As someone who was just weeks away from installing a woodstove into my house, I was fascinated, as well as somewhat horrified, to read an excellent paper by Nick Grant and Alan Clarke called ‘Biomass – a burning issue’, published by the Association of Environment Conscious Builders (AECB). Their arguments are convincing. They open with a quote from David Olivier, who writes that “biomass boilers are an expensive way to make climate change worse and reverse over a century of public health improvements”. Strong words. The writers, both of whom heat their homes using wood, set out to investigate whether Olivier was right, rather, I sense, hoping he wasn’t. “It would have been much easier not to write this”, they state, but on balance, I am deeply grateful that they did, as it is a fascinating and very important piece of work.
An Unleashing is the culmination of your initiative’s AWARENESS RAISING work, offering the opportunity for CELEBRATING what it has already achieved, where it might go, as well as the culture of the place. As you start BUILDING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS an Unleashing can be a powerful way of publicising those new connections.
Adrienne Campbell from Transition Town Lewes checks the email in their office...
As I am working on drafting these various patterns, or ingredients, of Transition, I will no doubt from time to time chuck questions at you… today I would love to know whether your Transition initiative has an office, or whether it even wants one. Does your initiative run from a collection of virtually-linked kitchen tables? Have you deliberately decided to remain light and nimble and officeless? Or do you have an office, or some other space from which you operate? If so, how do you fund it? What happens in it? What benefits has it brought? Please share your stories, I can’t guarantee they’ll all end up in the final document, but I’ll try my best! Thanks folks….
Here’s a great 2-part film from Transition Laguna Beach in the US, giving an insight into how they are doing Transition there. They just had their Unleashing too!
In terms of practical activities, awareness raising is where you start. Your success, or otherwise, in doing it well will be a key factor in how successful your initiative is going forward. It will be a key part in your BUILDING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS (2.12) and in sustaining MOMENTUM (3.6).
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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As someone who was just weeks away from installing a woodstove into my house, I was fascinated, as well as somewhat horrified, to read an excellent paper by Nick Grant and Alan Clarke called ‘Biomass – a burning issue’, published by the Association of Environment Conscious Builders (AECB). Their arguments are convincing. They open with a quote from David Olivier, who writes that “biomass boilers are an expensive way to make climate change worse and reverse over a century of public health improvements”. Strong words. The writers, both of whom heat their homes using wood, set out to investigate whether Olivier was right, rather, I sense, hoping he wasn’t. “It would have been much easier not to write this”, they state, but on balance, I am deeply grateful that they did, as it is a fascinating and very important piece of work.
