Transition Scilly

Small scale wind power

2012-02-09T23:10:00.002Z

ISREC are delighted to announce they've been awarded funding to undertake a small scale wind energy feasibility study. We feel this is a really important step forward in the renewable energy debate on Scilly and very much look forward to the findings of the study.

There will be an opportunity to engage in the consultation process later in the month - more details nearer the time.

Small scale wind energy study press release

Hurry - last big opportunities for solar PV

2012-02-08T11:18:00.002Z

ISREC are doing an awareness raising campaign to highlight the short window of opportunity available to people to benefit from installing a solar PV system before March 31st. Details are on the poster below.

If you need any further information please don't hesitate to get in contact with us at enquiries@transitionscilly.org.uk. Paradise Power are qualified installers based on Scilly that can supply systems to meet these deadlines if contacted ASAP. Every system that is ordered by a referral from ISREC gains us a donation to help carry out our work. www.paradisepower.co.uk

Solar PV Opportunities Early 2012

ISREC newsletter January 2012

2012-01-31T15:10:00.002Z

ISREC Newsletter 02a - January 2012

Isles of Scilly Renewable Energy Coop

2012-01-29T00:03:00.001Z

ISREC now has a Facebook page that is the best way to keep up to date
with news and developments:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Isles-of-Scilly-Renewable-Energy-Cooperative/127744047343915

Who killed economic growth?

2012-01-04T23:35:00.002Z

Protecting yourself from the Banking Crisis - urgent advice

2011-12-02T12:10:00.001Z

Mike Haywood is an independent financial analyst who carefully studies the financial and economic systems, with a view to informing people about the impending state of financial collapse globally, and how best to respond. He regularly talks to Transition groups, companies and organisations. This week he's issues this email in response to, what he believes to be, an impending Eurozone collapse. It will affect all of us!!

Yesterday the Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, announced that they were making contingency plans in the event of a break up of the Eurozone. When asked what those plans were, he declined to comment, implying that discussion of the plans would precipitate a banking crisis. Because of the interconnectivity of the Global Banking system, UK banks would be severely affected by a Eurozone collapse. The situation is extremely precarious and could change at any moment. Just remember how fast the collapse of Northern Rock happened. Do not expect any leadership from our politicians prior to the collapse. The Government has also made contingency plans as well but are keeping quiet about them.

It would be prudent for all UK citizens to make their own personal contingency plans sooner rather than later and I would recommend the following

1) A banking collapse would mean the suspension of full banking activity for days with no or limited withdrawals from cash machines. Credit/debit cards won’t work. You should keep at least enough cash at home to cover your family’s expenses for a week.

2) People will start to hoard essential items once the collapse starts. To pre-empt this, you should keep at least enough food and essentials at home to cover you and your family for a week.

3) Keep your car fuel tank topped up to full so that you will have transport.

Kind regards

Mike Haywood

P.S. You can sign up to Mike Haywood's free weekly digest of the global banking crisis by emailing him at mike@mikehaywoodart.co.uk

Thickness and area of Arctic sea ice

2011-10-29T16:50:00.002+01:00

"LARGELY UNNOTICED, a silent drama has been unfolding over the past weeks in the Arctic. The long-term consequences will far outstrip those of the international debt crisis or the demise of the Libyan dictatorship, the news stories now commanding media attention. The drama - more accurately, a tragedy - playing out in the North is the rapid disappearance of the polar ice cap, the Arctic Ocean's defining feature."

http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2011/10/25/3344289.htm

ISREC open day

2011-10-17T12:30:00.000+01:00

The Isles of Scilly Renewable Energy Co-operative (ISREC) are holing an open day on Thursday 20th Oct from 11am until 2pm in the Methodist Hall on St Mary's. Feel free to drop in at any time.

ISREC is focussing on solar PV systems and how residents of Scilly can gain maximum benefit from renewable energy. Come along and find out more on Thursday.

--
Transition Scilly
Web: www.transitionscilly.org.uk
Email: enquiries@transitionscilly.org.uk
Positive solutions to peak oil and climate change
Check our blog www.transitionscilly.blogspot.com for regular news and event updates

Rivers of ice

2011-10-11T12:46:00.003+01:00

Recent photos of glaciers in the Himalayas, directly comparing sites photographed 80 years ago show a stunning loss of ice over that period.

The cause, a warming climate, is evident but the effects on the hundreds of millions of people that rely on melt water for all their water are not immediately so obvious...yet equally as frightening in its impact.

Watch this wonderful narrated slideshow here.

Five Mile Meal

2011-09-29T10:33:00.003+01:00

St Mary's Hall Hotel are hosting another Five Mile Meal this year. The majority of ingredients for the meal have to come from Scilly, with an added twist of it being a competition between two chefs.

It takes place on Sunday 2nd October and there's a special rate for locals. See poster for details. You can see a report of last year's event here. Promises to be a great meal!
Five Mile Meal Poster 2011

Harvest festivals and apple pressing

2011-09-20T11:28:00.002+01:00

It's the time of year again to celebrate the annual harvest and once again Transition Scilly has teamed up with the AONB to co-ordinate some events happening on the Islands to celebrate our local food culture.

On Sunday 25th September, right after the harvest festival in St Mary's Parish Church, will be an apple pressing session on the lawn of the garden pavilion on St Mary's, from 12.00-2.00. Please bring along any excess apples (or other fruit) that you may have, plus some empty containers and take home some freshly pressed juice! If you don't have fruit to bring you're still welcome to come along.

If there is demand we'll run another pressing session in October - please get in touch if you're interested in a session next month.

Isles of Scilly local food events 2011

TRESOC and ISREC

2011-07-06T15:34:00.002+01:00

TRESOC is not a typo for the second largest island on Scilly, it stands for the Totnes Renewable Energy Society and is an offshoot of Transition Town Totnes. Their aim is to engage with individuals and businesses to increase the amount of renewable energy generated in the South Hams area of Devon.

This blog is a really interesting and honest take on the vision, practice, highs, lows and direction of such a project:

http://transitionculture.org/2011/07/06/hard-work-vision-kilowatts-a-story-about-the-totnes-renewable-energy-society-tresoc/

The reason why this is so appropriate to us at Transition Scilly is that we are setting up ISREC, Isles of Scilly Renewable Energy Co-operative. The aim of this will also be to increase the amount of solar PV installed on homes and businesses across the Islands.

We are doing more and more preparation for a public launch this autumn and hope to be offering exciting projects that people can invest in that will be generating both energy and wider benefits to the community. More on this before long...

Energyshare

2011-05-07T17:42:00.003+01:00

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is best known for cooking all sorts of weird and wonderful food from sustainable and seasonal ingredients and generally being passionate about food. But his team from River Cottage, on the back of several very successful media campaigns such as the Big Fish Fight, have got involved in renewable energy...in quite a big way.

Essentially, Energyshare is about sharing information and bringing people together to get more using and producing renewable energy. There are some really useful resources on making and saving energy.

Perhaps the most exciting part is the Energyshare Fund, where £500,000 of funding is available to successful applicants of community energy projects. It's really worth reading and considering applying for if you're interested.

They have an open day at River Cottage HQ in Dorset on May 18th - details here.

Broadleaf trees now in Community orchard

2011-04-26T14:50:00.004+01:00

On Tuesday 12th April about a dozen island children planted around 40 broadleaf trees at the Community Orchard at Trenoweth, including field maple, hazel and rowan. This was organised as part of a Spring in to Scilly activity week for children on Easter holidays.

The soil was still damp and hopefully the trees will take well, providing shade, timber, food, nesting sites and much more in years to come.

Many thanks to Rebecca Steggles and Clare Lewis who organised the children, the Duchy for providing trees, stakes and tree guards and of course the children themselves for doing the work! Here's a photo of one of the planting teams.

Some of the blossom at the orchard is looking lovely - even though the trees are still young it's looking good. Do go and have a look soon if you can.

Note that the tree planting was part of a wider project in collaboration with the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), the RSPB and the Council of the Isles of Scilly Children’s Services

Food, Inc

2011-03-15T18:58:00.002Z

On Thursday 24th March the Green Team film club is showing Food, Inc, a film about industrial agriculture and its flaws. It's being shown at 7pm at Carn Thomas school, St Mary's. There will be some refreshments at just 50p each made with organic and fair trade ingredients!

This is the trailer:

The Impossible Hamster

2011-03-07T23:45:00.001Z

Here's something funny with a very serious meaning behind it - just watch the video!

Local food workshop report

2011-02-14T12:13:00.001Z

Last November Transition Scilly and the Isles of Scilly AONB co-organised a workshop on local food production, supply and consumption issues. It was a very interesting day and the report from the workshop is available to read here.

Scilly Local Food Workshop Final Report - FINAL VERSION - 260111

Progress made at the orchard

2011-02-03T18:44:00.003Z

Last Sunday a group of people came up to the Community Orchard at Trenoweth to help manage the orchard. We got some hedges cut, cleared brambles, weeded around the trees and pruned every tree. A good fire was a welcome source of heat and social focus on a quite cold day.

Most people hadn't got much experience of pruning, but under the guidance of two "pruning gurus" (not a self-proclaimed title!) everyone learned how to do some formative pruning - a good example of Transition facilitating some skills learning. Pruning is made out to be a quite complicated process when in fact it's not really.

When fruit trees are young they need minimal but important pruning. The shape and direction that trees grow when they're at this stage affects their structure when mature. So formative pruning is really important to try and get right as it aims to create the structure of a good strong and healthy tree.

Atmospheric carbon levels visual

2011-01-17T21:00:00.002Z

This video, produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows how atmospheric carbon levels have changed over time, visualised in a startling and not previously seen manner.

Firstly it starts by looking at the rapid rise in carbon levels over the past 100 years. This is shocking enough, but when it's put in the context of the past 800,000 years (with it's multiple associated ice ages), this puts beyond any doubt that carbon levels now are at unprecedented levels, and that the rise has been so rapid that it cannot have been caused by anything other than human intervention.

These are first rate graphics that provide a startling wake up call.

Rescheduled work day

2011-01-15T14:18:00.003Z

Due to poor weather forecast and lack of availability of organisers, the planned work day at the Community Orchard is being cancelled for Sunday 16th and rescheduled for Sunday 30th Jan. Again it will be from 11am to 3pm. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Work day at community orchard

2011-01-09T21:06:00.003Z

On Sunday 16th January there will be a work day at Trenoweth Community Orchard on St Mary's (weather permitting). This will run from 11am to 3pm, but you can come and go as you please.

