I was woken by Anna's sweet little girly, at about 8.30, a much more civilised time! Had a quick breakfast and tried to get all my stuff together and set off for the bus with Edward. I'm so glad I've stayed with Edward... we've had some excellent conversations. I'm also really happy to have introduced Anna to Edward, I love being a networker!
Arrived at the Battersea Arts Centre just in time to witness the 'Energising Group Activity' which some of the conference-goers were participating in, and then it was off to the workshops.
I participated in 'Making The Most Of The Media' facilitated by Catriona Ross, who has a lot of experience in dealing with publicity issues, newspapers, representing organisations, and I think is involved in some aspect/s of the Transition Network, although I'm not sure what.
However, the workshop was interesting, starting with a who's who, why were they there and what was their experience of working with the media?
The first 'link' Catriona gave us was to Rob Weston's Groundswell website.. I didn't see the relevance of it until I got onto the computer and found it. Very interesting! Well worth a good long read, probably more interesting than this blog!
Then we talked through what 'News' is, and why do we bother having relationships with the media, and we found out the newspapers and other media that the workshop delegates read, which was over 50% The Guardian. We looked briefly at where 'News' comes from and discussed using agencies and other resources such as the Guardian Media Directory and the Writers and Artists Yearbook.
We looked at some of the reports about traditional media going through its own transition, due to the rise of electronic media and the economic downturn and decreasing advertising revenue. However, we learned that this could also be an opportunity for us!
We undertook a rather hurried exercise which our little group didn't fully understand, but this may have been the speed at which the instructions were delivered. All in all, a really interesting session.
Following a short coffee break was the third 'Open Space' conversation tables time. I chose to go to a table with 'Working with Local Authorities' as it's title, but no-one turned up to host it, so I did, and did some of the 'scribe' work, taking notes on flipchart-sized sheets of paper. About 8 people contributed to this. Then I found another table with the subject of 'Garden Sharing' which was nice to go and listen to; I contributed my experience of having other people with no composting facilities using mine to dispose of their compostables... An excellent chat about EcoSchools and food growing and composting in schools. I decided not to say about the school I'm involved with taking advice from someone saying composting isn't allowed in schools.... after all, this conference is about positive solutions not steps backwards.
This was followed by the closing ceremony, done in a huge circle, with roving microphones allowing some individuals to pass comment, sing, offer thanks and more. I enjoyed this, and whilst the group photo was being taken, gave some pea beans to Alexis the Councillor, and several other people.
Finally, it was lunch, which I spent chatting to Mary Fee from LETSlink UK, very nice to see her and see how she felt about the YorkLETS delay over getting the software. She didn't have a problem with it at all, and respected our desire to do it properly!
I said my goodbyes and walked (with Mary) to Clapham Junction where there was a train very soon to East Croydon. I walked the route I'd memorised from Street View through Croydon and was at Beth's house in about 20 minutes, perhaps less. How wonderful to see her, after all this time, 28 years! What a lot of catching up to do! So many stories to tell and hear.
She showed me her garden and shared her dream of growing some foodplants, and cooked tea (spinach soup followed by risotto with roast butternut, red pepper and tomato) and I gave her the presents of pea beans and home made paprika, plus the remaining dried fruit.
At some time during the evening I realised I had lost my keys so I emailed Anna and she rang and said yes, I had left them at hers, duh! I said I could come and get them tomorrow, and she said she would meet me at Peckham Rye at 9.30am.
We talked til 1am, after which I tried to do my blog sensibly but not too sure how it's come out as I've several glasses of wine in me... what a day, what a weekend, what a life..................
Showing posts with label Transition Network Conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Transition Network Conference. Show all posts
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Saturday 23rd May 09, Transition Network Conference (day two)
Up much earlier than usual because of the shrill and squeaky and very enthusiastic voice of Anna's 6 year old daughter, who is adorable, very expressive and even more excited to see me again. We last met when I came down to do her fifth birthday party, which she has lots of memories of! So, I'm not John to her, but Fiddlesticks. Anna was going to have got up at 6am and go for a bike ride, but didn't so we all had breakfast together, and then at something after , Edward and I trundled off to the bus and one came within 10 minutes, dropping us off outside the Battersea Arts Centre about half an hour later.
