Sustainable Communities
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
HIGH-LIGHTS INCLUDE:
* Rob Hopkins - Transition Towns
* John Harris - Lawfull rebellion
* Patrick Whitefield - Permaculture: The Living Landscape
* Melissa Corkhill - Sustainable Parenting
* Andrew Johnson - Transition Medicine:
The Future of the Healthcare in a Post-Oil World
* Chris Black - Eco-Community Planning
* Clare Adamson - Urban Growing: Community Solutions
* Fergus Drennan - Wild Food Foraging
Sunrise: Off Grid is all about promoting sustainable forms of living, and, in essence, there is no better way to do that than to live in community. Whether that be a town, an eco-village, a spiritual community or whatever else binds us, living and sharing together makes living beyond the system a lot more palatable.
There are 3 forms of Sustainable Community, a model which is at the heart of Sunrise: Off Grid. These are Ecological, Cultural/Spiritual & Economic/Social. You could say that most villages and towns are based on the economic/social model currently. At Off Grid, we will endeavour to provide working positive examples of each of these models, to show that sustainable community living is not just an aspiration, but a reality for many already, and a positive vision of the future for most of us. By presenting the latest in planning law, off-grid systems & sustainable development whilst showcasing the dynamic groups and movements already out there, we hope to provide the tools for each of us to move further along this path ourselves, and the inspiration to do it!
TRANSITION HUB
The Sustainable Communities Area is situated within and around the magnificent Tin Village, constructed for The Green Futures area at Glastonbury Festival this year. This building will primarily play host to the Transition Hub, an allegiance of UK-wide Transition Groups who will be active at the camp, explaining what Transition is all about. We fully endorse the transition movement and share many of its principles and priorities. We see event organisation as experiencing the same issues as the more permanent cities, towns and villages of our land. From fuel to food, water to waste, a festival needs sustainable solutions as much as a permanent settlement.
We are proud to say that Sunrise & Sunrise: Off Grid are festivals in Transition....Full attendance and activities for the Transition Hub will be confirmed soon.
NATURAL BE-IN
The Natural Be-In Space was launched at Sunrise 2009 and was a great success, with an impressive line-up of speakers, workshops and interactive experiences. At Sunrise: Off Grid, the Natural Be-In workshop area is the place to explore the theory of sustainable living and develop your knowledge.
Some of the confirmed topics to be covered include:-
Introduction to Permaculture * Transition Towns * Planning Law * Urban Food & Farming * Renewable Energy Installation and Development * Off-Grid Living * Alternative Schooling * Green Parenting * Free Men & Common Law * Community Dynamics * Bee-Keeping * Straw-Bail Building * Land Share and Common Ownership * Gardeners Question Time & more...
Rob Hopkins: co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and of the Transition Network
Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and of the Transition Network. He has many years experience in education, teaching permaculture and natural building, and set up the first 2 year full-time permaculture course in the world, at Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland as well as co-ordinating the first eco-village development in Ireland to be granted planning permission.
He is author of ‘Woodlands for West Cork!’, ‘Energy Descent Pathways’and most recently ‘The Transition Handbook: from oil dependence to local resilience’, which has been published in a number of other languages, and which was voted the 5th most popular book taken on holiday by MPs during the summer of 2008. He publishes www.transitionculture.org, recently voted ‘the 4th best green blog in the UK’(!). He is the winner of the 2008 Schumacher Award, an Ashoka Fellow, is a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, a Trustee of the Soil Association, and was named by the Independent as one of the UK’s top 100 environmentalists. He is the winner of the 2009 Observer Ethical Award for the Grassroots Campaigner category. He lectures and writes widely on peak oil and Transition, and is researching a PhD on Transition and resilience at Plymouth University. He lives in Devon and is a keen gardener.
John Harris - 'Its an Illusion!' Lawful Rebellion John Harris is a mere carpenter by trade, but made history in the legal system by being the first man in the United Kingdom to create and send Lawful Affidavits to the Queen denying governance and all taxation using article 61 of the Magna Carta as a part-basis to invoke 'Lawful Rebellion'. What has followed is an increasing level of support from men and women all over the world who seek a wider perspective on the current situation to live a better life.