One key job will be pruning the fruit trees, so come and learn how to prune properly from experts. There will be other jobs to do also, such as hedge cutting, tidying up and wood cutting.

Bring some food and drink to share at lunchtime, bring suitable outdoor clothing and hope for some good weather!

The orchard field is the one bordered by red below: It's just north of the pine belt, on the path that runs down to Innisidgen:

The Crash Course

2010-12-17T17:49:00.003Z

Chris Martenson lives in New England and is an analyst who studies trends in world issues concerning resources, climate, monetary factors and so on. His insight in to how these factors will come together and impact on our future (particularly to those of us in industrialised countries) is fascinating if quite worrying.

He has put all these together in to comprehensive but concise videos on You Tube and called it the Crash Course. Chris has recently reworked this presentation for a UK audience. In six parts, it has been made available free and is essential viewing. Part 1 is below:

Fossil fuel addiction

2010-11-25T18:36:00.002Z

A great video by Richard Heinberg of the respected Post Carbon Institute called "300 years of fossil-fuel addiction in 5 minutes". Entertaining but very informative:

Sense of place

2010-11-21T17:53:00.003Z

I've just been watching a brilliant piece of video from Diverse routes to belonging conference, by Alastair McIntosh. He is the author of Soil and Soul, and has done some great work on strengthening the resilience of local communities in the Scottish islands.

His talk is titled "Reconnecting with indigenous identity" and he makes some really deep comments about the Transition movement. He says a Transition initiative can be
"...like a drop of water - it moves rapidly sideways...it has lots of colours...but it doesn't have roots. It needs to become more like salt in the gravy, it needs to penetrate and permeate. It needs to go wide and deep. It should be about reconnection with what is already there."

Wow, powerful stuff and very true; he is a wise man indeed. Watch his video here: http://internationalconference.posterous.com/alastair-macintosh-reconnecting-with-the-indi

Local food is on the agenda

2010-11-16T18:30:00.004Z

Transition Scilly and the AONB have joined forces to do some work on local food supply and demand on Scilly. It's been a while since a concerted effort has gone in to strengthening the local food sector, yet it is a critical factor of resilience in a future resource-constrained world.

Firstly we will canvas opinion about the state of local food here on Scilly, then hold a workshop with key producers and buyers of local food. Following this a report will be written by a local food consultant, surmising the current state of play and making recommendations for the future. This will be published before Christmas.

Then the hard work starts! Having assessed where we are and some possible ways forward, we have to come together to make those actions happen. Gardens and allotments are important here in providing food, but it is the farmers, growers and fishermen of these islands that the fate of food security really lies with.

Getting a concerted effort in creating a resilient food supply is critical, but not easy. But first steps are important and we hope to have some positive developments to bring you in the near future.

Prosperity without growth

2010-10-21T14:48:00.002+01:00

In these times of economic recession and a seeming desire to have financial growth at any cost, perhaps it's worth taking a step back to examine the question "do we have to have growth in order to maintain our standard of living?"

Professor Tim Jackson makes a very persuasive argument that we can be prosperous without relentless growth. This excellent video from the TED talks in Oxford recently is well worth watching. Tim Jackson's book, Prosperity without Growth is available here.

10:10 events

2010-10-01T15:34:00.004+01:00

The 10:10 campaign kicked off earlier this year to encourage people, organisations, businesses and governments to cut their carbon footprint by 10% in 2010.

On Sunday 10th October the date will be 10:10:10 and this is being celebrated by people organising international days of action to highlight skills and actions that help us cut our carbon footprint.

Here on Scilly we've gone one step further...co-organising with the Council a two day climate change and energy fair with fantastic workshops as well as drop in sessions on the Friday and Saturday. On the Sunday will be some fun freeskilling events.

All the events are free and happen between 8th and 10th October in the Town Hall on St Mary's. Details on the posters here:

Five Mile Meal

2010-09-30T00:04:00.002+01:00

Not so long ago, the idea of people from any community in the country, but especially an island community, sitting down to a meal prepared from local produce, would have not only been unexceptional but often a necessity.

By contrast, most of the food eaten on the Isles of Scilly today has travelled many fuel miles, before arriving on the plate.

On Sunday September 26^th, at St Mary’s Hall Hotel, some 33 people, both islanders and visitors, sat down to a ‘Five Mile Meal’. The chefs, Phil (St Mary’s Hall Hotel) and Mark (High Tide, St Agnes), faced the challenge of sourcing their ingredients from local island producers (see below for details).

The diners were treated to a starter, main course and dessert by each chef, making a total of six courses. At the end of each pair of courses, they were asked to rate each dish by marking a score on a card. It certainly was a hard task to decide which dish was better as all were delicious.

After the meal, the overall results were announced and Mark was crowned winner of the day. The champagne flowed to toast both chefs’ success. They had prepared a truly outstanding meal that highlighted the quality of produce available on the isles of Scilly. (See below for details)

Transition Scilly would like to thank Joan Shiles, the manager of St Mary’s Hall Hotel, and the chefs, Phil and Mark, for making this event possible. It is hoped that another Five Mile Meal will take place in March 2011. My taste buds are certainly looking forward to Round Two.

Patrick Brown.

Starters

Vegetable broth, lemon thyme & nettle dumplings (v)

(Ingredients from Parting Carn Farm & Star Castle Garden, St Marys)

Crab salad with organic micro greens with nasturtium

pesto

(Ingredients from Ian Mitchell & Scilly Organics, St Martins.

Tamarisk Farm & Covean Cottage garden, St Agnes)

Main Courses

Pan fried mackerel fillet, crab & lobster ravioli,

aubergine caviar & shellfish foam

(Ingredients from Lee Sandford, St Marys and Tamarisk Farm, St Agnes)

Pollock fillet on buttered courgette ribbons with

lemon & dill hollandaise

(Ingredients from Ian Mitchell & Scilly Organics, St Martins)

Desserts

Vanilla bean panna cotta with fresh raspberries &

a raspberry sauce

(Ingredients from Troytown Farm, St Agnes)

Baba Ani`s blackberry jam & apple crumble, clotted cream

(Ingredients from Parting Carn Farm, St Mary’s. and Troytown Farm, St Agnes)

Update on harvest week

2010-09-25T22:03:00.009+01:00

This week has seen the first Scilly Food Festival taking place. It never intended to be a huge event as it was organised with very little time or money, but it certainly seems to have engaged people and brought the concept of local food to the fore again. The intention is to make Scilly Food Festival a significant event in 2011.

The harvest festival on St Martin's was well attended and had a lovely display of great local produce.

Many businesses have done local food menus for the week. If they don't normally use much local produce then it's good to see them doing so, and if they do already then it's even better to see them shout about it. Some businesses have really taken it to heart by producing entire menus such as this.

Positive reports have been received about a number of venues offering excellent local produce on their menus.

Today we pressed apples by St Mary's Church, using windfalls that would probably just have rotted away otherwise. Pressing is a great social event and is a positive process where you get some great drink at the end. In fact the juice will be going straight to the Five Mile Meal at St Mary's Hall Hotel the next day.

There will be another apple pressing on Sunday 10th Oct at the Town Hall - more on that nearer the time.

So far the Food Festival has been positive and there should be a lot of positive follow up work leading on from this event.

Food Festival programme

2010-09-14T22:38:00.005+01:00

The Scilly Food Festival happens in the week 20th-26th September and is shaping up to be a good celebration of food from Scilly.

There will be an apple pressing on the grassy area in front of the St Mary's Church Pavilion on Saturday 25th September at 2.00pm. We are encouraging anyone with excess apples to bring them along, plus some empty containers, to turn them in to juice! Even if you don't have fruit come along anyway and have fun.

On Sunday 26th Sept at 12.00pm there will be an extraordinary Five Mile Meal at St Mary's Hall Hotel. Local chefs will compete to produce the best meal from local produce in a unique event. More details on this poster.

Food festival

2010-08-20T16:30:00.001+01:00

Transition Scilly and Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty are jointly organising a food festival here on Scilly, which will happen in the week 20th to 26th September 2010.

Events will include harvest festivals, local food menus, five meal meal competition and apple juicing. Full details will be released in due course but here's a poster of the food festival.

Events for the autumn

2010-07-28T15:54:00.002+01:00

Transition Scilly has been planning and coordinating two major events for this autumn.

In late September there will be a food festival here on the Islands, including harvest festivals, local food menus, apple pressing and more.

Then in mid October will be events to mark the 10:10:10, "a global day of doing", which will range from freeskilling to renewable energy workshops to apple pressing and a whole host of other activities.

Watch this space for more details, but it promises to be good...

The risks of peak oil and climate change spelt out to businesses

2010-07-04T16:16:00.003+01:00

Sometimes a report comes out that is so significant it is really worth shouting about. Lloyds of London are one of the oldest and largest insurance companies in the UK and operate all over the world. As insurance is all about managing risks, Lloyds have a team dedicated to predicting trends and risks on global issues, called 360 Risk Insight.

Their latest report is called Suatainable Energy Security, co-authored with think tank Chatham House, and is available to download for free here.

What is so astonishing is that it could have been written by a team from Transition Network. The language used does not beat about the bush, laying down in very stark terms that energy security is an issue that every business needs to be taking very seriously.

In future the effects of depleting fossil fuel reserves will be compounded by rising demand and falling availability.

Businesses can now be under no doubt about the risks posed by both climate change and depleting resources, in particular peak oil.

Community orchard photos

2010-06-26T18:31:00.014+01:00

I had a walk around the Community Orchard at Trenoweth yesterday, the first time since planting in March. Here are some photos.

Every tree is in leaf and growing well, despite a cold spring then warm and dry spell. The soil is very dry at the moment but fortunately the trees are not showing signs of drought yet. Back in March there were pools of water on the surface...

As the sward thickens it should reduce the evaporation of water from the soil, and build organic matter which will hold on to any moisture in the soil.

On the ground the grass and clover mix has all come up and is starting to make a good sward. But this corn marigold came in from somewhere and making a lovely show!

Up the Pittsoporum hedge a stand of Honeysuckle smells and looks amazing, providing loads of nectar for insects.

This Thrush is finding food in the orchard to take back to its nest.

More unusual species I saw include the stunning Common Blue blutterfly and the lovely Yellow Bartsia, which is uncommon on Scilly.

There will be a program of work for the autumn and winter, and we plan to do a communal apple juicing session in September or October - though sadly not fruit from these trees...yet! More on that nearer the time.

Some thoughts on the Gulf oil spill

2010-06-07T09:58:00.005+01:00

As BP's incompetence over their handling of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico becomes apparent, thoughts have turned to the implications of oil drilling in difficult places.

