28 May 2008
Quite suddenly and almost by accident, a wholly new political movement has exploded upon the scene. It erupted in Totnes, an ancient town on Devon’s River Dart of only 7,500 inhabitants. Scarcely two years ago, a small group of its citizens took note of the announcement that the global supply of oil had ‘peaked’, (meaning that against a rapidly expanding demand for a resource which has been the basis of industrial development and economic expansion for at least 150 years, the supply would sooner or not much later run out or become unaffordable). So did a lot of other people of course, but the Totnes group were unique in deciding to do something about it. They realised that what was at stake was an urgent need to change an entire lifestyle, currently based on the availability of oil, to one based on local resources.
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22 May 2008
On Wednesday night, on the same night as the rather wonderful Champions League Final (which some idiot timetabled for the same night.. oops it was me… doh) and on the evening oil began touching $135 a barrel, Transition Town Totnes held an evening called “How Are We Doing?”, an opportunity for TTT to update the community on how it is doing, and on all the range of activities and projects underway, as well as getting feedback. In the event over 100 people came, and the evening was very positive and constructive.
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20 May 2008
With the oil price looking pretty settled at $126 a barrel having reached as high in recent days as $128, what does the UK Government estimate the future oil price to be? Clearly one would imagine that as the most responsible body in the land, charged with making long term decisions that affect us all, they would have their fingers on the pulse of this one. Unfortunately the official position is as insulting as it is pathetic.
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15 May 2008
The Rocky Road to a Real Transition: the transition towns movement and what it means for social change. Paul Chatterton & Alice Cutler. The Trapese Collective. A free download available here (warning: it is a huge file): 2008. 41pp.
It is flattering that so early in a movement such as the Transition movement, people take the time to sit down and write such a detailed critique of it. Trapese Popular Education Collective were previously behind the excellent ‘Do It Yourself Manual’. As the first published external examination of the Transition model it is to be welcomed, and the authors raise a number of important questions. From my perspective, “The Rocky Road…” does a very good job of identifying many of the key areas where Transition is distinctly different from other approaches to social activism.
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7 May 2008
I have written previously here at Transition Culture about the wonder of nut trees and on the project we have underway here to plant them in and around Totnes. Wendy Stayte and Teresa Anderson who have co-ordinated that project have written a very useful summary of the progress so far with transforming the town into ‘The Nut Tree Capital of Britain’. Their report appears below;
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