So we were there in good time to have a coffee and listen to the announcements at 9.20, and then it was straight into the first workshops of the day. I had chosen 'How communities can take control of their food systems' with Julie Brown from Growing Communities, based in Hackney. This is a social enterprise employing 18 people part time, providing a veg/fruit box/bag scheme to about 530 households. It is fully organic and 93% of the customers come to the pick-up points on foot or by bike. The boxes/bags are delivered to several pick-up points by an old electric milk float called Maisie, which (who?) is painted up like a cow. The box scheme uses local green salads grown in market gardens ('Hackney Salad') and is just starting an experimental scheme using salads grown in a vicarage back garden! This links in to their Key Principles, which link it in to the wider perspective of sustainability. They have developed a manifesto and food zone diagram which looks at where geographically and distance-wise the food in the boxes is produced. This has figures for what is actually in the box scheme now (divided into veg and fruit) and a target contribution. For instance, at the moment, they would like 17.5% of produce to come from zone 2, peri-urban land, but currently none does. They would like 20% of their produce to come from the rest of the UK, but currently just about 3% does.
There was some discussion about where the UK gets its food from and a short workshop looking at what we, as small groups, thought the problems were, what the barriers to change were and what some of the solutions were. All in all a very useful and interesting example, inspiring.
This over-ran a bit, leaving little time for coffee and cake, and the coffee had run out so it was more or less straight into the second set of Open Space conversations. The matrix was up on the wall and I was intrigued by four of them, Population, Avoiding Burnout, How To Engage People Other Than The Usual Suspects and How To Deal With Denial. I only managed two, most of the time on the Population table, and a short time with Burnout. I didn't take note with either of these, but suffice to say the conversations were interesting, wide-ranging and enjoyable.
Lunch was preceded by a lot of queueing, but when I eventually got to eat, it was lovely.
Then was the highlight of the day for me, I think, the 'Transition Movie' which was made in an unusual way, perhaps even more unusual than Age of Stupid's 'Crowdfunding'. The film-maker, Emma Goude, had a very limited budget to start off with and wondered how she could get around the World to see all the exciting Transition projects on just a few quid. She had the bright idea (or someone did!) of getting different projects to film themselves and send her the tapes and discs. When Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition model, heard this, he said 'Oh great, a Wiki-Film', which is what it has become, except Emma spent a month loading up stuff from 70 tapes and DVDs that were sent to her, plus 55 of her own tapes, and then 2 months sorting it out and cutting it into a meaningful story. The film is not finished yet but it is fantastic, and got a standing ovation. One of the reasons for showing the film here was to get feedback, and plenty was offered. This may improve the resultant product, released sometime in the Autumn.
The final chunk of the day for me at the Conference was a workshop or seminar run by David Wasdell, called Climate Change Goes Critical, and it was basically his work on the various feedback loops which exist and drive climate change. A well-known accelerating feedback in acoustics is where sound put into a microphone comes out of the speakers and goes back into the mic and a scream or screech occurs. On the planet, there are several similar occurrences connected with temperature. One 'easy to understand' one concerns methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas. When the permafrost melts as it warms up, it releases trapped methane and frozen material starts to decay, both releasing methane. This accelerates the warming, releasing more methane, and a heating 'scream' begins to happen. This used to be known as a positive feedback, but in this scenario, it is far from positive!
This information is certainly worth trying to get your head around, as it indicates the depth of the problem we have, and the speed at which it is happening. One of the more recent complications is that we now realise that these different feedback loops do not happen in isolation, they feed each other, and this is why some of the measured changes are happening more quickly than anticipated. I recommend visiting the Apollo-Gaia project website, and spending some time watching the video resources. There is also a DVD of his lecture available, and a book which is almost as up-to-date. These are called 'Planet Earth, We Have A Problem'.
I was really keen to hear if he favoured any particular remediation or technology to 'solve the problem', but he shot me down saying you wouldn't ask a guru for straight answers, as the answers are withing the people around you... He said he wasn't an expert on technology, just feedback loops and 'non-linear systems'.
I knew I couldn't take much more info, especially as I knew there was an excited 6 year old (and possibly her friend) waiting for some entertainment back in Peckham, so I had a quick chat to Edward and headed to the bus. Good chats with another buzzed-out Transitioneer, and soon back with Peckham Anna. I'd bought her a copy of Wasdell's book as a present, just the sort of thing she gobbles up, uses, lends to friends, etc etc!
