On May 9, 2013, the NOAA monitoring station on Mauna Loa recorded an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 400ppm, the highest levels found on earth for over 5 million years.
Climate change. Economic instability. Peak oil and resource depletion. Environmental degradation. These are just a few of the most pressing issues of our time. The Transition movement, which is spreading quickly around the world, provides a foundation upon which to build a promising future together that is more fulfilling, creative and sustainable. Transition is a process for strengthening community resilience and building sustainability that is uniquely designed by each community based on their local needs and resources.
Based in Guelph Ontario, Canada, Transition Guelph is proud to be Canada's second official Transition Initiative, joining Peterborough, Ontario, Canada's first, on May 14, 2009. The transition movement is gaining a strong foothold in Canada and around the world, with over 275 official Transition Initiatives worldwide and, as of August, 2012, twenty-three in Canada. Thousands more communities worldwide are in the initial organizing stages. (For a complete list, see www.transitionnetwork.org.)
When: Tuesday, June 4, 2013 @ 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Where: 10 Carden
Guelph-Wellington Time Bank information and orientation session. All are welcome! If you are not yet a member, please come by to learn more and find out how to join. If you are already a member, please come by to share ideas and connect with other members in person. For more information, please email gwtb@transitionguelph.org.
Personal and Community Resilience: Training for Life in These Times
What: 2-day workshop
When: Wednesday, June 19, 2013 to Thursday, June 20, 2013
Where: St. Brigid's Villa, Ignatius Jesuit Centre
There is much to do for the transition away from destructive fossil fuel dependency toward a life-enhancing society. There is also a lot to BE -- effective collaborative partners, harmonious neighbours, clear, trustworthy communicators, open and supportive friends.
In our busy days full of projects for resilient natural ecosystems, local food systems, economic opportunities in the community, educating for a transitioned world, and others, it can be challenging to attend to our inner experience and the quality of our relationships. Just as we re-skill for low-impact, high-satisfaction living, we need to train for personal resilience. And as we give space to our inner world, we re-balance and reconnect to feeling abundantly resourced and revitalised.Together we cultivate the skills needed to form and maintain strong connections for our communities' resilient future.
A unique opportunity has presented itself with the arrival of Sophy Banks, a Trainer for Transition and part of the global Transition Network, based in Totnes, UK, who will be with us in Guelph for several days this spring. I hope you can save the dates now for a two-day workshop offered June 19 and 20 at Ignatius Jesuit Centre. Please reserve a place early, as attendance will be limited to 25 participants.
This workshop will be filmed - by skilled people we trust - to be part of a film on community resilience in response to climate change.
Cost and registration: Basic cost for this workshop is $50, payable upon registration. The actual full cost of the workshop weekend is around $100 (depending on number of participants), but we leave it up to each participant to decide after the course, if and how much they want to contribute to this course as a way of gratitude and support of its continuity in the future.
We don’t want cost to prevent anyone who wants to from attending. If you cannot afford to pay $50, or have any queries please contact info@transitionguelph.org .
A new study finds “a nearly tenfold increase in melt intensity” on the Antarctic Peninsula in the last few hundred years. Here’s the most worrisome news from this 1000-year reconstruction of ”ice-melt intensity and mean temperature” published in Nature Geoscience: The warming has occurred in progressive phases since about AD 1460, but intensification of melt is nonlinear, and has largely occurred since the mid-twentieth century.
This is potentially an indication that climate change has now past the stability point and is now into globally non-linear accelerating change. If so, this is very bad news.
An independent 2012 report, entitled 2012 Nutritional Analysis: Comparison of GMO Corn versus Non-GMO Corn, found numerous concerning and notable differences between GMO and non-GMO corn, none of which are particularly surprising.
"Humanity is not a bunch of lemmings marching unstoppably toward a cliff. There is such a thing as free will…. People please wake up! For the sake of young people, future generations, and other life on our planet, don’t settle for what some “experts” say is the best we can do." —James Hansen
Hensen is the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Research at NASA. His credentials are impeccable, and he has been, since the early 1970s among the most vocal of scientists warning about climate change. This article describes his 11th-hour strategy for exercising our fast-dwindling options to mitigate the worst of climate change before it's too late.
In 2011, Transition Guelph launched its first Resilience Festival as a way of reaching out to the broader community, engaging other groups and organizations, and inspiring our citizens to get involved, to help build a stronger and more resilient city. It was a phenomenal success! Since then TG has hosted Resilience 2012 and Resilience 2013, partnering with more groups, hosting a greater number of events, and seeing more and more of the community coming out, enjoying the day, learning, and having fun!
Most of the events are free or by donation, and each year the festival culminates in one of our most popular events, the Earth Hour candlelight pot-luck dinner and concert!
To learn more about the Guelph Resilience Festival, please visit the festival website at:
Movies, we got 'em! The Transition Guelph lending library has over 30 titles on the shelf, and you can borrow them, free of charge, for a period of two weeks. Hold a screening in your home for family and friends, discuss the movie afterwards. It's a great way to raise awareness around the key issues of our time, and to examine the possibilities for change. Here are a few random titles for you to check out:
The most recent blog posting was titled: "Tipping Points", posted on Tue, Jan 15, 2013:
I’ve been thinking a lot about “tipping points” lately. The concept of the tipping point, long relegated to the lexicon of statistics, has entered mainstream discourse largely because of its relevan...
LGBTTIQQ Positive Space