In the UK we used to be self-sufficient in oil and gas thanks to North Sea reserves, but since 1999 we have become net importers of both fossil fuels that underpin our entire society. This is the point known as "Peak Oil " (and "Peak Gas") , when more than half of reserves are gone; the remainder becomes harder to extract, less pure and so more expensive.

Across the world the picture is getting more critical as more and more countries past their Peak - see on this interesting interactive map on The Last Oil Shock. The International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook states "energy prices [will] follow a rising trend through to 2030" and "oil prices are assumed to rebound with rising demand and supply costs".

As oil exploration delves in to more difficult situations such as deepwater, polar and tar sands, the potential for massive environmental and social disasters increases. How much are people and Governments willing to tolerate such costs?

Interestingly, the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre gathered news that "President Obama appears to be taking advantage of the moment [the Gulf oil spill] to push for a transition away from fossil fuels. In a speech in Pittsburgh on Wednesday he pointed out that the inherent risks will increase the harder oil extraction becomes."

The piece finishes with a very good summation of the urgent need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels - in particular oil:
"The broader meaning of the crisis is clear. The easy oil is gone, and impending peak oil pushes the industry to ever more extreme limits. The moratorium of deepwater drilling in the Gulf will probably hasten and worsen the oil supply crunch widely forecast for the middle of this decade."

Local Food Map

2010-05-11T20:11:00.006+01:00

The last Scilly Local Food Directory was produced in 2006 and was very successful in mapping local food outlets on the Islands. Since this went out of date there has been nothing to plug the gap, so Transition Scilly decided to create an online local food map to act as a stop gap until the next published Directory.

This map has been created in Google Maps and is very easy to use. Each green balloon represents a farmer or grower selling food on Scilly - click on the balloon for more information. Click here for a bigger map that's easier to use, where you can view the map in three settings - Earth is particularly good.

View Local Food on Scilly in a larger map

This map will be updated periodically. If you spot or mistake, have questions or suggestions, please e-mail enquiries@transitionscilly.org.uk

Energy Descent

2010-05-08T18:47:00.002+01:00

Today's Western industrialised society can be definitely categorised as "energy intensive". We use vast quantities of liquid fuels to get us and our goods from A to B, we consume a lot of electricity and everyone relies (directly or indirectly) on other gas and solid fuels.

But how would society operate without access to vast quantities of cheap fossil fuel energy? This is an interesting question, but one that should be treated more than just a hypothetical question. The signs are that we have passed the point of peak oil, which is the point at which the easiest, purest and cheapest liquid oil is used up. From here on oil gets more expensive and more difficult to extract - all in the context of a rising global demand.

This in essence is what Transition is all about - the transition from today's society to a future society in the context of climate change and peak oil as the main drivers of change. But getting from current situation to future vision needs careful planning. The goal of every Transition initiative is to produce an Energy Descent Action Plan, which is the route map to that vision.

Transition Town Totnes have just produced their Plan, which is a great bit of work and a fascinating read. It's all available online here and is highly recommended.

The spaces in between

2010-04-14T21:54:00.002+01:00

Professor Tim Jackson is one of the unusual academics who can put over his views very eloquently and precisely without drivelling on in scientific language.

He recently released a book called Prosperity without growth, which challenges the assumptions behind the relentless economic growth model required by capitalism. It's a book with provokes, enlightens and is down right sensible.

This is a short video of a talk Tim Jackson recently gave at a Prince's Foundation conference, Building: a new green economy. His phrase "it's all about the spaces in between" is a very strong point to think over.

Renewable energy potential

2010-04-06T21:51:00.004+01:00

Here on Scilly we have one of the best potentials for generating power from solar, wind and wave in the entire UK. Given the relatively low population of around 2,000, a combination of good sunshine levels, high winds and powerful waves and tides indicates that we should have no trouble generating all our energy needs from renewable sources, with more to spare.

There are several issues to contend with however. Firstly, planning. This is a minor issue for solar PV or thermal, a moderate issue for wave and a huge issue for wind.

Secondly, capital cost. The only systems affordable for individuals and families are solar thermal and PV (the latter being more expensive) and even then they require several thousand pounds. That's not to say however these systems are not a good investment - they are, and will be even more so with the recent introduction of the Feed In Tariffs.

For wind turbines, efficiency and pay back periods really require moderate to large installations (tens of thousands upwards), meaning either collective community ownership or company owned ventures. Wave generation is another level of cost entirely (over £1 million), but fortunately a couple of companies are seriously interested in Scilly as a site for wave generation.

Lastly, a big obstacle remains around perception of energy security. At the moment there aren't any serious obstacles surrounding energy supply - liquid, gas or solid fuels and electricity, and all are relatively cheap. However as peak oil starts to take its grip energy costs could become very volatile, with the trend being upward price rises and reduced availability.

Only when energy security is compromised will we realise that we need every energy saving measure and renewable energy installation we can get our hands on. But at this point it will be too late to avoid some uncomfortable situations arising.

However, if it is widely recognised throughout the community that we need to plan for our future energy resources now, we could avoid compromising situations and have a very resilient, sustainable and bright future.

Earth Hour

2010-03-26T20:57:00.000Z

On Saturday 27th March at 8.30pm local time people across the planet are being encouraged to turn off their lights for an hour.

Earth Hour is a very visual support for action on climate change and reducing energy usage. Individuals, organisations, companies and Governments are getting involved and it's estimated 1 billion people will turn off their lights.

Have a look at the Earth Hour website for some great videos and ideas for Earth Hour: http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/

In Transition - film screening

2010-03-23T23:21:00.002Z

On Thursday 25th March at 7.30pm Transition Scilly is showing the film In Transition. This is a film from about the theory and practice of Transition initiatives in the UK and around the world.

We'll also be showing an excellent talk that Rob Hopkins gave at the TED talks last July about the concept of Transition. He speaks very well and the production is superb.

Both are being screened at the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's. Entry is free and everyone is welcome - tea and cakes as per usual! Donations appreciated to cover costs.

If you can't make it you can watch In Transition here:
http://transitionculture.org/in-transition/

and the TED talk here:
http://blog.ted.com/2009/11/transition_to_a.php

Community orchard

2010-03-15T20:39:00.004Z

On Sunday 7th March Transition Scilly organised a work session to plant the new Community Orchard at Trenoweth on St Mary's.

Over a dozen members, plus a dozen of the Five Island School's Green Team helped plant 58 trees, including apples, sweet chestnuts, plum, medlar, hazels and greengage. Every tree has has a mulch mat around it to stop weeds and a tree guard to stop rabbits gnawing at the bark.

It was a very productive day with lots of enthusiasm and a good basis for continued development of the orchard. At two thirds of an acre we think this is now the single largest orchard on Scilly and in five years time should be producing a significant amount of fruit. In 25 years time it should be producing tons! Those who help maintain the orchard get a share of the harvest.

Furthermore we hope this will stimulate the resurgence of a strong orchard culture on the Islands, with more people planting, maintaining trees and using the fruit from them. More on that to come later in the year.

For those who are interested, here's a list of what's been planted. All have been selected for taste and disease resistance, and many have wonderfully evocative names displaying a rich heritage.

Apples on MM106 (semi-vigorous rootstock) - mixture of eaters, cookers and cider

Adams Pearmain x 2
Ashmeads Kernel x 2
Egremont Russet x 3
Fiesta x 3
King of the Pippins x 3
Lemon Pippin x 3
Lucombes Pine x 2
Newton Wonder x 2
Plum Vite x 2
Rosemary Russet x 3
Scrumptious x 3
Tom Putt x 2
Winter King x 2

Apples on M26 (semi-dwarfing rootstock) - mixture of eaters, cookers and cider

Ashmeads Kernel x 1
Beauty of Bath x 1
Blenheim Orange x 1
Cheddar Cross x 1
Court Pendu Plat x 1
Egremont Russet x 2
Grenadier x 1
John Standish x 1
Katy x 1
Newton Wonder x 1
Pinova x 1
Stirling Castle x 1
Sunset x 1
Taylors x 1

Sweet Chestnuts

Belle Epine x 2
Bournette x 2
Marlhac x 2

Hazel

Butler x 1
Corabel x 1

Plum

Opal

Medlar

Nottingham

Gage

Oullins Golden Gage

The Vanishing Bees

2010-03-07T22:17:00.004Z

The honey bee has been the subject of much concerned and detailed scientific scrutiny over the past few years due to massive losses in bee populations. Bees not only provide us with honey, but are hugely important in pollinating crops - anything from apples and apricots to beans and strawberries.

The Vanishing of the Bees is a new film that uncovers some of the facts behind "colony collapse disorder" and unexplained bee losses.

Transition Scilly are showing the film on Thursday 11th March at 7.30pm in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's. Entry is free and all are welcome.

If you can't make the film evening the DVD will be available in St Mary's library after the event.

Here's the trailer:

Tar Sands

2010-02-28T18:58:00.003Z

In Alberta, Canada lie vast reserves of bitumen, known as "Tar Sands". Essentially this is shale and sand with a high oil content that can, with a high input of energy, be refined in to liquid oil that can be refined in to petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, gas, etc.

Theoretically, this is an answer to the shortage of oil that North America faces, but it comes at a very high cost. Besides the threat of oil spills, conventional oil production is relatively unobtrusive as it's pumped from vast underground reservoirs. Tar sands however are the complete opposite.

It's like open cast mining on a vast scale. Vast tracts of pristine wilderness disappear, water courses are heavily polluted, there's severe localised air pollution and devastating effects on both wildlife and humans. The energy required to refine tar sands in to oil is immense.

A new film called "Toxic Fuels" is being released on March 15th, supported by The Co-Operative Bank. Have a look at the website here: http://toxicfuels.com/

This is a trailer for the film:

First film screening

2010-02-21T22:09:00.004Z

This Thursday sees the launch of a series of film screenings from Transition Scilly. First up is a big budget film The 11th Hour, written and presented by Lenardo di Caprio.

Film starts at 7.30pm on Thursday 25th February in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's. There will be tea and cakes, entry is free and anyone is welcome. Doors open from 7.00pm.

