Your weekly guide to doing it differently with style and sustainability!

Hi Everyone

What is Transition Cambridge saying? As the global groundswell of concern for our planet and its inhabitants grows ever more insistent,  it's vital that TC's message is clear, inspirational and focussed. Help us shape what we say and how we say it at the Communuications meeting tonight, all welcome! Speaking of climate change,  there's still time to sign the Cambridge Climate Message as the COP21 talks begin in Paris this week. If you've already done so, can you persuade your local coffee shop, favourite eatery or corner shop to sign it too?  Pivotal have a big programme of events throughout the week, dedicated to creating vibrant conversations around climate change and COP21 -  join them at the Storytelling event this Friday for real life experiences about the moments that changed lives forever.  On Saturday it's time for Christmassy carnival fun at the Mill Road Winter Fair - join us on our stall between Catharine and Thoday Streets for some seasonal up-cycling activities, and we'll be extremely grateful for any donations of Christmassy biscuits for the stall!   On Sunday Empty Common Community are holding a winter fireside garden party: learn about Peak Soil, enjoy music and storytelling - it's fireside fun for the whole family!

CONTENTS

Transition News and Events

  • Monday 30 November: Communications group meeting
  • Saturday 05 December: Transition Cambridge stall on Mill Road Winter Fair
  • Wednesday 09 December: Growing Spaces project meeting
  • Thursday 10 December: Energy for Smart Villages and Energy Group Social
  • Wednesday 16 December: Transition Cambridge's Winter Social - everyone welcome!
  • Saturday 30 January: Transition stall at Volunteer for Cambridge Fair
  • Events for your calendar

Community News

  • Cambridge Climate Message - add your signature!

Other News and Events

  • Monday 30 November: Cambridge remembers lost species
  • Friday 04 December: Storytelling: True Tales of change
  • Sunday 06 December: The Empty Common Community Garden Party
  • Sunday 06 December: Film: Mario Petrucci - Amazonia
  • Tuesday 08 December: Steve Waters performance: In a Vulnerable Place
  • Wednesday 09 December: Can ipods (and Chairs and Lampshades) Grow on Trees?
  • Sunday 10 January: Connecting with ourselves and the natural world (half-day retreat)

Transition News and Events

Monday 30 November: Communications group meeting

19:30-21:00, CB2 Cafe (upstairs), Norfolk Street

Our main topic for discussion at this meeting will be "what are TC's key messages?" as this relates to all the different forms of communication that we use, including the leaflet we are currently creating, the TV programme that people have been talking about, and of course our bulletin and web-site. We may also consider the kinds of key messages that are useful on stalls. Everyone is very welcome at this meeting, whether you have previously been involved in Transition Cambridge's activities or not.

Saturday 05 December: Transition Cambridge stall on Mill Road Winter Fair

10:30-16:30, Mill Road, outside the Coop, between Thoday Street and Catharine Street

This year's Transition Cambridge stall at the Mill Road Winter Fair will have a recycling and upcycling theme, including hands on projects (e.g. making wallets from tetrapacks), an area to bring/swap/take last year's unwanted Christmas presents for recycling this year, an area to make recycled Christmas cards, and various other recycling/upcycling activities. So please bring along suitable items for recycling/upcycling, and come by and say hello! Our stall will be near the Coop and St Philip's Church (between Thoday Street and Catharine Street). We're also looking for a few more volunteers for the stall, so please let us know if you can come and approximately what time and for how long (help setting up/clearing up will also be welcome). And if you have an idea for a quick and easy interactive recycling project that will draw people to our stall, let us know or bring it along! For volunteers, we'll provide some guidance on how to engage passers by and how to explain what Transition is about. Hope to see you there!

Wednesday 09 December: Growing Spaces project meeting

19:30, venue details below

Would you like to see more fruit and vegetables growing in Cambridge's public spaces? Join the Growing Spaces project to hear more about what we do as we coordinate the care of spaces. All welcome - gardening knowledge welcome but not required. Contact us for details of the address of this meeting and if you're interested in the project in general. More details of the project here.

