Watch Age of Stupid, free on the BBC, until 21 December:

Click here and add your name to the petition:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen/

In a low carbon future we’re going to want to save water, grow our own food, and create jobs locally. Here is something that could help achieve all three.

The Loveable Loo is a composting toilet that saves water, creates something that helps the garden grow, and can create local jobs for the people that make them.

This video shows how to do all three: how to make and use the Loveable Loo:

And with Alice Holt just down the road, we have most of the basic raw materials we will need!

Too much home-made cider is never a good idea…

Thanks to all who came to last night’s Transition Christmas Party. Commiserations to those who couldn’t make it.

As something random to follow with, here’s a featured post from our website hosts, WordPress — this is what Alberta, Canada looked like first thing yesterday morning, at minus 40 degrees celsius:

Wow!

You can read more about this, and see other stunning photos at http://danjurak.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/forty-below-celsius/

On Saturday evening 3,000 towns and cities around the world came together to hold candlelit vigils and mark the halfway point of the Copenhagen climate negotiations.

They wanted to send a powerful message to politicians: “Stop playing games and start taking action.”

Here in Farnham we did our bit too!

Members of Transition Town Farnham turned the usually rather dull and dreary traffic island at the top of Downing Street into a spectacular sparkling extravaganza, as shoppers and cars went about their normal business.

“Some people think climate change is all doom and gloom”, said Eloise Grey, member of Transition Farnham, “but we think it’s an opportunity to make life better. Standing here now, you can smell the exhaust from all the cars. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was gone? Wouldn’t it be nice if more of our food was grown locally and we knew the farmers who grew it, or if more people had jobs locally and didn’t spend so much time commuting?”

Despite the cold weather, several people stopped for a chat. Whatever happens in Copenhagen this year, the world of 2050 is going to be very different from today. The more we can come together as a community in Farnham, the more we can help each other through the changes that are coming.

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As we prepare for our Christmas Party this evening, I thought you might like to see this short film about Transition Town Totnes’s recent “Winterfest”:

Christmas is coming…

With the Copenhagen Climate Talks about to kick off, a few of us had a great time at the Wave last weekend. One of us even drove the student minibus up to town! A report by one of those students appeared in yesterday’s Farnham Herald.

With those talks on-going, the New Scientist published some research last week on how much it would cost to avert dangerous climate change — the answer is, “surprisingly little”.

What will life be like after we have done this? “In Transition”, The Transition Movie, is now available to watch on YouTube!

It paints a realistic and enticing vision of what is possible, so to mark the half-way point of the climate talks, we will be holding a candle-lit vigil on Saturday afternoon at the top of Downing Street.

Finally, last Monday’s meeting was a lively affair, held in Three Stiles Lane, but we don’t have the notes on-line yet. (It’s Christmas, you understand )

But next week our meeting is our Christmas Party, so we do hope you can come.

Have a great weekend.

And here, finally, is Margaret Wheatley again on the tenth key principle of what it takes to build community, mutual trust:

This is the monthly newsletter from the Transition Network.

There’s a lot in it!

CONTENTS

NEWS

• ‘Transition News’ Section In Positive News
• Green Community Hero Award

NETWORK NEWS

• Diversity Project Coordinator
• Web Project Update
• Transition Network at Copenhagen People’s Summit

RESEARCH

• Free Guide to Setting Up Local Currencies
• Who Are The Transitioners?

VIDEOS

• In Transition 1.0 DVD is Now Available On DVD and Online
• Rob Hopkins Ted Video
• Vandana Shiva on Transition Initiatives
• TT On Film

REGIONAL REPORTS

• Sweden in Transition
• Gathering in the East

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Italy Gets the Handbook and A Local Authority Gets It
• Working With Councils

Quote of the month

NEWS

‘Transition News’ Section In Positive News
Positive News has teamed up with Transition Network News to feature a new section dedicated to news from the Transition movement. The just-published winter edition includes articles from Transition Initiatives in Forest Row, Brixton, Edinburgh plus reviews of the In-Transition Movie and Local Food book.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/transition-news-section-in-positive-news/

Green Community Hero Award
The 2009 Energy Saving Trust/Guardian ‘Green Community Hero’ award has been awarded to Rob Hopkins.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/green-community-hero-award/

