A weekend spent getting ecologically deep

I thought I’d take a few minutes to write a bit about a recent ecological/environmental conference I attended, which I found completely inspiring, energizing and life affirming.  If you’ve not come across Green & Away, it’s Europe’s only tented conference centre, with everything in the open air or under canvas.  Set in rolling fields outside Worcester, by the river Teme, I’d highly recommend it.  I took part in the Resurgence summer camp, and as well as several great speakers and workshops, found the experience of living outdoors for 4 days (including taking open air showers!) really lovely.  Satish Kumar, peace activist and ecological campaigner, ‘headlined’ and spoke of a trinity of ‘soil, soul and society’, which in essence I took to mean thinking of ecology as three inter-connected spheres which we must nurture as a whole if we're to find sustainable solutions to the challenges of climate change, inequality and the many other ills facing the world.  I was particularly interested in the ‘soul’ aspect, and the importance of connecting with our inner landscapes whilst moving away from a constant outer focus, for example on material possessions.

News from a Tooting front room near you!

Liz has been hosting a series of ‘Carbon Conversations’ meetings with neighbours in her front room: 

Our latest 'CC' is now taking a break for the summer, so I thought I'd take the opportunity for a quick update on how it's gone so far, since we started meeting once a week. In mid June a group of intrepid Tooting dwellers ventured up the hill into Furzedown, and we began by discussing :

'why on earth are we even having a conversation about carbon anyway?' 

And what do these 'tonnes' consist of, and what is 'carbon equivalent', and why should we bother when China builds a new coal power station every week? We all concluded that we did want to bother, and for me it felt good to be doing something positive.  
We had some fun thinking about what we'd say to the current prime minister about climate change if we got the chance; things like 'don't wait for other countries, just take a lead', 'be proud of the UK’s Climate Act - do more to promote it' and 'tackling inequality will help with climate change and vice versa, don't forget the multiple benefits to society'.

With thoughts racing through my mind we went on our way to ponder for a week before the next session. 

Transition Conference Report - Charles

Two of us have just been to the annual Transition Network Conference in Liverpool

Each of the 200-plus participants probably had a unique experience of the 3 days. Much of the time was offered in chunks of options...

Exciting choices, because most of the parallel sessions looked tempting…but you needed to select just one!  What would you do:  choose a very popular one with 40 people signed up, or go for a topic with a smaller group of 5? And would you prefer to be meeting the same people, or new ones?

My choices took me to sessions on social justice, on community renewable energy, on health in cities, on a long evening walk with a forester in local woods and fields, and on Kids in Transition.  

Transition Conference Report - Lucy

‘The change in direction represented by the Transition movement is as profound as any intentional change experienced by a civilisation’.

I have been at the national Transition Town Conference in Liverpool for three days. An intense experience, characterised by almost constant conversation with 259 other ‘transitioners’ from all over the world and the UK. The conference was on the campus of Hope University near Chilwall Woods in the North East of the City.

The conference recognised that after 5 years of existence the Transition movement has a great deal to reflect on. The movement can begin to look back at the evidence of its impact with confidence.  With initiatives across the world putting ‘transition’ principles successfully into action, responding quickly as communities pulling together has shown how resilience really counts. This has been especially so in the stark contexts of national crises such as New Zealand’s earthquake and Rio’s floods.   When things are destabilised you have to be ready with new ways of doing things. 

Tooting Community Garden

We have had an exciting few weeks at the Tooting Community Garden so here's a little update on recent activities. On 18th and 19th June we invited volunteers to come to the Big Dig. We certainly have some talented gardeners and knowledgeable people in Tooting. Sharing skills and knowledge was a feature of the weekend. We began by preparing the rectangular bed in the middle of the garden so we can grow some veggies. Although we are a bit late in the season we are confident we can grow some produce in time for the Tooting Foodival in September. A few weeks previously we had been prepared to dig by hand but the soil was so compact that when we were offered use of a rotivator (thanks to the lovely people at Share Community Garden!) we accepted. Following rotivation we marked out beds with concrete slabs we found in the garden. After preparing the soil a little more and adding some compost we were ready to plant.

Furzedown Low Carbon Zone

Transition Town Tooting is a partner in promoting the "Furzedown Low Carbon Zone", a new project that will help achieve the goal of an energy efficient, resilient Furzedown.  TTT has a stand at the Big Day Out and will co-host an inaugural meeting at the Furzedown Project, 91-93 Moyser Rd, SW16 6SJ on Monday 18th July, 7-9pm.  Further information will be posted soon!

Recycle Week June 20-26th

This has been Recycle Week and we were delighted to welcome Wandsworth Council's Recycling Team Sophie Chitty, at this week's TTT co-ordinating meeting. She writes about her visit here: 

Fancy a Tooting Carbon Conversation?