My entertainment services were much needed, which helped me temporarily forget the climate nightmare which faces us, the unimaginably steep hill we have to climb together if we're to overcome this situation we find ourselves in. These two little girls didn't have a care in the world, until the visitor burst her balloon, and her little world fell in on itself.... I did manage to make her a new one, eventually, when her Dad came and she regained some of her composure.
Anna rang up and ordered a take-away curry. I went to collect it, with her little daughter bouncing along beside me. However, bouncing back resulted in her falling over and grazing both knees and screaming oh so loudly...
But the Curry was nice, and once the little one was in bed, we watched the DVD which came with the book, which was good apart from it had a scratch on it which spoiled the middle of the film...
Edward came in just after we finished that, he'd had an excellent evening with the discussion and 'Transition Everywhere' talk, with some of the leading characters in the movement.
We all chatted til nearly midnight... I then did my blog-record of this conference, finishing at 2.04am.... head for bed!
So we were there in good time to have a coffee and listen to the announcements at 9.20, and then it was straight into the first workshops of the day. I had chosen 'How communities can take control of their food systems' with Julie Brown from Growing Communities, based in Hackney. This is a social enterprise employing 18 people part time, providing a veg/fruit box/bag scheme to about 530 households. It is fully organic and 93% of the customers come to the pick-up points on foot or by bike. The boxes/bags are delivered to several pick-up points by an old electric milk float called Maisie, which (who?) is painted up like a cow. The box scheme uses local green salads grown in market gardens ('Hackney Salad') and is just starting an experimental scheme using salads grown in a vicarage back garden! This links in to their Key Principles, which link it in to the wider perspective of sustainability. They have developed a manifesto and food zone diagram which looks at where geographically and distance-wise the food in the boxes is produced. This has figures for what is actually in the box scheme now (divided into veg and fruit) and a target contribution. For instance, at the moment, they would like 17.5% of produce to come from zone 2, peri-urban land, but currently none does. They would like 20% of their produce to come from the rest of the UK, but currently just about 3% does.
There was some discussion about where the UK gets its food from and a short workshop looking at what we, as small groups, thought the problems were, what the barriers to change were and what some of the solutions were. All in all a very useful and interesting example, inspiring.
This over-ran a bit, leaving little time for coffee and cake, and the coffee had run out so it was more or less straight into the second set of Open Space conversations. The matrix was up on the wall and I was intrigued by four of them, Population, Avoiding Burnout, How To Engage People Other Than The Usual Suspects and How To Deal With Denial. I only managed two, most of the time on the Population table, and a short time with Burnout. I didn't take note with either of these, but suffice to say the conversations were interesting, wide-ranging and enjoyable.
Lunch was preceded by a lot of queueing, but when I eventually got to eat, it was lovely.
Then was the highlight of the day for me, I think, the 'Transition Movie' which was made in an unusual way, perhaps even more unusual than Age of Stupid's 'Crowdfunding'. The film-maker, Emma Goude, had a very limited budget to start off with and wondered how she could get around the World to see all the exciting Transition projects on just a few quid. She had the bright idea (or someone did!) of getting different projects to film themselves and send her the tapes and discs. When Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition model, heard this, he said 'Oh great, a Wiki-Film', which is what it has become, except Emma spent a month loading up stuff from 70 tapes and DVDs that were sent to her, plus 55 of her own tapes, and then 2 months sorting it out and cutting it into a meaningful story. The film is not finished yet but it is fantastic, and got a standing ovation. One of the reasons for showing the film here was to get feedback, and plenty was offered. This may improve the resultant product, released sometime in the Autumn.
The final chunk of the day for me at the Conference was a workshop or seminar run by David Wasdell, called Climate Change Goes Critical, and it was basically his work on the various feedback loops which exist and drive climate change. A well-known accelerating feedback in acoustics is where sound put into a microphone comes out of the speakers and goes back into the mic and a scream or screech occurs. On the planet, there are several similar occurrences connected with temperature. One 'easy to understand' one concerns methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas. When the permafrost melts as it warms up, it releases trapped methane and frozen material starts to decay, both releasing methane. This accelerates the warming, releasing more methane, and a heating 'scream' begins to happen. This used to be known as a positive feedback, but in this scenario, it is far from positive!
