Spring Newsletter 2010
Spring is in the air, the gardens are overflowing with winter greens and the spring crops are not far off. We hope lots of good stuff is happening with you, and here are a few extra offerings from us – if there is space in what I know are often overloaded lives. However, whatever the outcome of present political manoeuvrings, there will be plenty to be done as we each move towards more sustainable, connected and resilient lives, and we aim to support each other in happily making more and more of our own changes.
T uesday 31st August - Ride the Talk on Climate Change
He has the passion. He has the knowledge. He has the bike! See website http://www.ridethetalk.com.au/ John Knox, who is cycling around Australia for action on climate change, will give his entertaining and engaging presentation on the practical steps that ordinary people can take to reduce their energy consumption, save money AND reduce their carbon footprint in Newcastle this Tuesday (31 August).
The event - Newcastle Room at Newcastle City Hall, from 7:00pm (for 7:15) to approximately 9pm. Entry is by donation. Funds will go toward venue costs and to John Knox's Ride the Talk project. (The presentation will immediately follow the Hunter Valley Research Foundation's lecture by Bernard Salt on the very important Population question (from 6pm to 7pm at City Hall).
Saturday 4th September - Bee-keeping in your backyard? Ideas Café
This is part of our monthly Ideas Café gathering, and this time the delightful Gina Cranson is giving a talk on the wonders and value of having your own beehive, with the sweet outflowings of this easy backyard addition. 2:30 to 4pm at Dimitri’s café in Hamilton down the lane from the Euro Bar (child friendly and coffee has improved).
Sunday 12th September - Sustainable House Day 2010
I know we are preaching to the converted, but some of these houses do have some great ideas and quirky solutions to tricky problems, so if you are not there yet, you may find this informative and encouraging – see our website for more details and flyer.
Sunday 12th September - Lake Macquarie Living Smart Festival
The inaugural Living Smart Festival in Lake Macquarie, Speers Point Park, Speers Point, from 9:30am - 5pm
About the Festival: an inspirational and educational celebration of sustainable living in Lake Macquarie. The Living Smart Festival aims to engage people on relevant sustainability topics in creative ways such as through interactive workshops, music, dance, art, performance and food. Transition Newcastle will have a stall there.
Website: further general information about the festival is available at LMCC website, follow links to 'environment' - 'Living Smart Festival'. A sustainable community is an involved community.
Tuesday 28th September - Open Space
Weird name, effective meeting space for getting things moving, the Hamilton Baptist Church Hall, Lindsay Street Opposite Gregson Park, Hamilton ( 7:15PM till 9:15PM)
Our monthly Open Space meetings are for people interested in helping to move Newcastle towards sustainability and resilience. Come and propose your own ideas, issues or projects and see if you can inspire others to help you, or contribute your ideas, time and/or skills to others.
Progress on existing projects will be briefly discussed, and then the meeting will be opened to new ideas, issues or projects, with time and space made available for groups of people interested in proposed topics to discuss them.
Open Space is an approach for hosting meetings and conferences focused on a specific and important purpose or task - but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme. In a Transition Newcastle Open Space meeting the overarching purpose is "moving Newcastle towards sustainability and resilience".
You can read more about Open Space, and see a video about it, here. An old Indian saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” Come along and get your toes in the water.
Fri. 22nd and Sat. 23nd October - Fair Share festival and School of Social Justice
The Fair Share Festival is organised to go from Friday 22nd 4pm-8.30pm, then Saturday 23rd 9am-4.30pm and will be held at Hamilton Public School, Tudor St, Newcastle. It an Eco-Social Expo and School, (10-12 workshops) aimed to educate and inspire the public towards achieving sustainable and caring society, so it includes a holistic focus on all 3 of economic, social and ecological sectors, as being all inter-dependent (as also now taught in Permaculture meaning "Permanently sustainable culture"). We'll focus on... equitable, sustainable, community-strengthening financial/economic and eco-social systems.... as ethical, enduring alternatives to the "greed is good" system which have produced not only boom-and-bust disasters like the GFC -Global Financial Crisis - but great costs to communities (the poor in particular), culture, the environment and health.
The still-unravelling disasters of both the GFC- Global Financial Crisis - and the eco-system crisis of species extinction and climate change, necessitate changes to business practices and structures, economic policies, attitudes and life-styles....from excessive individualism, greed and materialism, to a new basis of co-operation, respect for the community of all species, and the strengthening of human communities.
FSF is also a Festival, with exhibitors, displays and "edutainment" breaks of relevant issue-highlighting drama, comedy/satire, songs and even a magician with a sustainability-teaching show.
