If you wish to receive this newsletter as an email each month, please register on the forum – this will put you on our mailing list. Or email the website requesting that you be added to the list.
At a general meeting in early May it was decided to start a monthly Forum for all those actively involved in TB&H. This will include someone from each working group (Transition Interest Groups, Functional groups – such as funds and finance, publicity and media, education and training, Project Groups and any Neighbourhood group) – but everyone else is welcome to attend. These Forum meetings, and introductory evenings for newcomers, will replace general monthly meetings. The first Forum meeting is at 7.30pm on Thu 5 June at the Salvation Army Hall, 1 Park Crescent (Off Union Road, North Side of The Level: map). The agenda is here.
Dates of TBH meetings can always be found on the main page of the website.News
Peak oil hits the mainstream news
Oil at $135 a barrel and rising food prices have caused multiple headlines in the mainstream media this month. Here's a selection:
24 May – $135 and rising ... has cheap oil gone for ever? – Guardian
23 May – April Oil Output Drop Biggest in 12 Years – Bloomberg
23 May – Britain is in the grip of an economic crisis as oil prices hit a record high – Daily Mail
23 May – Is the world about to be running on empty? – Independent
23 May – The flight from cheap fares – Guardian
Local news on vain attempts to drill for tiny amounts of oil in Sussex (including an interview with TBH):
19 May – Prospectors find their way to Sussex oil – Argus
Plus news on the further effects of climate change:
23 May – Vast Cracks appear in Arctic Ice – BBC News
The expanding Transition network
There are now 61 official Transition Initiatives worldwide, up from 50 last month...
TBH workshop at University of Brighton
In May Doly and Martin from TBH ran a workshop at the university on 'Making the transition from a high to low fossil fuel economy', asking students and staff to create a vision of how we would like our city to look in 10 years.
Green Wave festival
TBH will be participating in the Green Wave Festival, Brighton's first sustainable eco festival. The festival is in Preston Park on Sat 5/Sun 6 July, divided into zones: Wellbeing,Transport, Recycling, Water, Energy, Science, Earth, Music, Schools and Youth. Each TBH Interest Group will have a small presence in the section on their theme. If you would like to get involved, please contact the relevant group coordinator.
Transition allotment
By the time you receive this newsletter the first TBH Allotment meeting will have taken place, in the form of a picnic on the plot itself. The plot is on a new site on Whitehawk Hill, right next door to The Community Food Project and is the first to have an organic only stipulation written into the contract. It's just brambles at the moment but all are welcome to come and get involved, whether you have permaculture design skills or have never picked up a trowel! To get involved email allotment*at*transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk
Introduction to Transition Brighton & Hove sessions
If you want to know more about what Transition Initiatives and Transition Brighton and Hove are about, and learn more about climate change and peak oil, we will be running introductory sessions in the next few weeks. If you are interested in attending please contact introsessions*at*transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk so we can get an idea of numbers.Requests for help
TBH is not really about the coordinating group initiating projects and recruiting help – it's more about people who want to be part of TBH both initiating their own projects, and providing help to others with their projects. This could just as well be a project that's part of an existing organisation as something completely new – TBH simply aims to be a network of everyone who has the same goal of energy resilience and reduction. If you have an energy-reducing project that you need help with, if you have a pie-in-the-sky dream and you want to throw ideas around about it with other people, please advertise them here (by replying to this email), and it will go out in the next newsletter.
Researching the Energy Descent Action Plan
The Energy Descent Action Plan is the document that TBH will be drawing up over the coming months and years, which will be our blueprint for how Brighton & Hove will take steps to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and become more resilient to future energy scarcity. The Transition Interest Groups (Food, Transport, Energy, etc) are beginning to research all the ideas that groups and individuals in Brighton & Hove have for this. We want to know your ideas, what you are excited about doing to reduce energy use, so that a framework can be drawn up for the Plan. Please contact Doly at lu_si_na*at*yahoo.com with your own and your group's ideas.
Guerilla Gardening
Guerrilla gardening is when you find a neglected area of public space, either unused waste ground, or somewhere that has at some time in the past been landscaped and planted but then left to its own devices, clear it of litter and weeds, improve the soil and put in some attractive plants. Sue Jones has a pet project in Portslade and needs some help – if you fancy the idea of publicly grown veggies, you can contact her at sue.jones47*at*tesco.netTransition Interest Groups
The dates of all Transition Interest Group meetings are on this website. (If you want to see meetings just for the area you are interested in, click on the link under 'Search Events by Subject', further down the home page in the right hand column.)Neighbourhood groups
In a city as large as Brighton & Hove it is going to become necessary to spread our activities out into neighbourhoods. TBH's plan is to ask existing neighbourhood community groups if we can give a talk to them about transition, with the aim of kickstarting a neighbourhood group. If you are part of a community group and would like a member of TBH to come give a talk to your group, please contact talks*at*transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk. Or if you are interested in starting a Transition neighbourhood group in your area, please contact hub*at*transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk.Upcoming events
For Upcoming Events see the main page of the website.General information
Joining Transition Interest Groups (Food, Transport, Energy, etc): either sign up in the Usergroups on the forum – how to do this here – or contact the group coordinators directly, see here.
Forum: please remember to add your news, opinions and suggestions to the discussions on the forum – this is the place where ideas for projects and collaborations can begin.
Brighton & Hove Green organisations index: the TBH website has a updated directory of green Brighton organisations, including campaign groups, awareness-raising literature and training, local produce suppliers, transport alternatives and lots more.
Transition Library: there is a category on the forum when people can offer to lend, and borrow, books on transition-related subjects. If you have books on climate change, peak oil and other relevant subjects and think others will benefit from reading them, please offer to lend them out. Lending/borrowing arrangements at the top of the forum
Contact details: contact emails for all hub members and group coordinators are available here.
TBH newsletter – June 2008
