Thursday 12 December 2019

Building on CleanWheels Success

Our apologies - we have had to delay the Transition Cafe event - this will now be 17th June 2020.

Two years ago Transition Cambridge began a project to put electric cars in the hands of car club members. Our first milestone is in the bag. In July this year the City and County Councils awarded a contract to Enterprise Car Club who put 30 hybrid-electric cars on the streets with ambition to change these for fully electric vehicles as the charging infrastructure becomes available.

Our next challenge is to make sure that the newly instigated Club is successful at displacing old polluting vehicles from our overcrowded roads. So far the CleanWheels team of four Transitioners have been able to push the local authority agenda in phase one, but now we need more help to build confidence in the Car Club model. Fewer shared vehicles are needed to serve numerous households and the costs are divided in proportion. That’s how we push the low-carbon agenda. Come to the Transition Cafe on 18th December and bring ideas on how to target your area with greener transport. 

Experience in Norwich is that a campaign of local advertising can rapidly build the membership around each vehicle and pretty soon its time to add an extra car nearby so that sharing is even more flexible. We can work with the Councils and Enterprise by leafleting and spreading the knowledge about low emission, low maintenance, mobility-as-a-service.

While the public sector and the commercial enterprise hold the reins of the project the voluntary sector (that’s us) can enhance development by using our local knowledge and network to spread the benefits around. Please come to the cafe on Wednesday and find out how, for example you could become a champion for low carbon transport in Cambridge and surrounding villages. Here is a live opportunity to reach out to our communities and make a real difference to transport habits and emissions.

Our apologies - we have had to delay the Transition Cafe event - this will now be 17th June 2020.

Saturday 7 December 2019

Climate Justice: climate change, gender and poverty in Cambridge and beyond

This is a guest post by the Blanca, James and Takashi: the team who ran the Climate Justice Cafe evening:

In late October, Transition Cambridge had the pleasure to hear Susan Buckingham and Sandy McClure discuss climate justice and its relationship with gender inequalities in Cambridge and beyond. Susan Buckingham is an independent researcher and consultant on gender and environmental issues based in Cambridge, and Sandy McClure is the director of philanthropic partnerships at Global Greengrants Fund (GGF) UK.

Susan Buckingham (left) and Sandy McClure (right)


We recorded the event in three parts so you can read on or listen, as you prefer.

Part 1: Blanca's introduction and then Sandy (Blanca's intro is noisy but it gets much better when Sue starts speaking)

Part 2: Sue's talk

Part 3: Questions


Thursday 7 November 2019

Water - are we using too much?


Is this a river or a long narrow pond?

Have you looked at the River Cam lately? It is more like a long narrow pond than a river, the flow is so slow, even after all the rain we had in October. The Environment Agency water situation reports since at least May rate it as ‘Exceptionally low’ which means, based on historical flow, it has been better than this 95% of the time. However in terms of rainfall the current drought is not exceptional - certainly not as bad as in 2010/2011.

The Cam is fed from chalk streams fed from the same aquifer that is used to supply our water. The groundwater levels in this aquifer are also exceptionally low and long sections of the streams have been completely dry at times. This is a serious problem for the natural environment: there are impacts on fish, insects, birds and plants in and around the river and its tributaries. The Environment Agency has described this an 'environmental drought'.

This is why I am organising a Transition Café night on 20th November about water. We will have a number of expert speakers to explain the situation and then we will discuss what we can do about it. Please come if you can. The problem is partly caused by climate change and there are striking parallels to climate change in how we might manage it.

Monday 23 September 2019

What do people in Cambridge think about climate change?

On Saturday some of us from the energy group held a stall at a Community Cleanup Day in East Chesterton. These events are organised by the council. They bring in skips where you can dump stuff that is too large for the household waste bins and they have a bring and take table for stuff that someone else might want. Doing a stall at these events is interesting because they draw in all sorts of people - everyone likes a good rummage to see what they can have for free.

We were trying out a new survey I devised to engage people with. I find surveys useful because (a) people like it when you listen to their opinions and (b) they make you think. This survey had three questions – but lots of possible answers. The three questions were:

  • What concerns you about climate change?
  • What are we doing for climate change?
  • What should the government be doing?

