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http://edinburghcommunityenergy.wordpress.com/
Having been investigating community energy schemes further afield, it's nice to discover plans for a community energy cooperative in Leith.
Friday 23 April 2010
Stop Press: Intro to Permaculture Course places in Brixton this weekend
The excellent folks at Transition Town Brixton are running an introduction to Permaculture course - led by Pippa Johns from the Brighton Permaculture Network. Saturday in the community greenhouses and Sunday on a nearby estate to start to think about putting the ideas into practice. There are a couple of last-minute places available...
More here:
http://www.site.transitiontownbrixton.org/
More here:
http://www.site.transitiontownbrixton.org/
Pleasure Principle 2 - reclaiming our own stories
Ps/ When I say pleasure principle, better be careful with my definitions, I don't mean just pursuing pleasure at the expense of all things, or abdicating all responsibility etc..
What I mean, instead, is 2 things: Firstly, being true to our experiences of what causes pain and what causes pleasure. It's when we share our stories that we can best reclaim our experiences and talk more honestly with each other about the kinds of lives and futures we really want. (Driving cars, for example, may sometimes be fun on an open road on a sunny day, but is not generally liberating for most people stuck somewhere around the M25. It's expensive, tedious, tiring and polluting.) And Secondly, that life is meant to be, at root, a joyful experience. As one Sanskrit teaching pronouces (and my own struggling meditation practice reminds me): Underneath all the boredom, underneath all the irritation, what remains is JOY.
What I mean, instead, is 2 things: Firstly, being true to our experiences of what causes pain and what causes pleasure. It's when we share our stories that we can best reclaim our experiences and talk more honestly with each other about the kinds of lives and futures we really want. (Driving cars, for example, may sometimes be fun on an open road on a sunny day, but is not generally liberating for most people stuck somewhere around the M25. It's expensive, tedious, tiring and polluting.) And Secondly, that life is meant to be, at root, a joyful experience. As one Sanskrit teaching pronouces (and my own struggling meditation practice reminds me): Underneath all the boredom, underneath all the irritation, what remains is JOY.
The Pleasure Principle as design ethic
Yesterday I read The Vagina Monologues for the first time - compelling reading from cover to cover. It's an amazing, moving, searingly honest and often funny series of first-person accounts from women about their experiences of their vaginas - from menstruation to sex to physical violence. Brings a taboo subject to the open with a spirit of love. Why should we feel ashamed of our bodies?
So - how is this relevant to what I'm working on? Well, I think it's all about celebrating the pleasure principle, and being grounded in our bodies. Reading the first-hand accounts of other people made me feel more grounded and connected to myself,and to my own experiences, and by extension to other people. More human, you might say.
In the afternoon, I also read a series of pamphlets on environmental economics written by the pioneering think-tank new economics foundation. Although undoubtably brilliant, they were dense, hard to read, and very intellectual: a bit like the prime ministerial debates on the telly.
In short - they made me switch off, physically contract, and get a slight headache, though I made a mental note to self: must get my head round this later, as an awful lot of good sense and clever thinking was contained therein.
Of course, the two books written deliberately in different styles, and for different reasons and occasions, but maybe it's just worth remembering the pleasure principle as a design ethic when we're talking about communicating ecology - after all, ecology is all about connection too...
So - how is this relevant to what I'm working on? Well, I think it's all about celebrating the pleasure principle, and being grounded in our bodies. Reading the first-hand accounts of other people made me feel more grounded and connected to myself,and to my own experiences, and by extension to other people. More human, you might say.
In the afternoon, I also read a series of pamphlets on environmental economics written by the pioneering think-tank new economics foundation. Although undoubtably brilliant, they were dense, hard to read, and very intellectual: a bit like the prime ministerial debates on the telly.
In short - they made me switch off, physically contract, and get a slight headache, though I made a mental note to self: must get my head round this later, as an awful lot of good sense and clever thinking was contained therein.
Of course, the two books written deliberately in different styles, and for different reasons and occasions, but maybe it's just worth remembering the pleasure principle as a design ethic when we're talking about communicating ecology - after all, ecology is all about connection too...