Rather than a description from me, judge for yourself from the trailer:

Two good programmes

2010-02-15T19:40:00.002Z

Two interesting series on TV at the moment that have strong connections with the principles of Transition (and a common link in Monty Don!) include:

Mastercrafts: Green Woodworking, where "Monty Don, a huge fan of traditional crafts, presents a series which celebrates six of the craft skills that built Britain and its heritage, ranging from thatching to stonemasonry."
http://bbc.co.uk/i/qsc3j/

My Dream Farm on Channel 4, where "Monty Don helps six families realise their dream of returning to the land". Watch here:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-dream-farm

Nearly ready to plant the orchard

2010-02-14T22:25:00.005Z

We had another good work session at Trenoweth Community orchard again today. About 12 people helped at some point during the day, where we continued getting the hedges in shape, moved all the hedge cuttings and stripped the old black plastic away from the arum lillies.

It was a lovely sunny day after 12 and it felt very sheltered from the cool Northerly breeze. The photos show some good work having been done and another...well, reflection?! Does Nick realise he's been caught on camera supervising the biscuits?

We're still on course for planting on 28th Feb, but will confirm nearer the time.

Community orchard taking shape

2010-02-08T20:04:00.002Z

On Sunday 31st January several Transition Scilly members got together on a lovely sunny day at Trenoweth to help prepare the field for the new Community Orchard.

The land had previously been part of Trenoweth Horticultural Research Station and had been used for Narcissi flower trials. But as it was ancillary to the main parcel of land it hadn't been fully managed for a number of years so is in need of some improvement.

Hedges to the west and north of the plot needed some serious cutting, so we got in and started hacking back the Oleria and gorse in a dramatic way. Looks a bit serious to start with, but it'll improve the field no end in the long run.

Another work party is planned for Sunday 14th Feb from 10-4 where we should finish hedge cutting and have the field ready for planting a couple of weeks after that. Then it really will be an orchard!

Nursery food

2010-01-26T23:04:00.002Z

"You are what you eat" is a simple statement that gets right to the heart of the relationship between our landscape, society, human health and economy. Eat good, wholesome food from your local area - and of course a balanced diet, and the short and long term health benefits are immense.

It seemed to take our society about 25 years to work out that in fact we may not be giving our children the best food at school, and that this has a huge impact on learning, behaviour and grades. Fortunately this has been addressed on a national scale, led by people like Jamie Oliver and carried on by great projects such as Food for Life.

We've also realised that perhaps hospitals are not providing the best food to help patients recover, though sadly this has not been addressed on a national scale.

It's particularly shocking then that children in Nurseries appear to be fed on absolute rubbish right up and down the country. The Soil Association report Georgie, Porgie, Pudding and Pie found that many nurseries were spending as little as 25p per child on food. Much of this food had additives and ingredients banned under school nutritional standards.

The effect that such poor food has on young developing minds and bodies can't be underestimated. Trends towards weight gain and obesity start in the under 5's, so we're saving up massive health problems for society in the future if such trends continue.

A "Better Nursery Food" campaign has begun here: http://www.nurseryfood.org/

Airplot

2010-01-16T22:55:00.002Z

When the decision to build a third runway at Heathrow was announced individuals, NGO's, politicians and local people all rallied against the proposals to stop further airport expansion.

Air travel is an enormous and rapidly growing source of global carbon emissions that has massive implications for climate change. Further and unchecked growth will lead to ever faster rates of global temperature rise and disasterous consequences.

One highly inspred action was the acquisition of a plot of land at Sipson in Middlesex, right in the heart of the proposed runway development. This plot of land now has over 60,000 co-owners, meaning to acquire the site the developers must evict every owner!!

The action has been co-ordinated by Greenpeace and is called Airplot. It's a Gandhian-inspired piece of non-violent action and has huge symbolic significance.

Have a look at the video and if you would like to get involved simply go to the website and sign up as a plot owner - it's free and very quick.

Biodiesel

2010-01-16T19:36:00.001Z

I recently went to a Cornish organic farmers and growers' low carbon farming event at Cusgarne Organics near Truro. The farm is beautiful, set in a secluded valley away from main roads, producing veg boxes, beef, eggs and chickens. They've also planted up more orchards and some nut trees including sweet chestnuts and almonds.

One really interesting project was Biodiesel production from waste cooking oil from the surrounding area. "Biodiesel Dave" from Cleaner Combustion produces this stuff in a workshop on the farm to a high standard - i.e. that can be run in modern cars, not just dirty old Land Rovers and tractors.

It certainly gave me a further jolt of inspiration for use of waste oils to power machinery. The photo (above) on the side of his car, whilst going against the ethos of healthy organic food, gave everyone a laugh!

In Transition video

2010-01-03T13:27:00.000Z

Transition Network have recently released a film about Transition initiatives - the principles and practices, featuring ideas and people from different parts of the world.

The first part is available free below

In Transition 1.0 from Transition Towns on Vimeo.

Climate change impacts

2009-12-19T19:59:00.003Z

Now we have come to learn of the outcomes of the Copenhagen climate change talks, it seems an awful lot less was achieved than was hoped for, or indeed necessary. Of course it was always going to be incredibly difficult to get 192 countries to agree to the same bit of paperwork, but the lack of political will and flexibility has resulted in a very watered down document that is not nearly good enough for the current predicament the human race is in.

Meanwhile, carbon emissions continue to rise, warming of the planet continues and its impacts are becoming evident everywhere. Recently the Met Office and UK Government produced a very useful map detailing global impacts of a changing climate if average temperatures rose by 4C.

It's very good to understand the impacts visually, and remind ourselves of the very serious situation that runaway climate change could bring about.

The Transition Scilly website has some free downloads to help you understand climate change better and do something by reducing your carbon footprint.

Population: the taboo subject

2009-12-12T22:44:00.005Z

Human population levels are the one big environmental and social problem that are not given the degree of thought and coverage that they should be.

In this BBC Horizon program, David Attenborough presents a highly thought-provoking documentary about past, current and future population levels, and their impact on the world's resources.

It's available on the iPlayer until Dec 18th and is really worth watching:
http://bbc.co.uk/i/pdjmk/

The Wave

2009-12-04T10:33:00.000Z

On Saturday 5th December thousands of people are expected to come together in central London to make a show of support for the UK Government to make every effort to secure a deal at the forthcoming climate change talks in Copenhagen.

This is a critical time in human history where the leaders from every nation in the world have a chance to come to an agreement that may just avert runaway climate change.

To show our support here on the Islands, Transition Scilly have organised an event running parallel to the London event. It will be on Saturday 5th December and start at 15.00 on Porthmellon beach, St Mary's (weather permitting). The only stipulation is that you wear something blue!

A vivid description of oil in society

2009-11-25T13:12:00.003Z

Rob Hopkins is an eloquent speaker and this video, from the TED talks in Oxford earlier this year, vividly describes the role oil plays ion our society, how oil will become less available and what impact this has on climate change. It's encapsulating:

Carteret Islands

2009-11-14T23:07:00.002Z

As part of E-Day, Matt Prescott organised Earth Summit, where people from around the world (as well as more locally) were invited to talk about the impacts of climate change on their part of the world.

One of the most moving and profound had to be from Ursula Rakova from the Carteret Islands. The archipelago were she was born and lives is incredibly low lying in the Pacific Ocean, with a maximum height of just 1.2m above sea level.

Rising sea levels and increased storms, caused by climate change, has hit them badly. In this video she explains what life is like for Carteret Islanders in 2009.

The rainforests must not be lost

2009-11-03T18:52:00.002Z

Tropical rainforests are the single most important habitat on planet Earth. Besides the tens of thousands of species for whom the rainforests are home, these forests regulate the climate of the planet and lock up billions of tonnes of carbon.

Destruction of this habitat cannot continue any longer. A Greenpeace campaign, Slaughtering the Amazon has had positive impacts already as multinational companies have signed up to not buying meat and leather products from cattle raised on pasture that used to be rainforest.

Now the Prince's Rainforest Project is pushing for the importance of rainforests to be included in the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in 5 weeks time. Add your voice to this campaign through the application below:

Energy Saving Day

2009-09-30T15:21:00.003+01:00

On Tuesday 6th October, the focus will be very much on Scilly for E-Day, short for Energy Saving Day. The event has been the brainchild of Dr Matt Prescott, who has done most of the organisation and has 'got the show on the road'.

E-Day is about everyone on Scilly joining in the effort to reduce electricity demand as much as possible, by witching off all unnecessary electrical items. By all of us concentrating our efforts on just one day, the E-Day team (by some clever gadgetry) can measure how much electricity has been saved over a 'normal' day.

The E-Day website is fantastic, featuring live energy feeds from the National Grid, videos of people who live on Scilly, advice and much more. It's a great resource with so much to look at, so do spend some time on it. Most importantly, we can monitor the drop in electricity demand next Tuesday as it happens.

On Saturday and Sunday is the Earth Summit in the Town Hall. It's a free event and is on from 12-6 each day. With a line up of speakers from all over the world, this is a must-go-to event as it doesn't happen on Scilly very often!

Home - a masterpiece

2009-08-08T21:37:00.005+01:00

Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a French photographer who specialises in aerial photography. His first book, The Earth from the Air, is a beautiful collection of photographs from around the world, portraying the natural environment with and without humans.

His latest project is called "Home"; again a stunning array of aerial photos, but this time with a very strong environmental and social message. Sub-titled a hymn to the planet and humanity, this book looks at man's impact on the planet. It combines photos with very accessible text and portrays a clear message.

A book, simply called "Home" was published just a couple of months ago and is available from most online book retailers. The author also has set up an organisation called Good Planet Foundation, to promote the messages in the book...and film.

Yes, there's a film. It's an hour and a half long, has stunning visuals and costs...nothing. The entire film is available on YouTube. It's an incredible piece of work, documenting the formation of the Earth (in geologicalm time), diversity of life and Man's impact on the planet. A complete joy to watch; here's the trailer, from which there's a link to the full film:

As a bonus, here is a link to a video of the author giving a recent talk in Oxford. Very inspirational stuff:
Watch it here

The fruit season

2009-07-26T21:13:00.004+01:00

For anyone who has apple trees, July is the month when you tend to start noticing the apples on your tree(s)! Signs are that this season will be quite a decent apple season - generally good conditions at blossom, an extended warm period in June and now lots of rain to swell the fruit.

All we need now is a maixture of sunshine and showers to bring on the crop for the autumn. There were reports in the national press of Discovery apples ready for picking in mid July in Kent - that is incredibly early! But perhaps it indicates that most apples will be ready earlier than most years.

We hope to be making the most of unwanted apples on Scilly again this autumn in the apple press - more details here nearer the time.