This information is certainly worth trying to get your head around, as it indicates the depth of the problem we have, and the speed at which it is happening. One of the more recent complications is that we now realise that these different feedback loops do not happen in isolation, they feed each other, and this is why some of the measured changes are happening more quickly than anticipated. I recommend visiting the Apollo-Gaia project website, and spending some time watching the video resources. There is also a DVD of his lecture available, and a book which is almost as up-to-date. These are called 'Planet Earth, We Have A Problem'.
I was really keen to hear if he favoured any particular remediation or technology to 'solve the problem', but he shot me down saying you wouldn't ask a guru for straight answers, as the answers are withing the people around you... He said he wasn't an expert on technology, just feedback loops and 'non-linear systems'.
I knew I couldn't take much more info, especially as I knew there was an excited 6 year old (and possibly her friend) waiting for some entertainment back in Peckham, so I had a quick chat to Edward and headed to the bus. Good chats with another buzzed-out Transitioneer, and soon back with Peckham Anna. I'd bought her a copy of Wasdell's book as a present, just the sort of thing she gobbles up, uses, lends to friends, etc etc!
My entertainment services were much needed, which helped me temporarily forget the climate nightmare which faces us, the unimaginably steep hill we have to climb together if we're to overcome this situation we find ourselves in. These two little girls didn't have a care in the world, until the visitor burst her balloon, and her little world fell in on itself.... I did manage to make her a new one, eventually, when her Dad came and she regained some of her composure.
Anna rang up and ordered a take-away curry. I went to collect it, with her little daughter bouncing along beside me. However, bouncing back resulted in her falling over and grazing both knees and screaming oh so loudly...
But the Curry was nice, and once the little one was in bed, we watched the DVD which came with the book, which was good apart from it had a scratch on it which spoiled the middle of the film...
Edward came in just after we finished that, he'd had an excellent evening with the discussion and 'Transition Everywhere' talk, with some of the leading characters in the movement.
We all chatted til nearly midnight... I then did my blog-record of this conference, finishing at 2.04am.... head for bed!
Friday, 22 May 2009
Friday 22nd May 09 Transition Network Conference (day one)
Woke quite early as Lisa's family were getting ready for a normal day.
Usual breakfast, then tried to get onto the 'net to do emails, but Lisa didn't have the password for her WiFi connection so I gave up and got ready for quite a long walk. Lisa had told me which trains I could get but I decided to walk, as I like walking in London, and Lisa had printed off a map for me to follow.
So at about 9.30 I set off, crossed the railway line on a footbridge/cycle track and walked past Honor Oak, Camberwell New Cemetery. Cheltenham Road and across Peckham Rye Common. East Dulwich Road and up Dog Kennel Hill, Champion Hill, Denmark Hill and over Ruskin Park. It was very sunny and warm, I was hot with the rucsack, laptop and carrier bag. I decided that as Coldharbour Lane was pointing in the right direction to get me to Clapham Common, that I'd get a bus... and as I'd walked for 90 minutes, I was happy with the £2 bus fare to a stop within 4 minutes walk of the Battersea Arts Centre, a huge and imposing building where the Transition Conference was being held, is actually, as there is a WiFi hotspot (not that hot actually, as connection is erratic and speeds slow. But, it does work! You may be reading this on the day of the conference...)
I had pre booked and pre paid, so there was a badge waiting for me and I had an offer of my bags being put into storage, instead of lugging them around. I put my rucksack in, but kept my hand luggage and laptop with me.
The main conference hall is a lovely place, huge and beautifully lit with ever-changing LED colour spotlights. Apparently the lighting, all low energy, has been installed specially for this event. There was food available and Edward arrived and sat with me and a bunch of people from Cambridge, which is where he is originally from.
At 1pm, there were greetings and intros, which included the excellent news that Ed Miliband MP (Sec. of State for Department of Energy and Climate Change) was here in the capacity of a 'keynote listener', which raised a laugh! After this, there was an interesting 'mapping' exercise... all the tables and chairs were moved to the side, and standing up, we had to organise ourselves into 'elders' down at one end of the hall, and 'youth' at the other. I found myself in the middle, along with other not-old, not young 40-somethings. The roving Mic was used to introduce a couple of oldies, sorry, respect those elders, and some of the younger contingent. Other mapping involved looking at the size of the population of your Transition Initiative, the highest being Hong Kong with 6 million plus, and the smallest being a settlement in North Yorkshire with 400. We did geographical mapping too, which finished with a group of us from the North East and Lincolnshire, Sheffield and Gronningen in the Netherlands all getting together and doing an exercise with a sheet of paper, post-it notes and 'what went well, what is challenging and what are you looking forward to' colour coded.