Growing your own with the Highgate Community Action Network
http://hican.wikispaces.com/
Another great example of a community initiative focused on tackling on climate change with lots of fun courses. Great to see my friends Rachel and George enjoying it - they originally got involved because they wanted to get to know their neighbours, and are now enjoying being part of the meadow project - and are helping campaign on the 10:10 project in local schools.
I'm off to a short workshop on 'Grow your Own'. Should be useful as I can't tell a turnip from a dandelion when they're underground.
Another great example of a community initiative focused on tackling on climate change with lots of fun courses. Great to see my friends Rachel and George enjoying it - they originally got involved because they wanted to get to know their neighbours, and are now enjoying being part of the meadow project - and are helping campaign on the 10:10 project in local schools.
I'm off to a short workshop on 'Grow your Own'. Should be useful as I can't tell a turnip from a dandelion when they're underground.
Tuesday 20 April 2010
Order vs Tidiness - from a Permaculture Manual
I loved this: "Creativity is symptomatic of a whole brain... and is seldom tidy... "
"We should not confuse order and tidiness. Tidiness is something that happens when you have frontal brain damage. You get very tidy. Tidiness is symptomatic of brain damage. Creativity, on the other hand, is symptomatic of a fairly whole brain,and is usually a disordered affair. The tolerance for disorder is one of the very few healthy signs in life. If you can tolerate disorder, you are probably healthy. Creativity is seldom tidy."
From Bill Mollison: An Introduction to Permaculture, Pamphlet 1
"We should not confuse order and tidiness. Tidiness is something that happens when you have frontal brain damage. You get very tidy. Tidiness is symptomatic of brain damage. Creativity, on the other hand, is symptomatic of a fairly whole brain,and is usually a disordered affair. The tolerance for disorder is one of the very few healthy signs in life. If you can tolerate disorder, you are probably healthy. Creativity is seldom tidy."
From Bill Mollison: An Introduction to Permaculture, Pamphlet 1
Monday 12 April 2010
Community Supported Fisheries
Radio 4 profiling their success in east-coast US today...
Bit like a veggie box - but for fish. You get local fish, in season. Good for fishing industry, and for consumers.
There were noises from the Transition Town group in the East Neuk of Fife that they would be setting up something similar last autumn. I look forward to investigating soon.
Radio 4 link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rvy23
Article from Boston Times:
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/articles/2009/03/18/economy_of_scales/
Thursday 8 April 2010
Should communities be paid for allowing waste plants?
This is a proposal from an Inquiry by a Parliamentary Committee, according to a story by green news site Ecowise this week.
One suggestion is that communities should be able to own the waste sites.
How about they follow the example of Remade in Brixton and look at making money from reducing their waste?
One suggestion is that communities should be able to own the waste sites.
How about they follow the example of Remade in Brixton and look at making money from reducing their waste?
Wednesday 7 April 2010
Hyde Farm Group - going green and getting to know your neighbours
The inspiring work of Sue Sheehan's neighbourhood group 'Hyde Farm Climate Action Network' was profiled recently in The Guardian Society. I interviewed Sue for my book last autumn as she is closely involved with the work in Transition Town Brixton and is a part-time 'community champion' in Lambeth Council.
Sue says: A green scheme can provide a catalyst to bring people together as a group
Plastic Pollution
This recent story about health risks from plastics in the Indie highlights an issue Helen Lynn, Morag Parnell, and other wonderful campaigners have been working on without praise or publicity for many years. Congrats to all involved. Good to remember that there other environmental stories apart from climate change - and at the end of the day they are all linked...
Monday 5 April 2010
Feasta - a collective thinking process
To continue thinking about the links between ecology and community... I was looking at the website of excellent Irish organisation Feasta, to feature in due course as one of the stories in my forthcoming book The Ecology of Community...
Feasta describes itself 'as a collective thinking process about the future' (feasta being an Irish word for future, taken from an early poem):
Cad a dheanfaimid feasta gan adhmad, ta deire na gcoilte air lar
What shall we do without wood, when all the forests are gone?
