Monday, November 4, 2013
October 21-26 One World Week
Transition Town Dorchester were in an unusual setting last week, as we joined forces with Dorchester Benefice and Big Lottery funded Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset project to celebrate the annual One World Week at St Peter’s Church in Dorchester. The theme was ‘More than Enough’, and the event looked at how we are using more then enough of our planet’s resources and explored ways in which we as individuals and as a community can tackle the problem.
The event was planned as a journey to sustainable living. On entering the church, visitors were invited to follow of trail of green footprints. The trail started with a short film (the Story of Stuff, available on youtube), which examines our production and consumption patterns and appeals to us make a more sustainable and just world. One of its objectives is to ‘change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever’. A question was then posed – ‘what can one person do?’ – and the rest of the exhibition focused on the answer: that a lot of ‘one persons’, getting together or working individually, can achieve great results.
People wondering what one person can do? Why don’t they get together to work out how they can all make a difference?
Several local initiatives were showcased, e.g. Transition Town itself, Winterbourne Abbas eco-school, LETS, the community garden at All Saints church down the road from St Peter’s. Then the trail continued past displays about reducing, reusing and recycling, walking and cycling, composting, excess packaging, charity shop fashion, and finished with an invitation for visitors to make a pledge of an action to contribute to a more sustainable world. Altogether, over 200 people came into the church over the course of the week.
Jenny’s brilliant flower display made from coloured plastic bottles (scavenged from Tesco recycling bin by Kate…)
Bike with suggestions from visitors about how cycling can be good for you as well as the planet. Our favourite was: if you are driving you can’t stop to chat to someone you see on the street. If you are walking, you have to stop. But if you are cycling, you can decide whether to stop and chat, or not!
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