Tuesday 6 August 2019

Transition Café: Practical, Homemade Tips for a More Sustainable Lifestyle

The Transition Café on 24th July was a lively event sharing practical, homemade tips for a more sustainable lifestyle. We  swapped various recipes for cleaning, cosmetics, and food/drinks. The full list comprises laundry detergent, scouring cream, kitchen sink cleaner, shower head cleaner, olive oil mask for hair, gram flour face mask, deodorant, kombucha, fruit vinegar and oat milk. If you missed the event, you can download the booklet with all recipes from the Transition Café website and try them at home.
You can make this pot of deodorant at home. The ingredients are coconut oil, beeswax, sodium bicarbonate, cornstarch, and essential oils. Download all recipes from our website

The Transition Café is a monthly event series with lively conversations, talks, films, workshops and presentations about all the things we are passionate about to build a great community in our city. It takes place in different locations across Cambridge. After the event, everyone is invited to stay to meet like-minded people, network, explore new ideas, and get to know others involved with Transition Cambridge. We have more topics planned through to December: see the Transition Café calendar.

This post is from Myriam and Annuscha, reflecting on our Transition Café evening at OtherSyde, back in July.

Monday 24 June 2019

Streets for Life


This post is by Tony Booth, a member of Extinction Rebellion

On the 6th July, Extinction Rebellion is closing some streets to vehicles in central Cambridge and opening them up for people. Everyone is invited to join our activities, create activities of their own or just enjoy a pollution free stroll along Trumpington Street, Pembroke Street, Downing Street, Regent Street and Tennis Court Road. There will be a children’s area, meditation and yoga space, sports, music, poetry, talks, and a garden. Regent Street will be closed from noon until 5 pm with the other streets emptied from 8 am.


Streets For Life Flier


Cambridge City and Cambridgeshire County Councils have declared climate and biodiversity emergencies. But we have been given no indication of the rapid action that should follow. Boldness is required to urgently cut emissions across the City and County. We are providing an example of what can happen when we stop prevaricating and start to act. ‘Car Free Cambridge’ spent two years campaigning for a car free day in the City, without success. Extinction rebellion believes that the time for petitions has passed and non-violent direct action is now essential if we are to give future generations a chance to flourish.

Helen Buckingham, a haiku writer has sent the following tanka* for our day of action:

play-worn globe
peeling at the poles--
it's a look now or never learn
it's all of our turns to turn
this world around

Please join us!


*Tanka - a Japanese poem in five lines and thirty-one syllables, giving a complete picture of an event or mood.

More information about this event including important exceptions to the road block, can be found on this Facebook event page.

Friday 24 May 2019

Transition Café: How to Change the Climate of our Climate Conversations

This post is from Annuscha, reflecting on our first Transition Cafe evening at OtherSyde, back in February.

Why is it sometimes difficult to raise the topic of climate change with family, friends or colleagues? How can we make conversations easier and more fruitful? The first Transition Café workshop in 2019 provided an opportunity to share thoughts and observations on these topics. We surveyed the kinds of opportunities for conversations which may arise - and which of them are most worth pursuing. We also considered the feelings and attitudes, in ourselves and others, which make things stressful. And we explored the kinds of moves which may put things on a better footing. The workshop was facilitated by Jane Heal. Jane has worked with Cambridge Carbon Footprint for ten years and been a Trustee since 2013. She has lived in Cambridge since 1986 and retired from teaching philosophy at the university in 2012. Fruitful discussions led to the following takeaway points:
  • Honestly share personal experience, positive changes as well as struggles (e.g. what kind of exciting new food items you have discovered since you went vegan, or how difficult it is to find replacements for certain food since you went vegan)
  • Use positive comments as opportunity to share personal, positive experiences (e.g. if someone compliments your dress, say that you found it during a fun charity shop tour with friends)
  • Live the example and inspire people indirectly (e.g. if you went to Spain by train on holiday, tell stories of your adventures on the way)
  • Be “manipulative” and plan (e.g. so that you are prepared if someone, with the intent to corner you, changes the topic to an area where you are less committed.
  • Reflect on conversations and learn from them (e.g. to improve your conversation strategies)
  • Find jokes to give the conversation a light touch (e.g. Two planets meet. The first one asks: "How are you?" - “Not so well", the second answered, "I've got the Homo Sapiens." - “Don't worry," the other replies, "I had the same. That won't last long.”)
  • Sometimes it’s better not to do it all in one go (e.g. plant a seed/new thought and come back to the topic in a later conversation)
  • Acknowledge difficult emotions and step back (e.g. to prevent the conversation from getting tense and heated)
  • Ask questions and be a good listener (e.g. rather than talking uninterruptedly and sounding patronising)
  • “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”, which means that the demand for perfection might decrease the chances of a good or favourable result (e.g. if you try to persuade someone to go vegan, you might decrease the chance of that person reducing their meat consumption or going vegetarian)

