coming year and celebration.
Scroll down for the other events....
Community Energy Forum - Sat 26th November
Venue: YMCA, Bridgwater
Time: 10:30 - 16:30
Don’t miss out on this exciting event hosted by the Centre for Sustainable Energy. They have now confirmed the agenda and are excited to announce CSE’s Simon Roberts OBE will be welcoming you all to the event. If you want to find out information on the Low Carbon Retrofit Challenge, updates on the Feed in Tariff and Renewable Heat Incentive and talks from Community Energy Project guest speakers then please book now. Presentations, case studies and workshops on: Green Deal for communities; hard-to-treat homes; community-scale renewables; theories of behaviour change; networking, community group updates and information sharing.
Refreshments and light lunch provided.
The booking form can be found here....
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ua_GZ2dxAEb5_Bju9o_5zzYirVl-9OBbdAcV4F-EQiU/edit
Please complete and return this form to kirsty.mitchell@cse.org.uk or post to
Kirsty Mitchell, CSE, 3 St Peter’s Court, Bedminster Parade, Bristol BS3 4AQ
Download the agenda here.
Find out more at: http://www.cse.org.uk/pages/information/community-groups/support-for-communities-in-bristol-somerset
Local Craft Sale - 26th November
If you are interested in local crafts then you can also mosey on over to Roughmoor Farm and checkout the array of local craft people who make things from recycled or found objects. The local group of crafts people will be selling their homemade crafts at very low prices due to the lack of overheads.... Plus free homemade organic mulled apple juice and mince pies all day.
9am - 6pm at Roughmoor Farm, TA1 5AA.
Buy Nothing Day - 26th November
Yet another event on the 26th.... Buy Nothing Day.
Saturday November 26th is Buy Nothing Day (UK). It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from shopping and anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!
As consumers we need to question the products we buy and challenge the companies who produce them. What are the true risks to the environment and developing countries? We all know recycling is OK for the the environment, but consuming less is better and Buy Nothing Day is a great way to start.
Check it out here...
http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/
The Work That Reconnects - 3rd December
Transition Minehead and Alcombe will be hosting The Work that Reconnects workshop - From Overwhelm to Vibrant Living
Time: 10.00 – 5.00 Saturday December 3rd 2011
Venue: Friends Meeting House, Bancks Street, Minehead TA24 5DJ
● Feeling overwhelmed by environmental, economic, social challenges?
● Looking for ways to contribute?
● Needing to refresh your energy and enthusiasm?
● Wanting to share ideas and encouragement?
The Work that Reconnects is an experiential workshop developed by ecologist and environmental activist Joanna Macy (www.joannamacy.net), who sees our turbulent times as offering an opportunity for a 'Great Turning' in which we can choose sanity and life over the madness of unsustainable exploitation of the planet. The Work that Reconnects has helped many thousands of people around the world to find insight, support, and the courage to act. Its range of powerful transformational practices, many based in Zen, Tibetan Buddhist and Native American traditions, can enable us to reaffirm our sense of purpose and our gratitude for life, so we can turn our concern for the world into collaborative, constructive action.
The workshop will give us an opportunity to:
☼ Explore our feelings of concern for planetary issues
☼ Connect with ourselves, each other and the natural world
☼ Find ways forward towards a sustainable future
The workshop will be facilitated by Fran Hicks and Sally Lever.
Fran Hicks is an art therapist, counsellor, Quaker and founder member of Transition Taunton, experienced in facilitating groups exploring mental wellbeing, deep ecology and spirituality.
Sally Lever is an experienced personal and business coach, writer, speaker and workshop leader specialising in sustainable living and working (www.sallylever.co.uk).
Suggested donation: £20 per person
(please feel free to give more or less in accordance with your wishes and your circumstances)
Numbers are limited so please book by November 25th
For bookings and further information please contact
Transition Minehead and Alcombe:
Caitlin Collins: cait@globalnet.co.uk 01643 841310
Coppicing @ the Childrens' Wood - 6th December
Meet at the bridge over the River Tone at Childrens' Wood, Taunton next to the orchard at 2 pm.
Green Christmas Fair - 10th December
Transition Mull - Monday 12th December
Venue: Friends' Meeting House, Bath Place, Taunton (just off the High Street)
Time: 7 pm
News
Food Sovereignty
What unites national charities like Oxfam and War on Want with grassroots organisations like Transition and Reclaim the Fields - why, issues like who controls our food systems, how we can make change happen not only locally but globally as well, how a fairer system to deal with the production, distribution, access and control of food is the best way forward for a sustainable food system. And the South West Food Sovereignty Skillshare showed this.
"Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems... "- Declaration of Nyeleni.org, 2007 - http://www.nyeleni.org/?lang=en
Graciela Romero from War on Want gave us the global picture; 925 million hungry, 150,000 farmer suicides in India because of debt, unequal trade in food, food waste of between 1/3 and 1/2 of all food produced because of the industrial system.... our government hopes with the buy-in of a few agri-business companies to solve our food crisis with more industrialisation, more fertilizers, more 'technology' with little regard for the climate and social cost.