See our website for more info. www.transitionnewcastle.org.au
Spring Newsletter 2010
Spring is in the air, the gardens are overflowing with winter greens and the spring crops are not far off. We hope lots of good stuff is happening with you, and here are a few extra offerings from us – if there is space in what I know are often overloaded lives. However, whatever the outcome of present political manoeuvrings, there will be plenty to be done as we each move towards more sustainable, connected and resilient lives, and we aim to support each other in happily making more and more of our own changes.
Tuesday 31st August - Ride the Talk on Climate Change
He has the passion. He has the knowledge. He has the bike! See website http://www.ridethetalk.com.au/
John Knox, who is cycling around Australia for action on climate change, will give his entertaining and engaging presentation on the practical steps that ordinary people can take to reduce their energy consumption, save money AND reduce their carbon footprint in Newcastle this Tuesday (31 August).
The event - Newcastle Room at Newcastle City Hall, from 7:00pm (for 7:15) to approximately 9pm. Entry is by donation. Funds will go toward venue costs and to John Knox's Ride the Talk project. (The presentation will immediately follow the Hunter Valley Research Foundation's lecture by Bernard Salt on the very important Population question (from 6pm to 7pm at City Hall).
Saturday 4th September - Bee-keeping in your backyard? Ideas Café
This is part of our monthly Ideas Café gathering, and this time the delightful Gina Cranson is giving a talk on the wonders and value of having your own beehive, with the sweet outflowings of this easy backyard addition. 2:30 to 4pm at Dimitri’s café in Hamilton down the lane from the Euro Bar (child friendly).
Sunday 12th September - Sustainable House Day 2010
I know we are preaching to the converted, but some of these houses do have some great ideas and quirky solutions to tricky problems, so if you are not there yet, you may find this informative and encouraging – see our website for more details and flyer.
Sunday 12th September - Lake Macquarie Living Smart Festival
The inaugural Living Smart Festival in Lake Macquarie, Speers Point Park, Speers Point, from 9:30am - 5pm
About the Festival: an inspirational and educational celebration of sustainable living in Lake Macquarie. The Living Smart Festival aims to engage people on relevant sustainability topics in creative ways such as through interactive workshops, music, dance, art, performance and food. Transition Newcastle will have a stall there.
Website: further general information about the festival is available at www.lakemac.nsw.gov.au - follow links to 'environment' - 'Living Smart Festival'. A sustainable community is an involved community.
Tuesday 28th September - Open Space
Weird name, effective meeting space for getting things moving, the Hamilton Baptist Church Hall, Lindsay Street Opposite Gregson Park, Hamilton ( 7:15PM till 9:15PM)
Our monthly Open Space meetings are for people interested in helping to move Newcastle towards sustainability and resilience. Come and propose your own ideas, issues or projects and see if you can inspire others to help you, or contribute your ideas, time and/or skills to others.
Progress on existing projects will be briefly discussed, and then the meeting will be opened to new ideas, issues or projects, with time and space made available for groups of people interested in proposed topics to discuss them.
Open Space is an approach for hosting meetings and conferences focused on a specific and important purpose or task - but beginning without any formal agenda, beyond the overall purpose or theme. In a Transition Newcastle Open Space meeting the overarching purpose is "moving Newcastle towards sustainability and resilience".
You can read more about Open Space, and see a video about it, here. An old Indian saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” Come along and get your toes in the water.
Friday and Saturday 22nd & 23nd October
Fair Share festival and School of Social Justice - auspiced by Hunter Permaculture Region and Transition Newcastle Inc. Fri 4pm-8.30pm, Saturday 9am-4.30pm at Hamilton Public School, Tudor St, Newcastle
What is the Fair Share Festival - FSF ?
It's in other words an Eco-Social Expo and School, (10-12 workshops) aimed to educate and inspire the public towards achieving sustainable and caring society, so it includes a holistic focus on all 3 of economic, social and ecological sectors, as being all inter-dependent (as also now taught in Permaculture meaning "Permanently sustainable culture"). We'll focus on... equitable, sustainable, community-strengthening
financial/economic and eco-social systems.... as ethical, enduring alternatives to the "greed is good" system which have produced not only boom-and-bust disasters like the GFC -Global Financial Crisis -
but great costs to communities (the poor in particular), culture, the environment and health.
The still-unravelling disasters of both the GFC- Global Financial Crisis - and the eco-system crisis of species extinction and climate change, necessitate changes to business practices and structures, economic policies, attitudes and life-styles....from excessive individualism, greed and materialism, to a new basis of co- operation, respect for the community of all species, and the strengthening of human communities.
FSF is also a Festival, with exhibitors, displays and "edutainment" breaks of relevant issue-highlighting drama, comedy/satire, songs and even a magician with a sustainability-teaching show.
See our website for more info.