Welcome to Transition Horsham!

Transition Horsham is a community group of local Horsham area residents who are concerned about the effects that such events as climate change, peak oil and economic problems will have on our lives in the near future. We support the ideas and practical solutions of the Transition Towns movement set up by Rob Hopkins in 2006 in Totnes, Devon, where people like us wanted to do something positive to build in flexibility and resilience to their community, so that we not only survive future changes, but thrive.

So Transition Horsham is all about building community networks, sharing and learning new skills. It is about cutting our carbon emissions through establishing new community based ways of producing energy and heating our houses efficiently, reducing our individual carbon footprint, recycling and reducing waste. It is about growing healthy local produce, encouraging local biodiversity through seed swaps, mending clothes and knitting, baking bread and making preserves, learning more through reading groups and film nights, having fun and travelling lightly.

We have a number of projects on the go, so look through the website, join us on Facebook, check out the events page, sign up to get notifications, and if you think there is something you could help with or want to start, then don't hesitate, come to an event and let us know. We look forward to getting to know you.

To find out more about the Transition idea, you can start here.

Blood of the Amazon

The Transition movement aims to help prepare us for the time when oil becomes scarce and expensive for us to use the way we use it now. Sometimes, however, we should look at the high price that other people are paying for our addiction to oil. This is a trailer from Nicola Peel's documentary Blood of the Amazon. It follows her journey down the Amazon researching the effects of the oil industry on the environment and indigenous people.

Nicola Peel, film-maker and environmental campaigner, showed this very disturbing film at a well-attended gathering kindly hosted by Clare and John Davison at Sedgwick Park House on Friday evening, January 13th.

In the film and the slides and talk that followed, Nicola also showed us the projects she had launched to decontaminate the land by mycoremediation using mushrooms and to provide clean drinking water by harvesting and filtering rainwater. She also had on display a selection craft products from Ecuador.

The event raised £480 which will be nearly enough to provide clean drinking water for five families affected by oil pollution in Ecuador. You can see photos of the event here.

Part of the narrative of the film relates to a long-running legal battle between the indigenous people and Chevron, which acquired Texaco, the company which, in a joint venture with the Ecuadorean state-owned oil company, Petroecuador, drilled the oil wells in the first place. You can read about recent twists in this battle here, here and here.

You can see more about Nicola's activities at her website Eyes of Gaia and also on The Guardian website.

Fracking in Sussex

"Fracking", or "hydraulic fracturing", is a process used to extract natural gas and oil from shale rocks. In recent years shale gas has emerged as a potential major new source of energy, offering greater energy independence for the USA and for several European countries, including the UK.

Unfortunately, this may come at a high environmental price - globally from greenhouse gas emissions and locally through the pollution of water supplies by toxic chemicals used in the process. This video gives some idea of the concerns about the environmental hazards.

This is very much a local issue. At Balcolme, not far from Horsham, planning permission has been granted for exploratory drilling and there is interest in areas closer to Horsham.

A public meeting was held at Balcolme on Wednesday, January 11th and the frackers were left in no doubt about local feeling on the issue. You can find details here.

More information from a group opposed to fracking in the UK can be found here.

Whilst most politicians and economists talk about economic recovery and a return to growth, some people are saying that the days of growth are already over. In this video, Richard Heinberg of the Post-Carbon Institute in the USA sets out his view. Well worth 7 minutes of your time - whether or not you agree with him.