The transition to action

We held the second public event of our local Transition Towns project, Transition Westcombe, this week. It built on the ideas for specific projects and actions which came out of the discussions during our launch event and it was great to be in a room buzzing with the energy of people energetically discussing setting up food stalls for locally grown produce, training sessions in a wide range of skills, mapping locally available expertise, a community cafe and much much more. It was a great reminder that, in an age of great cynicism about "conventional politics" and a widespread feeling of powerlessness in the face of global issues like climate change, people DO respond with great energy and inventiveness when they see that there is something they can practically do to change things, that is within their control.

Transition Westcombe is underway!

The Transition Towns movement continues to grow nationally and internationally and last night was the first public event of our local group, Transition Westcombe. Nearly fifty people came to watch a really interesting and inspiring film about how Cuba has coped with its own version of "peak oil" following the break-up of the former Soviet Union and to participate in a discussion afterwards about what we can do in our area to prepare for the inevitable transition to a low carbon economy.

It was great that so many people turned up and took part enthusiastically in the discussion. We've got a follow up meeting planned for 8th April which will hopefully start to turn the ideas and suggestions made into some tangible projects that will have a material impact on our bit of SE London