Strangers’ Circle – The Resilience Sequence -Monday 7 June
Our May meeting at Elena’s and Alan’s was a celebration of two birthdays, a wedding anniversary, and the arrival of our first food order as a co-op. The food was great, the company was great and the way those lentils, rice and chickpeas were skilfully and quickly weighed, measured and sorted into reused plastic bags and tubs, it was as if we’d been doing it for years. You can read more by clicking here.
Over the past months at the Strangers’ meetings we have examined our home energy use, food, transport and stuff and discussed and taken steps to reduce our personal carbon footprints. We decided to look at Resilience in our next six meetings (beginning with a discussion about this key transition concept) and Tully spoke about the feasta report in respect to current non-resilient systems. Charlotte then briefly mapped out a joint project for our low-carbon cookbook. And lastly we decided to host a Transition Circles Midsummer picnic on 21st June at Mangreen in celebration of our low-carbon year in TN2. There'll be a carbon cutting quiz and Naomi will be Quizmaster! Everyone is welcome. (Mark Watson)
Carbon Conversations – Energy & Transport - Wednesday 9 JuneOur May meeting at Elena’s and Alan’s was a celebration of two birthdays, a wedding anniversary, and the arrival of our first food order as a co-op. The food was great, the company was great and the way those lentils, rice and chickpeas were skilfully and quickly weighed, measured and sorted into reused plastic bags and tubs, it was as if we’d been doing it for years. You can read more by clicking here.
Over the past months at the Strangers’ meetings we have examined our home energy use, food, transport and stuff and discussed and taken steps to reduce our personal carbon footprints. We decided to look at Resilience in our next six meetings (beginning with a discussion about this key transition concept) and Tully spoke about the feasta report in respect to current non-resilient systems. Charlotte then briefly mapped out a joint project for our low-carbon cookbook. And lastly we decided to host a Transition Circles Midsummer picnic on 21st June at Mangreen in celebration of our low-carbon year in TN2. There'll be a carbon cutting quiz and Naomi will be Quizmaster! Everyone is welcome. (Mark Watson)
“To measure is to know,” remarked Erik as we debated at the end of one of our sessions about the efficacy of numbers. Some of us intuitive carbon-cutters find facts and figures dry or disempowering, but whichever way you swing it unless you count the KW or the car miles you don’t grasp the reality of the situation. The trick is to bring our real lives and feelings to bear into the discussion. To bring attention to the practical moves we need to make to get to that four-tonne target, the course includes playing games – a kind of reverse Monopoly - that show how middle and high income families can downshift, accompanied by innovative government policies.
This time we went home with a single-use energy monitor (to check oven and washing machine) and a DVD of Crude Impact (2005). While the world is grappling with an oil spill it can’t contain in the Mexican Gulf, British banks underwriting tar sands extraction in Canada, pristine Peruvian rainforest being plundered by Conoco, Shell continuing its desecration of the most densely populated area of Nigeria, it’s good to remind yourself of the price other people are paying for our oil addicted lifestyle. Puts all those resistances in a sober light. (Charlotte Du Cann)
If you would like to know more about Transition Circles, join one or start one in your neighbourhood please contact Tully Wakeman on tully@transitionnorwich.org. If you want to join a Carbon Conversation contact Christine Way on transition@phonecoop.coop