Winter transition talk is all about home energy and heating most of all. There was a lively flurry of emails when the temperature dipped at the beginning of November and everyone shared their tips about keeping warm and retrofitting their houses. Long johns appeared on our front page and in the TN blog. Some of us turned the radiators on very low, most of us were holding out till the first frosts. Meanwhile keeping a 50% cut in our carbon emissions as our main intent, TN2 is collating a skills audit and individual case studies, so that others can see both the narrative and the numbers involved. The neighbourhood circles are now looking at Stuff (TC West) and Food (Strangers') in relationship with radical carbon reduction. Meanwhile Christine Way of Transition Central checked out Carbon Conversations in Cambridge (watch this space next month for a full report).
Strangers' Circle. The Strangers (after Strangers' Hall, originally a meeting house for the Huguenot weavers), are a group of us that live in the hinterland of Norwich. At our first meeting in Shotesham we laid down the tracks of our personal powerdowns that ranged from nearby issues (non-green teenage sons, a clothes habit, hot baths) to the wider ones, such as social equity in relation to our pursuit of resources and the clash between a new culture of limit and spiritual concepts of endless universal energy. In our second meeting at Mangreen we got down to details: we laid our electricity, gas and oil bills out on the table and discussed how we could live without all that central heating and hot water.
Last night in Reydon we had a meeting based on Transport (giving everyone an opportunity for serious car-share!). We brought our mileage records and sitting by a roaring wood stove Tully crunched the figures. We were all about the same with our car habits, around 1 ton. Some of us were still flying, others of us had stopped. Our bus and train travel carbon use was minimal. What becomes clear in this simple but exacting scrutiny is what fossil fuel you think you are using bears almost no relation to what you are actually using (which is way higher). That no matter how we look at it, we have been living in an artificially powered world for so long, it is a challenge to face reality together and discover a way out of it. (Charlotte Du Cann).
The Transition Circles meet regularly in people’s houses (see calendar for full details). If you would like to join a neighbourhood circle or start one up do get in touch with any of the following people: TN2 and Strangers' Circle - contact Tully at tully@transitionnorwich.org. Transition Circle West (NR2) - contact Helen Wells on heavenwells@mac.com. Transition Central - contact Christine at transition@innerspace.co.uk.
11 years ago
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