Emergence - how life creates radical change

I wanted to share my thoughts with you on an article that a friend recently gave to me on 'emergence' - of community, of connection, of ideas and of movements. I think it really captures what Transition Towns is all about and why we are all involved. The article was written by the founders of the Berkana Organisation, who work with and for communities all over the world. Transition Towns also is about communities working with and for each other, encouraging and supporting people to live more sustainably. How we can actually achieve that is something that I know I for one am grappling with, constantly searching for answers.

Emergence happens when individuals connect with other other individuals in the same locale, sharing knowledge and ideas and forming new ways of doing things. If those new ways and thoughts stayed in that locality, then it would be hard to discern that change. When individuals share their knowledge and their ideas with other like-minded individuals in other communities, and they too begin to change, suddenly a pattern emerges, and a whole new movement has arisen.

Transition Towns is a model of an a emerging movement. A loose network of connected communities, full of people with the same hopes and desire for change. It is up to us to keep sharing our knowledge and stories, within our diverse communities and other networks, and forming new connections, until gradually these ideas become new ways of doing things.

If you're interested in reading about the 'Lifecycle of Emergence' here is the link:
http://berkana.org/berkana/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=6&id=168&Itemid=219

I hope this article inspires you as much as it did me.

update on ebikes buying group

I ordered an ebike as promoted at our recent meeting, and the scheme is going ahead with a delay until 6 November to get the numbers up. But the good news is the supplier in an email I received today has decided to guarantee the fully-discounted price even if they don’t make the target of 50.

Here’s a pointer to the Sustainable Jamboree web page with more detail on the bulk buy.

TTKD Growing Food & Landshare Initiative -plenty of interest so far

Transition Kenmore recently announced the Growing Food & Landshare Initiative where we will match people who have spare land with people who want to grow food.

Interest has been steadily rolling in from people who want to share their land and those who'd like to make use of it. Thanks to everyone who has gotten in touch to date. So if you have been thinking about getting involved but weren't sure if there would be somewhere for you to get your hands dirty, it already looks like that isn't going to be a problem.


Want to get involved? Here's the details again:

TransitionTown: Kenmore District (which covers the Pullenvale Ward) would like to engage with people interested in exploring the possibilities of:

1.Landshare and setting up an online Landshare register

2. Co-ordinating people who are already growing food and have a surplus, no matter how big or small.

3.Co-operatively selling food through the local Moggill Markets in the first instance then onto a wider local food supply network.

______________________________________________________________________________________
Who should register interest?

Anyone interested in growing food.
Anyone with land they are happy for others to use with a written agreement as to the terms of that use.
Gardening Mentors: people in the area who have experience in growing food and are willing to share that knowledge.

Register your interest by sending us an email: transitionkenmore"at"gmail.com

"From little things, big things grow" - Lets start growing!

Green Idea and Drinks - 7th Oct at The Apple Tree

A reminder this Thursday (the 7th) is our monthly Green Ideas and Drinks get-together.
It is a great opportunity to get to know new people, hear what others are doing, and be inspired!
See you there for a Sip and Chatter about all things Green.

When: Thursday 7th August....from 6:30pm
Where: The Apple Tree
The Courtyard: 2060 Moggill Rd Kenmore

Green Ideas and Drinks is a relaxed way to introduce your friends and neighbours to the ideas of transitioning to a lower carbon lifestyle.
Green Ideas and Drinks occurs on the first Thursday of each month. So come down, say Hi and share you Green Ideas.

350.org - 10/10/10 Global Work Party (this weekend)

"With your help, 10/10/10 is going to be the biggest day of practical action to cut carbon that the world has ever seen.

We're calling it "A Day to Celebrate Climate Solutions"--together we'll get to work in our communities on projects that can cut carbon and build the clean energy future.

But we won't stop there--we'll be using the day to pressure our leaders to Get To Work themselves by passing strong climate policies promoting clean energy and reducing emissions.

Thousands of people around the world have already registered their plans, including bike repair workshoppers in San Francisco, school insulating teams in London, waste-land-to-veggies-gardeners in New Zealand, and solar panel installers in Kenya."

This weekend marks the global day of action for 350.org, a worldwide grass roots network working towards getting carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere back to 350 part per million, considered to be a safe amount for maintaining a climate similar to the one we have now.

