a mad dash down to dover

we heard on monday night (21st september) that one of the crew of the explorer (the 32ft yacht that was due to have taken us from lowestoft to ostend) was sick and so they had to pull out.
It was time for plan b! We'd put in an advert in private eye and had a reply from the blue heron, based in dover, so i bought myself a fast touring bike to replace the heavy old mountain bike that had been towing my trailer all the way from wales, and managed to do the trip in four days, sleeping at the side of the road for just two hours on thursday,

International teleconference, University of East Anglia, Norwich

academics emit vast amounts of carbon in flying off to attend international conferences, so we thought we'd show them a better way - using the telephone.
We had clive hamilton, professor of public ethics at the australian national university, fabrina furtado of jubilee south from brazil, along with professor tim lenton, professor neil adger, and dr teresa belton from the university of east anglia, discussing what we could do about climate change

Norwich

I stayed for three nights in my home city of Norwich, where the caravan had organised a number of activities, thanks to Mark, Lesley, Emma and Jenn.
We started off with a performance of 'the carbon chronicles' (an improvised environmental opera) at the united reformed church on saturday 19th september, followed by a zero carbon festival, complete with climate friendly food provided by norwich green party, and another zero carbon concert by seize the day using bicycle powered electricity, where they sung about their campaign for the workers of Vestas on the Isle of Wight, where our only wind turbine factory has just been closed.

swaffham

swaffham is home to the only wind turbine in the world, built in 1999, where the public is allowed up the tower. I went up and appreciated the amazing views over the surrounding countryside, and interviewed stuart weaver, from the ecotech environmental education centre associated with the turbine, about the turbine and the relationship of ecotricity, owners of the turbine, with the local community; far from resenting it, they actually asked for another

titchwell

titchwell is an rspb reserve in north west norfolk which is threatened by rising sea levels caused by climate change. i interviewed interviewed robert coleman about the adaptations they are making to the reserve and also more generally about the impact climate change has on birds

kings lynn

members of transition kings lynn and kings lynn bicycle users group (one of them on a recumbent trike) cycled into kings lynn with me, then held a meeting on how we should cut carbon emissions

transition ely

joined members of transition ely on their stall at ely farmers market

histon and impington

these two villages, just north of cambridge, have made great strides in cutting their carbon emissions. I interviewed siobhan mellon, of histon and impington climate change action, about how they catalysed this

cambridge

Took part in a meeting organised by Transition Cambridge and Cambridge Carbon Footprint, where I spoke about the Zero Carbon Caravan, Tony Juniper spoke about the Green New Deal, and Ro Randall, a psychotherapist, spoke about how to engage ordinary people in fighting climate change

transition bedford

took part in a meeting with transition bedford where i spoke about the caravan and we watched the film 'in transition', a very inspiring look at what transition towns are achieving

zero carbon flight

sounds too good to be true doesn't it? But flylight, based at sywell aerodrome near northampton, have managed it, using lightweight microlight aircraft powered by lithium ion batteries charged by green electricity. We interviewed paul dewhurst of flylight and made a video of the microlight

permorganics

We visited the Permorganics smallholding near Northampton, which combines organic growing avoiding the use of nitrogen fertilisers (preventing emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide) with permaculture, which uses no-dig growing and prevents the oxidation of carbon in the soil to carbon dioxide

snitterfield actioning climate change

we visited snitterfield, where we stayed at the home of duncan and vicki parker, who have done some great work in getting this small community to reduce their carbon emissions. Duncan and vicki have a small wind turbine and a bank of solar panels in their garden, and are putting in insulation on the inside of their solid-walled cottage

small is ....

we took part in the small is.... festival organised by practical action and engineers without borders at bourton on dunsmore, running a workshop on why to go zero carbon, and how to do it

garden organic

we stopped off at garden organic in ryton on dunsmore, where in addition to viewing the gardens and their seed saving project, we were entertained by seize the day playing a zero carbon concert

leamington spa

transition leamington organised a zero carbon concert, powered by solar electricity, giving an opportunity for a number of local musicians to show off their talent

presteigne

presteigne is an amazing little town, with only a few thousand people, yet having a transition town organisation and holding the world's only electric bike rally, organised by pete mustill, who has a shop in the town, 'on bike' specialising in electric bikes

hereford climate action carnival

Took part in hereford climate action carnival, cycling with lots of other cyclists and the rinky dink musical bicycle around the centre of hereford before taking part in a meeting where i gave a talk about the zero carbon caravan, and paige mitchell gave a talk about her campaign for slower speed limits

greenfinch biocycle

I visited the anaerobic digester for foodwaste run by Greenfinch Biocycle in Ludlow, with members of Ludlow Green Party. This is being used as a pilot and if successful will be the prototype for schemes across the country

centre for alternative technology

visited the centre for alternative technology, which was the inspiration for the zero carbon caravan, with their zero carbon britain report, first published in 2007
I interviewed martin and josie, who are working on the second edition, and made a video of the centre