Transition Culture

An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart and Hands of Energy Descent

Transition Culture has moved

I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.

Monthly archive for January 2006

Showing results 26 - 30 of 36 for the month of January, 2006.


10 Jan 2006

The New Caring Sharing Compassionate Deep Green Conservative Party (!?!)

Private Eye CoverI intend, as a rule, to avoid any party politics on **Transition Culture**. However, just as a one-off, I feel compelled to address the issue. ‘Compassionate conservatism’ and ‘Tory environmentalists’ are what are commonly known as **oxymorons**. If you aren’t familiar with the term oxymoron have a look at this. David Cameron, their new leader, is trying to regain the middle ground of people who are naturally Tories, who go to Farmers Markets and recycle their bottles. Nick Cohen in Sunday’s Observer in an article called ‘It’s farcical how Cameron has rescued Blair’s ideas from the rubbish dump’, does a good job of pointing out that somehow it just doesn’t wash. Anyone who lived through the Thatcher years would be hard put to see them as green in any way.

However, some people with green leanings are already talking about going to the Tories as the green party of choice. In the same issue of The Observer

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Discussion: 1 Comment

Categories: General, Peak Oil


9 Jan 2006

New Journal on Microgeneration and Low Carbon Building Launched.

Powerhouse**Powerhouse**, a new journal for those working in the industry has just been launched. The first issue is available free, but from then on it costs a storming £195 per year (for 24 issues). This is not a journal aimed at the man in the street, rather at those within this emerging industry, hence its price. I shall try and get the library here to subscribe, and then let you know about any useful articles it contains. The sample copy contains a few interesting bits and bobs, take a look.

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Discussion: Comments Off on New Journal on Microgeneration and Low Carbon Building Launched.

Categories: Energy


8 Jan 2006

The Lessons from Kinsale – Part Five

**Lesson 5. What Could Have Been Done Better…**

Kinsale StudentsThis is not really something I should be writing really, this is more something that the people who have taken the **Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan** (KEDAP) on or the residents of Kinsale should be writing, but I will give some thoughts that I have had on the subject. As previous posts have set out, the KEDAP arose from a programme of community brainstorming, awareness raising, the work of the students and the inputs of various people in the area with ideas to offer. It has gone on to end up being approved by the Town Council, and is leading to some interesting developments. But if we had our time over, what might we have done differently?

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7 Jan 2006

“From Dissent to Descent” – energy descent in context.

UKWatch Here’s a great article called From Dissent to Descent, worthy of mention for its title alone (wish I’d thought of that!), which appeared on UK Watch‘s site, but which also had some very kind things to say about **Transition Culture** and the energy descent planning approach. Did a very nice job of putting this work in a larger context.

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Categories: Energy, Peak Oil


6 Jan 2006

Tell Me About Your Eureka Moment…

Eureka!Part of the research I am doing for my PhD looks at peak oil as a catalyst for transition. One of the big questions I am exploring is how people and communities (and therefore nations) make transitions, develop a culture of transition. As part of this, I am asking as many people as I can who would consider themselves to have some degree of ‘green’ awareness to tell me their stories of how they first became interesting in all this stuff. Please do tell me yours.

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Discussion: 24 Comments

Categories: The 'Heart' of Energy Descent