The emphasis of the Global Work Party is to get to work in your community doing something that reduces carbon emissions and by doing so show our leaders that we're taking action and you should be too. Currently there are an incredible 6174 events planned in 184 countries, including a number in Brisbane (click the link for information about all the listed events and how you can get involved/ RSVP).

Popular events for Brisbane include, setting up community gardens and permablitzing gardens, planting trees, picking up rubbish and cleaning up creeks and making energy efficiency improvements.

Here are some of the event being run by the community climate network members and friends

• Creek clean up and tree planting work party! - St Johns Wood Sustainability will be working to regenerate local bushland.
  


• Launching the Inspiration Community Garden - Transition East are creating a new community garden follow by a worm farm and composting demonstration and more.......


• Help start a Community Garden - Transition Annerley will also be working on a community garden in Fairfield

• Permablitz - Transition Kuripla will be transforming a backyard into a productive fruit and vege garden

• UQ Gets to Work! - UQ Climate for Change will be having (environmentally friendly) bbq on campus and helping people to create plans to cut their carbon footprint by 10%.

• Electric Bicycle buying group - Sustainable Jamboree will be promoting their electric bicycle bulk buy
  

Hopefully you can make it to one of these events, if you can't consider doing something around your house, plant a tree, sign up for green power, look into getting solar hot water etc and "get to work".

Good bills want to become good laws - Container deposit legislation and Palm oil labelling

Parliament has been back in business this week and I have noticed there are two bills that have either just been introduced or under consideration in areas Transition Kenmore has previously spoken up about.

The first is container deposit legislation (or trash into cash as the SMH so wittily puts it), which would provide a 10 cent rebate for bottles, cans and cartons like they have in South Australia. Such a law would boost recycling rates and stop millions of these containers going to landfill everyday, or being left to litter the landscape. We supported a petition back in February to introduce this in QLD, the answer to which was basically, "we're thinking about it at a national level". Well, The Greens are trying to get a federal law past, but despite it being popular with the public, things are moving very slowly. If you'd like to see this made law, then a brief email to, or chinwag with, the new Environment Minister Tony Burke would be a good place to start.

Second up, many readers will be aware of how deforestation and habitat destruction on a massive scale has been occurring in Indonesia and Malaysia to clear rain forest for palm oil plantations. This is causing not only enormous greenhouse emissions but is also threatening species such as "the orangutan, Sumatran tiger, Asian elephant, Asian rhino and other rain-forest species with extinction". Palm oil is literally in everything, but currently it's difficult to know which products contain palm oil or whether the palm oil is actually from a sustainable source.
Enter Sen Nick Xenophon with his truth in labeling bill to make food products which contain palm oil say so, as well as allowing responsible companies to state they're using sustainable palm oil. Informed choice is a good thing and we've supported a similar petition previously. A message to our new local MP supporting this bill might be a good idea.

Green Buildings and Retrofitting - Helping the economy and the environment

With energy use in buildings making up a large amount of worldwide CO2 emissions (some 40-45% in the USA for example) it's no secret that making new buildings Green and Green retrofitting provides a clear path to combating climate change.

The benefits of such activities are obvious, using less energy and water means lower bills, less waste and less exposure to rising prices without even considering the environmental benefits. While there are productivity and physiological advantages of, for example: buildings schools that don't fry in the heat in a state like QLD.

Of course the question that everyone asks about Green buildings is: Won't it cost a lot more?

Well according to Gregory Kats and his new book Greening our built world the answer is NO.

Working with ~100 "architects, developers, green building consultants, and building owners" Greg and his team surveyed 170 Green buildings from schools to laboratories, residential complexes to offices and found:

Green buildings—designed to use fewer resources and to support the health of their inhabitants—are commonly viewed as more expensive to build than conventional buildings. For example, a 2007 opinion survey by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development found that, on average, green buildings were thought to cost 17% more than conventional buildings. But we found this widespread perception—that greening costs a lot more than conventional design—to be wrong. In fact, the green 170 buildings analyzed for Greening our Built World cost, on average, less than 2% more than conventional buildings; moreover, green buildings provide a wide range of benefits—both direct and indirect—that make them a very good investment.

So not only do Green buildings not cost much more, but because they create large energy savings that pay back multiple times over there are a good investment too.

More info and plenty of graphs can be found here.