When I had a look around other regions versions of this workshop, some had been much more creative with paper wind-turbines and annotated spirals and wonderful stuff. Ours was tame by comparison!
After tea and cake it was the first 'Open Space' event, and I had volunteered to do one on, guess what, home composting! I had two lovely conversations. Both very worthwhile.
I had also volunteered to help facilitate the Energy Descent Action Plan thing after tea, so I posted a quick blog, ate some lasagne (again, and not a patch on the one last night!) and just got finished before the EDAP prep meeting.
EDAP is a Transition methodology for 'doing a Transition Initiative' and it has 12 steps, which are:
Set up a steering group ans design its demise from the outset;
Awareness Raising;
Lay the foundations;
Organise a Great Unleashing (aka a launch, or if in Kirkbymoorside, a 'Springboarding';
Develop physical manifestations of the project;
Build bridges with Local Government;
Organise a Great Reskilling;
Honour the Elders;
Let it go where it wants to go;
Create an Energy Descent Plan.
These do not have to follow this order, and some may take place at the same time.
So, this evening's EDAP work was for an imaginary place 'Anytown' and was with 400 or so people and took just two hours!
Some of the things that were contained in this session:
Information from theoildrum.com such as graphs and other information;
This little film 'Peak Oil, How will you ride the slide?'
The following subject areas were used as what I know as a brainstorming as part of the 'unleashing 'stage:
Food, Transport, Health, Arts/Play/Learning, Work and Livelihood, Heart and Soul, Water, Waste as Resources (this is the one I helped facilitate), Buildings, Landuse, Local Democracy and Energy. This was really good as everyone got involved and the ideas, aimed at what we envisioned 2029 to be like, or wanted it to be like, were written on big sheets which were to form the pages of a huge book.
The physical manifestations section was presented using a film called Haringey Connections, about some of the recent activities in Tottenham, with the Wards Corner Coalition and the Living Under One Sun allotment group. Well worth a watch.
The local authority stuff was very well described by a local Camden Councillor, Alexis Rowell, who moved from being a BBC correspondent and then a businessman to having a 'green epiphany' and running for election, and becoming the Camden Eco-Councillor. He has done amazing things in Camden, and has been wholly or partly responsible for the council having a policy of installing decentralised energy in all new projects (such as 20% of the predicted energy use to be generated on site), installation of free cavity wall insulation and roof insulation for all properties, whether poor or wealthy, mandatory green roofs and grey water recycling in all new builds, free fruit trees if a sensible place is suggested in which to put them, and a real push for local food growing wherever possible. Have a shufty through the Camden Council website to see if it mentions any of these!
For the reskilling, a ball of string was used to demonstrate that there were loads of skills in the room which could be shared, that people were able to offer and teach these skills, and that there were ample takers or people who were interested in learning them. The string went from person to person, making a huge web of skills offered and wanted...
In 'Honour the Elders', a local gentleman, John Prince, born in 1928, was interviewed and told some of his life story. He was born in St Kitts / Nevis, and grew up in Antigua with his grandmother who grew all her own vegetables plus cash crops. He worked as a teacher, but since retiring has worked on his poetry.
I chatted to him afterwards and he gave me the text of the poem he read out. This was written just a couple of weeks ago.
Reminiscing on the Lea, by John Prince
I sat on the bank of the River Lea,
Pondering the global, human tragedy.
Here, once had been a paradise of earth,
Where flora and fauna balanced the beauty,
In perfect co-existence of a fragile complex ecology.
I sat on the bank of the River Lea,
Thinking of the past, remembering
When across the face of London City
We fished in rivers, which flowed freely,
Enhancing life: developing human communities.
But no more to be seen,
Progress covered the waters clean
And turned them into sewers.
No more the River Fleet;
No more the River Tyburn,
No more the River Westbourne
They are covered and forgotten;
The measure of our progress:
Exchanging rivers for sewers,
Disrupting earth's natural ecology
To inherit a toxic polluted wasteland.
Millenniums created the evolution
Of species and habitats;
But we, in centuries, created the degeneration
Of earth's harmonious ecology;
And we continue its destruction.
