The new phrase seems to be 'transition town', Stroud is trying to be one or at least some people in Stroud are promoting a citizens alternative to oil addiction.
Felicity Lawrence who is one of my favourite journalists spells out the link between food production and oil, every carrot seems to come with a spilt litre of petrol:
How we use oil
· 130kg packaging made from oil-derived plastics is consumed by British households each year. Two-thirds of it is used in food production
· 57miles is the average distance a tonne of freight now travels by road. In 1953 it was 21 miles
· 95% of our food products require the use of oil, and the supply of food accounts for 21% of Britain's energy use
· 3.5 litres of oil is needed to produce half a kilogram of steak
this is from her article on Lampeter, which to be honest I find slightly depressing, to succeed such projects need to make big structural change, political change, yet we are being glued into unsustainable structures every day (look at the expansion of air freight!) and green needs to reach new communities, see what you think here.
It will be interesting to see when I visit tomorrow whether Stroud is making progress against 'peak oil'.
I also wanted to flag up Councillor Phillip Booth's blog which shows that he can bridge the gap between practical action to help people in his ward and the big debates about ecology and social justice.
Stroud Transition town wiki here.
We need a big multi language wiki on practical ecology, any takers?
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