Thursday 10 December: Energy for Smart Villages and Energy Group Social

20:00-21:30, Makespace (16 Mill Ln, Cambridge CB2 1RX)

Professor Sir Brian Heap of St Edmund's College will tell us about his projects with off grid energy for smart villages: The central premise of smart villages is that modern energy access can act as a catalyst for development in off-grid rural communities in several key sectors such as health, education, food security, productive enterprise, clean water and sanitation, environmental sustainability, and participatory democracy. The aim of this project, therefore, is to advance the argument for policy makers and decision takers in developed as well as developing countries of the growing opportunities and challenges that exist as a result of the progress in renewable technologies, and to clarify the framework conditions that will enable energy access for rural communities to catalyse their development. We will have some time for formal discussion and then informally over drinks and nibbles - please bring something to share if you can.

Wednesday 16 December: Transition Cambridge's Winter Social - everyone welcome!

19:00, Six Bells, Covent Garden, CB1 2HS (in the back room)

Come and celebrate the festive season at Transition Cambridge's winter social! Everyone is welcome at this December gathering. We'll be in the back room at the Six Bells from 7 pm onwards, so drop in when you can. There will be some mince pies and tangerines - if you have a favourite festive snack, please bring some to share (if you can). More info on Six Bells pub.

Saturday 30 January: Transition stall at Volunteer for Cambridge Fair

11:00-16:00, The Guildhall, Market Square, Cambridge

Transition Cambridge will again have a stall at the Volunteer for Cambridge Fair, which is a celebration of volunteering in Cambridge, and a chance to explore volunteering opportunities across a wide range of organisations. We invite Transitioners to come along in order to meet future potential volunteers, or to let us know beforehand what volunteering opportunities you have in your groups currently so that we can advertise them. We will try to make "Volunteering Opportunities Sheets" detailing the roles (e.g. volunteering in which Transition group, aims and activities of the group, types of activities volunteers can get involved in, time commitment etc). As ever, we'd love to have your help on the stall, or making these sheets, and we'd love to meet you at the fair if you'd like to know more about volunteering with Transition Cambridge. Please get in touch if you can help with any of these things!

Events for your calendar

Community News

Cambridge Climate Message - add your signature!

The Cambridge Climate Message to the Paris Climate Summit in December is a message from the people and organisations of Cambridge to all those participating in the global climate change negotiations (COP21) in Paris between 30th November and 11th December 2015. It reads: "We, the people and organisations of the city of Cambridge in the UK, support local and global efforts to take action on climate change. We recognise the serious threat which climate change poses to everyone everywhere. This is why we are calling on all parties at COP21 to come to an ambitious and fair agreement which gives the best chance possible of staying below a 2 degree Celsius global average temperature rise." Sign it here! and please share with others! As well as being published online it will be sent to Sir David King, the UK special envoy for climate change. Many people in Cambridge care deeply about our future and recognise that taking action locally, although very important, will in itself be insufficient to stop disastrous climate disruption. This is why this message brings together voices from across the city to provide a strong unified message for national and international leaders, calling on them to come to an ambitious and fair international agreement. For more information about this initiative, see the Cambridge Climate Message web-site.

Other News and Events

Monday 30 November: Cambridge remembers lost species

12:00-13:30, March through Cambridge, starting at Botanic Gardens

A procession to mark the rememberance day for lost species. http://revolve.media/remembrance-day-for-lost-species/ We will gather outside the Botanic Gardens on Hills Road, then walk up to the Attenborough Building, past the Guildhall, and then up to Castle Park where the County Council offices and the IUCN offices are. We'll remain there for a while to read poetry and reflect. Suggestions for things to bring: a bell to toll, or a placard to commemorate a lost species. The aim of the event is to remember what we have lost, with these species. It may also provoke reflection on the way we live, the nature of the anthropocene, and the preciousness of life. More details here.

Friday 04 December: Storytelling: True Tales of change

19:30-21:30, Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Join Pivotal - The Cambridge Festival of Change, for an evening of true tales told live. Professional storytellers, including Glenys Newton, who gave up a career as a social worker to become an itinerant storyteller, will join remarkable people from many different backgrounds and life experiences to tell true stories of moments when their lives changed forever. There will be an open mike element to the evening; a chance to bring your own story of change you'd like to share. Contact Pivotal if you would like to bring a story along, or turn up on the night to claim an open floor spot. Or just come to be inspired by the drama and courage of other people’s true stories. For more information about Pivotal, please visit their homepage. More details here.

