Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
Showing results 11 - 15 of 28 for the month of March, 2006.
It seems despite all the talk of peak oil, that the UK’s downfall might actually end up coming about from peak gas. This last week has been quite extraordinary, with the beginnings of a real crisis for the UK energy sector, not that, unless you were reading the Guardian over the last week, you would actually have heard much about it.
FEASTA, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, based in Dublin, have just issued a briefing paper called The Great Emissions Rights Give Away, which explores the question of what is the fairest form of emissions trading. The paper is deeply critical of the EU’s proposed carbon trading system and suggests a new more equitable and effective system. It is also critical of David Fleming’s TEQ’s approach as set out in his book ‘Energy and the Common Purpose’, for reasons which all rather go over my head. The two will be debating the subject in Dublin in mid-April, I’ll let you know more about that soon. The paper can be downloaded for free and is very readable and illuminating.
If you want to find out more about peak oil and how to prepare yourself on a personal level for the coming transitions, you might well enjoy an upcoming weekend course hosted by my fellow Totnesian peak oil bod, Naresh Giangrande entitled **’Living on the Cusp’**. The weekend course takes place
Of course those of you who read **TransitionCulture** from the US will have seen this film months ago, but it only just reached the misty shores of South Devon. I went to see it last night at Paignton Cinema, and thought I would attempt to record some thoughts about it. Trailed on some peak oil websites on its release as the first “peak oil movie”, it was clearly something that had to be seen, not least to see how Hollywood might deal with such a complex issue. George Clooney was one of the producers, and it is one of a couple of quite politically thoughtful films he has made recently. But is it any good?
**Review of Building with Cob – a step-by-step guide. Adam Weisman and Katy Bryce. Green Books. 2006.**
In my work teaching natural building I often found myself using cookery metaphors. Clay plasters need to be mixed to a consistency of cookie dough, clay slip needs to be like a runny yoghurt rather than milk, a good final cob should be like a loaf of bread… people relate to this much more than technical lists of mixes. It gives natural building a familiarity and a resonance that clicks with people, in the same way that Jamie Oliver on telly knocking a 2 minute chocolate mousse together does. The modern cook book is a very different thing from a Mrs Beaton first edition. Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson; the books produced by these celebrity chefs are awash with gorgeous pictures of delicious meals, groovy chefs at work, they make good food beautiful, everyday and relevant.