NETWORK NEWS

Diversity Project Coordinator
A new post has opened up with the Transition Network. The role of the Diversity Project Coordinator will be to ‘Develop models and practices to enable the transition movement to successfully engage across culture, race, faith and income groups.’
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/diversity-project-coordinator/

Web Project Update
Ed Mitchell, Transition Network: Web Co-ordinator explains what they are up to with the web platform, a high level view of the services it supports , and an idea of times for everyone.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/web-project-update/

Transition Network at Copenhagen People’s Summit
A number of people are travelling (by land and sea, of course!) from Totnes to Copenhagen to be part of the People’s Climate Summit. While the world leaders make international agreements (or don’t) many thousands of people from around the world who are working to tackle climate change at a grass roots level will be meeting in the centre of Copenhagen.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/transition-network-at-copenhagen-peoples-summit/

RESEARCH

Free Guide to Setting Up Local Currencies
Transition Network is delighted to be able to present the first in an occasional series of pdf only ‘How to’ guides: THE LEWES POUND A Transition Network ‘How To’ Guide.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/free-guide-to-setting-up-local-currencies/

Who Are The Transitioners?
In spite of its rapid growth and plentiful positive publicity, there have until now been no studies looking at who is getting involved and what their motivations are. Dr Gill Seyfang at the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia has conducted an in-depth membership survey of Transition Norwich earlier this year and published the results.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/who-are-transitioners/

VIDEOS

In Transition 1.0 DVD is Now Available On DVD and Online
‘In Transition’ is the first detailed film about the Transition movement filmed by those that know it best, those who are making it happen on the ground. The Transition movement is about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities. It is positive, solutions focused, viral and fun.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/in-transition-1-0-dvd-is-now-available/

Rob Hopkins Ted Video
Back in July Rob Hopkins gave a talk at TED and the video is now online.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/rob-hopkins-ted-video/

Vandana Shiva on Transition Initiatives
While Vandana Shiva was in Berlin recently promoting her book ‘Soil Not Oil’, Andreas Teuchert and Thomas Finger of Transition Berlin, who were filming the event, spontaneously asked her for her thoughts on what the Transition Towns movement could do that is of real use for people in the global south.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/vandana-shiva-on-transition-initiatives/

TT On Film
More and more Transition initiatives are making films about what they are up to. Here is a collection of Transiton related films on YouTube.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/ti-on-film/

REGIONAL REPORTS

Sweden in Transition
Naresh Giangrande recently returned from a Transition Training tour of Sweden, here is a report about his trip.
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/sweden-in-transition/

Gathering in the East
In mid November Transition East Support Group held its Second Regional Gathering in Norfolk. An insightful document that reviews the groups in the region and looks at some of the common problems they are running into has been published that they describe as ‘everything you wanted to know about Transition but were too correct to ask.’
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/gathering-in-the-east/

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Italy Gets the Handbook and A Local Authority Gets It
Hot on the heels of the publication of an Italian version of the Transition Handbook, a local authority has shown what it looks like when a they REALLY Get Transition!
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/italy-gets-the-handbook-and-a-local-authority-gets-it/

Working With Councils
The Community Development Foundation have produced a handy little nuts and bolts explanation of how local authorities in the UK work. Called Green Up!, it provides community groups with everything they need to work productively with their councils on environment and sustainability issues. It explains how community groups can use everything from Local Area Agreements to Sustainable Community Strategies to get their work supported. The guide also explains all the words and vocabulary commonly used by councils, so local groups can clearly understand ‘council speak’
http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/working-with-councils/

Quote of the Month

“Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it. But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice.”
Editorial published by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages. 7th December 2009

Contact: transitionnetworknews@googlemail.com
+44 (0)1342 825169

http://transitionnetworknews.wordpress.com/december-09-newsletter/

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If your news is not here it means you havn’t sent it in so tap tap tap and write something to share …
Next Edition February 2010 Content Submission Deadline 31st January

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Not a subscriber? Click Here To SUBSCRIBE to the monthly Transition Network Newsletter

Newletter Editor: Mike Grenville
Contact: transitionnetworknews@googlemail.com
01342 825169

http://transitionnetworknews.org

Transition Network:  43 Fore Street, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 5HN, UK
Email: info@transitionnetwork.org
Tel: +44 (0)5601 531882
www.transitionnetwork.org

Here is Margaret Wheatley again on the ninth key principle of building community: