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.
My friend Peter asked me yesterday what I thought the collective noun for curmudgeons ought to be (the context for this question escapes me…). I had no response, so he offered his, a ‘misery’ of curmudgeons. Got me thinking, as I am up to my armpits in editing the Totnes Energy Descent Plan, what the collective noun might be for Energy Descent Plans. At the moment, I think a ‘smattering’ is probably the most appropriate. As part of the Totnes research, I have had a good rummage around, helped by the excellent Post Carbon Cities website, at peak oil plans developed thus far around the world. It has been a fascinating process, seeing what’s out there, so I thought I would share it with you. Here is the round up of the plans I have managed to find, whether developed by community groups, local authorities or national government.
Had a fascinating afternoon recently at Schumacher College (you can read Simon Berry from DEFRA’s account of the day here). Schumacher is part of the Dartington Estate, and I was asked to speak about the future of Schumacher as part of the wider Dartington Estate. At present Dartington’s land is let for conventional dairy farming, and the lease comes up for renewal in 2014, so the process is starting of thinking what to do with the Estate’s 1000 acres. Here is the talk I gave, filmed on Simon’s phone…
Great excitement greets the news that Transition Forest Row have published their Energy Descent Plan! Transition Forest Row is one of the earliest Transition initiatives to set up in the UK (it held its Unleashing just over a year ago), and a year ago they were awarded a grant from Wealden District Council of £5,000 to create their EDAP. The result is a fascinating combination of storytelling, cartoons, drawings and practical steps to an oil-free 2030. You can buy copies here.
I am very excited to announce that coming very soon is Shaun Chamberlin’s book The Transition Timeline: for a local resilient future. If you liked the Transition Handbook, you’re going to love this too. This is also your first look at the cover, which is the work of Jennifer Johnson, the artist who did the cover of the Handbook. We love it. I will tell you more about the book as we get closer to the publication date of March 19th (it will be available via. this website, among other places), but for now, I’ll leave it to the author himself to tell you about it himself, courtesy of the wonderful Traydio.com, and also the blurb from the advance publicity. You can also download the press release here.
We had a wonderful evening in Totnes last week, where we launched the Totnes EDAP process. About 180 people turned up, and were provided with wine and nibbles, as well as with live guitar music on their arrival. I felt it was one of those great Transition events that appeals to both sides of the brain, some talking, some chatting, some moving around, some laughter, some poignancy, some food and drink, some fun. To set the scene, here is how the evening was reported in the Totnes Times, the first time a TTT-related story graced the front page. Under the headline “Why Time is Running Out”, the article ran as follows;
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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My friend Peter asked me yesterday what I thought the collective noun for curmudgeons ought to be (the context for this question escapes me…). I had no response, so he offered his, a ‘misery’ of curmudgeons. Got me thinking, as I am up to my armpits in editing the Totnes Energy Descent Plan, what the collective noun might be for Energy Descent Plans. At the moment, I think a ‘smattering’ is probably the most appropriate. As part of the Totnes research, I have had a good rummage around, helped by the excellent Post Carbon Cities website, at peak oil plans developed thus far around the world. It has been a fascinating process, seeing what’s out there, so I thought I would share it with you. Here is the round up of the plans I have managed to find, whether developed by community groups, local authorities or national government. 
