Spring is knocking on the door, feed-in tariffs have been confirmed and Cornwall Council is taking Transition seriously – welcome to January (little late) edition of Transition News.

Major news stories emerging in the past month include (see http://www.TransitionNC.org for the full text):

Feed-in tariffs finalised – these are the final tariffs for renewable energy installations and renewable heating systems that you can claim from April this year. Good time to install and good time to register.

Future of Smaller Settlements in Cornwall from Cornwall Council Cabinet – Planning Policy Advisory Panel – this will affect all of us.

UK 'could face power shortages' – Ofgem finally somebody is waking up to the energy problem

Low-carbon built environment – interesting article and comments

In Transition 1.0 – special offer – The Transition video now on special offer

January 2010 Transition Network newsletter – and the regular Network newsletter

clean energy from UK giant forest – somewhat misguided proposals for clean energy

Shell shareholder revolt over Canadian tar sands – best news I've heard for a long time

Methane spike from Siberian permafrost – and one of the worst

Petition for Davidstow windfarm – your chance to support our local wind farm proposal

£75bn offshore wind programme – new era for renewables?

Food crisis 'hidden' from public – warning from Soil Association

Another blow to our energy security – this is possibly the most alarming news for Europe as a whole. In a coupe of years time Russia will feel free to cut Europe's oil and gas supplies at will as they now do to Ukraine and others. A real wake up call.

Forthcoming events that may be of interest to you:

10Feb2010: Climate Change & farming by The NFU and FWAG

12Feb2010: Copenhagen Review at Truro Cathedral

23Feb2010: APPGOPO: Peak Oil & Economic Growth at Parliament

25Feb2010: Orchard Workshop

25-26Feb2010: Timebanking training course for new/existing timebanking Brokers

2-4Mar2010: Ecobuild 2010 – major exhibition

4Mar2010: Transition to Resilience – Cornwall Council/ Transition Cornwall Network conference

4Mar2010: LINk Event, Bude

5Mar2010: Growing Collaboration Event 2010

And new items added to our library of Learning Resources:

Prosperity Without Growth : "Questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries. But question it we must."

Climate Safety : report from James Hansen : in summary : we may survive, but our grandchildren may not

data.gov.uk, free public sector data : reams of public sector data at your fingertips

Jeff Rubin – excellent video on energy : Powerful explanation of the realities of Peak Oil and the absolute necessity of imposing cost on Carbon – essential viewing !

Permaculture UK forum: A forum for the discussion of permaculture

Building with Straw Bales: A Practical Guide : Go and build it with bales!

15 Myths about Wind Energy : Top Myths About Wind Energy and the real answers

The Local Food Directory has grown again and on the fun side you might like to look at Cottage Farm on Grand Design. Yes, Kevin McCloud's Grand Designs Great British Refurb Campaign has published three exemplar stories of energy refurbishment of older properties, one of which is Cottage Farm!

Several new thread are developing at the General Discussion Forum and an few more organisations have been added to the Organizations Directory

In support of the Cornish Diet objectives Transition North Cornwall have developed a directory of Local Food Producers. Currently 66 producers have joined the project and more are being added. The directory is freely available at this website and producer entries are free of charge. Some 200 copies of a short version of the directory were handed out at the Bude exhibition and more are available for any future event.

Every producer can describe their business as they wish, including all their contact details and links to their own websites. Customers can leave comments (as replies to producers entries) on their experiences and quality of products and service. If you know of a good local food producer not yet on the list, do let me have their details and I will do the rest.

Good luck.

Paul

The full text of the articles are here: http://www.TransitionNC.org

If you would like to be added to our monthly email list, contact me here admin@TransitionNC.org

Thanks TK, I note your objection.

One point of detail: I did not actually start the petition, I just support it. I know you don't.

However, we do agree in our support for off-shore wind farms.

That is the one point on which we part company.

The great advantage of on-shore based wind turbines is that they are accessible and therefore much cheaper to install and to maintain.

I am not necessarily convinced that the plan for all these off-shore wind farms will actually happen to its full extent. It is quite possible that funds will run out before completion, which would leave us all dangerously energy exposed.

I believe that every single participant on this forum by now realises that you are against the Davidstow wind farm and most realise that I am for it.

I don't see the point of repeating the same arguments ad nausea

"I don't see the point of repeating the same arguments ad nausea"

In that case, syns dha glap!

The Transition Movement aims to alleviate many of the predicted effects of Climate Change, Peak Oil and other self-inflicted crises by helping local groups to build sustainable and resilient communities, able to supply much of their own local food and services, local energy, and rediscover the spirit of mutual support.

The purpose of the http://www.TransitionNC.org website is to disseminate information relevant to Transition, to help you set up and run a local Transition Group in your area or Parish, to help you communicate with other Groups and individuals involved in the Transition Movement and to encourage sustainability and local resilience.

Click on 'Individual Parishes' to see what is going on in your own Parish or town.

Click on 'NEWS,EVENTS,INFO' for Transition related news, loads of Events and all kinds of information and contacts to help you along the Transition path.

Have a look at some of the blogs for comments on recent events as they relate to Transition.

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Cheerful disclaimer!

Just in case you were under the impression that Transition is a process defined by people who have all the answers, you need to be aware of a key fact: We truly don't know if this will work. Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale.

What we are convinced of is this:

if we wait for the governments, it'll be too little, far too late
if we act as individuals, it'll be too little and leave us vulnerable
but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.

The transition model is brought to you by people who are actively engaged in transition in a community. People who are learning by doing – and learning all the time. People who understand that we can't sit back and wait for someone else to do the work. People like you, perhaps…