Bountiful Bristol Bulletin

SUBURBAN FUTURES

Designing sustainable neighbourhoods
Exhibition: Main Gallery
20 March ­ 8 June, 2008
Like them or loathe them, the ‘leafy suburbs’ are where the vast majority of
us live. But challenges such as housing shortage and climate change mean
that the suburbs face potential radical change. Can we respond by creating
neighbourhoods that are low-carbon, healthy and happy places to live?
This thought-provoking exhibition sets out the key issues and asks how we
might make outer urban areas more sustainable. (more…)

A talk by Megan Quinn - film maker of Power of Community - How Cuba survived
Peak Oil.
Tuesday 7.30 pm on Monday 1st April
At Easton Community Centre, Kilburn St, Easton, BS5 9AW.
Megan will cover the basics of peak oil and climate change, but focus on the
potential solutions including curtailment strategies for housing,
transportation and food, and the importance of local community living and
community values in addressing the challenges at hand.
Followed by an open space session.
£3 donation on the door

For those who cant make that date Transition Bristol are screening film The Power of
Community also
At 7pm on Monday 31st March
At The Pickle Factory, All Hallows Rd, Easton

Have you ever dreamed of growing your own food and rearing your own animals but never thought you had the skills or space to get started?

Are you fed up with relying on shops and supermarkets for your every need?”

Then….why not join in with the GROFUN scheme OR contact KEO Films-the makers of River Cottage.

They want families with no experience of this sort of thing who are ready to commit to an experiment in self-sufficiency.

To find out more about this life-changing challenge please e mail rivercottage@keofilms.com or call 0845 8672694 and leave a message or phone 07811 443961 and ask to speak to Vanessa or Charlotte.

(I’m thinking of proposing that they come make a programme about GROFUN instead-it would be much better, tension, sweat, tears, compost, drama, slugs and laughter!!!!)

In other news-I have been interviewed by, not one, but two major broadsheets in as many days!!!! Yep, The Independent and The Telegraph have both been sniffing about the GROFUN headquarters (my bedroom) !!!

Look out for something in The Independent a week today or the following Thurs!

How exciting this all is………but its nothing without you-so join up to the scheme if youre at all interested and book in your Action Days asap and lets get things rolling!

Anyone interested in GROFUN is invited along to another informal meeting at The Albany, Shaftesbury Avenue, Montpelier, Wed the 19th, 6.30 for 7 where I’ll also be screening the film. There’s no obligation to sign-up its just a chance to find out more…….

Gro-well.

Dear BBB Readers,

I am proud to report that the short film we made which chronicles the first year of the GROFUN Project is now on the web!

With the help of Kyra, a local film maker/editor and Naomi it is great that I can now point those interested to an engaging and informative film to further promote the benefits of this growing, grass-roots project. My friend Steve produced the music especially for this film.

Thankyou Steve

You can watch the film here and comment or go to and watch and comment there. In terms of promotion of the scheme YouTube probably has bit more clout!

Please feel free to leave constructive comments, but go easy, much of the footage was unuseable due to poor sound or light quality and the final cut is the best it could have been with the raw material we had available. It’s not exactly Palme d’Or stuff, but it’s sort of innocent in tone dont you think?

Sustainable Solutions and Survival International are showing the film ‘The Heart of the world’ - a film about the Kogi people of Columbia who have a message to give to the world.
Their survival is under threat and so are many other indigenous tribes in the world. This will be followed by a short film by Survival International and a discussion.
Event is free
Venue-the Fielden Theatre at the City Academy, Russell Town Avenue
Time - 7.15 for 7.30 start on Thursday November 8th
Bar and refreshments available before the film.

“The Power of Community”

Film showing & discussion

Monday 15th October

7pm-9:30pm

Central Friends Meeting House, River Street, BS2 9DG (map)

“End of Suburbia”

Film showing & discussion

Thursday 25th October

7pm-9:30pm

St Werburghs Community Centre, Horley Road, BS2 9TJ (map)

“An Inconvenient Truth”

Film showing & discussion

Thursday 1st November

7pm-9:30pm

Create Centre, Smeaton Road, BS1 6XN (map)

“Post Peak Agriculture”

Talk & discussion with Patrick Holden (Director, Soil Association)

Wednesday 14th November

7pm-9:30pm

Redland Friends Meeting House, 126 Hampton Road,  (map)

On today’s Times Online site appears a nice little piece on a project very, very similar to ours in S. London called Food Up Front. This scheme has 34 gardens participating which I suppose is why it has generated this many ‘column inches’!
GROFUN gets mentioned though and this Yahoo site linked up to-near the bottom of the article and on my browser the word GROFUN appears red! Yours too?
Check it out! It’s a really motivating read. We need to get more people relocalizing and sharing. The time is ripe!