The Police, the Courts and the many Statutes and Acts in the UK, which are imposed on us all unlawfully and reflects on the everyday issues we’re all facing today:
• Governance with no accountability
• Needless and mystifying taxation
• Too many charges and fines from Police, corporations and Councils
• The rise of the ‘Nanny State’
www.tpuc.org
Patrick Whitefield - Permaculture: The Living Landscape - Patrick is one of the leading permaculture teachers in Britain, indeed in Europe. He combines a deep knowledge of the subject with an inspiring and professional teaching style. He’s written three books on permaculture: Permaculture in a Nutshell, How to Make a Forest Garden and The Earth Care Manual. He’s currently working on another book, The Living Landscape, how to read it and understand it, a subject especially close to his heart. He also practices as a design consultant. After several years working in agriculture in the Middle East and Africa, he settled in central Somerset where he still lives. He has a field, which he keeps mainly as a nature reserve, where he has also planted native woodland and an orchard. He’s always been a vegetable gardener, and has developed a passion for perennial vegetables and is forever trying out new kinds in his garden. In the past he’s made his living by a variety of country crafts, and for a while he was a prominent member of the Green Party. Since 1990 he’s devoted himself to permaculture, especially to teaching it, and has appeared on the BBC2 television programme, It's not Easy Being Green.
Melissa Corkhill - Sustainable Parenting
Melissa Corkhill and Jez Harris set up the UK's leading green lifestyle magazine, The Green Parent magazine, in 2002. They have two daughters who are home educated and they will exploring the subject of green parenting in their talk on Saturday. What is a green parent? Why is it important to choose sustainable parenting now? And sharing ideas and information on making family life a joyful, eco adventure.
Check out www.thegreenparent.co.uk/ for info.
Transition Medicine: The Future of the Healthcare in a Post-Oil World - Andrew Johnson MBANT. MAMH. Rir. Nutritional Therapist & Master Herbalist
Saturday 11am - 12pm. Andrew is a Master Herbalist & Nutritional Therapist. He is a truly holistic thinker with an interest in synthesizing ancient traditional healing systems with cutting edge modern research. This workshop will focus on the future of health care in light of potential up and coming world crises. With the economy on the verge of collapse and the availability of oil soon to diminish, as well as the potential effects of climate change, the way our health service currently works is called into question. The workshop will look at 'Off Grid' medicine, integrated health care, the external and internal effects of mass change and much more.
Chris Black - Eco-Community Planning - Chris Black is the founder of many of Somerset's most resilient low impact communities, including Tinkers Bubble and The Kings Hill Community. He is the veteran of many planning battles and has great experience of community establishment and dynamics. Chris will be talking about his latest project The Plotgate Venture that is underway in South Somerset, a 23-acre low-density, low-impact mixed residential development. He will also be available to take your questions on planning regs and other community issues.
Clare Adamson - Urban Growing: Community Solutions. Clare, Director of Education & Outreach, at GROFUN will present an overview of the grofun model, offering practical & fun solutions to getting more local food grown, organically, within urban environments (including the community growing project, Many Hands & the schools project, Learning by Growing). www.grofun.org.uk
Cara Naden - Eco up your homes! - Cara Naden studied a degree in Eco Design at Goldsmiths, University of London and since then has worked in her home city of Bristol for; Bristol City Council Sustainable City Team, The Architecture Centre, White Design Associates, Urbane Environmental Building and The Recycling Consortium. In 2005 she moved to Somerset to work for the Somerset Trust for Sustainable Development and in 2007 she set up Transition Town Langport. Cara currently works for Somerset County Council as the Renewable Energy Advice Officer for home owners and community groups, is the secretary for the community Green Scythe Fair and a Town Councillor for Langport. She is passionate about helping people to build local resilience to peak oil and climate change. Cara will be running a work shop on tips of how to make your home an eco one, with a Q&A session on what you can do in your home and community!
Fergus Drennan - Wild Food Foraging.jpg)
Fergus is in the process of living a year JUST on Wild Food. He will be providing 2 wild food walks around the site and its vicinity. To forage is to search for food and provisions, a very difficult task in a country where nearly all land is privately owned and individual freedoms are carefully curtailed by a long list of intricate laws. Fergus will introduce you to the legalities, challenges and joys of foraging, and the very REAL lifestyle choice this entails.
As well as wild food walks, Fergus will have his newly harvested seaweed supply out to dry and will endeavor to present workshops on making paper out of mushrooms.
Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) stars as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055. He watches 'archive' footage from 2008 and asks: Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Runaway climate change has ravaged the planet by 2055. Pete plays the founder of The Global Archive, a storage facility located in the (now melted) Arctic, preserving all of humanity's achievements in the hope that the planet might one day be habitable again. Or that intelligent life may arrive and make use of all that weve achieved. He pulls together clips of archive news and documentary from 1950-2008 to build a message showing what went wrong and why. The film focuses on 6 human stories that together document the devastating changes that took place, and how they so easily could have been avoided had humanity chosen to. The Age of Stupid is a thought provoking and powerful film that reminds us all of the cusp that we now sit upon, between the ages and with choices lying before us that will set the scene for our children for generations to come.
More to follow....
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