Beaches

Where's the sunshine gone? I line up a '3 things to do in the sunshine' blog, and the sun disappears on day 2.

Ah well, if the sun does shine again this summer, my next suggestion is to get yourself to a beautiful Norfolk beach and spend a day thoroughly relaxing. Take a book, a camera, a friend, whatever makes your day perfect.

Try Traveline East Anglia to find out how to get to the beach of your choice by public transport- or fill a car full of friends: that's pretty low carbon too.

Things I like to do in Summer

You know those dreadful books? The ones called things like 1001 Places You MUST Visit Before You Die, or 1001 Wildlife Spectacles To See Before You Die, or the slightly more sinister sounding 1001 Escapes to Experience Before You Die. I really hate those books. As if the one thing that will really improve our lives is another to do list.

And I hate that they reduce the wonder of the world to yet another thing that needs to be 'done', that can be 'done'. The world deserves more than that. I've never picked one up, but I'd be surprised if they mention at all the ethical dilemmas of travelling to any of these places. I don't think even the wildlife ones will talk about the carbon footprint of flying, nor the increased extinction rate that will result from global warming. If they did, they'd probably still make the books, but just re-title them 1001 Wildlife Spectacles To See Before They Die.

So, my posts this week will celebrate the coming of the Summer and show you the things I do to squeeze every drop of joy from the most glorious of seasons: not 3 Things You Must Do Before The Swallows Fly, just 3 things I like to do.

First up is appreciating flowers. Every roadside, park and hedge is full of flowers at this time of year. How many times do we pass them with the most cursory of glances, on our way to somewhere else- thinking of somewhere else. So I try to make the effort to stop and really look at them. Admire the intricacy, be baffled by the biology. One of the things I will be sure to do, sometime in early summer, is to find a dog rose and spend some time really looking at it. It's surely the most perfect of flowers, complete in its simplicity.

The dreadfully overused phrase 'Stop and smell the flowers' isn't really talking about flowers, I know, but maybe it should be. My life (and my summer) is certainly improved by paying attention to small and beautiful things, and where better to start than flowers?

As the golfer Walter Hagen put it:

You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry. Don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.

Zero Carbon to Copenhagen

I was in a state of despair about climate change. All the science said we needed an extremely rapid transition away from fossil fuels in order to avoid it spiralling out of control in a runaway greenhouse effect. We have never made such a fundamental transition in society before.

Or have we? War! That is the key. America made its first tank seven months after Pearl Harbour. We can do the same again, only making wind turbines instead of weapons. Nothing stops us from making the transition except lack of political will.

The first edition of the Zero Carbon Britain report detailing how we could go zero carbon in 20 years was published by the Centre for Alternative Technology in 2007, and that year, at their members' weekend, I asked Zero Carbon Britain project director Paul Allen if we could do it quicker than 20 years. His reply - yes we could, but the public wouldn't accept it 'because climate change isn't as visible a threat as Hitler'.

So, how do we make it visible, and how do we get across the idea that we need a new world war, a war on climate change? Then I heard a report on the evacuation from Dunkirk on the radio - the flotilla of little ships which crossed the North Sea and picked up the British army from the > beaches of Belgium in the darkest days of the second world war, a war we eventually went on to win. It's the sort of inspiration we need (though it might not exactly enthuse peace campaigners, and, as the German Green MEP Sven Giegold said when I explained it to him "This will not go down well in Germany!").

So, the idea of the zero carbon caravan was born - groups of people would travel to the Copenhagen climate summit - our last chance to prevent runaway climate change - without using any fossil fuels, cycling on land, and sailing in a flotilla reminiscent of Dunkirk over the sea to Europe. Tall ships would bring people from all over the world, from America, Australia, New Zealand. Thousands of cyclists from all over Europe would converge on Copenhagen. On the way they would collect information on how to go zero carbon to present to the delegates at the climate summit. Worldwide media coverage would have the delegates trembling, millions of people the world over would be demanding they sign a treaty which would save the world from climate catastrophe ...

Well, we all know what happened. Copenhagen was a disaster. But I did make it there, (starting in Wales on August 14th, finishing in Copenhagen on December 5th) though not with the army of people I had imagined, and I didn't get nearly as much media coverage as I hoped for. But I did get on TV three times, and had a few radio interviews, and got in lots of local papers. And I visited some really interesting and inspiring examples of the things people can do to get closer to the > zero carbon living which is both possible and preferable. And I did manage to collect these examples together and put them on a couple of datasticks, one of which I presented to Ingrid Nestle, the German Green Party MPs' spokesperson on energy economics, and the other to Colin Challen, who was at the time an MP and chair of the All Party > Parliamentary Climate Change Group (sadly, he didn't stand at the last general election, because the constituency boundaries in Leeds were redrawn and they lost a constituency, and he lost out to Ed Balls in the Labour Party selection for the seat).