The extent of localisation possible

2009-07-11T18:05:00.003+01:00

Local Food is a really important area to focus on for many reasons - resilience, health, wildlife, landscape, local economy, climate change and much more besides. As little as perhaps 75 years ago, the vast majority of food required by local populations up and down the UK would have been provided close to home. The only exceptions to this rule would have been major cities, which would have acquired food from a regional or perhaps national basis.
But before today's era of international travel and transport, imported food would have consisted largely of goods like bananas, spices, tea, coffee and cocoa. Today imported food can be anything from beef to vegetables and fruit to milk and thousands of items in between. In this mad world, where for example the UK exports about as much dairy products to the Netherlands as it imports from the same country, our food is entirely linked to cheap oil.

The question therefore remains, in the light of dwindling oil availability and a need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% as soon as practically possible, could we largely feed ourselves from our local area? Transition Town Totnes have just completed a seminal piece of work, titled "Can Totnes and district feed itself?" A detailed study, this has been carried out in a very professional manner and comes to some interesting and enlightening conclusions.

In a nutshell, the answer is "yes", Totnes could (largely) feed itself, BUT it would require some major changes in diet - mostly by eating less meat and dairy and ensuring that arable land was producing cereals for human rather than animal consumption.

From a back-of-the-envelope calculation, Scilly would fall in to a similar situation to Totnes...the tricky bit is that economically Scilly is 85% dependent on 120,000 or so visitors per year. Feeding these people as well as the local population shifts the goal posts considerably.

This will be the subject of future Transition Scilly work. In the meantime you can download the full Totnes report here.

Transition Network conference

2009-05-23T20:29:00.001+01:00

A big Transition Network conference is happening in Battersea, London at the moment which looks very exciting. If you're interested in what's going on, have a look at Rob Hopkins blog, Transition Culture and hear some interviews on Traydio.

There are lots of regular updates, interview and reviews.

Fair for the future - Penwith

2009-04-30T22:23:00.002+01:00

If anyone happens to be in West Penwith over next weekend, there's a really good event organised on Saturday 9th May at Plan-it Earth in Sancreed.

Titled "a celebration of sustainability in Penwith", it will include all sorts of wonderful elements - local food, traditional crafts, renewable energy, recycling, music and much more besides.

It's co-organised by Transition Penwith and should be a brilliant day out. If they can do it, why can't we?! An idea for the future perhaps...

Read more detail about the event here.

Energy day on St Mary's

2009-04-19T22:58:00.003+01:00

We're co-organising, with the AONB, an open day on renewable energy and energy efficiency on Wed 22nd April. You are welcome to come along to a drop-in session between 10.00 and 14.00 in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's. Importantly, refreshments will be provided!

We will have a range of display materials, with experts on hand to answer questions. This is targeted as householders, with an aim to help people reduce the amount of energy used in the home through energy savings, improvements in efficiency and a reduction in heat loss.

There will also be information about micro-renewable technologies.

If you run a business, there is an afternoon talk with presentations covering renewable energy experiences and options for your business. Featuring a mix of both local and mainland-based speakers, this is an important event not to be missed. 15.00 to 17.00 in the Old Wesleyan Chapel.

Both events are free. We look forward to seeing you there.

Earth hour

2009-03-24T23:09:00.003Z

It's all about a day of mass action. Organised by the WWF, the aim of Earth Day is to get everyone to switch off all their lights for at least on hour in the evening at 8.30pm local time. The slogan is:

On March 28 you can VOTE EARTH by switching off your lights for one hour...Or you can vote global warming by leaving your lights on.

Cynics may claim this is a bit of a gimmick, but I think this has a powerful message - that action en masse can have a major impact. It started in Sydney 2 years ago, where 2.2 million buildings switched off. You can't say that doesn't have a big impact on energy demand and must have been massively noticeable on the grid.

So get involved - sign up, spread the word and switch off for an hour (or more!) on March 28th.
www.earthhour.org/home
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Margaret Mead

The Age of Stupid

2009-03-17T20:02:00.003Z

There's really only one main topic of conversation to be had this week, the launch of the much anticipated film, The Age of Stupid.

The basic premise is a man, played by the famous actor Pete Postlethwaite, looking back in the year 2055 on a world devestated by human stupidity- he's living alone. He asks the question "why didn't we do something whilst we had the chance, before Climate Change ran out of control?"

Director Franny Armstrong and her crew inject a sense of realism, urgency, quality and amateur-professionalism in to the debate with this quality production. It's clear this project was driven by ethics rather than money and is everything that a Hollywood blockbuster isn't.

Have a look at the trailer here:

The system of 65 simultaneous screenings across the UK made this the biggest ever movie launch on Sunday night. Rob Hopkins spoke after the screening at the Eden Project and you can read his thoughts and a review here.

Needless to say this is a must see film. See the Age of Stupid website for full details of screenings and releases.

Tipping points

2009-03-10T22:45:00.004Z

For a long time, the forward-thinking and very authoritative James Hansen of NASA has argued that we are dangerously close to climatic tipping points, as he explains in a Guardian article last year. This is the point at which "runaway global warming" starts - natural systems can't control the upward spiral of temperature rises.

This situation worsens as positive feedback comes in to play - for example as ice melts, the permafrost melts below it, which releases huge amounts of methane...which increases global warming. Staying below temperature thresholds to prevent tipping points is crucial.

David Attenborough is pushing the climate change message more so than ever now, vividly illustrated in the beautiful footage shown in Nature's great events. See the episode on the iPlayer here. It's a stark reminder that the seemingly huge and impenetrable mass of ice in the poles is a lot more fragile than we like to think.

Copenhagen 2010, scheduled for December, is where all the world's leaders come together to agree a strategy to tackle climate change. The importance of Barack Obama's position cannot be underestimated; quite literally one man could make or break the agreements. His language so far is encouraging, but actions speak louder than words.

In Copenhagen at this very moment scientists are trying to gauge a more accurate position of the effect of current, and future predictions of, temperatures on the world's ice caps and glaciers. There is enough freshwater stored as ice to cause sea level rises of scores of metres world wide; the extent to which it really does melt is critical for our mitigation strategies.

On Scilly we are incredibly vulnerable to rising seas, storms and changing weather patterns. Obtaining precise information of the potential effects on these small islands is really important and at last some work is about to start on this very issue (although it should've been started 10 years ago...).

Although this is a difficult topic, it's not one that I will apologise for tackling. Sea level rise is the biggest threat to Scilly and to millions of people around the world. Burying our heads in the sand is not a viable option.

Jonathan Smith

Renewable energy opportunities

2009-03-05T12:57:00.007Z

The third in my series of blog write-ups from mine and Clare's short trip to Devon and Cornwall is about renewable energy. We went over to North Cornwall, to the small fishing village of Port Isaac for a meeting of St Endellion Climate Friendly Parish (which is a parish adjoining Port Isaac). They're a very well organised group with a lot of energy; indeed they've been so pro-active they've been shortlisted to the last five of a national competition called "Future Friendly".

The village hall was very busy, in excess of 75 people there, a magnificent array of food and drink on offer and a good line up of speakers. The local MP Dan Rogerson gave an introduction to the issues, correctly stating that "tackling climate change issues must come hand in hand with tackling economic issues" - i.e. create so called 'green-collar jobs'. He also pointed out that renewable energy gives communities and nations energy independence from economic and political pressures and fluctuations.

And if anyone doubted that individuals don't have influence on the political process, Dan Rogerson MP confirmed that "a letter writing campaign has a huge impact"!

Four speakers gave their personal views on the costs, efficiency and effectiveness of four renewable technologies: solar hot water, solar photovoltaics, wind and ground source heat pumps. They key points to pick up were:

Get the roof aspect right for solar projects - i.e. as close to due south as possible
The economic situation still isn't overly helpful to allowing people to install their own renewable technologies
Technology is improving all the time with all the different technologies
There is some fantastic software available now to monitor outputs and monetary savings from various renewable sources - all to use with home computers
Whilst payback times should not be the whole consideration, they are coming down over time as costs of installation reduce whilst energy costs are rising
Ground Source heat pumps have noise issues, but can be very effective
Tenants need educating on how to get the most out of renewable technologies fitted in or on their house

A couple of wider points were raised: (1) ensuring insulation is maximised is critical in reducing energy demand and (2) maximising passive solar gain is very important in buildings - and there's no excuse on new builds.

Neil Farrington from Cornwall Energy Plus outlined a very interesting scheme called Community Power in Cornwall. This is a model more akin to some continental countries where there's a stronger culture of co-operation. The idea is simple - a number of people pool their investments in to larger scale renewable energy installations - in this case wind power.

These larger scale installations are more efficient, more cost effective and enjoy better support from the community, because they're owned by members of the community. It's an excellent principle that should be explored for Scilly.

Finally, the summary was made that whilst there are many realistic renewable energy options, there is no perfect technology and every situation is different. As communities and as a nation we need to explore the right mix for each location, with an aim to maximising our energy independence and minimising our carbon emissions.

Jonathan Smith

Energy descent action planning

2009-02-24T22:49:00.006Z

Last week I talked about a visit Clare and I made to the mainland to gain some more experience of projects and work being carried out by other Transition initiatives in the south west. We visited orchards, a community recycling project and attended a very interesting renewable energy evening. But perhaps the most interesting and brain taxing was an afternoon we spent in Totnes.

The main goal of Transition initiatives, be they on a city or village scale, is to design and help implement an energy descent action plan for the community. Just as an increase in the use if fossil fuels, from the industrial revolution onwards, has brought about significant changes to our climate and major depletion of fossil fuel reserves, so energy descent is the opposite.

Throughout the country there is largely an acceptance that we must reduce carbon emissions to tackle climate change. But there is a reluctance to give up the way of life we have become accustomed to. Because Transition is a positive process, our response to that is a lower energy future does not have to be a bad thing.

Our high energy society has brought us benefits but many negative effects too. For instance, are we happier for being able to fly around the world? Does electrical entertainment in our homes make us a stronger society? And no-one wins from badly insulated, poorly-deigned homes except energy companies.

One of the techniques Transition Town Totnes are doing in their Energy Descent Action Plan is to take positive visions and put them at the end of a timeline - in this case 2030 (see photo above). They then ask "if this is the vision we want, what are the steps we need to get there?" This is a process known as backcasting and is a very liberating and positive exercise. People put suggestions and visions next to a year - see photo.

The power of taking a backcasting approach is that it takes away those cultural and social barriers we come across when proposing new or radical ideas. "Oh, it won't work because..." or "good idea, but with all the current Government policies in place it just won't happen". This is a very negative approach.

