After harvest - Julian Paren

Transition Black Isle is about helping Black Isle communities thrive in the face of Climate Change. We run community markets, we support local food and drink producers, we help people grow more food, we encourage non-car travel, support energy saving and promote reduction of single use plastics - and much more. If we in the Black Isle work together to manage more of our own resources, we can thrive despite whatever climate change and the end of fossil fuels throws our way.

All of us will be affected, all of us can do something for our lives and our children's lives. How can we help each other?

Welcome to a world in Transition

Community

LOCAL people are coming together, taking positive, practical steps to tackle the biggest challenges we face and create a resilient Black Isle. Strong, vibrant communities will find themselves much better equipped to move forward in the face of over-dependence on fossil fuels and the potentially disastrous climate change which is likely to result.

Fossil Fuels and Climate Change

Our way of life is largely powered by fossil fuels like oil and coal. Practically all aspects of the lifestyle we take for granted depend on oil. Food, heating, transport, agriculture, hospitals, medicines; modern western society revolves around the assumption that we have - and will continue to have - plentiful supplies of cheap fossil fuels. But the energy cost of extracting them is increasing and carbon dioxide emissions from burning them are a major cause of global warming and source of pollution. We must leave the fossil fuels in the ground, develop alternative energy sources and reduce total energy consumption.

Climate change is happening. The October 2018 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned there is only 12 years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5C and avoid catastrophic environmental breakdown. Sir David Attenborough told the December 2018 UN Climate Change conference in Poland: “Right now we are facing a manmade disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”

Challenge and Opportunity

Looking these issues squarely in the face it becomes clear we must adapt and change the way we live, which means being prepared to adopt a more frugal lifestyle than we have become accustomed to. Getting people involved in making our communities resilient and helping to push the change to a low carbon society is what Transition Black Isle is all about.

The good news is it's not all about doom and gloom. Living more locally is more fulfilling, more rewarding and ultimately a lot more fun than rushing in pursuit of an unsustainable lifestyle with barely time to think, let alone get to know our neighbours. It can and should be "more a party than a protest".

Find out more about TBI and get involved!

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Highland Good Food Conversation

Would you like to be part of creating a local food system that is better for the planet, better for people and better for producers? Find out more about the Highland Good Food Conversation. This project, managed by MOO Food and jointly funded by TBI and the Pebble Trust, aims to support and inspire people throughout the Highlands to come together to create a food system that is fair to all.

View Black Isle gardens

We'd love to see more garden pictures - have you sent yours?

How should I send my pictures?
Attach them to an email to gardens@transitionblackisle.org . This will be forwarded to Peter Moffatt, the website editor, who will set up the pictures on the Black Isle Gardens page. He is the only person who will see your email address, and it will not be revealed to anyone else, unless you want people to be able to contact you, in which case it could appear on the page with your pictures, beside your name (see below) and location.

How many pictures, what size and shape?
We suggest between two and six pictures per garden. Even numbers will make for a neater page, as they will be displayed as side by side pairs on large screens, and in a single column on phones. A 'normal' size and aspect ratio is best, rather than images which are square or elongated in either direction. Upright or 'portrait' images are ok, but will display better in pairs. Number your pictures if you wish them to be diplayed in a particular sequence, and you can add descriptions or comments which will appear as captions to the images. Again, captioned images will display better in pairs.

What other information should I send?
We would prefer all the pictures we display to be attributed rather than anonymous, but will not make this an absolute requirement. We will ask that names accompany all contributions, so please give your name(s) in addition to your email address, and your general location. Say if you do not want your name to be shown with your pictures, and if you would like your email address to be shown.

How will the web page be organised?
The page will be Home / Black Isle Gardens , and each entry will consist of the name and location of the contributor followed by their set of pictures. Successive contributions will be added at the top of the page, so the most recent will be at the top and the oldest at the bottom.

Can I send more pictures later?
Of course. Your garden will change as we move into summer, and we don't yet know how long it will be before we will be able to go round peeking at other people's gardens in person. So please get your cameras out and start sending in those pictures.

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Food and Growing

TBI has produced a comprehensive Growing Guide (still available) for the north of Scotland, run several series of 'Grow North' workshops on a range of growing topics, and bought an apple press, which is very popular for juice making in the autumn.

Climate change

We provide information about the serious threat posed by climate change and the need to drastically reduce carbon emissions caused by our burning of fossil fuels. We report on governments' climate change plans, on activists' climate protests and on 'Green New Deal' proposals for a more sustainable world.

Black Isle Larder

The Black Isle Larder website replaces an earlier 'Your Local Larder' booklet which had become out of date. It provides up to date information both to local people and visitors about Black Isle producers and suppliers offering food and drink largely sourced here.

Travel and Tourism

TBI's Million Miles project reduced car use significantly, and we continue to encourage public transport and cycling, with an associated bike hire business and publication of an Active Travel map and guides to Black Isle cycle routes.

Plastics and waste

With pollution from single-use plastics a top cause of environmental concern, a group has been set up within TBI to exchange ideas and information on the issue and ultimately to change the attitudes and actions of people and businesses on the Black Isle.

Potato Day

In March each year TBI's most popular event offers gardeners the opportunity to select their seed potatoes from around 70 different varieties at a fixed price per tuber. Add onion setts, all day refreshments, variety and growing information and advice and a seed swap stall, and it's no wonder it draws the crowds.

Politics, Trauma and Empathy: Breakthrough to a politics of the heart?

Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick

From the Medium website, via SCCAN

Can this be a turning point for our species? Do we have time to transform our system or are we already committed through climate feedback loops to the destruction of the ecological systems we rely on to survive?. . . . Our current political system is responsible for dizzying inequalities in wealth and opportunity, resulting in massive suffering for billions of people. It is impacting on essential earth systems to the point that they are unable to maintain the benign balance of the last 10,000 years. There are, as is repeatedly pointed out, at most only a handful of years left to address this effectively. Looking at humans’ track record, and at our current inability to organise ourselves to work together on any issue that counts, the prospects are not looking too good.

Many have long been at rock bottom through the impacts of a system that impoverishes billions for the enrichment of a handful of billionaires. That temporary state of imbalance is almost over. There is no way for it to persist without taking everyone down with it. So here near our collective rock bottom, can we finally acknowledge the depth of change we need to make? Can we face up to the tough shared task of putting together a completely different decision making system?

Read the whole (long) article (It might have been more effective had it been shorter)

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