The next Carbon Conversation in Tooting starts next week on Monday 20th June.  Organiser Liz Darley says: "It should be fun and you should learn some new things!!"  

Carbon conversations are six meetings that explore how individuals and families can reduce their carbon footprint. Participants will find out how to make practical plans to reduce carbon consumption in areas such as home energy, travel, and food purchasing, as well as talking about their own personal visions and feelings on a low-carbon future in London.  Find out more details about how to join the conversation here.

Tooting Community Garden

The Tooting Community Garden is underway! We are now calling on volunteers to come and help turn our blank canvas into a beautiful, thriving garden. 

The land has been generously donated by Naseem, owner of Mushkil Asaan on Upper Tooting Road. If you have gardening skills and advice that you would like to share we would love to hear from you but most importantly we need willing hands and enthusiasm so if you have no experience in the garden then please don't let this stop you coming along. If you would like to join the Tooting garden mailing list then please email Abby on abigailcallen@gmail.com.  On the left is version 1 of a possible plan for the garden drawn by George.

What could you add to this?  We need your help and ideas!    Get in touch with TTT to get involved.

‘Seasonal Food and Seasonal Wellbeing’

Our monthly ‘First Tuesday’ meeting on 7^th June met at Mushkil Aasaan - with many thanks for the use of the hall.

Belinda, Tim & Charles used games and discussion to explore some of the interrelated features of the food we buy and grow – its nutritional value, its availability locally-grown, its ‘carbon footprint’, its degree of government subsidy or supermarket ‘shelf shout’, and food’s relationship with our own wellbeing.

We shared some favourite seasonal recipes, local picnic locations, and ideas for outdoor cooking and eating. We looked at packaging and waste – and linked this to composting, and to the satisfaction of growing our own food.

 Some of our discussions in more detail:

BATCA Fun Day 2011

TTT will again be participating in this year's BATCA Fun Day held as in previous years at the Gatton School and St Augustine's church opposite in Broadwater Rd, Tooting.  More details to follow soon but here is the BATCA poster:

Tooting Trashcatchers Carnival Shortlisted for Award

The Trashcatchers Carnival which took place last summer in Tooting is one of four finalists shortlisted for Climate Week's Best Event.

The Carnival was a vibrant and colourful event that used recycling as a metaphor to build a vision of a low-energy future for Tooting. It aimed to create beauty from rubbish, using story, art, science and celebration to tap into the collective ingenuity of local residents. Characters, sculptures, musical instruments, dance, performance, costumes and floats were all created using discarded materials such as plastic bags, bottles and boxes.

Produced by Transition Town Tooting in partnership with Phakama and Emergency Exit Arts, the Carnival was one of the most significant community events to take place in the Borough of Wandsworth in 2010 and had the support and participation of numerous schools, community groups and local organisations.

The community of Port Adelaide in Australia have been so inspired by this event that Transition Town Tooting and Phakama will be working with their local transition, waste, education, arts and environmental groups (by skype, facebook and social media) to connect up the two communities through the 'Trashcatching'  concept of public celebration. 

Climate Week is a national occasion that offers an annual renewal of our ambition and confidence to combat climate change. It is supported by every part of society – from the Prime Minister to Paul  McCartney, Vivienne Westwood to Manchester United, the CBI to Girlguiding UK. Its commercial partners are Tesco, Aviva, EDF  Energy, Kellogg's and RBS.
   

"We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the Climate Week Best Event Award. The Trashcatchers Carnival was an inspirational project that enabled us to reimagine our relationship with our earth. We want to dedicate this to every single Trashcatchers Carnavalista and to the whole community of Tooting".
Fabio Santos. Director of Phakama
and Lucy Neal. Co-Chair of Transition Town Tooting  

   

The winner will be selected by a judging panel which includes Lord Nicholas Stern,  Met Office Chief Scientist Julia Slingo, environmentalist Tony Juniper, author Ian McEwan and Arnold Schwarzenegger's climate  advisor, Terry Tamminen. It will be announced on 21^st March at the official Climate Week launch  event at Lancaster House in Central London where the keynote speaker is Chris Huhne MP,  Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. 

April 5th Food Event - Call for Tooting Photos!

With Spring fast approaching TTTs Food Group have been busily preparing for the new growing season! to celebrate this the Food Group are having a community food and growing event on Tuesday the 5th of April at Mushkil Assann on Upper Tooting Road between 7 and 9pm. For the event we need lots and lots of photos of Tooting -both the space that's wasted as well as the space that is used in fantastic and innovative ways. If you'd like to submit some pics for the event, please email all JPEGS to colour_ride@hotmail.com.

More details to follow and see you on the day!