andykisaragi

Just a few things I thought deserved a mention on here, but didn’t want to write a whole separate entry about each one…

People’s Republic of Stokes Croft
Maybe everyone knows about this already and I’m massively behind the times, but you know all the great arty / grafitti stuff that’s been going up on Stokes Croft, around Turbo Island and the Jamaica Street studios..? Well I didn’t realise but it’s all part of a massive (in ambition) geurilla art project all around the area. They’ve got big plans, so if you’re an artist and fancy prettying up the place a little, check out their site.

Zero Carbon Britain
This is a report put together by people from CAT, where I’m studying, on how Britain can reduce it’s carbon emissions to zero, relying upon it’s own resources, by 2027. The website is here and will have the full downloadable report on there in the next few days (or you can order a hardcopy if you like. Apparently they’re very pretty. You materialistic swine.) It’s been getting a fair bit of press, eg in the Guardian, and they’re off to the House of Commons to present it later this month. I’m not usually one for top down, government policy approaches to things, but if anyone can come up with a good government policy it’s these guys. Whether they’ll be paid any attention is another matter, but spread the word, the more we talk about this stuff, the more they have to listen…

and finally
…I enjoyed this cute advert for wind power…

Dear friend

We work for a small environmental non profit in Oxford, England which specialised in public communication about climate change. Although we always welcome initiatives aiming to increase public awareness we don’t think that the Live Earth concerts are doing enough to encourage new songs or support the amazing talent of people who are really trying to say something powerful or orginal. And, to be honest, we’re skeptical of the big rock star approach to big issues.

So we had a brainwave. We thought it would be fun to create a web based parallel concert called Alive Earth for everyone who has something they want to say.

(more…)

A series of “films that make you think’ at the Festival of Ideas is coming soon. Each will be preceded by a “Salon” in The Hub (35 King Street, Bristol) from 5 pm each day, discussing the issues raised in the films. I hope you’ll find the selection interesting and will call in on the salon(s) and see the films - they’re all in The Watershed at 6 pm.

The films are: (more…)

Dear supporter,

The Evening Post poll is still open for voting! If you are one of the people who
had difficulty finding the poll the other day, try one of the following:

1. Type “http://tinyurl.com/2nz7e8″; into your web-browsers address
bar and press return.

2. Type “http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/”; into your web-browsers
address bar and press return. Click on “local news headlines” and
click on the link to “vote on our opinion polls”.

It’s a close vote so please make sure your opinion is registered.

Good luck to everyone speaking or attending the meeting in Weston-
super-Mare tonight!

Yours,

Stop Bristol Airport Expansion

andykisaragi

Good headline eh?

Democracy Now! reported last Thursday on a train crash in Minot, North Dakota back in 2002. A 112-car train was derailed and an explosion leaked hazardous chemicals - 240,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia - into the atmosphere, leaving a plume of vapour drifting through the town. Anhydrous ammonia burns eyes, skin and lungs on a brief exposure - prolonged exposure can shut down the respiratory system entirely. Hundreds in the town were hospitalised; one was killed.

So far, so horrible. But what’s this got to do with the media?

Well, all six of the town’s local radio stations were owned by media giant Clearchannel. When the train derailed and the town started to fill with noxious gases, panic ensued. Residents who called 911 were told to listen to KCJB, the town’s designated local emergency broadcaster, for instructions. When they tuned in they were surprised to hear nothing but the usual smooth talking djs and Britney classics. Tune to the other local stations. Smooth talking. Britney classics.
(more…)

You’re invited to a free screening of Inconvenient Truth at the City Academy, Russel Town Rd, Easton, Bristol
6.30pm on Tuesday 6th Feb
The film wull be followed by a panel discussion on the impacts of climate change and what we’re going to do about it.

andykisaragi
Bristol Community fm have recently been awarded Brisol’s first community radio broadcast licence. They are scheduled to start broadcasting in April, and now is the time to get involved. There’s 2 meetings this week - unfortunately the first one is firmly in the past (Tuesday evening) but I only found out about them last night so not much we can do about that… Anyway the next meeting is tomorrow (Friday 19th January) at the Beacon Centre, Russell Town Avenue, Lawrence Hill (entrance at end of car park to City Academy). It’s for anyone who’d like to get involved in any way - presenting, interviewing, reasearching, writing, producing, engineering, etc etc. If you can’t make it to the meeting get in touch via the website.