Lastly, I met a truly amazing person called Kim Nguyen, who made my > journey from Wales look insignificant, as he cycled all the way from Australia http://www.rideplanetearth.org/. Not only that, he managed to organise rides all over the world just before the climate summit. And this year we are working together, organising rides all over the world, finishing with zero carbon concerts, to show both people and politicians that, not only is a zero carbon world possible, it's also much more fun - the people stopping it are those with vested interests in the fossil fuel industry, and it's time we took them on.

We're also working with 350 http://www.350.org/(who are campaigning for an > eventual carbon dioxide concentration of 350 ppm maximum) and 10:10 http://www.1010global.org/ (who made The Age of Stupid, and are now campaigning to get people to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010), joining in the Global Work Party carrying out practical actions to cut carbon emissions by starting preparations for the zero carbon concert events, doing things like building bicycle generators. So, if anyone from Transition Norwich wants to join in, please get in touch by visiting http://www.zerocarbonconcert.org/. And spread the word to everyone you know. Because maybe, just maybe, we can still rescue the world from runaway climate change, and it isn't too late after all.

Chris Keene

En route to Copenhagen: Klimahaus at night and with students, 6 November 2009.

Let's Hear it for Pedal Power!

Hello, I’m Tom Foxe, and my cycling travels haven’t taken me very far yet - holidays along the coast of Holland, in Southern Ireland and the Isle of Man. Mostly I cycle to and from work in Norwich, about 5 miles a day. I became interested in bike-powered gennies (short for generator) about 10 years ago, through the internet. There are dozens of bike genny sites and lots of clips on Youtube.

My first genny was the hub of a Rutland wind generator, the white disc behind the bike above. It powered a 12 volt sound system. A battery kept the system going while riders changed over, and when people pedalled, the genny kept the battery charged. Most people generate about 50 watts easily. This will run a 100 watt sound system at medium power.

The first (2003) Human Dynamo system was very basic – microphones + mixer + keyboard amplifier, but it sounded great and people loved pedalling the bike to power the system.

The folk group Seize the Day played in Chapelfield Gardens, Norwich last Summer using the improved Human Dynamo system. We used good quality P.A. speakers and it worked so well, some people asked if we could please turn the volume down? We obliged of course.

People have asked me how a bike genny compares with mains electricity, and what can be powered by it? A one-person genny can only be used in limited situations, and cannot compare with mains electricity power-wise. In a recent TV programme the makers showed that to boil just one electric kettle (typically 2,500 watts) it took 30 or 40 people pedalling to produce enough electricity!

So what good IS a bike genny ? Well, being limited, it makes us think about using less – smaller and more efficient devices, and switching things OFF when not needed. This is a useful mindset to develop as Earth’s oil supply runs out. They now make powerful LED stage lights and Data Projectors which use 1/3 the energy of filament lamps and last many times longer. As oil runs out, unreliable mains power supply is very likely, so a backup system of batteries and bike gennies will be very useful. It will allow us to power some lights and also some important audio-visual devices independently of mains electricity, at least for as long as someone is able & willing to pedal!

Also, because of the dangers of mains electricity, outdoor public events using mains power have more red tape involved and insurance cover is more expensive. For these events, low voltage systems are much safer, cheaper and less hassle.
Having attended a bike genny workshop in May, I found there is a big demand for them - it was booked out 6 months in advance and people came from far afield, many from Transition Towns. It was a great workshop, but a no. of people doubted if they would actually get around to building their own genny afterwards.

So I decided to run a workshop in Norwich, where people will build and take away their own genny. As a bike lover, ex-electrician and electronics engineer I feel well placed to deliver this workshop, which will focus on Safety, Building the Genny and Applications.

The non-profit workshop, 1-5 p.m. Sat. 25th September 2010 in Norwich, provides a new Turbo Trainer, 250 watt generator, 12 volt battery and other parts, and costs £120 (significant reduction possible for cyclists with own turbo trainer) . For comparison, a commercial pedal genny, the Gazelle costs £100 and produces just 15 watts. There are 12 places, no special skills/knowledge needed. Mail tom7railway@yahoo.co.uk for full details.

The workshop will be followed by a Pedal Power Party (6-9 p.m.) to which Transition Norwich people and others are invited. This will feature pedal-powered lighting, cinema, live entertainment and that rare creature, a disco that doesn’t hurt your ears!

Tom Foxe

Journeys

So, a journey. By bicycle. I'd known for a while I was down to blog on this subject, and as today approached I became gradually more and more desperate. Because, truth to tell, I've barely cycled at all this year, despite all my best intentions. Somehow there's never been quite enough time, or I've had too much to carry, or I've not quite felt like it, or...
There's always been something I could point to as a reason not to cycle.
But this week is National Bike Week; and my Bicycle Bonus pack arrived on Saturday. And I was given a pair of snazzy new bike lights and a book titled 'Cycling to work for beginners' at a cycling stall on Pottergate by a man who said "Hopefully these will help you get back on your bike again". And I was due to blog about cycling just this Thursday and -suddenly- the sun started shining.
All of a sudden I had more reasons to cycle than not to.


