Early October saw us added, as group number 224, to the list of Transition initiatives with Official Status. This gives us various benefits in terms of support from the Transition Network and discounts on resources such as the “In Transition” film.

It also allowed us to register our interest in the Transition Together project. Much to our delight, in October we became one of only 10 Transition initiatives worldwide to be successful in being awarded funding and resources to Transition Together. “T Tog” offers straightforward, practical advice to small groups of 5–8 households to help them to reduce energy, waste and water at home.

The idea is to roll out T Tog to 200 households throughout the conurbation within the next few months, working with the local Transition groups in Christchurch, Poole, Bournemouth and Wimborne to engage people in the project.

Meanwhile, in order to administer this we needed to formulate a Constitution and put together an interim steering group so that a bank account could be opened to put the funds in!

The constitution has now been finalised and signed and you can take a look at it in the files section. The steering group has nine members at the moment (Amanda, Andy, Gary, me, Jacki, Julie, Lindley, Rachel and Theresa), who will take us through until we have an AGM in the new year. At that point a new steering group can be elected.

The website will be given a facelift shortly. The aim will be to keep the home page updated with brief details of all the local events related to Transition. Please do take a look from time to time because there’s so much happening.

The local groups in Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Wimborne, and indeed in the outer reaches of the BH postcode area (New Forest and Purbeck) are all healthy and buzzing with activity. Please do check out an event/meeting/film screening from time to time – new technologies are great for networking but there’s no substitute for talking to and getting to know people face to face.

Harriet

I look forward to the wider distribution here in the UK – it is getting many stellar reviews so I hope it will get nationwide cinema screening here. That will help with peak oil awareness and preparation a lot, which along with adapting to climate change at a local and community level, is the essence of Transition Towns.

Here are some clips:

Apple Trailer Website

Clip 1

Clip 2

Clip 3

Clip 4

Clip 5

Michael C Ruppert is one of the key people involved in raising awareness of peak oil since 2001. For example, see his excellent ‘From The Wilderness’ interview with Colin Campbell in 2002. Colin is the geologist who coined the term ‘peak oil’ and who inspired Rob Hopkins to start Transition Towns in 2004.

Similarly, this article by another geologist Dale Allen Pfeiffer, “Eating Fossil Fuels,” that Mr Ruppert published in 2004, echos Rob Hopkin’s comment in a Guardian article about Transition Towns that “British farming has evolved ‘into a system for turning oil into food,’ reliant on the energy-intensive manufacture of synthetic fertiliser, heavy use of oil-based plastics, and centralised just-in-time distribution systems that also guzzle oil.”

The Transition Together initiative is all about forming small, social groups of friends, neighbours and colleagues and supporting them in taking a number of effective, practical, money-saving and carbon-reducing steps. This is achieved through using project packs provided by Transition Together, but revamped to include local information for the participating Transition initiative.

The founder of Transition Towns, Rob Hopkins, introduced Transition Together on his blog, Transition Culture.

We put in an application on behalf of Transition BH, and have heard today that we are one of ten Transition initiatives that have been successful! We will be sent the project material in late November, together with the project funding of £1,000!

This is a really great opportunity to roll out a project across our BH area. Do take some time to have a look at the link and start thinking about ways this could be implemented!

BBC Quotes: “The 10 largest oil producing fields in the world are all in decline… More than two-thirds of current crude oil production capacity may need to be replaced by 2030, simply to keep production constant… At best, this is likely to prove extremely challenging… the probability and consequences of different outcomes has not been adequately assessed… Despite the evidence, the report notes with some surprise that the UK government rarely mentions the issue in official publications.”

Telegraph: “The concern is that rising oil prices will encourage the rapid development of carbon-intensive alternatives which will make it difficult or impossible to prevent dangerous climate change…. If these problems are ignored and we do not make these changes ahead of time, we are heading for trouble.”

Transition Towns is largely about preparing for life with declining oil supplies, while avoiding responses that will make climate change even worse, so recognition of this issue in the press is good to see.

The next meeting of Transition Bournemouth is at the Goat and Tricycle, tomorrow, 30th September, at 7:30 pm.

All welcome!

Any queries to Theresa, on 07958 138053.

Transition Town Christchurch is delighted to have the opportunity to show the stunning and thought-provoking film “Earth Whisperers – Papatuanuku” from our sister town – Christchurch, New Zealand.

This spellbinding and challenging film focuses on ten quirky and inspiring New Zealanders, who love, nurture and protect their environment. Shot at breathtaking locations around New Zealand, these Earth Whisperers save heritage seeds, regenerate forests, harvest and protect wild herbs, leave the car forever to ride a bicycle, and save huge swathes of old forest. This movie combines stunning cinematography with an extraordinary sound track.

The London premiere of “Earth Whisperers – Papatuanuku” takes place on September 18, and the film will be screened at The Studio, the Regent Centre, Christchurch at 7.30pm on September 21st.

Admission will be only £3.

The next Transition Poole meeting is at The Grasshopper on Tues 8th September at 7.30pm.

global production is likely to peak in about 10 years – at least a decade earlier than most governments had estimated. … chronic under-investment [...] is set to result in an “oil crunch” within the next five years which will jeopardise any hope of a recovery from the present global economic recession … decline in oil production in existing fields is now running at 6.7 per cent a year compared to the 3.7 per cent decline [IEA] estimated in 2007 … “One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day,” Dr Birol said. “The earlier we start, the better, because all of our economic and social system is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of money and we should take this issue very seriously”

The second Transition Wimborne Open Meeting will be held on Tuesday 4th August, 7pm-9pm, at The Community Learning & Resource Centre (the big building on King Street, the south west side of the Minster, surrounded by car parks).

We will be showing “The Power of Community” an hour long documentary
about the effect of a Peak Oil even in Cuba when the USSR collapsed.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814275/

This will be followed by an Open Spaces format discussion, where
we suggest topics and then freely create small discussion groups
around those topics, and then summarise each discussion back to
everyone else at the end.

The topics will again cover what Transition activities can be started
in Wimborne over the summer, and into next year, as well as
issues raised by the documentary.

If you want to help the event, please download an A4 poster PDF, print off a dozen copies and post them on notice boards in your local area and clubs/offices.

Small donations of around £1 are kindly requested to meet room hire costs.

Don’t sign up, just turn up :-)