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An open meeting will talk place on Thursday 23rd October in Friary Hall in Callan at 7:30pm to explain the transition process and explore the possibility and interest level in starting a transition town initiative within the town. All are welcome.
TRANSITION TOWN CALLAN
Are you interested in becoming involved in a transition initiative in Callan?Friary Hall
Thursday 23rd October
7:30pm, FreeIn the face of rising fuel costs, climate change and the worsening financial situation the Transition Town movement focuses on small scale positive solutions that strengthen communities, promote local food production and self reliance
Come along to this free event, hear some answers and be part of the solution.
More information on transition towns can be found here and here.
On 18th September we held our first event of the season, a seminar on sustainable transport solutions. We heard from the car sharing company, GoCar and electric car company Greenaer but for us, the most interesting aspect was to hear from the existing individuals and organisations within Kilkenny already implementing and pressing for sustainable transport solutions. Ring-a-Link, Kilkenny Cereals, Malcolm Noonan, An Taisce and The Green schools program. This is the strength of the Transition process – to network different groups together in the context of peak oil and climate change.
Josephine Plettenberg attended and wrote an excellent review of the morning for her column in the Kilkenny People. We are very grateful to her for allowing us to reprint it.
Richard Heinberg is one of the world’s foremost educators on Peak Oil and author of “The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the fate of Industrial Societies”. Here he explains Peak Oil clearly and to the point in this 4 minute clip.
You can see more of Heinberg’s work here on his blog site and here at the Post Carbon Institute.
At the end of our Transition Town meeting on 3rd October we finished with a reading of extracts from Joanna Macy’s book “Coming Back To Life”. Many were inspired by her insights and have asked for the text to be posted here.
The Work that Connects Us by Joanna Macy
In the Great Turning to a sustainable civilization, we become aware of how thoroughly we of the Industrial Growth Society have set ourselves apart from the natural world. With our snowballing technologies, with our race for money and the goods we’ve learned to crave, we have forgotten what the ancients knew. That we are earth of this earth, bone of its bone. We seem to think that we could survive without the soil, the trees and waters, the intricate web of life. This delusion is reflected in the very term ‘environment’: the word suggests a backdrop to our lives – rather than the stuff of our very bodies, igniting every sensation and perception, renewing us with every breath.
We act as if we can know and control the world from the outside, as if we are separate from it. We think of ourselves as made of better stuff than the animals and plants and rocks and water around us. Our technologies of the last century have amplified disastrously the ecological effects of this assumption.
No one is immune to doubt, denial or disbelief about the severity of our present situation. Yet of all the dangers we face none is so great as the deadening of our response. This numbing of mind and heart is already upon us – in the diversions we create for ourselves as individuals and nations, in the fights we pick, the aims we pursue and the stuff we buy. So let us look at it. Let us see what this deadening is and honor our pain for the world. Then, reconnected with earth and community, we will be able to take part in the great turning. We will choose to take part in the healing of our world.
You can also watch Joanna Macy talk about eco-spirituality here.
You can find out more about Joanna Macy’s books and workshops here.
Friday 3rd October, Butler House, 7:30pm, Free
Transition Programme Events in Kilkenny
The Transition Town movement continues to grow exponentially throughout the world from Japan to New Zealand to Ireland. In the absence of concrete efforts by international governments, communities are taking action and leading the way with positive local responses to the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change.
The focus is on small-scale solutions that promote local food production, strengthen communities and create economic resilience. Examples of this work include community gardens, local food directories, running courses, skill-sharing, promoting cycling/walking, screening films, hosting seminars, establishing a local currency, developing energy descent plans and many other activities.
This coming Friday Future Proof Kilkenny will host a free public meeting on the Transition Town movement and launch its September – December program of “Transition Events”. This program marks a departure from earlier awareness raising events to include more practical and solutions-focused content. To help with this work and to plan our program for next year we are looking for volunteers and welcome anybody who wishes to become involved.
We will also hear what is happening in other transition towns throughout the country.
Davie Philip, Cultivate
Davie Philip, education manager of Cultivate and co-ordinator of the Transition Network in Ireland, will present an overview of what has been achieved to-date and what’s in the pipeline for the future.
It promises to be an exciting and inspiring evening! Do come along!