My response to this would be:
(a) many of the solutions to both global and local problems are local and can be achieved by all of us every day of the year - think food, transport, powering our homes, etc.
(b) there aren't any technological problems, merely social and cultural. We can all elect MPs, we are all a part of society and we can influence Government. Talk to friends, family, neighbours, build that network and help move that groundswell; think if you talk to 100 people you know, then they do the same...it works out to be a very large number! Obama's campaign worked because it had the support and momentum at grassroots level.

No-one would argue this is an easy process, but it is a positive one that holds much promise in the face of a negative situation. Transition Scilly will be working towards an energy descent action plan; in the meantime we've got lots of exciting project and ideas planned - we'll keep you posted here.

Jonathan Smith

Orchards and May Queens

2009-02-17T23:52:00.004Z

Clare and I have just come back from a Transition Scilly research trip to Cornwall and Devon, looking at a number of different things, from renewable energy and community recycling to Transition processes and orchards.

The latter was particularly relevant as we are on the verge of turning the idea of a community orchard on St Mary's in to reality. So we thought we'd go and see some established orchards on the mainland, see how they were set up, are currently managed and what the niggly issues are.

We visited three very different sites. At Milbrook, SE Cornwall, we met the lovely and incredibly positive Debs, who initiated two small orchards in the village - one by the recreation ground and one at the primary school. Whilst both were small (perhaps just a dozen trees at each), they were not only well managed and quite productive, but they had very little damage or vandalism because young people had been involved in the planting and continued to be involved in the management. Ownership of the project is very important.

At Stoke Gabriel in S Devon, we met the very kind and lovely Ted and Ian, who help to manage the orchard of 50 or so mature trees with others. The orchard contains mostly coder varieties, some identified and some not, all very suited to the damp climate and heavy soil. In that Parish alone there used to be in the order of 2o0 acres of orchards; now less than 5 remain. However there remains a strong desire to keep the orchard culture alive in the village, with extremely well attended apple days and Wassailing annually.

At Lustleigh, on the eastern edge of Dartmoor is a different orchard again. The largest of the lot, probably 3 acres or so and at least 100 trees, this is more open and clearly extremely important to the village. In the photo you can see the children's playpark, other mature trees, open grassy areas, benches, lots of mistletoe and lots of apple trees.

What you can't see is an enormous piece of granite, upon which is a beautiful carved seat, embossed with stainless steel - the seat for the annual May Queen. Clearly this is a site of enormous symbolic importance for the community, and what better way to celebrate than in an orchard?

News on progress on our orchard will be here before long - just sorting out the final details.

Cotton

2009-02-04T11:15:00.006Z

Cotton is an incredibly valuable crop worldwide, used not just for clothes but a vast array of products and in industrial processes. Its value to the human race cannot be underestimated and it is cultivated on a vast scale. But with this scale of cultivation comes big environmental and social problems.
Non-organic cotton consumes vast amounts of water and, whilst occupying just 2.5% of the world's agricultural land, uses 11% of all pesticides and 25% of all insecticides (all of which also require vast quantities of oil). Much cotton is now Genetically Modified (GM) and it is impossible to tell what cotton is not GM - unless it's certified organic.

There are many social injustices surrounding cotton production and processing, from very low wages to pesticide poisoning. Read more here.

Organic cultivation avoids the use of all agro chemicals, using natural methods of building soil fertility and weed, pest and disease control. There is much organic cotton in existence now and its popularity is growing rapidly. Read more about organic cotton here. Organic cotton must be certified, so look out for these symbols:

Fairtrade products ensure that the people who produce, pick, clean, pack and spin the cotton in to products get paid a fair wage for their work. The Fairtrade Foundation certifies such operations and its symbol looks like this:

Here are some supplier of fairtrade organic cotton clothes and bags:

Gossypium
People Tree
Ethical superstore
Terramar
Bishopston Trading Co
Seasalt

Food is such an important daily choice

2008-12-17T22:29:00.004Z

Food has so many roles in our lives - sustenance, social glue, source of enjoyment, a way of relating to the land and seasons...and much more besides. This, of course, has negative and positive impacts on personal, environmental, community, financial and global levels.

"The apple you eat is the landscape you get", the saying goes - although this is only part of the truth. The apple you eat also affects your health, your happiness, other people's health and happiness (i.e. social conditions of workers in the food chain), your carbon footprint and your personal finances.

Great Britain was once a land full of diverse varieties of fruits, with most villages boasting at least one variety of apple, pear, plum, damson or cherry. Over the course of just 60 years or so, most of the traditional orchards have been eroded for a number of reasons, from the Common Agricultural Policy to supermarket culture (or, more accurately, lack of culture!).

But through organisations such as Common Ground, many of the traditional varieties, which make up our cultural heritage and offer an an incredible source of flavours, qualities and colours of fruit, have started to make a come back. The Common Ground book of Orchards is a wonderful book that explores this culture, past and present, in some depth and is quite simply a wonderful book. If you're looking for an inspiring present, or a way to spend Christmas money, then this is a book anyone interested in rural culture shouldn't be without.

So, back to the point about food. The agricultural landscape of Scilly has gone from one in which the population could hold a good degree of reliance upon, to one which is largely managed for flowers, aesthetics and tourists. This landscape can only be sustained by (a) the tourist pound, (b) cheap fossil fuels and (c) a huge amount of imports on the Gry Maritha. In short, our resilience in food security is very poor.

Transition Scilly has plans to do quite a lot of work to improve local food production and availability, for it's such an important part of a positive future for the Islands. We welcome the involvement of everyone who wants to share in this vision. If you want to learn more then please get in touch.

Transition Scilly open day

2008-12-08T17:46:00.002Z

On Thursday 11th December we are holding an open day for members of the public to come and find out what we're doing, what we're planning to do and what Transition is all about.

There will be displays, slideshows, books, magazines, tea, cake, seats and a chance to chat, so please come down to meet us.

We will be open for you to drop in any time between 10.30 and 16.00 at the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's. We will then be giving an evening talk at the same place, titled "Introduction to Transition Scilly". The talk starts at 19.30 and will finish around 21.00.

We look forward to seeing you there; if you can't make it but would like to know more please contact me.

Transition farming

2008-11-24T18:36:00.003Z

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Soil Association annual conference in Bristol. The venue was Brunel's Passenger Shed at Temple Meads, an impressive venue with its vaulted rood and couldn't be better placed for transport links. About 400 people came to listen, talk, eat and celebrate. These events always have an incredible energy and this year was no exception.

The food is always good, but some years have been less good than others; this was a vintage year! Phil and Barney Haughton are at the forefront of the organic and local food scene in Bristol and had a major part to play in the quality of this year's catering. Phil Haughton runs The Better Food Company, which is a superb shop, and sorted out all the lunch time and break food. Barney Haughton runs Bordeaux Quay, a great cafe/brasserie/restaurant/shop/cookery school on the waterfront. This played host to an amazing Slow Food dinner - everything was sourced from the South West and ranged from shellfish to soup, perry to pork and vegetables to venison. There were probably 25 different things to eat (over a period of 3 hours!) and the tastes were simply amazing.

Transition: farming in 21st century Britain was the theme of the conference, largely inspired by the Transition movement, focussing on the responses organic farming and growing can make in reply to the threats of climate change and peak oil. Nearly all the talks, and some transcripts, are available on the Soil Association website.

This is a summary of some of the main sessions:

Caroline Lucas reminded us of the seriousness of the world food crisis, where it is estimated 75% of Africans are at risk of hunger, whilst the industrialised world is full of obese people. But Government policy will only change when a real crisis looms over us; at this point, she claims, "food crises could drive elections". She also outlined the ridiculousness of biofuels, where the grain required to produce bioethanol to fill an SUV tank is enough to feed a person for a whole year.
Jeremy Leggett talked about the current "triple credit crunch" - money, carbon and oil. He thinks oil flow rates will hit even industrialised countries hard by 2013, citing "political/phantom" reserves, drops in discovery and lack of investment as sure signs that the peak of world production is very close. Even with oil at today's deflated prices oil projects are being cancelled left, right and centre; marginal projects such as tar sands have such poor net energy gains they are going to be increasingly uneconomic.
Pete Smith explained how the areas of the world facing the biggest population growth (Africa and Asia) will be hot hardest by climate change, putting pressure on natural ecosystems and potentially catastrophic results for people. Agriculture and food is responsible for between 17 and 30% of total Greenhouse Gas emissions (depending on country). Soils are an enormous carbon sink and will have an enormously important role to play in sequestering carbon back in to the soil.
The international lecture was given by the wonderful and inspiring Vandana Shiva. She argued that multinational corporations in the food sector, such as Monsanto, Dow, Cargill, etc. have jumped on the bandwagon by claiming they can help solve the climate and food crisis. Industrial agriculture creates more food as commodities, which in turn creates more international trade, divorces the population further from the land and results in one billion people hungry and one billion people obese. We are fixated with yields; however this is only the measure of a single commodity - output is the measure of a whole system. A diverse system is (a polyculture) is sustainable on every level; GMO's will only worsen the food crisis. We must invest in natural capital, it's the only capital that really matters.
Catherine Sneed from San Francisco gave a highly inspiring and moving talk about her work with prisoners. She helps rehabilitate offenders, engaging them in horticulture on a massive scale, from the prison farm that provides a large proportion of the prison's annual food, to huge tree planting programmes and garden restoration across the city. The effects this has on prisoners is incredible and really proves that plants have the ability to heal. Surely a very cheap way to turn a problem in to an asset?

There was so much more besides, all of which can be found on the Soil Association website. Do spend some time to read it - it's very good material.

Solar panels

2008-11-17T00:09:00.002Z

Over the half term holiday Plug in to the Sun have been hard at work installing solar panels on St Martin's primary school. It is a 2.5kW system, and after installation it was knocking out up to 1.8kW, even in the relatively low intensity sunlight of November. The excess electricity will be sold to the National Grid and earn the School money.

This is a tremendously exctitng development that may help to stimulate the installation of more solar panels on public and private buildings in the future. We will need as many as we can get, to combat climate change and provide us on Scilly with energy independence.

350 is a very important number

2008-10-18T10:06:00.006+01:00

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the Bristol Schumacher lectures. The event marked the 30th anniversary of E.F. Schumacher's death, the famous economist who's book Small is beautiful is a seminal work and helped start the environmental movement.

The theme of the conference was "Less is more", a powerful sentiment for the predicament in which the human race finds itself. Headline speaker was Bill McKibben, author of The end of Nature and Deep Economy. His message to the conference however was about his new project, www.350.org.

