So much has happened since the last newsletter an (embarassingly long) while ago. Where to start...

"Official" initiatives and all the mullers

In the Japanese myth, the hundredth monkey represents the point at which a learned behaviour spreads instantaneously from one group of monkeys to ALL related monkeys once a critical number is reached. So it's somehow fitting that the 100th official transition initiative was Fujino in Japan.
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A while ago I set up a Google search and reader that finds links if Transition Towns appears in the news anywhere. I was astounded to find 25 new items when I looked today! Here are 16 of them!

Timing is right for transition
Southern Highland News, Australia - 3 hours ago
CANWin member Kathy Biddlecombe said the petition had succeeded in raising awareness of the Transition Town movement in the community and among council …

Life After Oil: Designing the Transition
Los Angeles Streetsblog, CA - 10 hours ago
Join us as we explore the Transition Towns concept that is catching on like wildfire in the UK. What Can We Do about peak oil and global warming? …

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In this article Sarah goes beyond the personal and embraces the need to act collectivley. That is where our power is. Right at the end she points people to Transition Towns.

Eco-Anxiety: A Call to Action, by Sarah Anne Edwards

And So It Begins... The signs are all about. Each day there are more, and they are escalating in seriousness. It’s hard to ignore a few signs from the past couple weeks:

• Delta Airlines is significantly cutting its number of flights this summer.
• Flights that aren’t full in time for take off will be cancelled.
• Middle-aged white-collar workers in their 40s and 50s are moving back into their parents’ homes for shelter.
• Twenty-four states are now paying $4 or higher for gasoline.
• To save money and stay in business, truckers and carriers are slowing down and carrying loads for multiple suppliers at a time. In some parts of the country, truckers are protesting and poised to strike.
• Bread, a friend complained, is over $5.00 for a standard brand loaf at the supermarket. A loaf of our spelt bread, which we eat because we are allergic to wheat, costs over $6.00 now.
• Merchants are resorting to haggling in order to sell their merchandise.
• Airlines are returning to prop planes for regional flights because they use less fuel.
• Worldwide food shortages are arising, from Africa to Central America and Afghanistan. Food riots have broken out in Haiti. Food prices are escalating not only here in the US but everywhere, even Rome and Paris.
• Water wars have begun in Colorado.
• Shell Oil took out a full-page ad in Time and Fortune magazines saying, “no combination of technologies can plug the energy gap … There will be a … global energy crisis. It will dwarf previous crises. Profound economic dislocation will result. The challenge for human civilization will be to rebuild ‘post-peak.’” view pdf

Yes, Shell Oil.

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Richard Lee is came from Warkworth to meet with some interested parties on Waiheke (including an Auck Univ Engineer) to share the ideas he has about locally grown biomass as a source of alcohol, that could be used as a fuel.

Richard presented ideas gleaned from his study and research into community scale energy production and in particular the book by David Blume - who will be speaking at the Eco Sho in Taupo this October. » Read more