Transition News
Spuds
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March I cannot remember what name was given to March in the French revolutionary calendar. Something to do with potatoes, I imagine: this is the month to buy, chit, and plant your first earlies. I understand that traditionalists would put things off a little longer, and certainly it is true that seed potatoes will rot in cold, wet ground: also, the young haulms are vulnerable to frost. |
However, new potatoes should be small, sweet, and soon, and if this year is anything like the last, they should be lifted and eaten before the rains come, and the attendant blight. More...
The impacts of climate change on the marine environment
From Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA):
UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA)
The Government published the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) on 25 January 2012, the first assessment of its kind for the UK and the first in a 5 year cycle. Read it here...
You may already be aware of DEFRA's climate change risk assessment (CCRA) but the marine specific considerations and evidence can be found here - Marine and Fisheries:
Summary (PDF 650KB)
Sector Report (PDF 2.5MB) (html version)
This presentation summarised those findings:
UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2012
Could you be a mini-distributor for Transition Free Press in Lewes?
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The new national Transition newspaper, Transition Free Press, is selling well in the Lewes area. We're spreading the word about Transition solutions to difficult problems. And we're making money for Transition Town Lewes on every copy sold. We've been selling TFP through the Friday Food Market, the monthly Farmers' Market, Pleasant Stores and La Portes. |
One way you can help is to join the TTL TFP Fiver Club and take five copies to sell or give away. Twenty Lewesians are already very helpfully in the club. If you'd like to help, please contact TFP News Editor and TTL TFP pointman, Alexis Rowell.
Worth a click...
#its happening - a website with stories about things going right...
'We're collecting examples of the shift to a low-carbon world, and we want to see how #itshappening where you are.'
Climate facts from PIRC
'PIRC is an independent charity integrating research on climate change, energy & economics - widening its audience and increasing its impact.' Take a look at their Climate Factsheets...
Watch this...
From the Ellen MacArthur Foundation:
The Circular Economy - from Consumer to User
Recommended by Tim Rabjohns at dotmogo.
Latest News
Round-up of interesting articles from Alexis Rowell
The Impact of climate change on the marine environment
Could you be a mini-distributor for Transition Free Press in Lewes?
Launch of Transition Free Press
TTL are delighted to be taking part in an exciting new national media experiment – the launch of Transition Free Press, the quarterly newspaper of the Transition movement. We’ll be one of 35 Transition Initiatives that have signed up to distribute the newspaper from day one.
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TFP’s News Editor, Alexis Rowell, who recently moved to Lewes, says:
“Transition Free Press is designed as an antidote to the "quick consume and throw away" approach our society has developed to everything. Slow news, if you like - a more reflective, physical, real world approach to the dramatic changes going on around us. Our aim is to tell the national and international stories of the day through a different lens, a Transition lens. Our reporting will reflect the priorities of the Transition movement, not those of corporations or rich individuals – hence the Free Press in the name of the newspaper. We won’t shy away from difficult issues, but Transition Free Press will report solutions just as much as problems.
“We see TFP as a way to raise awareness about Transition issues, both inside the movement and outside. It’s a tool to explain Transition to those on the periphery. Or a way to reach decision-makers. And it’s a way to spread news and good practice among Transitioners. It’s also designed to show the reach of the Transition movement, something single Transition Initiatives can find hard to explain.”
The first issue of TFP will be published at the end of January. There’ll be one issue each quarter during the first pilot year. TTL have agreed to distribute 500 copies each quarter. We’ll sell some of those to raise money for our general funds and we’ll give away others when we want to reach particular individuals. If you’d like to help out – either by signing up for a regular subscription to TFP or by selling it at the Friday Food Market or the monthly Farmers’ Market, then please contact Alexis via alexis@cuttingthecarbon.com .
Modernising Money
Positive Money's 2013 conference on Saturday outlined that the root cause of many of our current social, economic and environmental problems lies in the way that we allow money to be created. 'Modernising Money' provides some possible solutions. Surely their message is of interest to those looking for transitional solutions? Positive Money...
Germany takes the lead with its Energy Transition
German Energy Transition
Arguments for a renewable energy future
By Craig Morris, Martin Pehnt
Taking a closer look at Climate Change
Climate model forecast is revised
By David Shukman, Science editor, BBC News.
The Met Office says its long-term projections forecast significant warming...
Met Office climate service
Natural variations in the climate and longer-term changes due to human activities are increasingly affecting us and the environment we live in, such as the availability of fresh water, food security, our health, and social and economic infrastructures. Tackling these issues to ensure that society is sufficiently resilient and prepared requires the development and delivery of operational climate services - climate information prepared, interpreted and delivered to meet society's needs...
Carbon Visuals
New York City's greenhouse gas emissions as one-ton spheres of carbon dioxide gas. See video on YouTube
AVOID
Climage Change - rising sea levels and global food shortages...
Do the Green Thing
SEVEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO LEAD A GREENER LIFE
Our thanks to Chris Rowland of TTL and Ovesco for the links above.
