Transition Bedford

There is a growing wealth of great long and short films which cover a range of peak oil and climate change issues. Two recent cinema released films which maybe worth viewing by Transition Bedford members are “There will be Blood” an oil evolution film by Paul Thomas Anderson which has recently been described as the film of the noughties by the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw and “a tragic parable of man’s dysfunctional dependence upon oil: the once glorious lubricant of commercial triumph and technological innovation, and now the dwindling lifeblood of our material prosperity, the unacknowledged driving force of our military conflicts, and even the cause of a coming ecological catastrophe” The second more hopeful film is “Fuel” . The Wikipedia page comments that “Most Americans know we’ve got a problem: an addiction to oil that taxes the environment, entangles us in costly foreign policies, and threatens the nation’s long-term stability. But few are informed or empowered enough to do much about it. Enter Josh Tickell, an expert young activist who, driven by his own emotionally charged motives, shuttles us on a revelatory, whirlwind journey to unravel this addiction—from its historical origins to political constructs that support it, to alternatives available now and the steps we can take to change things.”

This leads me to suggest that we should think about recording/filming Bedford’s transition journey. Anyone?

I’ve always believed that the transition would be a mix of incremental and step change and that the step changes are largely psychological changes in the way we see ourselves. My belief follows that these psychological changes would come about through global events, festivals, celebrations and protests (not the traditional anti protests but protest in the modern more creative sense displayed in the video below), where people join together from across the globe for 1 day or 1 hour to do the same thing, whatever that thing might be. This global union or connection makes us conscious of each other in a new way. Well in my understanding a global shift is one step closer. Watch and enjoy!!

(more…)

Bedford will come together and vote on our new Mayor in the coming days. This article isn’t meant to answer the question “Who will be the next mayor?” nor “who should be the next mayor?”, that’s your choice. It’s a quick temperature gauge on the local political promises around climate change.

I put a question to each of the mayoral candidates via the Times & Citizen;  “I see a Local Authority’s approach to renewables as a kind of litmus test to just how seriously you take the issue of climate change, i’m not particularly interested in opinions on climate change, i’d like to know what specific policies you intend to implement to increase renewables in the area?” The Times & Citzen published a written edit of the response in last Thursdays edition. My initial response was one of dismay at how many of the answers seemingly missed the point. However, some of the content is lost in translation which is largely an issue of editing. I’ve since watched the video responses online. I urge you to take a look. The candidates mostly promise significant action. This article is a request that we hold to account who ever gets in.

(more…)

I came across this video on the Transition Culture blog. The narrator and creator of the “6 Steps of Community Engagement” is  James Samuel, a founder of Transition in New Zealand, and publisher of the blog Yesterday’s Future.  If you have seen ‘In Transition’, James is the guy discussing Oooby with the outrageous shirt.  He was recently asked to give a talk to a local CSA project, giving them some ideas for how to manage their project.  He developed a 6 stage process which looks like a good way of looking at creating successful projects.  You can see his presentation below, and read a transcript of it here on the Transition Culture site. If would be great to get everyone’s comments (both from Transition Bedford and from other Transition groups) on these ideas, as I’m sure all your insights will help us.

Easy to understand explanation about energy efficiency…

We come out of decades of needed campaigning and protests against the world we don’t want and we move with exponential momentum towards the systematic and uncontrolable creation of the world we want.  Transition involves being aware of the negatives of former but embedding ourselves in the positives of the latter. This video below, with dynamic speaker and author Paul Hawken, exemplifies exactly that.

It’d be interesting to find other video clips that hold a story of unyeilding positivity that’s not told through dreams or fantasies but through real life inspirations.

The tables have flipped, can you feel it? Probably not, it’s not portrayed in the media, nor in our political circles, it’s difficult to see at all in or every day lives but now, today and for the first time the status quo is on the back foot. Those supporting it’s continuation now make up the resistance movement. No longer is the great challenge to change the world, a far greater challenge is resisting the tide of change.

Every hole dug with a shovel, every seemingly boring community meeting, every humble local project started, every personal  commitment made……..we have to gain a sense of it’s place in a sea of diversity of small changes across the globe that are building a new and nourished world, one dig of the shovel at a time.

This video should give anyone a quick and easy understanding of the Transition Network:

The Powerdown Show – Transition Towns and Energy Descent Pathways from Rob Carr on Vimeo.