This
page includes news
and background
information about Sustainable Thornbury.
We are planning a series of film shows and talks in the villages around Thornbury during the autumn and winter of 2009-10. Each event will be in a different village with a different programme but all with the theme of "Time to think about the future" and the subjects of climate change and peak oil. They will all start at 7:30pm.
These events will all be free, thanks to funding from South Gloucestershire Council, Thornbury Town Council, Alveston Parish Council and the Co-operative Group.
The provisional dates and places are given on the events page.
We showed the new feature film The
Age of Stupid on Friday 19th June at the Cossham Hall in
Thornbury. The event was sold out with 120 tickets sold, and we turned a few away.
The film stars Pete Postlethwaite and is set in 2055. Pete Postlethwaite plays an archivist who is looking back at how stupid people were not to do anything about global warming. See the Age of Stupid website, including a trailer and posters.
After the film show there was a question and answer session with a panel consisting of our MP Steve Webb, Paul Ashford (member of the International Panel on Climate Change), Ian Page (member of International Futures Forum) and Chris Sunderland (Agora).
Download the poster (PDF 592kB) or the handbill (PDF 180kB).
This year's Give-it-Away
Take-it-Away day
was on Sunday June 7th in Rock Street
car park in Thornbury. 400 cars came with items to give away. The
weather stayed dry until the afternoon when the heavens opened and we
packed up.
South Gloucestershire Council has generously given us a grant of over £500 under their small grant scheme. We are very grateful for their support. The grant was to help with a range of running costs, including organising film shows and talks in Thornbury and nearby villages.
The Co-operative group has also given us a grant of £150 from their community fund towards our programme of films and talks planned for the winter of 2009-10.
Sustainable Thornbury has been granted Transition Initiative status. To apply, we had to satisfy strict criteria and complete an application. We officially became a Transition Initiative on the 11th April 2009. The label Transition Initiative is used for what used to be called a Transition Town, because there are now Transition Villages, Transition Cities, Transition Areas and Transition Counties. We are number 154 on the list of all the official transition initiatives in the world.
Ben Brangwyn of Transition Initiatives wrote about Sustainable Thornbury:
"Well done for starting off your initiative so long ago and being an inspiration"
Will
the oil run out? This was the subject on 28th April for Ian
Page, who is
a
former futurist for
Hewlett Packard, now a consultant with International
Futures Forum.
He said that oil production seems likely to decline to nothing for the
next few decades while demand will climb sharply if the recession ends.
With bio-fuels and more efficient cars we can carry on for a few more
years, but the shortage will hit us about 2020. Nuclear electricity
will hit a similar shortage of uranium in a decade or two.
A discussion agreed that we should aim to produce
basics such as
food more locally, so that we are not dependent on lorries or
international trade.
Sustainable Thornbury is a community group focussed on the market town of Thornbury and the surrounding area in South Gloucestershire, England. We are concerned about global warming and peak oil, so we are trying to make our town more sustainable. We are a Transition Town. More ...
The group is currently focussing on more local production of food. We have a campaign to get more allotments in Thornbury and Alveston. We look after the Thornbury community orchard and we have a Grow-your-own-Food self-help group. More ...
We have run projects and campaigns on local food, energy efficiency, reducing plastic bags and reusing goods. More ...
We sometimes have public talks, film shows and discussions for anyone who wants to know more about climate change, energy, food, waste, transport and related topics.
Most of our projects and campaigns are run by working groups. We have meetings most months, usually in the evenings, for the whole group and for each of the working groups. If you would like to come to meetings and help out, please contact us. A list of planned meetings and events is on our Diary dates page.
We need more members so that we can show we have the support of local people. Membership is free, so please join us.