We need humility, a new philosophy,
To guide our co-existence on Mother-earth.
The alternative is global catastrophe;
Like the cosmos-created ice ages,
Which nearly eliminated our ancestors.
I sat on the bank of the River Lea
Thinking of the past, remembering
When across the face of London City
We fished in rivers, which flowed freely,
Enhancing life, developing human communities..
(I have reproduced this exactly as it was written on the sheets John gave me)
The big cake which had been made (I'm not sure of it's significance!) was cut up and given out and Edward and I got ready to go. A number 345 bus took us all the way to Peckham and we were soon knocking at Peckham Anna's door, whom I first met through the Carbon Rationing Action Group website and subsequently, when we were both winners of the Oxfam Carbon Footprint Competition, and we (along with Kat from Scotland) spent a day talking to MPs including Hilary Benn at DEFRA. Anna's housmate was away, which meant there was plenty of space for us both, most welcoming and comfortable. It was great to see Anna again, I love her enthusiasm for low carbon stuff.
Spent another hour and a half doing my blog!
Usual breakfast, then tried to get onto the 'net to do emails, but Lisa didn't have the password for her WiFi connection so I gave up and got ready for quite a long walk. Lisa had told me which trains I could get but I decided to walk, as I like walking in London, and Lisa had printed off a map for me to follow.
So at about 9.30 I set off, crossed the railway line on a footbridge/cycle track and walked past Honor Oak, Camberwell New Cemetery. Cheltenham Road and across Peckham Rye Common. East Dulwich Road and up Dog Kennel Hill, Champion Hill, Denmark Hill and over Ruskin Park. It was very sunny and warm, I was hot with the rucsack, laptop and carrier bag. I decided that as Coldharbour Lane was pointing in the right direction to get me to Clapham Common, that I'd get a bus... and as I'd walked for 90 minutes, I was happy with the £2 bus fare to a stop within 4 minutes walk of the Battersea Arts Centre, a huge and imposing building where the Transition Conference was being held, is actually, as there is a WiFi hotspot (not that hot actually, as connection is erratic and speeds slow. But, it does work! You may be reading this on the day of the conference...)
I had pre booked and pre paid, so there was a badge waiting for me and I had an offer of my bags being put into storage, instead of lugging them around. I put my rucksack in, but kept my hand luggage and laptop with me.
The main conference hall is a lovely place, huge and beautifully lit with ever-changing LED colour spotlights. Apparently the lighting, all low energy, has been installed specially for this event. There was food available and Edward arrived and sat with me and a bunch of people from Cambridge, which is where he is originally from.
At 1pm, there were greetings and intros, which included the excellent news that Ed Miliband MP (Sec. of State for Department of Energy and Climate Change) was here in the capacity of a 'keynote listener', which raised a laugh! After this, there was an interesting 'mapping' exercise... all the tables and chairs were moved to the side, and standing up, we had to organise ourselves into 'elders' down at one end of the hall, and 'youth' at the other. I found myself in the middle, along with other not-old, not young 40-somethings. The roving Mic was used to introduce a couple of oldies, sorry, respect those elders, and some of the younger contingent. Other mapping involved looking at the size of the population of your Transition Initiative, the highest being Hong Kong with 6 million plus, and the smallest being a settlement in North Yorkshire with 400. We did geographical mapping too, which finished with a group of us from the North East and Lincolnshire, Sheffield and Gronningen in the Netherlands all getting together and doing an exercise with a sheet of paper, post-it notes and 'what went well, what is challenging and what are you looking forward to' colour coded.
When I had a look around other regions versions of this workshop, some had been much more creative with paper wind-turbines and annotated spirals and wonderful stuff. Ours was tame by comparison!
After tea and cake it was the first 'Open Space' event, and I had volunteered to do one on, guess what, home composting! I had two lovely conversations. Both very worthwhile.
I had also volunteered to help facilitate the Energy Descent Action Plan thing after tea, so I posted a quick blog, ate some lasagne (again, and not a patch on the one last night!) and just got finished before the EDAP prep meeting.
EDAP is a Transition methodology for 'doing a Transition Initiative' and it has 12 steps, which are:
Set up a steering group ans design its demise from the outset;
Awareness Raising;
Lay the foundations;
Organise a Great Unleashing (aka a launch, or if in Kirkbymoorside, a 'Springboarding';
Develop physical manifestations of the project;
Build bridges with Local Government;
Organise a Great Reskilling;
Honour the Elders;
Let it go where it wants to go;
Create an Energy Descent Plan.