James Hansen of NASA, the foremost climate change scientist on the planet, has stated that CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere shouldn't exceed 350ppm if we want to avoid severe changes to our climate. The problem is that we are already at 387ppm and levels are rising fast.

His message is therefore clear - we need to cut carbon fast, engage in activities that reduce our carbon emissions very significantly. This means we have to consume closer to home, produce food closer to home, work closer to home, play closer to home and produce energy closer to home.

The scale of the challenge is huge, but is essential if we want a stable climate and planet for future human habitation. But this number, 350, is one that can be spread globally and gives rise to symbols and actions. Think, for example, about:

Planting 350 trees
350 people in a community pledging to stop flying
350 people cycling
350 miles of new cycle routes
Every person saving 350kg of CO2 per year, every year
350 acres of rainforest saved from logging

...and the list goes on. It's a very important message. The first step is to go and visit the website www.350.org.

Slow Sunday

2008-09-14T21:49:00.005+01:00

Resurgence is an organisation "at the heart of earth, art and spirit", and produces a superb magazine six times a year. It's very forward thinking and its philosophy is based around the trinity of Soil, Soul and Society. I cannot recommend the magazine highly enough.

As an extension of Slow Food, the Resurgence Trust is promoting Slow Sunday, when people are invited to take part in simple actions that symbolise a rejection of commercialism, a passion for the planet and a desire for change.

On Sunday 28th September the focus is on baking bread. What a wonderful process that is, taking time to use quality ingredients, proving and baking the bread, followed by a wonderful meal to enjoy eating the bread. This is the essence of Slow Food - not upper class or elitist, at heart it's very simply about good food.

Food should be grown sustainably, transported as little as possible, cooked with care and eaten with great enjoyment. The benefits of this approach to life is huge and embraces the best things of life. You really don't have to spend much money to enjoy life.

Go ahead and bake bread - but not just on one day, make it a part of your everyday life.

Plastic bag free Scilly

2008-08-14T12:36:00.002+01:00

Modbury in South Devon was the first town in Britain to ban the plastic bag. BBC cameraman Rebecca Hosking was so appalled at the devastating effects of plastic on marine wildlife that she decided to go home and make sure every shop in her home town stopped selling or giving away plastic bags. This has been enormously successful, gained a huge amount of publicity and has spearheaded a rapidly growing nationwide campaign.

On Monday August 18th we will be showing the film Message in the waves, in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's at 7.30pm. This film was shot by Rebecca Hosking's team in Hawaii and vividly describes the complete carnage that marine rubbish (most of it plastic) causes on the wildlife - yet a tiny amount of the rubbish itself actually comes from Hawaii.

This marks the launch of Plastic bag free Scilly. We want every retailer to stop selling or giving away plastic bags and every food retailer to stop selling food in oil-based plastic consumables such as cups, plates, cutlery and sandwich wedges. To do this we will be giving retailers sources of alternative packaging, whilst educating shoppers.

All this will make these Islands part of the solution, not the problem. More will appear here as the campaign develops. If you want to know more please contact us.

Film screening: 11th August

2008-08-10T14:36:00.002+01:00

The Wrecking season is a film about a Cornishman, Nick Darke, who is a traditional "wrecker" on the north Cornish coast. The film follows Nick through a season of wrecking and looks at the multitude of objects that wash up in the tide.

This is then explored further through Nick tracking where these items have come from - in some cases thousands of miles. It's a simple concept with much deeper meanings, describing very visually how a combination of rubbish and ocean currents make marine pollution a very global problem.

The film will be shown in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's at 19.30, doors open from 19.00. Tea and cakes will be available; the film is free, but donations are appreciated. You also have an opportunity to become a member of Transition Scilly, for a very reasonable £1 per year! For this you will get a newsletter, receive updates on events and get a chance to become directly involved in projects.

Transport and carbon footprint

2008-08-01T21:20:00.003+01:00

Working out your carbon footprint is a measure of the carbon dioxide emissions created by you in your activities over a year. In the UK emissions from transport make up about 20% of total UK emissions - so it's really important to minimise your impact of transport to reduce your carbon footprint.

This graph shows how far you can go, using different modes of transport, to create 1kg of CO2:

Flying is a hideous waste of energy, creating enormous emissions - especially given most flights cover vast distances. One return flight to Australia will use as much energy needed to heat and power your home for six years.

On the other hand, the bicycle, one of the most efficient machines ever invented, allows you to travel reasonable distances, carrying a reasonable weight, yet has the lowest emissions of any mode of transport.

Reducing how much you fly and drive, changing instead to public transport is the most important starting point to reducing your carbon footprint, and hence global climate change. Walking or getting on your bike is the best thing you can do - and there are few excuses for those local journeys!

Cutting carbon and building resilience

2008-07-22T22:01:00.003+01:00

This is, in a nutshell, how Rob Hopkins tries to explain the necessary steps that communities must take (in a Transition concept) to ensure we overcome the challenges of Climate Change and Peak oil. There's no point me trying to explain more here, but watch Rob's fantastic talk from the Findhorn Positive Energy Conference this April - it's very inspirational.

It goes on for about an hour, but is split in to six parts on YouTube - linked on this page.

The first installment is below...it's really worth watching.

"I'd like to support renewable energy, but..."

2008-06-29T18:25:00.004+01:00

Energy use in the home is hugely significant to your carbon footprint and accounts for around 25% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions. Of this 25% total, three quarters is due to heating (by electricity, gas, oil or solid fuels). So, what is important in reducing your home's energy requirements are three factors:

Reduce the amount of energy you use - especially for heating
Increase insulation - on the building and you
Use renewable energy

The first measure after energy saving is very simple - change your electricity supply to a renewable tariff, such as Good Energy or Ecotricity. This a very simple action, it will cost you very little extra (if anything) and will drastically reduce your carbon footprint. And, as the price of fossil fuels rises, so renewable energy becomes even more cost effective.

What gets more exciting, and is more appropriate for Transition, is to become energy independent. The Energy Saving Trust gives a good overview of all the different types of renewables and what grants are available to support home installations.

So what are the costs like? It varies massively and depends on what you want. Solar panels, for example, are less cost effective than solar water heaters - but you can only heat water with hot water tubes (like the ones pictured).

But what is more interesting is this concept of "payback" on renewable energy installments for homes. If you buy a new car, laptop, kettle, fridge, have a holiday, meal out - does payback come in to the equation? No. Of course, some renewable energy technologies are significant investments, but so are cars, home improvements and many electrical appliances. Rather than ask about payback periods (based on current prices for energy) there are bigger questions to ask:

Will it improve the value of your property? Probably yes - to at least the value of the installation
What will happen to the price of fossil fuels? Increase significantly as the effects of Peak Oil hit home
Will it give you energy independence? Depends what you install, but to a certain degree, yes
Will it give you greater resilience? Yes, which frees you from forces beyond your control - political, market, physical

The Community Energy Plus website is a useful resource. Transition Scilly will be doing more on renewable energy in the near future - checkback here for details.

What will drive you to act?

2008-06-09T23:05:00.003+01:00

Transition is driven by two key issues - Peak Oil and Climate Change. The former is an economic and social driver, but the latter...well, it's ecological, social and economic. But primarily, Climate Change is a moral issue.

It's a complex issue and is truly global, in both scale and ramifications. In industrialised countries like ours, who create vast amounts of greenhouses gases, we affect not just our climate, but climates of other countries and people - many of whom have produced tiny amounts of greenhouse gases.

The injustice is made worse by the fact that most greenhouse gas-emitting countries are in temperate regions, which Climate Change will, on the whole, affect less severely. On Scilly we should rightly be very concerned about rising sea levels, caused by melting glaciers - but this is a gradual process that may not affect us severely for another 30 years.

In recent days the plight of starving people in Ethiopia has come to light on international news sources. To some extent political issues are to blame here, but the underlying cause of the extreme food shortages experienced by some people are climate change. Severe lack of rain has caused crop failures and hence reserves of food have virtually run out for some people. These changes in weather patterns have been inextricably linked to a changing climate, caused by a warming of the world's atmosphere.

So what will drive you to reduce your carbon footprint and hence your contribution to climate change? Is it the possibility of children in 30 years time using Holgates Green as the new Quay, or images of children dying in Ethiopia today?

It's an interesting moral question and one that doesn't really have an either/or answer. The truth is that Climate Change now was caused by emissions 30 years ago and our emissions will create problems 30 years hence.

The need for action has never been more urgent.

Food security in unindustrialised countries

2008-06-04T18:45:00.002+01:00

We talk of peak oil, climate change and food security issues in the UK as almost passive issues. We know they're big issues, but don't really affect us in our daily lives - not yet, at least. To get a perspective from southern Africa, as featured on the BBC website, makes particularly interesting yet painful reading.

In Lesotho many farmers can't afford diesel for their tractors now and the curse of industrial agriculture has robbed the soil of its' fertility. It is also very vulnerable to climate change due to its elevation - and consequent short growing season. These factors spell bad news for people and, in particular, for the food production on which everyone depends.

So "keyhole gardening" has become an important Permaculture technique to improve families' food security. These are small and very intensive gardens that give a family a large proportion, or all, of its vegetable needs - and perhaps a surplus to generate a small income.

Whilst the harshness of the situation cannot be simply dismissed, this is a really good example of a community increasing its resilience in the face of adversity - and with very little money. Humans are resilient by nature and are survivors - this is heartening for the future.

Eyes on the Arctic

2008-05-24T09:45:00.003+01:00

The enormous Arctic ice shelf is a clear indicator of the state of Climate Change. The polar regions of the planet contain enormous amounts of frozen water, which if they were to melt would cause sea levels worldwide to rise by an enormous amount.

Worryingly, this enormous ice shelf is showing signs of breaking up - at a much faster rate than previously expected. A report called 'The Big Melt' was completed by an organisation called Carbon Equity last year and exposed disturbing facts about the speed of melt, with the prediction that global sea levels could rise by as much as 5 metres by 2100 - and that's without further rises in greenhouse gases.

A report by the BBC's David Shukman confirms many of those fears - Arctic ice is breaking up very quickly and at an accelerating rate.

On Scilly we are extremely vulnerable to such sea level rises and it should be a big concern for everyone who lives here. All the more reason to engage in Transition Scilly and reduce your carbon footprint, and therefore your contribution to sea level rises.

There are many things you can do to move towards a low carbon lifestyle and they do not have to reduce your quality of life at all - from signing up to a renewable energy electricity tariff to massively reducing the amount of flying you do. The Guide To Low Carbon Lifestyles is an excellent place to start and lays out the facts very clearly.