Graciela introduced the principles behind food sovereignty: that food is a basic human right, agrarian reform is necessary, natural resources should be protected, food trade needs to be re-organised, the globalisation of hunger should be ended, that food should never be used as a weapon and that people, including small farmers, must have democratic control of their food systems. (Read the excellent Food Sovereignty Report from War on Want - http://www.waronwant.org/overseas-work/food-sovereignty/17394-food-sovereignty-report)
Linda Hull from Somerset Community Food highlighted the important projects out there that could challenge the 'business as usual' approach. Projects such as Sustain's 'Good Planning for Good Food' report that spotlights spatial planning in protecting land for farming.... http://www.sustainweb.org/publications/?id=192 , and Colin Tudge's Campaign for Real Farming (http://www.campaignforrealfarming.org/) calling for an Agarian Renaissance and encourage more people back into farming. Incredible Edible Todmorden stands out as a beacon in growing in your own backyard... or graveyard, or railway station (http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/).... and it is all possible here in Somerset. Somerset Community Food have even created a website - www.foodmapper.org.uk - which maps all the land and local growing projects.... so get out there and contribute to the site!
So what can we really do in Somerset to create the sustainable, socially just food system ... from the brainstorming session a whole host of ideas was brought forward: food growing education, community trading post, Peoples' Supermarket, Fair Share, Direct Action, using political rhetoric in our favour and perhaps most importantly - 'Think Global, Act Local'.
Many thanks to Transition Glastonbury and Reclaim the Fields for putting this conference together. Read their write up here - http://transitionglastonbury.org.uk/?p=1182
Can We Live Better With Less - 11th November
You would hope that with the title 'Can We Live Better With Less' that it would be a resounding yes.... but of course it is a yes with an uphill struggle ahead.
Stewart Wallis, Executive Director of the New Economics Foundation laid out why our economy at the moment would not be the solution in the form of the 4 U's of current Economics or the 4 horsemen: unsustainable, unfair, unstable and unhappy.
- Unsustainable - with depletion of resources can we really continue the way we are.
- Unfair - with current economics brings social problems (read the Spirit Level - Wilkinson & Pickett if you are not convinced - http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/slides). Stewart Wallis described the current economic climate as 'hoover up' not 'trickle down'.
- Unstable - increasing rapidity of stock market crashes. The systems were built for efficiency not resilience which is just what we need now.
- Unhappy - The greater wealth amongst some is not making us more happy... Britain reached a plateau of perceived happiness in the mid 60s and since then with more wealth we have not increased in happiness.
- Infinite growth - this is just not feasible... at some point the resources with run out.
- Markets are fair
- Prices tell the truth - often social costs are not factored in.
- Salaries reflect Value - a recent report from NEF found that by and large a teaching assistant over their working life would create more 'value' than say tax accountant, who would destroy value.
- More income equals more happiness - see the above comment...
So if you wish to achieve a 'new economy' what do you do.... there is the key dilemma for us all; running out of planet and on the other side putting the brakes on the economy and causing mass unemployment...
The proposed way is the Great Transition with some crucial goals:
- Measure the right things (Gross National Happiness anyone?)
- Reform the financial sector by breaking up the banks and forming a Good Banking Forum
- Radically change incentives, taxes and regulation.
- Implement a green deal for green jobs which will be both profitable and sustainable
- De-centralise the economic systems with more local food and energy.
- Change the role of companies with a purpose wider than money
- Radically change the redistribution of income, wealth, and land access.
- Rebalance our lives.
Thanks to Transition Minehead an Alcombe and Forum 21 for hosting this event and providing a great forum for lively debate.
You can download the publication 'The Great Transition' free from their website: http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/great-transition
News on the Feed-In Tariffs
Alas, the government have seen fit to reduce the feed-in tariff rates as of the April 1st 2012. But this will effect installations from the 12th December.
If your installation becomes eligible for FIT payments between the 12th of December and the 31st of March then you will receive the higher FIT rate until the 1st April 2012; then you will be transferred to the lower tariff for the remainder of the 25 years of your FIT contract.
Please see below for the proposed new tariff levels across all size of installation for solar PV. Note that this affects both domestic and non-domestic (including community) installations.
Band (kW) | Current generation tariff (p/kWh) | Proposed generation tariff (p/kWh) |
≤4kW (new build) | 37.8 | 21.0 |
≤4kW (retrofit) | 43.3 | 21.0 |
>4-10kW | 37.8 | 16.8 |
>10-50kW | 32.9 | 15.2 |
>50-100kW | 19 | 12.9 |
>100-150kW | 19 | 12.9 |
>150-250kW | 15 | 12.9 |
>250kW-5MW | 8.5 | 8.5 |
stand alone | 8.5 | 8.5 |
There is still time to respond to the consultation which closes on Friday 23rd of December. You can respond either online(https://econsultation.decc.gov.uk/office-for-renewable-energy-deployment-ored/comprehensive-review-part-1), or by post to this address: Feed-in Tariffs team, Department of Energy and Climate Change, 3 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A2AW using the same template.
The Low Carbon Communities Network is supporting several campaigns challenging the reduced rate proposals. There is more information on their website:
http://lowcarboncommunities.net/2011/11/02/so-what-to-do-now/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LowCarbonCommunities+%28Low+Carbon+Communities%29Information for this post has come from the Centre for Sustainable Energy - www.cse.org.uk.
