I really appreciated Patrick’s considered and thoughtful review, but you’re certainly right that I do not “regard the transition movement as mainly an exercise in demonstrating to the government how much we care”.

As I have briefly met Patrick a few times, and have a huge respect for him, I emailed him a couple of days ago to respond to his review. I actually made some of the same points you do, highlighting that I was trying to provide a tool for communities which examines the national context within which EDAPs will develop, rather than trying to write the local EDAPs themselves.

I believe that Government actions are as much part of shaping our collective future as oil depletion rates or CO2 concentrations, so they were included in the book. In the Transition Vision of the future outlined therein (one of four possible futures considered), our government is seen taking actions that support and encourage the ongoing transition growing from communities across the world. This in no way undermines my belief that the community level is the key to addressing our global challenges.

I couldn’t put it better than David Fleming once did, “Large-scale problems do not require large-scale solutions, they require small-scale solutions within a large-scale framework”

Incidentally, I did a more detailed writeup of my thoughts on The Transition Timeline on my blog last month.

In the review Patrick says:

“He seems to regard the transition movement as mainly an exercise in demonstrating to the government how much we care, to the point where they will make the necessary changes. To me this is a complete travesty of the transition concept.”

I think this is a misreading both of Shaun’s position – which, as presented to us, is very much about the power of collective, community action – and, more fundamentally, of the nature of government / power relations in our (UK) society.

To my mind this book is all about timelines – but it isn’t about to write them for us – instead the book focuses on the broader context in which a community created timeline sits and, in Rob’s section, offers some tips on creating them. The book isn’t perfect, but it is a powerful tool designed to help us to stay focused and create more than just wish-lists.

J