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.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
1 Jun 2006
Global Public Media have just posted a talk by the great David Holmgren, the co-founder of permaculture, just after Hurricane Katrina, which explores peak oil, energy descent and permaculture. He sets out the history of the permaculture movement, its place in the larger sustainability movement, the concept of energy descent and our options forward from here. David is really at the cutting edge of thinking about solutions to peak oil and energy descent, his approach is practical, and his solutions are realistic, positive, but also address the profundity of the challenge. David has been a huge inspiration to my work, do have a listen.
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31 May 2006
I have resisted writing anything about the US detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay until now, as I feel so enraged about it that I felt sure I would be able to contribute nothing useful other than a long rant. The abuses of international law, the mistreatment of prisoners, the allegations of torture, the utter distain for people’s human rights and for their dignity constitute a huge stain on the present US adminstration’s already deeply soiled reputation. We all know about it, and, I’m sure, feel the same sense of powerlessness and rage. Then the story of a small garden reached me. I have to say I was deeply moved by it.
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30 May 2006
I am currently in full-on bookworm mode, up to my neck in books and papers, attempting to write my dissertation about tools for community planning for energy descent (due in September). Therefore, this might be a good time to reflect on some of the gems I’ve come across recently. The last list of books I did was around Christmas, and many people enjoyed it and wrote to me to that effect, apart from the person who commented on the site that it was a “weak little list”, and that its “uninformed reviews are rife with typos”. Oh well, you can’t please everyone..
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29 May 2006
Interview with Brian Goodwin. Schumacher College. May 8th 2006.
Brian Goodwin is a Visiting Scholar at Schumacher College and teaches on their MSc in Holistic Science. His research and teaching interests are on the use of the sciences of complexity to study emergent phenomena in evolution and to understand health in various contexts: in individuals, communities, organisations, economies and ecosystems. This involves a fundamental rethinking of basic scientific assumptions and leads to a new science of qualities.
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29 May 2006
At the Dyfi Eco Business Park in Machynlleth in North Wales you will find the coolest bike shed you’ve ever seen. The park is right next to the railway station and is a great place, very attractive buildings (for a business park), a huge PV array, but the most delightful thing there was this little bike shed. As you approach it it looks like a curved PV panel, get round the back and it’s a bike shed!
Read more»
Global Public Media have just posted a talk by the great David Holmgren, the co-founder of permaculture, just after Hurricane Katrina, which explores peak oil, energy descent and permaculture. He sets out the history of the permaculture movement, its place in the larger sustainability movement, the concept of energy descent and our options forward from here. David is really at the cutting edge of thinking about solutions to peak oil and energy descent, his approach is practical, and his solutions are realistic, positive, but also address the profundity of the challenge. David has been a huge inspiration to my work, do have a listen. 
