There’s a new bottom-up force for tackling climate change and preparing for Peak Oil. It’s called, the Transition Towns initiative. Starting from the town of Totnes in Devon, over 100 towns, and villages, and even a Forest and a City, have already signed up. They all help one another through the Transition Network, but Transition is about communities on the ground bringing together their existing projects and skills to prepare for life after cheap oil.

World demand for oil is relentlessly climbing, driven by the booming new economies such as China. The people in these countries quite legitimately aspire to the same standard of living as people in the rich West enjoy. But world population is also rising, and will reach at least 9 billion before it possibly stabilises around 2050. Quite literally, the Earth is full. We have already used half the fossil fuel oil available - the planet is not going to be able to meet the growing demands for consumption from its human population.

Of course, burning all this oil is going to wreak havoc on our climate, and the poorest will suffer the most.

Transition is a hugely positive response to these crises. By re-building resiliant, vibrant local communities, we can greatly improve our quality of life without having to increase our consumption - our ’standard of living’ - to do so.

The first Transition City is Bristol. Now a diverse and loose coalition of people in Birmingham want to make a positive start on Transition for their city. If you want to find out more, please contact me - treaclemine [at] intranet [dot] org - Transition is about whole communities working together, and every single individual has something to offer, whether their memories of coping with rationing, their skills at setting up online communications, or their enthusiasm for bringing in future generations.

A draft flyer for this project is now available.

Nigel sent in this article which appeared on Yahoo! news today - what do people think of this article? Is it really fair?

Supermarkets are scrambling to capture the millions of “green” pounds spent by increasingly environmentally aware shoppers.

Farmers’ markets across the country are buzzing with conscientious customers buying locally grown knobbly carrots and leeks pulled straight from the soil.

With the threat of climate change racing up the global political agenda, people are going green when they shop. And their sights are set on food miles.

“The concept of food miles has absolutely rightly entered into people’s consciousness in Britain,” says Bill Vorley, head of the sustainable markets group at the British International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) think-tank.

The idea of reducing food miles seems straightforward — simply buy produce which has travelled the shortest possible distance from farm to plate. Continue Reading »

This article (which I have Anglicised slightly) was posted in an email list by ‘InfoNature.org’ - thought it might be in interesting read. Continue Reading »

“Spiralseed and OrganicLea cordially invite you to the launch of ‘EARTH WRITINGS’ by Graham Burnett,

Sat 13 Jan 2007
4pm onwards

The Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe Street, Walthamstow London E17
(near the Bakers Arms - 5 minutes walk from Walthamstow Central BR)

This event will be preceded at 2pm by a talk ‘Introduction to Permaculture’ by Mark Warner of ‘Naturewise’ All welcome! Please feel free to pass this message onto anybody who might be interested.

www.spiralseed.co.uk/earthwritings

–
Graham Burnett: Integrated Design for Local Environmental Resources”

Last year went to a talk on greener giving. One new thing I learned was that we need to be very careful buying cut flowers. Many are cultivated in places like Kenya and these industries compete with local people and animals for water and scarce resources. Also health and safety and worker protection are poor. Buying from Animal Aid and Dr. Hadwen Trust etc. not only provides ethical purchasing but also helps animals and alternative testing.

Links:
Animal Aid online shop
Dr Hadwen Trust online shop

Editors note: UK company ‘Wiggly Wigglers’ sells bouquets that are hand-picked each day from their own gardens and the local area. As Ann has said, most cut flowers come to the UK via Holland, often from far-away places which isn’t very environmentally friendly. If you really want to buy flowers, try Wiggly Wigglers.

I was alerted of this article via an email list. It’s interesting and worrying that the money makers and selfish accumulators in the world are now looking at the possibilities of making serious money from fresh-water supply - not out of the goodness of their hearts, but from the lining it will put in their pockets…

Original article on MSN Money.

Fresh water’s getting scarce, and it has no substitutes. For investors in companies that can supply our increasingly thirsty planet, that spells opportunity.  Continue Reading »

At the end of October, I gave a presentation to a group at BVV about the environmental impacts of intensive animal farming.

I tried to take commonly available and verifiable research to create an objective overview of the current environmental crisis we find our world in. The presentation was broken down into the following sections;

• Global Climate Change
• Habitat Destruction & Deforestation
• Water Usage / Water Pollution
• The Oceans (Pollution & species destruction)
• Efficiency of Land Use
• Fossil Fuel Use

You can now download a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) copy of my notes which has been enhanced slightly after my talk thanks to valuable feedback. Please use the link below (the file is approx 400k)

Meat Eating and the Environment

Does anyone else see the hypocrisy in this report - particularly that this arms manufacturer has someone in the position of director of corporate social responsibility?

British arms manufacturer producing green weapons

One of the world’s biggest arms manufacturers, British Aerospace, is investing heavily in eco-friendly weapons. Soldiers and civilians may now be blown up by a recyclable explosive, hit by a reduced-toxin rocket, or bombed by a fuel-efficient fighter jet. Biodegradable land mines and their victims both turn into compost over time. Quieter warheads reduce noise pollution, less smoky grenades reduce air pollution, and reduced-lead bullets, if left in the environment, “do not cause any additional harm,” says Deborah Allen, director of corporate social responsibility at British Aerospace. Meanwhile, British troops will stay safe in their armored vehicles — hybrid, naturally. “No company, regardless of what they make, can now just make a product, bung it out there, and then forget about it,” says Allen. “We all have a duty of care to ensure that from cradle to grave products are being used appropriately and do not do lasting harm.”

From Science News: Sometimes, ecotourism hurts what it sets out to help. By Eric Jaffe

The island of Damas is a half-hour boat ride from the Chilean coast. On the island, it’s dry and rocky. The Humboldt penguins that live there have no ice slopes to slide down in their black-tie apparel. Instead, these desert penguins seek out caves to shade their eggs from the sun. If they can’t find a spot beneath a boulder, they may burrow into seabird dung. Sometimes, they nest inside a cactus.

To see these penguins, visitors usually begin in La Serena, Chile. They drive 40 miles north on a main highway and then cut toward the coast on a gravel road that leads to the fishing village of Punta de Choros. Local fishermen there charge a fee to guide the tourists to Damas by boat. On the island, people are free to walk into the caves where the penguins live. Anyone can watch a mother brooding an egg and snap a picture with a flash camera or a mobile phone.

What began in the early 1990s as a place with a few hundred curious visitors has now become a tourism destination that attracts 10,000 penguin peepers a year. Damas provides an example of ecotourism, defined as the practice of visiting sites where exotic landscapes and rare animals are the main attractions. Ideally, ecotourists learn about the habitats that they visit, provide donations to conserve them, and generate income for host communities. Continue Reading »

From Scotsman.com

CONSUMERS are increasingly allowing their consciences to do the shopping - to the tune of £2 billion a year.

Spending on ethically produced food, such as Fairtrade, organic and free-range produce, has risen by 62 per cent in four years, a report shows today.

Analysts Mintel say sales of Fairtrade goods are expected to soar this year by nearly one-fifth from £195 million last year.

And there seems no prospect of a halt in sales. Over the next five years, a further 138 per cent growth is predicted, to £547 million. Continue Reading »