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
Archive for “Localisation” category
Showing results 641 - 645 of 684 for the category: Localisation.
22 Apr 2006
Building Miles – Building for beauty, efficiency and abundance – by Rob Hopkins
I wrote the following article which appears in the latest issue of Resurgence Magazine. They have given me permission to reprint it here.
A recent report argued that food can only be called sustainable when consumed within a twenty-mile radius of where it is grown, organic or not. The concept of food miles is generally accepted now, but for most of us it applies no further than food. While green building from the point of energy efficiency is becoming more commonplace, we need to consider the issue of building miles. We need to ask how far have building materials travelled?
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12 Apr 2006
**UPDATE – This talk is now on again, I am going over just for the talk on my way to Dublin**.
This morning’s post will be the last until **April 24th**, (apart from Friday’s announcement of the winner of the cob book competition), as I am going to Ireland for a family Easter break, and to catch up with friends. As part of the trip, I will be giving a lecture in Kinsale (see below) on the evening of Tuesday 18th at 8pm. The talk will be about peak oil and energy descent planning, as well as about how the Kinsale Action Plan came about. I’ll also be
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24 Mar 2006
One of the things that strikes me as an essential part of researching energy descent plans is the question of when different things become viable as energy availability decreases (and thereby price rises). For example, at the moment it is not viable to start a market garden in the middle of Totnes, as it could never produce food at a price competitive with the supermarkets. However, at some point,
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15 Mar 2006
**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.
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6 Mar 2006
*This article on Energy Descent Planning and the Kinsale experience has appeared in various places now, but Permaculture Activist recently, in its Peak Oil edition, published this expanded and updated version. Several people have emailed and asked where they can get a copy of it, so here it is, by popular demand (I always wanted to be able to say that…). It was edited by PC Activist editor Scott Horton into US-speak, with ‘gosh’ and ‘crikey’ removed and replaced with ‘gotten’ and ‘eggplant’. Go tell your friends…*
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I wrote the following article which appears in the latest issue of Resurgence Magazine. They have given me permission to reprint it here. 
