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.
From The Independent…
New evidence has emerged showing that organic food does contain nutrients that deliver health benefits, contrary to the view put forward earlier this year by David Miliband, who said it was only a “lifestyle choice”.
Scientists in Britain, France and Poland examined organic carrots, apples, peaches and potatoes and discovered that they have greater concentrations of vitamin C and chemicals that protect against heart attacks and cancer than non-organic produce. The research could challenge official government guidelines which suggest there is no evidence of organic food being healthier than conventional produce. That led to the assertion by Mr Miliband, the Environment Secretary, which he later qualified by saying that he ate organic food both because of its taste and the environmental benefits.
The new studies found that organic tomatoes had more vitamin C, beta-carotene and flavonoids, which are known to help against cancer and heart disease, though they also had less lycopene, which is thought to help prevent skin ageing, diabetes and osteoporosis. Organic apple puree was found to contain more phenols, flavonoids and vitamin C than non-organic versions.
Full story here
Describing themselves as “Europe’s leading eco-centre”, CAT aim to: “… offer solutions to some of the most serious challenges facing our planet and the human race, such as climate change, pollution and the waste of precious resources. … demonstrate practical ways of addressing these problems. … show that living more sustainably is not only easy to attain but can provide a better quality of life.”
They go on to say, “Averting a massive environmental disaster is not out of our reach, although if we continue to treat the early signs with apathy, it soon will be. We address every aspect of the average lifestyle - the key areas we work in are renewable energy, environmental building, energy efficiency, organic growing and alternative sewage systems.”
CAT has recently expanded their online presence. As well as their main Information Web site, and Green Shop they now have a Discussion Forum site, and are part of the new UK Earth Centre Network site. There are a huge range of ’solutions’ out there - what’s lacking is the will to put them into action across the country and the world. Read, learn and act?
Improving agricultural practices key
22 March 2007, Rome — As the number-one user of water worldwide, the agriculture sector must be in the lead in addressing the rising global demand for water and its potential drain on the earth’s natural resources, FAO said today on the occasion of World Water Day.
Agriculture accounts for about 70 percent of all freshwater withdrawn from lakes, waterways and aquifers around the world. The figure is closer to 95 percent in several developing countries, where roughly three-quarters of the world’s irrigated farmlands are located.
However, food is water. It takes 1 000 to 2 000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of wheat and 13 000 to 15 000 litres to produce the same quantity of grain-fed beef. Without water, we cannot produce; and without it, we simply cannot eat. Continue Reading »
UK retailer Marks and Spencer are upping the ante and promoting their green agenda by labelling foods that have been air freighted into the UK.
The new scheme which comes into effect from today has been brought in due to customer concerns as to the origins and transport methods of ‘fresh’ foods. The new symbol will appear on over 20 different foods, but as the programme rolls out, over 150 will eventually be covered.
Marks and Spencer plans to be ‘carbon neutral’ in 5 years and is investing £200 million in their ‘eco-plan’.
Source: TreeHugger & New Consumer.
A wonderful piece of positive news:
IHT article: Trees and crops reclaim desert in Niger
“GUIDAN BAKOYE, Niger: In this dust-choked region, long seen as an increasingly barren wasteland decaying into desert, millions of trees are flourishing, thanks in part to poor farmers whose simple methods cost little or nothing at all.”
“It really requires the effort of the whole community,” said Larwanou. “If farmers don’t take action themselves and the community doesn’t support it, farmer-managed regeneration cannot work.”
The final design for a “doomsday” vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government.
The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole.
The vault aims to safeguard the world’s agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change.
Construction begins in March, and the seed bank is scheduled to open in 2008.
The Norwegian government is paying the $5m (£2.5m) construction costs of the vault, which will have enough space to house three million seed samples.
For more information: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6335899.stm
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 »
The UK government have officially acknowledged that the production of meat and milk is more harmful to the environment and climate change than other foods because of the way they are produced, packaged, transported or cooked. Continue Reading »
Is it possible for communities to become sustainable ‘from the bottom up’? It seems to be happening in Calderdale in West Yorkshire. A group of activists have formed the ‘Calderdale Climate Challenge’ to help people work together to reduce their personal contribution to climate change at home, at school, at work and at leisure.
The group was boldly launched last year, with an e-briefing sent far and wide, including to the staff of Calderdale Council. The challenge was launched at the end of last year via an email newsletter which was sent to, amongst many others, 3000 Calderdale Council staff. The project is co-ordinated by Anthony Rae explains that in the Calderdale area, ‘Streets, homes and workplaces have suffered from the flooding, along with the disruption and expense that go with it.’
Calderdale is a hot-spot of sustainable activity - Treesponsibility work on ecological restoration, and have already planted 60,000 trees and hedge plants in the area. Local businesses can fund local tree planting through Treesponsibilty’s CO2mmitment programme.