DOWNHAM MARKET: Overcoming Impossibilism - A Year Long Conference -March 16

We invite you to join a series of conversations to explore creative, locally-led solutions to the multiple global economic, social and political issues of our time and support us in identifying sustainable and creative responses.

Engaged optimism is the best frame of mind to face the global challenges of the future (Rob Hopkins)

Greater wealth has not necessarily created greater happiness. With the economy contracting, resources depleting and increasing ecological instability, where do we go from here? Resilience is that ability to recover from knocks, to make more out of what we have, and to build strength through interdependence in the community and with the environment in which we live. This conversation series is part of the ongoing work of Downham and Villages in Transition, and the wider transition network, to encourage community-led responses that build resilience.

The series was opened by The Age of Stupid producer and climate activist, Lizzie Gillatt and further speakers will include Dan Vockins, former campagin manager of 10:10 and now nef's Great Transition co-ordinator, James Meadway, senior economist at nef, Peter Melchett, policy director of The Soil Association.

Join us for our second conversation led by Chartered Environmentalist, engineer and commentator on Peak Oil Chris Jones on March 16.

We’ve grown accustomed to an ever-widening range and complexity of technological solutions. But as well as constraints on carbon emissions, we will very soon need to face up to declining production of oil, later coal and then gas. The need to replace fossil fuels is urgent. What can we do locally?

Downham Market Town Hall Friday 16th March Bar Room, 6.45 for 7.30pm start Open to all, refreshments available

Stoneleigh Comes to Norwich - Making Sense of the Financial Crisis in the Era of Peak Oil - 25 March

Nicole Foss gave a gripping presentation to the Transition Network Conference last year and we are excited that she has agreed to come to Norwich to help us understand the challenges of climate change, economic recession, rising fuel and house prices. Under the pseudonym Stoneleigh, she is co-editor of the blog,The Automatic Earth. which has been chronicling and interpreting the on-going credit crunch and the economic climate that has allowed it to happen. She brings together finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it.

No tickets but donations welcome on the night. Please circulate this widely to all your networks as everyone is invited.

Contact: training@transitionnorwich.org for further information. Christine Way

Making Sense of the Financial Crisis in the Era of Peak Oil - A Presentation by Nicole Foss will be at the United Reform Church, Princes Street, Norwich NR3 1AZ Time: 7.45pm

Greener Fram: Future Visions - A World Beyond Oil

This Saturday March 27 Greener Fram will be holding an event centered around the key Transition topic, peak oil. This event will provide an exploration of what oil depletion could mean for Framlingham and the surrounding area, and how we can respond to these changes to create a brighter future.

- For every barrel of oil we discover we now consume three
- Oil production is already falling in sixty counties
- At some point global oil production will start to fall - FOR EVER

How can our communities adapt to changes that will come about through energy depletion and climate change?
How can we secure our future food supplies when at present every calorie of food takes 10 calories of oil to produce?
A report produced recently by UK industry, with a foreword by Richard Branson, warned about The Oil Crunch - a wake up call for the UK economy.

The Speakers will include:

Simon Weeks, Cookpole Energy Action; a community wind-power project near Halesworth
http://www.energyaction.org.uk/

David Strahan is an award-winning investigative journalist and documentary film-maker who specializes business and energy. He is a trustee of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, fellow of the RSA, and an honorary researcher at the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre.
http://www.davidstrahan.com/

William Kendall, Maple Farm, Kelsale; “One hundred years ago Maple Farm, along with its neighbours, would have been producing all of the fresh food that the local town and villages needed. We hope that this can be the case again.”
http://www.maplefarmkelsale.co.uk/

Tim Waygood was born and raised on Church Farm. All his family farmed when he grew up, now he's the only one. It has been a lifetime of interests and passions that have led him to start up the family farm again and to found the Agrarian Renaissance.
http://www.peopleand/

We will also have a range of stands, and local food and drink for refreshments, plus an informal opportunity for everyone to feed in their ideas and ask questions about this very important topic. Tickets: £4, £3 concs. Time: 1-6pm. Venue: Thomas Mills High School, Saxtead Road, Framlingham.

For more information contact http://www.greenerfram.org.uk/.