Their radical and sensible ideas include proposals on Cap and Share, a proposal to incentivise emitting less, and rewarding people, not companies in the process which has found currency (sorry) with the Irish Government and the UK's sustainable development commission.
Eminent economist Richard Douthwaite, who wrote the seminal titles The Growth Illusion and The Ecology of Money, is on the organisation's executive committe.
And it is of no coincidence, in my opinion, that it is such a non-hierarchical, participatory organisation, that is coming up with some of the most ground-breaking ideas to look at new systems of economics for a sustainable future.
Feasta describes itself 'as a collective thinking process about the future' (feasta being an Irish word for future, taken from an early poem):
Cad a dheanfaimid feasta gan adhmad, ta deire na gcoilte air lar
What shall we do without wood, when all the forests are gone?
Their radical and sensible ideas include proposals on Cap and Share, a proposal to incentivise emitting less, and rewarding people, not companies in the process which has found currency (sorry) with the Irish Government and the UK's sustainable development commission.
Eminent economist Richard Douthwaite, who wrote the seminal titles The Growth Illusion and The Ecology of Money, is on the organisation's executive committe.
And it is of no coincidence, in my opinion, that it is such a non-hierarchical, participatory organisation, that is coming up with some of the most ground-breaking ideas to look at new systems of economics for a sustainable future.
Sustainability is a community practice
The Ecology of Community: what does it mean?
I must confess I was taken with the phrase 'ecology of community' as used by master-baker Andrew Whitley when describing his courses in community baking (see previous blog post). It seemed like a perfect title for my book. But I felt stumped for a definition.
So it was nice to come across the Centre for Ecoliteracy site, an organisation based in California, and some of their essays and thinking. They put it better than I could:
The sustainability of a community depends on the health and inclusiveness of the network of relationships within it.
Read more about the Centre for Ecoliteracy's work including resources for teachers, courses in 'knowing your place', 'collaborative decision-making' and more...
I must confess I was taken with the phrase 'ecology of community' as used by master-baker Andrew Whitley when describing his courses in community baking (see previous blog post). It seemed like a perfect title for my book. But I felt stumped for a definition.
So it was nice to come across the Centre for Ecoliteracy site, an organisation based in California, and some of their essays and thinking. They put it better than I could:
The sustainability of a community depends on the health and inclusiveness of the network of relationships within it.
Read more about the Centre for Ecoliteracy's work including resources for teachers, courses in 'knowing your place', 'collaborative decision-making' and more...
Community Supported Baking
You've maybe - like me - heard of Community Supported Agriculture before, but have you heard of Community Supported Baking?
Renowned Bread-maker Andrew Whitley, author of Bread Matters: why and how to make your own, is running courses in 'Baking for Community' (as well as standard 2-day courses) from a new site in Lamancha in the Scottish Borders, just down the road from Pete and Heather Ritchie and the wonderful Whitmuir Organics.
Andrew says:
At a time of recession, bank failures and climate conferences, there is much talk of ‘defining moments’, points after which things will never be (or seem) the same. While many (especially the unemployed and the hungry) ache for governments to act more decisively to stem threats to human wellbeing, some people are making their own provision for a changed world.
Renowned Bread-maker Andrew Whitley, author of Bread Matters: why and how to make your own, is running courses in 'Baking for Community' (as well as standard 2-day courses) from a new site in Lamancha in the Scottish Borders, just down the road from Pete and Heather Ritchie and the wonderful Whitmuir Organics.
Andrew says:
At a time of recession, bank failures and climate conferences, there is much talk of ‘defining moments’, points after which things will never be (or seem) the same. While many (especially the unemployed and the hungry) ache for governments to act more decisively to stem threats to human wellbeing, some people are making their own provision for a changed world.
They’ve spotted that a global free-for-all that tramples the weak and ignores ecological limits won’t put bread on the table for good. So they are, in ever greater numbers, taking matters into their own hands. Home growing, preserving, making and baking are on the increase. Doing it yourself isn’t just a vote against processed pap, with its bland textures, hidden additives and nature-defying shelf-life. It’s a big step towards reasserting some control over how we feed ourselves and our families.
Taking control - and the ecology of community - defining ideas at the centre of The Low Impact Adventure
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