Round-up of the week

Another very busy week this one, including news that we are planning our next party to be held in two weeks’ time!

But first…

Fresh from the clothes swap party last week, Eloise Grey was also Chair of our Monday evening meeting. Discussion topics this week included:

> Transition Waverley (Alex Scrivens)
> the Scholar’s Greenway (Tom Lankester)
> setting up a cooperatively run LOCAL grocery box scheme (Paul Whewell)
> Sustainable Living (Casper Gray), and
> outreach to the Castle Street Residents’ Association and South Farnham School (John Hughes)

On Monday morning, Eloise also appeared on BBC Southern Counties Radio, where she was “Prime Minister for the Day“. Asked to present one national and one local policy, Eloise said that she would like to see more money spent on public transport. She also called for the removal of business rates (introduced only 20 years ago as an apparently simple way to raise money for local authorities) because they unfairly penalise struggling local businesses against large national chains. Eloise also managed a plug or two for Transition Farnham.

Finn Jackson’s talk at the UCA on Monday went very well. Around 20-30 interested people came from as far away as Andover and Godalming. They rapidly turned the ‘presentation’ into an interactive discussion about what the future holds, and the positive opportunities it offers.

Finn will also be talking about Transition Farnham in Germany next week, at a conference that is part of an EU-wide initiative on sustainable consumption and production. Thanks to Farnham’s very own Centre for Sustainable Design for arranging this.

On Tuesday Paula Burgess launched her Community Orchards project. This important project will start by creating a map of all the ‘top’ fruit trees in Farnham.

It will then hold community ‘fruit-based’ events such as harvesting, fruit identification days (you may have a ‘lost’ variety growing in your garden!), and community juicing… before going on to encourage the planting of fruit and nut trees in gardens and public places (did you know that walnuts and chestnuts can produce as much protein and carbohydrate per acre as most grains can, but without the need for all that ploughing?), and creating a community orchard.

We look forward with interest to this exciting and  fun initiative!

Also this week, Rob Hopkins wrote about several interesting topics:

> Compost
> Local food zones
> How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible
> Transition Comedy
> The 2009 Transition Conference
> A new Transition book, looking at the next 20 years
> A community-led housing association in south London
> Becoming a zero-carbon household, and
> the Southampton Pound (and possible Bank of Hampshire!)

Finally, and most importantly, we have arranged our next party.

In 2007, with Australia facing the worst drought in living memory, WWF Australia asked the question: How can we inspire people to take action on climate change?

Working with Fairfax Media and Leo Burnett, they came up with the idea of asking the people of Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour, in order to make a powerful statement about coal fired electricity.

On 31 March 2007, 2.2 million people and 2,100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for 1 hour: a 10% energy reduction.

Following international media coverage, on 29 March 2008, 50 million people in more than 35 countries across seven continents switched off their lights for one hour — the biggest voluntary power down in history.

This year the aim is to reach more than one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world.

You can sign up and be counted at www.earthhour.org.

And you can come to our candlelit party and we will turn the lights out for you!

From 8pm on Saturday 28 March. Lights off from 8:30 till 9:30. Please contact us for location details.