Woodbridge, 24 & 25 October 2009
22 people, including 4 members of
the Greenprint Forum, attended the Transition training held in
the Council Chamber at Suffolk Coastal's offices in Woodbridge
over the weekend of the 24 & 25 October 2009.
Background
Climate change and peak oil are two of the toughest challenges
facing us in the first decade of the 21st century, and the credit
crunch is making us re-think the way we live.
Most of us are aware of climate change. The increased warming of
the earth’s atmosphere from emissions of greenhouse gases is
already changing the weather and may make large areas
uninhabitable. We can, and soon will have to, reduce our use of
fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) that produce carbon dioxide
emissions - the main contributor to global warming.
Peak oil is the term used to describe the point at which the
amount of oil produced worldwide reaches its maximum and then
starts to decline. Oil reserves aren’t infinite and reserves
identified through exploration are decreasing each year. Oil is
getting more costly to extract and will become more expensive with
diminishing reserves concentrated in fewer areas - affecting all
areas of our lives unless all of us adapt.
Transition towns is a rapidly growing international movement
that started in Totnes, in Devon, and is about:
"communities working together to look peak oil and climate
change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question: for all
those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain
itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to
mitigate the effects of peak oil) and drastically reduce carbon
emissions (to mitigate the effects of climate
change)?"
You can out more on the
Transition
Network website (new window).
Training
The training was a fun, informative
and at times challenging, fast paced look, at how to engage
others in working together to address the challenges. The two
trainers Hal and Mandy were rated as excellent by those who
attended the training and it presented a real opportunity to
discuss the issues with people from all walks of life but with
common goals. Most went away inspired to act in their own
communities and some have already begun to do this.
View photos of the flip-charts (new window PDF
1.66MB)
The charity
People who attended the training wanted to give something to a
charity to mark the day and £115 was raised for Practical Action.
This is a charity which has been working since 1966 with poor
people to develop the skills and technology (such as solar ovens)
that will enable them to build a better future. This will become
particularly important as oil costs increase and changes to the
climate further exacerbate social and economic problems in
vulnerable countries such as Bangladesh. More information can be
found on the Practical Action website (new window).
Next steps
Attendees have agreed to join the Greenprint Forum as it
presents an opportunity to network and share valuable information
to help move the various ideas forward. They also plan to form an
Eastern Suffolk Transition Network.