Cooking

2008-05-09T11:05:00.002+01:00

Cooking from scratch with wholefoods, preferably local and organic, is the best food for human and planetary health. But this is something not usually the case in kitchens across the country, whether at home or in restaurants.

It is therefore particularly refreshing to hear Gordon Ramsey forcefully stating the importance of seasonal food. Not only has he rightfully slated Delia Smith's stance on food (not really caring about its freshness, provenance or method of production), but he goes as far as saying that restaurants should be fined for using out of season produce.

Food transport makes up a large proportion of the carbon footprint of food; air freighting of food, in particular, is incredibly damaging to our environment. To put this in to context, to move 1kg of strawberries from Kent to London creates 0.017kg of CO2. To move those strawberries all the way from Kent to Scotland creates 0.145kg of CO2. But if 1kg of strawberries are sourced (out of season) from Israel, the CO2 emissions rocket to a colossal 4.6kg.

Out of season produce is a luxury of rich countries and an oil-rich world - without excess money or oil this simply would not be possible. So next time you look at, for example, French beans from Kenya, asparagus from Columbia or apples from USA think how they got on to the shelf in front of you.

Eating seasonally is a much more rewarding way of cooking and eating food. Nature provides an incredible diversity of foods right through the year and there is no reason why you cannot have a diverse and interesting diet when eating purely seasonal foods. The taste of strawberries in June, new potatoes in May or even purple sprouting in January is simply unsurpassed.

Transition Handbook

2008-04-28T17:07:00.004+01:00

Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition concept, has written an excellent book describing the principles and practice behind Transition. The subtitle is "from oil dependency to local resilience" and is a reflection of the process that communities must go through to move towards a low fossil fuel future.

The book is divided in to three sections, 'The Head', 'The Heart' and 'The Hands', which describes the three elements of the personal transition. Essentially this is about understanding the problems, caring for the problems and doing something about it.

It's an inspiring book and is a good read. It's available here, but below is Rob describing the book in this short video:

Rob Hopkins' views about Transition Scilly

2008-04-24T17:28:00.003+01:00

Following a visit by Rob Hopkins, founder of Transition initiatives, last week he offers some thoughts about Scilly. In particular he thinks about renewable energy, fuel, tourism and resilience.

Read more on Rob's Transition Culture blog.

Plastic Bag Free Scilly

2008-04-17T10:08:00.006+01:00

Rob Hopkins' inspiring talk yesterday marks the end of the awareness raising events of Transition Scilly. Some of these will be repeated at a later date for people who missed any of the film screenings.

The first of many projects from Transition Scilly will be Plastic Bag Free Scilly. Modbury in South Devon was the first town in Britain to stop using plastic bags and the campaign has been a success. Many more towns have now taken it on and shunned the plastic bag in favour of better alternatives. Indeed the UK Government have been making noises about taxing plastic bags with a view to getting rid of them all together later on.

Plastic bags are the ultimate sign of a throw-away society and cause untold environmental issues. Just consider these facts:

8% of all world oil is used to manufacture plastics
Plastic bags account for about 90% of all floating marine debris, amounting to 100 million tonnes globally. This causes massive harm to marine life
Plastic takes 400 to 1,000 years to degrade, leaving a dreadful legacy for future generations

Using alternatives to plastic bags really is very easy, it just requires a slight change in the way we think. Over the course of the next few months we will be working with businesses to build on the good work done by Scilly Waste already and just take it one step further to stop using plastic altogether. We will also be promoting the use of alternatives for consumers and raising awareness of the dangers of plastic bags.

Look out for more information on this blog and on posters put up in the usual places on the Islands.

A talk not to be missed

2008-04-13T21:29:00.003+01:00

The last of the initial Transition Scilly awareness-raising events will also be the highlight. Rob Hopkins is the founder of the Transition concept and is coming to speak on Scilly this Wednesday 16th April.

He will be speaking on what Transition means, and how the twin threats of Peak Oil and Climate Change need to be addressed urgently, but can become positive solutions. Rob started Transition Town Totnes in autumn 2006. Since then it's become really high profile and many far-reaching projects have started to move the community of Totnes from oil dependency to local resilience.

Rob published Transition Handbook a couple of months ago and the book has nearly sold out its first print run. He is a speaker in high demand and we are privileged to have him coming to speak in Scilly.

The talk will be on Wednesday April 16th starting at 7.30pm in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's. The talk is free, but donations will be appreciated. Tea and cakes will be served; doors open at 7.00pm.

Communities pulling together

2008-04-06T18:06:00.002+01:00

On Scilly we like to think of ourselves as an active community that by and large look out for each other, unlike many parts of this country. But our societal dependence on oil has, unwittingly, unstitched that strong community bond that would have existed much more before the "age of oil".

With the event of Peak Oil, and a resultant decline in the availability of oil (combined with rising oil prices), a resurgence in the value of community will probably be seen. The need to work together in a more localised economy will necessitate a greater reliance on each others skills, and a simple need for others' help.

An interesting example is Cuba. In the 1980's Cuba had a thriving sugar export trade with the former USSR, and benefited from Russian machinery, oil, and agricultural chemicals. Indeed it is said Cuban's use of oil exceeded that of the United States, per head of population, at that time.

But in 1990 the former Soviet Union collapsed and suddenly a huge market and supplier was gone. Help from America was, of course, out of the question. As a result Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate.

Food production was, of course, a priority - but Cubans had to completely change their systems from an industrial system of agriculture to local, organic production very quickly. Virtually every aspect of their lives changed overnight and they had to readjust to a new way of thinking and acting.

Now Cuba is upheld as an example, in many ways, of a country with sustainable food production, great healthcare and good education, amongst other examples. See how they achieved this amazing turnabout in the inspiring film Power of Community.

This is Transition Scilly's next film screening, being held on Friday April 11th at 7.30pm in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's. Entry is free and there will be tea and cakes - doors open from 7.00pm.

Oil rules our lives

2008-04-03T11:25:00.004+01:00

Crude oil is the one single commodity that allows us to live our lives like we do. It enables us to travel vast distances cheaply and quickly, buy all sorts of foods from all sorts of places at any time of day or night and has a thousands of other uses. What is worrying then, is that oil supply chains are going to change rapidly very soon.

Up until now the world production of oil has continued growing at a steady pace, ever since the industrial revolution. But we are now very, very close to a very interesting point in time, known as peak oil. This is the point where oil production reaches the highest point it will ever reach. Yes, ever.

Beyond this point oil production will steadily decline. It won't run out in a hurry, but the energy needed to extract what's left under the ground will constantly increase, so the net energy gain decreases. Add to this the increased demand for oil from newly industrialised countries and...well, it doesn't take an expert to realise that the price of oil is only going to go one way.

Peak oil is a very important to understand as its going to affect our lives hugely over the next few years. Just think how less oil will affect your life and society at large. The implications are massive. And there is simply nothing else as cheap, easy to use or move as oil.

Come along to our next free film showing to learn more about peak oil. It's happening tomorrow, Friday 4th April, The End of Suburbia starting at 7.30pm in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's. Tea and cakes will be available again!

Some thoughts on Climate Change

2008-03-29T11:36:00.005Z

If you have seen Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth - as 40 or so of us did last night in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's, then you may well be feeling overwhelmed by the whole issue of Climate Change. The scale of the problem is huge and, if we carry on as we are at the moment, the consequences could be very severe for us and for the planet we rely on for life.

The most worrying part of Climate Change for Scilly are potential sea level rises. Ice melt in polar regions is happening much faster than previously predicted and this could result in huge sea level rises globally. Can you imagine how a 2 metre rise in sea levels would affect these islands in as little as 20 years time?

What matters is our personal and collective response to a changing climate. Al Gore talks about the mental shift that occurs often in people, from denial to despair. There is however a middle ground, a way forward that offers hope for the future and for humanity.

Everyone is responsible for varying amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore we can all do something about it. It may or it may not be too late to prevent the worst effects of Climate Change, but we have received a wake-up call and it is simply immoral not to react. Perhaps you don't want to do anything because some other people aren't doing anything either.

Moral issues should be upheld as a responsible way of living and a social standard. The vast majority of the population abide by the law, despite the fact that a very small minority break the law. Action on Climate Change should be taken in the same light.

So, here's how to start. Work out your carbon footprint here.

Then work out the easiest and cheapest ways to reduce your carbon footprint, as quickly as possible, here. After a few weeks of your lower-carbon lifestyle, re-measure your carbon footprint and see how well you've done.

Simple. Shouldn't be too painful - and certainly a lot less painful than seeing houses and public spaces go under feet of sea water in the not-too-distant future...

Free film showing!

2008-03-26T22:22:00.002Z

This Friday, March 28th, sees the first of four events from Transition Scilly. These events are awareness raising, on issues central to the concept of Transition: Climate Change, Peak Oil, community resilience and Transition initiatives.

An Inconvenient Truth is a hard-hitting film presented by Al Gore, former vice-president of the US. It's very well produced, but pulls no punches with the facts. It's a good film, but can be hard to take in the enormity of the reality of Climate Change, if you're not up to speed on the facts. However, this should not stop anyone from seeing the film, because Climate Change is really the single defining issue of the era. Arguably, it is the biggest challenge ever to face humanity on such a scale - major climatic changes on a planetary scale.

You have the chance to watch this film for free AND we'll provide tea and cakes! The film is being shown in the Old Wesleyan Chapel on St Mary's, doors open at 7.00pm and film starts at 7.30pm. It'll be a great way to learn about this really important subject, whilst being able to share thoughts with others.

So please come along and be part of something that's going to be a major project on Scilly - we won't be charging you to come in!

P.S. There are free boats available to off-islanders through Lifelong Learning. Please e-mail me if you're interested.

Launch of Transition Scilly

2008-03-18T20:36:00.000Z

Transition Scilly is a new project created to promote community solutions to the twin threats of peak oil and climate change, the two most important issues currently facing humanity and extremely pertinent for Scilly. It has been set up by six people who live and work on Scilly, who are committed to helping provide solutions to the problems created by peak oil and climate change.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Transition Scilly launches a programme of events to raise awareness about climate change, peak oil and Transition initiatives. Three film evenings, free to attend, will be shown on Fridays March 28th, April 4th and April 11th in the Old Wesleyan Chapel, St Mary's.

The events culminate in a talk by Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition movement, on April 16th. Rob is a highly sought-after speaker and it will be an exhilarating talk about positive solutions to a low-carbon future. The key part about Transition is its positive outlook - indeed it is often described as "more like a party than a protest march."

See the full events programme on the Events page - hope to see you there.