When: September 2007
Contact: Adrienne Campbell 

In the spring of 2007 a few of
us approached Lewes Library to ask whether they would consider stocking books
about climate change and peak oil. Not only were they willing, but they
enthusiastically took up the challenge and ordered several dozen books compiled
by all the people initially involved in TTL.

The leaflet given out by the
library is below. 
Click here for a write up of
the launch event

Reception to launch and Great Reskilling of Lewes and Lewes Library’s
new collection of books on climate change and peak oil

Tuesday 18th September 2007,
6pm, Lewes Library, free

About 35 people attended the
dual launch of Transition Books at Lewes Library and the Great Reskilling of
Lewes. Melanie Nicholls, Senior Librarian at Lewes Library, had ordered a
splendid range of books about climate change and peak oil (see below for the
Reading List), as well as books on reskilling, which will be on display in the
library over the coming month along with a leaflet pointing people to the
books.

Launching the Great Reskilling,
Cllr Bob Tidy of East Sussex County Council pledged council support to
Transition Town Lewes. Just that day, he said, ESCC councillors had met to
discuss the strategic plan for the County over the next decade. Climate Change,
apparently, was by far the largest concern for all the councillors, although
energy scarcity, he admitted, was not yet being discussed. Cllr Tidy said how
impressed he was with the work being done by Transition Town Lewes and that he
looked forward to creating a strong working relationship and a sharing of
knowledge with TTL as a means of reducing the carbon footprint of our
community, and preparing for the effects of climate change.

Pippa Johns of the Brighton
Permaculture Trust spoke about the roots of TTL in permaculture, and the need
to look at the whole picture while working towards practical solutions. She
spoke about the way in which permaculture takes principles by which natural
ecosystems work and applies them to human environments. Thus we see that a
natural woodland is a robust, self-perpetuating, no-waste community made up of
lots of different elements all supporting each other and thus the whole. In the
transition town movement this is precisely what we are hoping to create for our
own local communities and we can use Permaculture principles and design tools
to help us achieve this.

Adrienne Campbell told the
gathering about the work of TTL to date and how we’re steadily bringing more
issues in to the picture this Autumn such as the need to repair the Lewes
economy, once thriving in Victorian times. The Great Reskilling, she said, was
a way to revive basic skills such as growing, cooking and mending, as well as
crafts such as basket making and rug weaving, in order to rebuild resilience in
to our lives, which will be very different, and possibly much better, as oil
supplies decline and become less affordable.

Andi Mindel’s locally sourced
food fuelled much admiration, especially her pastries, the recipe for which is here.