Sunday 06 December: The Empty Common Community Garden Party

12:00-16:00, Empty Common Community Garden, Brooklands Avenue Cambridge, CB2 8BG

Share the beauty and community spirit of a special public garden. This winter fireside party for the whole family includes acoustic music, storytelling, a polytunnel gallery, a talk on Peak Soil by sustainable gardening enthusiast Charlotte Synge, and the unveiling of a new shed mural by artist Rebecca Lindum Greene. Free Event - All Welcome More details here.

Sunday 06 December: Film: Mario Petrucci - Amazonia

19:00-21:00, Espresso Library, 210 East Road Cambridge, CB1 1BG

Can poetry help lead us to a more sustainable conception of ourselves? Be prepared to find out, as you immerse yourself in the sounds and colours of the Peruvian rainforest with poet Mario Petrucci and his short film, Amazonia. Multi-award-winning poet, ecologist and Selwyn physicist, Mario Petrucci is renowned for his groundbreaking poetry projects and powerfully engaging books. Shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award, he composed the Arvon-winning Heavy Water, a collection that became a rare bestseller for poetry and, more significantly, foreshadowed Fukushima. For this Pivotal - The Cambridge Festival of Change event, Petrucci reads an eco-conscious selection of poems, and also screens the short poetry film Amazonia, commissioned by the Natural History Museum. Both book and film convey piercing perspectives on Climate Change, and there will be ample opportunity to discuss them with the poet during the evening itself. More details here.

Tuesday 08 December: Steve Waters performance: In a Vulnerable Place

19:30-21:30, Cambridge Junction, Clifton Way Cambridge, CB1 7GX

In 2009, acclaimed playwright and teacher Steve Waters saw his climate change play, The Contingency Plan, produced to glowing reviews. "Finally, a good play about climate change," one reviewer commented. Six years later, he asks the question, "Has the world changed or have I changed?" in a moving, funny and troubling monologue about his journey into a changing climate. Performed by the writer, In a Vulnerable Place takes us from the Broads of Norfolk to the Steppes of Mongolia to ask what is happening to the natural world and to the human heart. Steve will also be on hand after the performance to take part in a open audience discussion about the climate, the art of playwriting, and the intersection of the two. Part of the Pivotal arts/climate change programme of events. More details here.

Wednesday 09 December: Can ipods (and Chairs and Lampshades) Grow on Trees?

19:00-21:00, Cambridge Junction, Clifton Way Cambridge, CB1 7GX

What might commerce in a greener world look like? Can biology solve the problem of sustainable manufacture? Can today's entrepreneurs can move forward with clean technology and commerce? Join two pioneers in green manufacture as they rethink the way we make objects. Gavin Munro, an artist and designer, constructed buildings and furniture with materials from driftwood to straw bales before he had an epiphany - why wait 40 years for a tree to grow big enough to make furniture? Why not just grow a chair? Chris Forman, a post-doc whose background is in theoretical physics, biophysics and nanotechnology, uses the idea of iPods growing on trees to explain how biology makes its own versions of batteries, displays and processors, using tiny nanoscale components. More details here.

Sunday 10 January: Connecting with ourselves and the natural world (half-day retreat)

10:00-17:00, Granchester Village Hall

Our bodies are our connection to the natural world. By listening deeply to the world within we find sustenance and compassion in our relationship to the planet. In turn this can help us to find the inspiration to act for our planet. This half day retreat will provide an opportunity to dwell deeply inside, and connect with our surroundings. We will talk, move, rest and reflect. Movements will be inspired by yoga and tai chi. Choose from morning (10-1pm) or afternoon (2-5pm), and perhaps combine with a winter walk on Grantchester's meadows. £30 for half day, bring a friend and come for £24 each. Concessions on request. More info here.

That's all for this week folks, have a peaceful and productive week :-)

Jacky and the Bulletin Writers' Team

Our Mission

Transition Cambridge aims to help Cambridge make the transition to ways of life that are more resilient in the face of rising energy prices and a changing climate.

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