Results tagged “local” from Transition Newent
'The Heat is On!' by Chris Wooldridge of
Back to the Future in Snow
This January's bitter and snowy weather has not been experienced in Gloucestershire in almost 30 years. I am old enough to remember the '81/82 and the '62/63 winters and this time around there was something quite different in the media's treatment of the weather. Yes, they did show tobogganing families and the stunning beauty of a winter landscape but in the main they concentrated on traffic chaos, food shortage and school closures. (...read more)
'The Heat is On!' by Chris Wooldridge of
Judge a Shop by its Shelf in Bid to Win Climate War
Why do environmentalists give supermarkets a hard time? Well, much of the reason lies with retailers' bold claims that they are in the fight against climate change while what actually appears on their shelves contradicts this. ......(more)
‘The Heat is On!’ by Chris Wooldridge of
We have to make our own cakes
That once vast wilderness, the North Pole ice cap, is melting into the oceans after yielding key evidence that human activity is causing climate change. Deep in the ice layers, are stored the historic records of atmospheric carbon dioxide and drillings have confirmed we are moving into the first human-created climatic age. In truth, unless we radically rethink the way we live, we will lose more than Bewick’s swans from Slimbridge.
Climate change is well publicized, but we face another global challenge, Peak Oil. This is the point at which world oil production peaks and begins to fall. It will be offset by the current global recession but makes little difference to our future. At current consumption, the oil that has enabled our high standards of living will run out before the end of the century.
The Transition movement is very clear about solutions to this double whammy. We believe there is time left in which to curb emissions but the world may have to accommodate some temperature rise. We support and encourage the 3 Rs: recycling, re-using and reducing, but our key message is for communities to localise their economies and to encourage local resilience. Currently we import our cake; sometimes we make the cherry that goes on top. In future we must make the cake.
If this sounds rather frightening, consider how local networks encourage friendship, industry and support. The other day someone said to me, “I’ve got a great social life now. Since I joined Transition I could be out almost every night.”
We still need nation states to sign on to global emission targets and structures to guarantee social justice but it is the local actions of all of us that will count.
In future column I hope to explore these local issues in more detail.
