Amelia’s Magazine | Brixton makes transition

The nail bomb attacks of ’99, viagra buy sale hosting cannabis festivals, about it gangs, guns and drugs… Brixton has seen it all, not necessarily to its good fortune. Times are moving in Brixton’s favour this week with the announcement that it is set to be London’s first Transition Town.

Great news, but what exactly is a Transition Town? Well, its all about change for a positive future. Aiming to rethink Brixton’s approach to living, it works with the idea of reconnecting to the planet and community. This is achieved by breaking down the issues to lower energy use in food, work, transport, health and general culture.

As the brainchild of the Lambeth Climate Action Group, their motivation (apart from the fact that we are nearing an irreversible way of living) is to keep an imaginative, practical and fun outlook during the course of the transition, resulting in a local community which is interconnected, resilient and self-relient. Major issues within the project will be to spread awareness of Peak Oil and Climate Change, to motivate a significant number of people to engage in the change, to record and demonstrate the benefit of reducing carbon readings, and finally to plan and create the Brixton Energy Descent Action Plan.

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Amelia supporting the Brixton Transition Town’s Local Economy Day launching a one day trial of the local currency, the Brixton Brick back in June

We may have missed the opening talks in early October, but fear not. There are many ways to get involved. Now run under TTBrixton, the transition town movement has 100 towns and initiatives run worldwide. Brixton is merely the first to launch in a major city. If you too share our concern that the our political powers are not going to deliver a safe and fossil-free future for our future generation, have a look at the initiative 350.

The 350 degrees campaign

Not only is this group intelligently named (that’s the carbon-dioxide humanity needs to get back to in order to avoid runaway climate change) it aims to create an international following and really do something about the state of climate change. Their task, as they describe it, “to make enough noise that we can’t be easily ignored.” The United Nations is working to make an international agreement to reduce carbon emissions which will be completed by the Copenhagen conference December 2009. This treaty however is not drastic enough, and amongst other aspects 350 wishes to put pressure on the powers nation-wide to ensure change is made.

We will only be listened to in force. Help us make a difference, even if the actions aren’t quite your cup of tea, there are many ways we can contribute to provide a sustainable future.

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