1 Oct 2012
New Economics Foundation’s ‘100 Months’ campaign today reaches its midway point. It was launched in August 2008 based on the understanding that the time that remains to us to avoid the likelihood of runaway climate change is limited, and based on the science at the time, there was closing window of opportunity to do something meaningful about it. 50 people were asked to write, in 50 words, their response to the question “so what needs to be done in the time we have left?” Here’s mine:
“As well as international/national action, we also need to put strategic economic localisation at the heart of national economic policy, making local food, community-owned energy, genuine local democracy, a culture of entrepreneurship and local investment for local benefit the foundation of a low-carbon, resilient economy. And it should be thrilling”.
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26 Sep 2012
Beautiful ancient carved doors on the Battistero in Parma.
The next day began with a walk around the city of Ferrara. The core of the city is medieval, and contains some beautiful architecture. One of the things that is initially most striking about Ferrara is the number of bicycles, and the diversity of the people riding bicycles. Ferrara is famous for the levels of cycling. This is aided by the fact that it is a very flat city, but as Pierre told me, also by the fact that cyclists are treated, as he put it, “like sacred cows are in India”, that is, drivers expect them to go anywhere, and do anything, at any time, and so afford them to necessary space on the road. There are no formal cycle lanes so far as I could see, but somehow it all works.
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13 Sep 2012
At the Transition Cabaret on Saturday evening, to be hosted by Matt Harvey, James Marriott from pioneering arts and activism organisation Platform will be one of the performers, telling stories from his recent experiences walking the oil pipeline that brings oil from the Caspian Sea to Northern Europe. We asked him, via the wonders of Skype, to tell us more:
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10 Sep 2012
Here is a great story that appeared in the most recent ‘Round-up of what’s happening in Transition’ which you may have missed, and so deserves a retelling. Transition Network’s Ben Brangwyn begins the story:
“About 3 years ago, Transition Network was contacted by one of the UK examination boards requesting our permission for an exam question about Transition to appear in the national examinations for “Global Citizenship”. We were sworn to secrecy and had to sign several official-looking documents.
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6 Sep 2012
It’s not every day you get to attend the launch of a new national newspaper! Charlotte Du Cann is editor of Transition Free Press and also co-ordinates Transition Network’s wonderful Social Reporters blog. The 2012 Transition Network conference will see her taking two roles, firstly launching, on the Friday evening, Transition Free Press formally into the world, and secondly co-ordinating the social reporting of the conference. Can such an event self-organise and document itself? How can those unable to attend be kept in touch as the event unfolds? What does the launch of a new quarterly Transition newspaper look like? On your behalf, dear reader, we asked Charlotte those very questions:
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