Transition takes to the Streets

STOP PRESS! The notes of our Second Regional Gathering are up on the Transition East website and this blog has now gone officially regional! You can find notes on the day, plus individual reports of our open space and Transition Troubleshooting sessions on http://tinyurl.com/yl9ys3t. (see post and list below)

Meanwhile everything is hotting up (as it were) for the world's biggest Climate Action march, The Wave in London next Saturday. Coaches from all over the region are heading down to the city, and initatives from all over East Anglia are on board waving banners and wearing blue!

On Saturday 21 as part of the build up to Copenhagen, Transition Norwich and Sustainable Bungay took part of a lively and colourful demonstration and rally in the central streets of Norwich. Christine Way, core member of TN reports: "On Saturday 21st November several transitioners gathered in Chapelfield Gardens to join the biggest ever Norwich Climate March while Tom (Harper) set up the TN stall on Millennium Plain ready for the Climate Emergency rally. There was a buzz in the air as the organisers and police negotiated the route which had already been agreed. At last the Samba Band with its drums and colourful dancers started and we were on the move, but not for long as the traffic ahead of us came to a standstill on St Stephen’s Street. This gave us lots more time to hand out leaflets and get the message across to the fascinated shoppers that climate change is real and we need to act now. The Transition Norwich banner was up there near the front and was clearly visible on the TV News bulletins that went out over the weekend.

Then hundreds of people gathered outside the Forum for the Climate Emergency Rally where speakers including Dr Ian Gibson warned of the dangers of runaway climate change and of this being the “biggest issue of our time”. County Councillor Andrew Boswell said: "Gordon Brown should declare a National Climate Emergency and tell it like it is” and our very own Tully and Kate spoke about some of the solutions and all the positive things that are already happening in Transition Norwich and Bungay."

Meanwhile Maria Price and Mark Crutchley from Transition Norwich (Buildings and Energy) and Kate Jackson of Sustainable Bungay were interviewed by the Politics Show (East). TN were filmed conducting a light audit in various city centre shops, whilst Kate was hard at work on her allotment! The report is scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday 6th December in a programme on Climate Change which will also include an interview with Professor Kevin Anderson, head of the Tyndall Centre at UEA.

Watch this space for reports on The Wave and all other news and reviews of the region (including a report from last Sat's Greener Fram event!)

Notes from the Gathering

Over the last week the Transition East Support Group have been compiling notes taken at our Second Regional Gathering in Diss on November 14. They have just been uploaded onto the Transition East website if you would like to have a closer look.

There is still work to do and we're missing notes from a couple of the sessions and don't yet have the transcripts of the Transition Troubleshooting post-it notes. Over the next week or so, as well as adding these missing sessions and notes, pictures and a more complete introduction will be up-loaded.

To whet your appetite the titles of the sessions are listed below!

Meanwhile news of our activities has gone nationwide. On Nov 17 a glowing report of the regional document was posted by Rob Hopkins on his Transition Culture blog entitled A Brilliant Look at What’s Rising in the East of England (that’s all 29 of us!).

Open Space sessions

Transition East Talks: attract speakers from outside a specific Transition Town, to give Transition a wider appeal. (John Webb - Letchworth)
Making the Most of Food: exploring initiatives similar to the Fife diet, raising awareness about where our food comes from; supermarket waste; schools initiatives; Abundance schemes, foraging (James Lockley and Pippa Vine - Diss and Cambridge)
Complexity of insulation schemes: this was about making sense of the bureaucracy surrounding lots of well-meaning council initiatives. (Glenn - Debenham)
Moving from core group to community involvement: what actions need to be taken? (David Greenacre - Framlingham)
Making the most of renewable energy (John Taylor – Ipswich)
Converting talk into action (Nick Watts - Bungay) notes in
Scope of Transition groups (James Thomas – Cambridge)
How many people are enough? (Carol Hunter – Downham Market and Villages)
On-line Communications (Gary Alexander- Diss)
How best to tell the story of Transition thorugh the present media/culture (Charlotte Du Cann– Norwich)

Transition Troubleshooting
Run by the Transition East Support Group

Burn out and fall out (Nigel McKean - Woodbridge)
Group Dynamics (Gary Alexander - Diss)
Facing Difficult Lifestyle Challenges (Mark Watson – Norwich/Bungay)
Engaging with Local Councils (Jane Chittenden – Norwich)
Communications between groups and the media (Charlotte Du Cann – Norwich/Bungay)