South Hams Friends of the Earth

I was disappointed to read Mark Lynas’s piece in New Statesman, “Why We Greens Keep Getting It Wrong”.  The piece builds on Lynas’s previous much publicised conversion to nuclear power, arguing that if we are to apply the scientific rigour that underpins climate science to all other areas of life, in the same way [...]

While Chris Martenson was in the UK recently, Peter Lipman and myself did an interview with him, which was fascinating and wonderful, but the memory chip it was on just got corrupted before I could download it and it is lost.  Gah.  As a meagre way of overcoming the profound sense of trauma I am [...]

We’ve got so many wonderfully diverse and inspiring activities to show you this month…ideas for getting people involved and having fun! And they’re here for the sharing… In the UK, TT Luton is organising a series of Grow Your Own events to relocalise food production and consumption, with discussions and a [...]

One of Totnes’s best kept secrets is cartoonist Simon French (who, trivia fans, is the son of the head of Sixth Form from when I was at school).  Every week his column ‘Two Knights in the Castle’, based around two knights sitting on the walls of Totnes Castle, grows more surreal and ploughs its own [...]

The Story of Transition Tales by Simon Robinson (MSc student at Schumacher College). This is the story of Transition Tales, a small group within Transition Town Totnes. One of the aims of this project is to raise awareness within Primary and Secondary School children of the transition solution of community led response to [...]

Last Friday I travelled to Dorset on a beautiful clear day which turned from a hard frost to glorious sunshine over the time I was journeying. I was going to Bryanston School which was hosting the Dorset Schools Green Summit, drawing together kids from 40 schools across the county. There were various [...]

There have been critiques of Transition in the past, such as the Trapese Collective’s one, or other more ranty online versions, usually from the very deep green Left, who argue that unless it can get rid of capitalism/economic growth [insert personal pet political issue here] first then it is unforgivably naive.  It was interesting therefore, [...]

A while ago we published here a draft guide for Transition initiatives wanting to hold Transition hustings with their local election candidates, in particular to explore themes around resilience.  Thanks to everyone who sent in comments and changes, and I am delighted to announce that the final document is available now to download here.  It [...]

Those good folks at the nu-project are going great guns, acting as ‘embedded film-makers’ in Totnes… I just wish we had had them around from the very start, what an amazing record it would have been… anyway, here is their latest, a short film about the nut tree plantings that have been taking place in [...]

What can local government do to promote those four things because clearly in our consumer society people tend to feel less safe and are becoming less and less competent?  Relatedness is breaking down and people feel they have less control over the democratic process. I’m not a political scientist, I’m a psychologist, but my sense is [...]

Here is the first part (Part Two to follow tomorrow) of an interview I did with Tim Kasser a couple of weeks ago while he was at Schumacher College.  He is a psychologist, author of the seminal High Price of Materialism, as well as other useful writings such as a great chapter in the State [...]

Amazing times. Last week’s headline of one of the papers I saw at the station was that the UK’s national debt is now worse than that of Greece. On Tuesday I spent the morning with Chris ‘Crash Course’ Martenson, whose view is that last year’s ‘banking crisis’ was just the first of many, which [...]

Tim Kasser was recently in Totnes giving a talk, and the good folks at nu-project were there with their cameras. While Tim was in Totnes I also did an interview with him which I will be posting here over the next couple of days.

Saturday 13th March, Brighton, find out more here, download the poster here, should be a fantastic event. Here’s the rather good poster.

At the recent Soil Association conference in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago I cornered Mike Small of the Fife Diet and asked him a few questions about what is happening in Fife.  Their work has huge implications for Transition, as well as offering some fascinating insights into the practicalities of the relocalisation of the [...]

Transition Sunshine Coast is very pleased to announce they have delivered their Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP) to the Sunshine Coast Regional Council. The Sunshine Coast EDAP covers the entire region of the Sunshine Coast located in Queensland, Australia which has a population of 330,000+ and covers an area of more than 3100 square [...]

Joanne Poyourow has been rather busy recently, posting some very insightful pieces about the broadening and the deepening of Transition.  From asking whether Transition is a movement or an organisation, to exploring issues of diversity in Transition.   Here is my favourite, an excellent piece recently posted by Joanne over at the Transition US site, which [...]

Earlier this week I did an interview for BBC World Service’s ‘One Planet’ programme, which you can now hear at their website here or download the podcast here.   A very enjoyable experience, it is not every day that the BBC buys you soup and pays for it in Totnes Pounds!

Here’s a fascinating piece from Ekklesia about the recent Churches in Transition conference in Scarborough. “Christian Ecology Link have launched a support network for “Churches in Transition”, part of the Transition Towns movement, and has held a major national conference on the transition to low carbon lives.  At their bi-annual gathering in Scarborough this weekend, 50 [...]

…which according to my trusty Babelfish means “The Transition Towns movement – cities and humans in the change”, or something.  Anyway, here’s a great short film for German speakers out there, featuring Brixton, Totnes and a Transition Training somewhere…  but sufficiently understandable to be a very interesting way for non-German speakers to pass 8 minutes.  [...]