Transition Network has put on a big conference every year from 2007 onwards – first in Ruskin Mill near Stroud, then the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, in 2009 it was Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) in London, then Seale Hayne in Devon, next heading North to Hope Uni in Liverpool, and finally back to BAC in 2012. We are about to break that pattern, so brace yourselves for the news that 2013 will not see a big Transition Conference. There are a couple of reasons why we’re doing this.
We are currently making a short film to promote The Power of Just Doing Stuff in advance of its publication next month. And we really need your help. We need short clips of you, or anyone, saying what the Power of Just Doing Stuff means to you/them. You could film it on your phone, or any kind of video camera, but what we’re after is what you get out of doing practical projects rather than just sitting watching passively as the world unravels around you? What kind of power do you feel you reclaim or discover through it? Just one sentence, speaking to the camera, would be brilliant. ”Doing stuff makes me feel like we can change the world”, “doing stuff brings the world around me to life”, “doing stuff is far more fun than dusting my collection of celebrity thimbles” … things like that.
We need them by Tuesday next week (May 21st). Please contact Emma Goude (emmagoude (at) hotmail.com) and she can give you details of the DropBox account to upload it to. We want to capture passion, spirit, vision. Please help! There, and you were just wondering how you were going to spend your weekend … thanks!
In November 2006, I sat at the back of the Barn Cinema, Dartington, and watched ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘. It had such an impact on me that by the time it ended, I had decided that I couldn’t just leave the cinema without marking the event by making some kind of change in my life. I decided that evening not to fly again, and I haven’t flown since. I have played an active part in supporting the growth of an international movement in 40 countries since then, participating in countless workshops, and discussing Transition internationally through Skype and pre-recorded talks, most of which I begin with how much carbon I have saved by not travelling in person. However, I recently watched the film ‘Chasing Ice’, and it had, if anything, a more visceral impact than ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. My resolution at the end of watching it, re-enforced by the recent passing, for the first time, of 400 ppm of C02 in the atmosphere, was that it was time to get back on a plane, and I want to use this post to tell you why.
Sunday May 5th was International Permaculture Day. All sorts of things happened all over the world in a synchronised riot of permaculture goodness. Part of the day was a series of video presentations and interviews with permaculture activists around the world. You can see the whole menu here, I would really recommend taking some time to sit and go through some of them. Rich pickings indeed. Anyway, here is mine, filmed in my greenhouse early in the morning, talking on the event’s theme, ‘Grow Local’. I hope you enjoy it.
I have already posted a couple of articles that had to be left out of The Power of Just Doing Stuff, and there are more to follow. Another thing left out of the book, due to not fitting with the design feel Green Books wanted the book to have, were four line drawings I did to go with some of the stories. They are the result of several enjoyable evenings at the kitchen table with a pen, a paintbrush, and a bottle of ink. Rather than just pop them in a folder under the bed, I thought I would share them with you (click on them and you can see them in more detail). The first one, above, is of the Dunbar Bakery, set up by Sustaining Dunbar, a Transition initiative, following a community share offer.
How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march? This site explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations
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