Lloyd's Insurance has recently issued a stark warning to businesses. It warns that failure to prepare for a world of increasing oil scarcity and a lower carbon economy can lead to 'catastrophic consequences'. The report accuses the oil industry based group, International Energy Agency, of underestimating the threats and predicts a global oil supply crunch with crude oil prices above $200 a barrel by 2013. Lloyd's chief executive explains that failure of the Copenhagen climate change talks last December has lulled business leaders into a false sense of security.  (... read more)

Like many of you, I guess, disappointment quickly follows the purchase of supermarket sourced summer fruit picked too early for flavour to have developed. Imported peaches and apricots are often a big let down after promising much; before the inside is properly ripe, rot rapidly sets in on the surface and texture and taste leave much to be desired. But have you tried the Newent apricot yet? (...continue reading ...)

Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle

Recycling has become an important part of central and local governments' response to halting climate change and reducing our carbon footprints. The new coalition government has suggested that to raise the UK's recycling rate (currently about 34% compared with, for example, Germany's 64%) they will be adopting a 'carrot' rather than 'stick' approach. Instead of penalising households who throw too much away, we could be persuaded to improve our recycling rates with the inducement of M&S vouchers, the bigger our recycling boxes, the more vouchers we would get. Notwithstanding the assumption that we might all like M&S vouchers, I have serious misgivings about an approach which seems to encourage yet more consumption and more waste, so I spoke to Roger Garbett, Environmental Services Manager at the District Council for his reaction.  (...read more)

A Cultural Transition Too

 Culture is, among other things, what people do to make sense of their lives, so in a world of confusion and uncertainty, our cultural lives must be vital to our personal and communal wellbeing. So often though, 'culture' has become a consumerist process - something we have to buy into and enjoy in a largely passive way.

Naturally, the Transition movement considers the long-term effects of climate change and peak oil and sees a sustainable future in more localized, participative communities. These views also inform how people will be entertained and how they will shape their own cultural identities.  (...read more ...)

At an inaugural Coordinating Group meeting held on March 11, 2010, members resolved that a new Coordinating Group takes over all aspects of decision making and administration from the Steering Group. 

So it was that after over two years organising and administering Transition Newent, the founding Steering Group will be dissolved in April 2010. The Steering Group was an important and necessary phase in Transition Newent's growth but the movement has matured sufficiently to need a wider organising and coordinating base.

The 'Next Steps' workshops of November and December 2009 developed ideas for greater participation and the Steering Group's strategy document, 'Strategic Plan and Direction for 2010', laid out potential routes to a new form of organization: the Coordinating Group.

Transition Newent has now held two inaugural Coordinating Group meetings with between 12 and 15 participating members drawn from the old Steering Group plus activists from existing and new project groups: Food, Energy, Recycling, Health & Wellbeing, Visioning and Administration.

The new Coordinating Group is settling in successfully and members are confident that with new energy, additional skills, support and enthusiasm Transition Newent will have a structure fitting for its next exciting phase of life.

See this website for further details of the Coordinating Group's functions, structure and membership.

Flight Ban Gave Us an Insight

Air travel is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases so the recent quiet skies brought about by Iceland's volcanic eruption is an opportunity to reflect on how air travel has become an accepted part of many people's lives. The vast numbers of stranded passengers and exotic lists of holiday destinations were indications of the scale of the industry and its passengers' carbon footprints.  (...read more...)

'The Heat is On!' by Chris Wooldridge of Transition Town Newent

Global Warming Threat Can Scare

'The Heat is On!' by Chris Wooldridge of Transition Town Newent

Changing Climate No Conspiracy

I wish I could report that climate change science is bunkum. The recent uproar concerning the University of East Anglia's emails and the IPCC's data has clearly damaged public perception of climate change so I think it's important to stress the overwhelming evidence for man-made climate change. It is continually reaffirmed by independent researchers throughout the world including the British Antarctic Survey, NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who for eight of the past nine years were funded by Bush's sceptical Republican administration.  (read more .....)

This positive, fun film is a must - bring your family, friends and neighbours
 - anyone who would like to know more about the Transition movement,
but especially how it is working in our own community of Newent and local villages.

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)

What is the

'Super Insulating Newent & The Villages' Project?

What will it do for you?

What can you do to help?

1, The Project is for the benefit of the whole population of Newent and the 17 surrounding Villages on the northern border of the Forest of Dean District Council area.

2. Its primary objective is to help the 2281 households in Newent and 3910 households in the Villages to reduce their energy costs against a long-term trend of increase; in so doing to enable single householders, whole villages, neighbourhoods or Newent Town as a whole, to do what is possible to meet the challenge of Climate Change, specifically the UK government's target to reduce carbon emissions by 34% by 2020. (.....read more)

In the confusion and disappointment that followed the final hours of the

Copenhagen summit on climate change and with the Christmas season on its tail it might seem that the Transition movement have little to celebrate but this, as I'll go on to explain, would be far from the truth. The world's media will now be full of comment and opinion, blaming certain nations and exonerating its own negotiators. One thing was clear: that a global problem as potentially devastating as climate change taxed the particular and varied interests and structures of the nation state. ........( read more) ........

For those of you still unconvinced of the seriousness of the situation, let me recap.  ...  (more) ...