Monday 15 April 2019

Swapping Toys in Cambridge


Mountains of toys and clothes that won't go to waste.
On Saturday at Storey’s Field Centre in Eddington I saw a mountain of discarded toys that will not go to waste. Since most of them were at least partly plastic, and not a sort that is easy to recycle, that is especially delightful. We’ve seen clothes swaps – this was a toy swap. The credit goes to Antoinette who runs the scheme (A Toy's Life and Beyond) – and also to the parents who use the service. On Saturday Antoinette told me she counted more than 150 heads (including children as well as parents). This is the third swap she has organised (the first was in December and then February) Out of half a dozen or so parents I spoke to, several had been to two of them, one came to all three. The fact that people are coming back shows that it’s a great service.

Tuesday 19 February 2019

Plastics packaging – a view from retailers

It isn’t just consumers that worry about plastic contamination and the damage it does to wildlife and the environment. Retailers are people too and some of them are even members of Transition Cambridge. But cutting down on plastic is not easy – some of the seemingly easy solutions are not really solutions at all. Here are some thoughts from three of our members: from Jacky, co-owner of the Cambridge Cheese Company and from Paul and Emma who have just started a new business called Full Circle offering zero-waste products (cleaning products in reusable containers, reusable food wraps, coffee cups and so on). You can see Paul at his stall in the market on Mondays.


The Cambridge Cheese Company actively encourages you to bring your own clean jars to use for deli-products like olives.

Monday 7 January 2019

2019: Have we reached Peak Climate Concern?



Happy 2019!

Let's hope so. Like many others I wasn't sorry to see the back of 2018 - a year of record drought, wildfires raging across the planet, shocking stories of refugees displaced directly or indirectly because of climate breakdown. All of which was topped off by October's 2018 IPPC report that said if we are to limit global warming to 1.5°C we have to implement “rapid and far-reaching” transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities within the next 12 years.

I could barely bring myself to follow news of the crowning thorn in a brutal year for environment, the COP24 summit. It was held in Katowice Poland, - a city that was literally built on coal mining and steel and featuring fringe events attempting to build the case for fossil fuels in energy adaptation.

Was this ironic or an attempt at inclusivity? I'm not sure. But out of all this I did find bright signs, actions that were both inspirational and, it seems far reaching.

These signs are important because they help to show us that we're not alone, the care and concern we feel is shared by many, many others, and that out of this concern there are new ways to invigorate our collective struggle for climate justice, ways that build bridges across generations, countries and political persuasion.

It makes me wonder (hope?) that we're witnessing a collective shift in attention to the need for transition and more importantly, the need for our political establishments to step up to the plate and show true leadership.

Here are my top 5 YAY moments from the past year...

April 2018: 3 COAL FREE days for the UK

December 2018: 15 year old Greta Thunberg speaks truth to power at COP 24

Extinction Rebellion: a people's movement that has gone from a few dozen people in October 2018 to a global movement covering over 30 countries in 2019

The rewilding of Knepp Castle - an inspirational reminder of how resilient the planet is..

Fracking is failing - signs that the industry is on the back foot...


OK call me an optimist, and there's certainly no room for complacency, but can you honestly read and watch these links without feeling just a teeny bit hopeful?

Let's use the hope to feed our focus over the coming year!