Transition Dereham blog intro

In the "Man of our Times" column of 15th May 2008 in the Dereham & Fakenham Times, chief reporter Ian Clarke (who I know personally to some extent) writes that "the tide must turn over rising fuel prices", complaining about the soaring cost of fuel in the UK over the last 16 months. But Ian fails to make any attempt to analyse why fuel prices are rising so far so fast, or to suggest any solutions we can take other than unfairly blaming big oil company profits and high taxes!

In response I have written a letter to the Dereham Times to highlight the issue of Peak Oil and the almost inevitability that fuel prices will continue to soar, creating serious economic and social consequences for us all unless we take urgent action to reduce our high dependence on oil (and all other fossil fuels). I would like to point people in the direction of the Transition Towns Initiative as a practical solution to the emerging crises that stem from the rising price of oil due to the peaking of global oil production.

I hope that the Dereham & Fakenham Times publishes my letter and that it sparks a local debate in our towns and villages leading to Transition Towns across mid-Norfolk. But after writing the letter I thought that whether or not the Times prints it, I would create a blog to publish it myself, and hopefully to ignite and to record the debate and the process towards creating Transition Dereham.

Whether the Times prints my letter, in whole, part, or not at all, I will post the letter here and as I wrote it, when the next issue of the Dereham & Fakenham Times comes out this Thursday; 22nd May 2008. I must stress that Dereham is not (yet) a Transition Town. But I hope that a debate will be started that will lead us towards being a Transition Town and that this blog will become a record as we engage in the Transition Towns process.

I will endeavour to make posts to this blog over the coming weeks and months as any debate develops and may open it up to other voices as and when a Transition Dereham group may develop. But whether this blog becomes a hive of news and debate or a quite and forgotten corner of cyberspace will all depend on the nature of the media debate and the degree of willingness of local people to engage in this serious issue.