So on Tuesday I hesitantly got out my bicycle and wobbled off down the road.
A whole mile, to the nearest park and ride. Not much of a journey. But as I cycled past fields of barley- turned from mostly green to mostly golden in just the last week and gloried in the feel of the wind in my face like a dog at a car window, I remembered how much I enjoy cycling.
Today I looked at my work appointments, carefully studied google maps, equally carefully avoided checking the weather forecast, and set off.
I tussled with big scary roundabouts, abused pedestrian crossings (but not pedestrians), flew joyfully down the near vertical cliff of Carrow Hill (Oh no, not Carrow Hill, that's a one way street and would be terribly irresponsible. It must have been some other nearby hill) and then paid for it on the grindingly dramatic ascent of Harvey Lane (OK, so I got off and pushed).
I arrived at work sweatily triumphant and 15 minutes early.
My next trip was to Hellesdon, I chose a route through Mousehold that looked pretty, and proved to be a wonderful cycle path: a road that had been closed to traffic for the benefit of cyclists and pedestrians. I didn't realise such things existed; clearly I must study my cycling map of Norwich more closely.
Then, home. Via the UEA for pleasant cycling on quiet roads.
That all adds up to 17 miles cycling today- a real journey. And my panniers are packed ready for tomorrow.



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What's the time? It's Bicycle Bonus time!

Hello, my name is Matt and I have never blogged before. Now confession over, its time to talk bicycles! It is midway through National Bike Week as hopefully by now you will know.

I hope that many of you were aware of this year's events in Norwich- and that you have/will take advantage of the FREE breakfast on offer at the Forum courtesy of the Energy Saving Trust this morning. Organic cakes from the Greenhouse, organic fruit from Rob on his market stall and tea/coffee from Marzanos. If thats not worth cycling for I dont know what is!?

Well... how about a city wide discount scheme for cyclists? OK then lets do that as well! Or at least we will try to. The Bicycle Bonus reward scheme is a joint initiative with Norfolk County Council and it aims to reward those already cycling and encourage others to give it a go. When registered, cyclists will received a Norwich Green Travel map and a branded hi viz 'slap wrap' which they will need to show to participating businesses to receive a discount. You should be able to spot said businesses as they will be displaying a bicycle wheel window sticker. To find out more about the scheme please visit www..facebook.com/bicyclebonus where you can find links to register and check out the latest businesses to join in. Also, if you are on facebook please 'like us'- put your thumbs up to us and share it with friends. And if you know of any businesses that would like to participate all they need to do is register here... www.surveymonkey.com/s/bicyclebonusbusiness

I think cycling is the best way for getting from A to B, especially around the city centre- so quick and easy to park! And of course there are the financial benefits too. But many people also use cycling as a mode of transport to go further a field. To make this blog more interactive I would be interested in hearing where people have cycled to! Where is the furthest place you have cycled to? Where is the most amazing place you have cycled to? I am planning on cycling around Eastern Europe and Scandinavia later in the summer- I would appreciate any advice!!

All my bikes x

Cycle paths - why we need them

I recently signed up for the Bicycle Bonus and was pleased to receive a free map of Norwich cycle paths and a snap band that gets me a discount when I cycle to some shops. This is a great initiative and hopefully it will encourage more people to get on their bikes to go shopping. I live in Little Melton and I can reach the centre of Norwich in 35 mins, which can be quicker than using the car at peak times – the great thing is that I can then park for free and wiz around the centre of Norwich. A couple of good panniers will take as much shopping as I can carry. I have to confess to a smug feeling as I shoot down the Chaplefield underpass and see that the car park sign is showing everywhere FULL and there is a massive queue to get into the multi-storey on the opposite side.

So why don’t I see more cyclists on my trip into Norwich? Well a quick look at my new map shows that there are few off road paths and my own route includes a section on Hethersett Lane that is described as ‘on road, useful part of the cycle network that is generally unprotected’ – my own description would be ‘dangerous, narrow road with cars doing well in excess of 60mph, deep potholes where the cyclists ride and branches intruding into the road’. I cycled this road last night on the way to the TN Solstice party and had an unpleasantly close experience with a car doing about 80 mph. I can’t see any measures that have been taken to make this road cyclist friendly.

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to promote a cycle path to connect the NRP area to Hethersett, where a lot of the workers live. We have proved there is a demand and everyone agrees that it ticks the right boxes for getting people out of cars. Bikes really are the ideal solution for commutes of less than 5 miles and I look forward to people putting pressure on politicians to divert the relatively small sums required to provide cycle paths from the massive roads budget. Cyclists have to become the first class of road users – not consigned to the potholed edges.

Here is a pic of my bike, twenty years old and good for another twenty with the help of some replacement bits every few years. The lights run off a big rechargeable battery and make it really fun to go out round the lanes after dark and hear the owls and other nocturnal animals.

Happy cycling to all - (The Police and Dr Bike will be at outside the outpatients building at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on Thursday 24th June between 1pm and 3pm for free safety checks and bike security marking.)