The Official Unleashing
of Transition Town Lewes
Tuesday 24 April
8pm at Lewes Town Hall
The Unleashing will launch the beginning of a year-long programme of events during which the people of Lewes will envision and plan a 20 – 30 year transition away from fossil fuels - towards a better life.
The following speakers will unleash Transition Town Lewes:
Rob Hopkins, founder, of the Transition Towns initiative, responsible for putting into action the first ever Energy Descent Action Pathway in Kinsale in Ireland, co-ordinator of Transition Town Totnes, and the Transition Network which helps other transition towns address the issues of peak oil and climate change.
Adrienne Campbell, one of the core team of Transition Town Lewes, a founder and manager of Lewes New School – a Human Scale school, and permaculturalist.
Dr Chris Johnstone, author of Find Your Power. An inspirational speaker on the psychology of transformation – Chris will explain how we can wean ourselves off our dependence on oil.
Interviews with Rob Hopkins and Chris Johnstone will also be uploaded shortly after the Unleashing.
Would you be able to volunteer on the evening? Please get in touch with Andi on 07903 68 33 78 or hit the reply button and let us know by email.
The Story So Far...
Jeremy Leggett gave a talk entitled Peak Oil and Climate Change - Renaissance or Dislocation? on the 29th March to a full Chamber at Pelham House. The evening was introduced by John Parry of the Linklater Pavilion initiative. Jeremy Leggett has worked in many camps - the oil industry, Greenpeace and now as CEO of SolarCentury, so his talk was a roller-coaster ride through peak oil and climate change. One thing to emerge from his talk was that there are sufficient coal reserves to fry the planet several times over if governments took to liquefy coal as an alternative to oil: 'We've got to keep it in the ground'.
Caroline Lucas addressed The Impact of Peak Oil on Food Security at a talk on the 12th April. As MEP for the South-East, she is an authoritative and passionate voice of the environmental movement. About 130 people attended her talk at Pelham House, and she spoke about her recent report to the European Parliament, which highlights our extraordinary over-dependence on oil for food and agriculture. She also talked about the close relationship between climate change and fossil fuel dependence and explored energy transition as a solution. An invigorating Q&A session followed, chaired by Norman Baker, MP for Lewes. Click here for a transcript of Adrienne Campbell’s interview with Caroline Lucas.
Our speakers are interviewed and these interviews will be available shortly on our wiki.
Transition Town Lewes goes national
We were covered in the G2 section of The Guardian on Thursday 19th March. Click here for the article.
And this weekend look out for us in the locals – Sussex Express on Friday and the Argus on Saturday.
Transition Town goes missionary
We took the community car up to Mayfield a few weeks ago as we were invited to talk to some of the villagers about the Transition Town idea. We managed to ease them through a peak oil moment but they quickly rallied. We have given two talks in Forest Row, and now both villages have arranged peak oil films and are well on their way to their own transitions. Helping each other out in this way with a very new and evolving process seems to work well.
After the Unleashing – what happens then?
Have a look at our programme of forthcoming events.
The first of our post-Unleashing events will focus on Feeding Lewes - past, present and future. The line up will start with a Pelham House talk on Wednesday 2nd May, where local food expert Bill of Bill's Produce Store will talk about his family's long-standing involvement in growing and selling vegetables locally, and his plans for food in Lewes. Topsy Jewell of the Netherfield Centre for Sustainable Food and Farming will talk about the work of Common Cause and local food links. Colin Brent, local historian and author of Pre-Georgian Lewes, will kick off the event with a photographic walk down Lewes High Street, with photographs by Reeves.
This will be followed by the first of our Open Space days on Saturday 5th May at Market Lane Garage, North Street from 10am – 4pm. Open to everyone - free, no need to book. This is where we will all be able to finally start contributing our ideas and creative energies towards addressing future issues around food. There will be local food available and childcare. (To find out more about childcare and to book a place, please call us on 01273 479 779 before Friday 4th May.)
And as always... money!
We've got this far purely on good will and thousands of volunteer hours. We'd greatly welcome any donations you may be able to make - send a cheque into the office at 66 High Street, Lewes, BN7 1XG. If you'd like to consider making a large donation to this extraordinary project, please call us on 01273 479 779. Have a great weekend and looking forward to seeing you at the Unleashing!
Thanks for reading our news bulletin!
Get involved: contact hello [at] TransitionTownLewes.org.uk
