Transition Black Isle | Welcome to the Age of Transition

Ben Wyvis from the Black Isle - 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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>Latest Home page feature article
Brendan Montague - A Farewell to Copitalism

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.

A Farewell to Copitalism - reflections on COP26

Brendan Montague editor 'Ecologist' magazine and online
12 November 2021

The COP26 conference has failed to usher in a new era where capital is constrained to prevent catastrophic climate breakdown.

The future was supposed to be copitalism: a new global economic paradigm where national governments work together through the United Nations (UN) Conference of the Parties (COP) process to limit emissions and prevent runaway climate breakdown - while leaving capitalism otherwise intact.

The climate conferences have taken place annually for a quarter of a century. The aim is to negotiate global emissions targets that will be translated into national policies. The high-water mark was the Paris Agreement of COP21 when the worlds’ leaders agreed to limit global heating to 1.5C.

The mechanism agreed was "nationally determined contributions" (NDCs). This means national governments are responsible for submitting commitments to cut emissions to the UN. The COP process is also supposed to include a “ratchet mechanism” where those government commitments are made increasingly ambitious.

Read the full article

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