Transition recognised in the European Parliament
EESC and prize for Transition Network - Ovesco and Transition Town Lewes
The following message was received from Rob Hopkins of the Transition Network:
On behalf of Transition Network I would like to extend our deepest gratitude to Transition Town Lewes and to the directors of Ovesco for their hosting and giving their precious time to the visit of David Sears of the EESC. He was one of a number of EESC members across Europe who spent time with their local Transition groups, in what, for many of them, was a deeply inspirational experience. Three of them came to the Transition Network conference in London last year. It proved to be a very influential in Transition Network going on to win the Civil Society Prize awarded by the EESC. This is very prestigious, and has been a big boost for Transition groups across Europe as well as more generally. I know that such visits can be tiring and demanding, but I think we can chalk this one down as being one that was worth the effort! Thanks so much from us all. We'd also like to wish Ovesco all the best in its pursuit of the Ashden Award.'
Transition recogmised in the European Parliament...
Linking the economy to nature
Read it on The Guardian website:
Why the economy needs nature
'Nature is not a drag on growth – its protection is an unavoidable prerequisite for sustaining economic development.'
Jon's Monthly Gardening Tips for Transitioners
Hot tips on prioritising what do do in the garden each month -
by Jon Gunson of TTL.
April, then. Time to sow more peas, the last broad beans, and the first runners - but these last are vulnerable to late frosts, so it is perhaps best to start them in pots and plant out in May. Still time to get some onion sets in, and shallots, if you are quick. Easter is the traditional planting date for potatoes, but they are not very fussy. Get them in when and where you can, but don't forget to feed and water. Sow beetroot, chard, perpetual spinach, land cress, rocket and spring onions: plant out spring and summer cabbage, garlic, horseradish, jerusalem artichokes and cauliflowers.
March: SPUDS
I cannot remember what name was given to March in the French revolutionary calendar. Something to do with potatoes, I imagine: this is the month to buy, chit, and plant your first earlies.
I understand that traditionalists would put things off a little longer,
and certainly it is true that seed potatoes will rot in cold, wet
ground: also, the young haulms are vulnerable to frost.
Winter Gardening: January & February
You can drive Nature out with a pitchfork, but she will always return. The modern equivalents of the pitchfork are, I suppose, the gruesome armoury of horticultural chemicals - pesticides, fungicides, and postemergent herbicides... There is another way of coping, and it involves working with the natural world, not against it...
Winter Gardening: December
December is perhaps the best month for that important job, winter digging. The soil should be warm enough to work, and dry enough to walk on without causing compaction. And at other times of the year, of course, it is likely to have stuff growing in it...
Food Growing Tips for November
Presumably anyone interested in Transition is also interested in growing their own food; however, some may just be learning how to do so, and the rest of us, being busy, might profit from the occasional seasonal tip. November is a good time to plant the alliums – onions, shallots, and garlic...
Fracking
The Independent - " Fracking expansion in UK would leave Coalition's green credentials 'in tatters', say campaigners "
The Indepenent – “The great rush: Government to give green light to mass exploration for shale gas”
'Fracking' exploration could affect 60 per cent of UK, despite safety fears.
Greenpeace Energydesk
As chancellor George Osborne prepares to announce new tax breaks for shale a series of document obtained by Energydesk FOI requests reveal the inside story on how regulators started to get to grip with fracking in the UK...
Drinking water in West Sussex
In April this year concerns were raised in the Sussex Village of Balcome over proposals by US firm Cuadrilla to drill for shale in the area...
Scale of fracking
West Sussex isn’t the only part of the country where fracking is likely. A briefing for ministers at DEFRA lays out the areas where the government expects new drilling with operations spreading far beyond the current North East trials...
Pressure on EA
The documents also reveal how the EA’s risk assessment on shale may have been driven as much by PR as by scientific concerns...
Fuitive emissions & Exxon’s involvement
Because methane gas, when unburnt, is 21 times worse for the climate than carbon dioxide any leakage from fracking could significantly increase its impact on the climate...
Ovesco Presentation on Community Energy Projects
On 23rd November, the South Downs National Park Authority hosted a Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Policy Workshop 2012 to help shape the future of Low Carbon and Renewable Energy policy within the National Park.
Chris Rowland gave a presentation on Ovesco's experience in community energy projects...
Wind favoured over shale gas in UK public poll
'More than two-thirds of people would rather have a wind turbine than a shale gas well near their home, according to a new opinion poll published on Tuesday.
Asked to choose between having the two energy sources within two miles of their home, 67 per cent of respondents favoured a turbine, compared to just 11 per cent who would support the gas development.' Sony. 23rd October 2012. Source: Green Wise.
Read the whole article on Green Wise...
Buy Nothing Month 2013
Could You Stop Spending for One Month?
Mark Boyle, author of The Moneyless Manifesto challenges you to take part in 'Buy Nothing Month' in 2013. Read it on Permaculture...
Sow It - Grow It - Eat It!
FOOD UP FRONT 2013 are planning to hold a regular series of “Pop–Up” events in various parts of town aimed at people who would like to grow vegetables but need help or advice to get started. Full information here...
The new Food Group pop-up - Sow It, Grow It, Eat It - made its first appearance at the Allotments Show on Sunday 16th September in the Town Hall.
Latest News Links
Food Growing Tips for November
New ways of thinking and a new word to match: 'Naturegain'
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