These do not have to follow this order, and some may take place at the same time.
So, this evening's EDAP work was for an imaginary place 'Anytown' and was with 400 or so people and took just two hours!
Some of the things that were contained in this session:
Information from theoildrum.com such as graphs and other information;
This little film 'Peak Oil, How will you ride the slide?'
The following subject areas were used as what I know as a brainstorming as part of the 'unleashing 'stage:
Food, Transport, Health, Arts/Play/Learning, Work and Livelihood, Heart and Soul, Water, Waste as Resources (this is the one I helped facilitate), Buildings, Landuse, Local Democracy and Energy. This was really good as everyone got involved and the ideas, aimed at what we envisioned 2029 to be like, or wanted it to be like, were written on big sheets which were to form the pages of a huge book.
The physical manifestations section was presented using a film called Haringey Connections, about some of the recent activities in Tottenham, with the Wards Corner Coalition and the Living Under One Sun allotment group. Well worth a watch.
The local authority stuff was very well described by a local Camden Councillor, Alexis Rowell, who moved from being a BBC correspondent and then a businessman to having a 'green epiphany' and running for election, and becoming the Camden Eco-Councillor. He has done amazing things in Camden, and has been wholly or partly responsible for the council having a policy of installing decentralised energy in all new projects (such as 20% of the predicted energy use to be generated on site), installation of free cavity wall insulation and roof insulation for all properties, whether poor or wealthy, mandatory green roofs and grey water recycling in all new builds, free fruit trees if a sensible place is suggested in which to put them, and a real push for local food growing wherever possible. Have a shufty through the Camden Council website to see if it mentions any of these!
For the reskilling, a ball of string was used to demonstrate that there were loads of skills in the room which could be shared, that people were able to offer and teach these skills, and that there were ample takers or people who were interested in learning them. The string went from person to person, making a huge web of skills offered and wanted...
In 'Honour the Elders', a local gentleman, John Prince, born in 1928, was interviewed and told some of his life story. He was born in St Kitts / Nevis, and grew up in Antigua with his grandmother who grew all her own vegetables plus cash crops. He worked as a teacher, but since retiring has worked on his poetry.
I chatted to him afterwards and he gave me the text of the poem he read out. This was written just a couple of weeks ago.
Reminiscing on the Lea, by John Prince
I sat on the bank of the River Lea,
Pondering the global, human tragedy.
Here, once had been a paradise of earth,
Where flora and fauna balanced the beauty,
In perfect co-existence of a fragile complex ecology.
I sat on the bank of the River Lea,
Thinking of the past, remembering
When across the face of London City
We fished in rivers, which flowed freely,
Enhancing life: developing human communities.
But no more to be seen,
Progress covered the waters clean
And turned them into sewers.
No more the River Fleet;
No more the River Tyburn,
No more the River Westbourne
They are covered and forgotten;
The measure of our progress:
Exchanging rivers for sewers,
Disrupting earth's natural ecology
To inherit a toxic polluted wasteland.
Millenniums created the evolution
Of species and habitats;
But we, in centuries, created the degeneration
Of earth's harmonious ecology;
And we continue its destruction.
We need humility, a new philosophy,
To guide our co-existence on Mother-earth.
The alternative is global catastrophe;
Like the cosmos-created ice ages,
Which nearly eliminated our ancestors.
I sat on the bank of the River Lea
Thinking of the past, remembering
When across the face of London City
We fished in rivers, which flowed freely,
Enhancing life, developing human communities..
(I have reproduced this exactly as it was written on the sheets John gave me)
The big cake which had been made (I'm not sure of it's significance!) was cut up and given out and Edward and I got ready to go. A number 345 bus took us all the way to Peckham and we were soon knocking at Peckham Anna's door, whom I first met through the Carbon Rationing Action Group website and subsequently, when we were both winners of the Oxfam Carbon Footprint Competition, and we (along with Kat from Scotland) spent a day talking to MPs including Hilary Benn at DEFRA. Anna's housmate was away, which meant there was plenty of space for us both, most welcoming and comfortable. It was great to see Anna again, I love her enthusiasm for low carbon stuff.
Spent another hour and a half doing my blog!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