Ecobuild Trip

This year's Ecobuild was bigger and better than ever before, mixing lots of high tech, next generation eco products with useful demonstrations and lectures from leading thinkers such as Richard Heinberg and Susan Greenfield.

Several members of TTT went along and were impressed by the range of innovative building  products that were on show. Such as; insulation boards made out of straw, carpet tiles made from recycled carpets, a solar water heating system that works 24 hours a day, night or day, or OLED lighting that can revolutionise the way we think about colour, interior design and lighting in our homes and buildings.

It was all very exciting stuff, and gave us an insight as to what it could be like in our homes in the future.         Malsara

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Have a go at your creating your own plan for the UK to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.

Transition Town Tooting – along with lots of other local groups, businesses and NGOs – were invited to a consultation event last Friday run by DECC where they unveiled The 2050 Pathways Analysis.  Described as ‘an online framework through which to consider some of the choices and trade-offs we will have to make over the next forty years. It is system-wide, covering all parts of the economy and all greenhouse gases emissions released in the UK. It is rooted in scientific and engineering realities, looking at what is thought to be physically and technically possible in each sector.’

Giles and Hilary shared some interesting, and heated, discussions as we joined groups thrashing out various options for our future.  The tool allows you to test out scenarios relating to energy usage and production whilst seeing the immediate outcome of your actions on a graph of predicted CO2 emissions.  There is also a huge amount of background information provided to all your ‘decisions’ if you take the time to investigate. 

Brilliant Books!

Jeni and Jane organised a great Book event this evening!  Charlotte and Bruce told us about books they love, while Doug from My Back Pages, one of the only independent bookshops in south London, talked knowledgeably about writers and books with local connections, before setting us all a really hard quiz!  The evening continued with "Speed-booking" - where we had one minute to impress our "dates" by explaining our love for a book we had brought along.  Meanwhile Libby taught paper making from recycled shredded paper
(see a couple of dodgy first efforts above!).  And don't forget World Book Night on Saturday!  A full list of books discussed and recommended at this evening's event follows:

Do we want a Biofuel Plant in Wandsworth?

A local campaign to stop a 10MW biofuel energy plant being built as part of the proposed Battersea Power Station redevelopment is gaining momentum.  Andrea Speranza of biofuelswatch gave some reasons why the plant will not be a good thing for Wandsworth residents. She told us that biofuel production:

1. Leads to an increase world food price rises. 
2. Causes the release of more greenhouse gases through land conversion and chemical fertiliser use than fossil fuels.
3. Effects local air quality by burning vegetable oil which emits nitrogen oxides and small particulates linked to asthma, bronchitis and heart problems. (NB: In 2010, a similar sized biofuel power station was refused planning permission by London Borough of Ealing because it produced too much air pollution.)
4. Leads to people being thrown off their land and suffering human rights abuses in the Global South
5. Will mean heavier traffic in Wandsworth due to fuel tanker deliveries

What do Tooting residents think?  Is this really what we want on our doorstep? You can express your opinion on the proposed biofuels plant to Wandsworth Council via planning application 2009/3575 or mail info@biofuelwatch.org.uk for more info.  DT

Eco Build 2011

With less than two weeks to go for this years Eco Build 2011, TTT are gearing up for a fascinating day out the event on 2^nd March.

If you are interested in learning about energy efficiency in buildings, understanding the benefits of the Feed in Tariff, seeing live demonstrations on solid wall refurbishment, modern glazing solutions, existing loft insulation and finding out about the latest technology in harnessing solar energy, energy efficient lighting, urban planting, bee keeping plus much much more, then come and sign up for your FREE pass at http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/index.html


Personally, I am looking forward to seeing the seminar on Freecycling and a complete interior makeover for £0.00  This could give me some solutions for my Victorian refurb.

The event runs from 1-3 March 2011. If you are interested in joining a group going for the event on the 2^nd March, we will be meeting at 10.00am by the ticket barriers at Tooting Bec Northern Line tube station. Please let us know by email if you would like to join us for this really inspiring event.

Hope to see you there - Malsara

Problem or Predicament?

Another interesting and well-attended First Tuesday event this evening at Mushkil Aasaan in Tooting was spent watching Chris Martenson's UK Crash Course; a link to the youtube video is below for those of you who missed it.  And there's more on Chris's website.  One thing he explained was the difference between a problem (which can be solved) and a predicament (which can only be suffered).

Do we want to wait until peak oil driven Energy shortages,the fallacy of an ever growing Economy and a resource depleted and changing Environment crunch us?  Or do we want to do something different?  Do we want a future shaped by disaster or design? Needless to say there was plenty of discussion afterwards.

TTT's Giles star of Sunday Times article

.... you can spot him up the ladder in the photo...