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.
At the Transition Network conference, I was unable to resist going to David Fleming’s workshop, “Wild Economics: Wolves, Resilience and Spirit”. I am an enormous admirer of the great man, who was the first person to explain the concept of resilience to me, and to whom I owe a great debt in terms of ideas and inspiration. His talk was fascinating, but the notes I present here aren’t notes of the actual talk. There will be notes from most of the sessions published soon, although huge sympathies must be extended to the poor lady in front of me who was scribing the talk, which, in spite of regular requests to slow down a bit, was delivered at breathtaking speed. Safe in the knowledge that noting down the actual contents was in safe hands, I focused on the bits that were pure Fleming funny bits….
The Cultivate Centre in Dublin have just produced a fabulous resource that all Transition groups will find invaluable, the Powerdown Show. This series of 10 20 minute programmes explore many aspects of the Transition movement in a humorous, accessible and inspiring way. Those interviewed in the series include George Monbiot, Paul Allen, Richard Douthwaite, Megan Bachman Quinn, Daniel Lerch, Duncan Stewart, myself and many more. Episode 8 is called ‘Transition Towns and Energy Descent Pathways’ and you can now see it online as a taster for the wonders this DVD contains….
You won’t believe this one. How do you make a new generation of coal, traditionally seen as dirty and decidedly unglamorous, not to mention the fact that it is climate suicide, attractive again? Riding to the salvation of the coal industry is Carbon Capture and Storage, a marvellous technology the puts all the carbon dioxide produced safely underground somewhere. Only problem is that as a proven technology it still barely exists, and you need to burn a third more coal in order to power the thing. Still, doesn’t stop the coal industry (in this case GE Energy) using the oldest tricks in the advertising book to convince us the our future lies in coal.
So Shaun, you’ve just got copies of the first book you’ve ever published in your hand. What does that feel like?
Wow, what a question! Relief I think! It’s been a long process, and it feels so good to finally see the fruits of everyone’s labours that have gone into this book, and to feel that it can now go out and be a help to people. And I can’t get over how much I love the cover design – we spent ages getting it right, and I’m totally in love! I think it’ll be a while before it all sinks in. (Below is a short promotional film for the book produced by Green Books).
Today at 2.15pm on BBC Radio 4 is a play called ‘Getting to Zero‘, where George Monbiot, Peter Harper and Paul Allen help a fictional family to reduce their emissions to zero within 6 weeks. It was written by a member of Transition Bro Ddyfi and should definitely be worth a listen.
How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march? This site explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations
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At the Transition Network conference, I was unable to resist going to David Fleming’s workshop, “Wild Economics: Wolves, Resilience and Spirit”. I am an enormous admirer of the great man, who was the first person to explain the concept of resilience to me, and to whom I owe a great debt in terms of ideas and inspiration. His talk was fascinating, but the notes I present here aren’t notes of the actual talk. There will be notes from most of the sessions published soon, although huge sympathies must be extended to the poor lady in front of me who was scribing the talk, which, in spite of regular requests to slow down a bit, was delivered at breathtaking speed. Safe in the knowledge that noting down the actual contents was in safe hands, I focused on the bits that were pure Fleming funny bits….
