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.

Archive for “Energy” category

Showing results 56 - 60 of 360 for the category: Energy.


2 Nov 2011

An October Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

A bumper harvest of apples has resulted in an abundance of top Transition stories in the UK!   Local fruit harvesters, now part of Transition Kensal to Kilburn (K2K) were joined by the newly- formed Transition Willesden in setting up stall with traditional apple press in tow on the Kilburn High Road to make juice from locally-picked fruit.  As temperatures soared on an unusually hot autumn day, over 200 shoppers and children helped press the fruit, taste the juice and join in the fun (see above).  Pictures of the stall can be seen here; and local press coverage here, here and here. Thanks to Viv Stein of K2K for this great story!

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2 Nov 2011

When Transition meets fracking, and wins. The story of Transitions Cowbridge and Llantwit.

Here is a guest post from Michaela, Rob & Dinky of Transition Cowbridge, telling the story of their Transition initiative’s role in fighting a proposed gas fracking site. 

Thursday 20 October 2011 was a landmark day in the Vale of Glamorgan and one that will have a knock-on effect around the country and hopefully beyond. It was a day where community power helped to bring about a unanimous decision by the local county council to deny Coastal Oil & Gas the right to test for shale gas at an industrial estate on the outskirts of the village of Llandow.

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11 Oct 2011

“Communities are more important than individuals, and probably more important than states and nations”: An interview with Bill McKibben

Last week Bill McKibben was in town, and I was lucky enough to get to interview him for half an hour before his talk to a packed St. John’s Church in Totnes (which Jay Tompt reflected on here).  I had asked for some questions for Bill on Twitter, and apart from the frankly bizarre “will I ever play the piano again?”, tried to weave most of the questions people sent into the interview.  My thanks to Bill for finding time in his hectic schedule:

Hi Bill… great to see you… what brings you to Totnes?

The two things that bring me to Totnes are wanting to get back to Schumacher College for a little while, which is a remarkable place, especially on this 100th year of Schumacher, and wanting to get back to Totnes and see the ‘Mother Church of Transition’!  (laughs).

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10 Oct 2011

A Story of Transition in 10 Objects: Number 5. Some mini-Draughtbusters

This is a big week for ‘The Transition Companion’.  This is the week that pre-ordered copies will be mailed out (Wednesday), the London book launch will be held on the roof of Food from the Sky in Crouch End (also Wednesday), and that we will be holding a Twitter launch (Thursday).  The Twitter thing will run from 2.30-5.30pm, and will be an opportunity to ask questions about the book, request signings, discuss points in it, or whatever you like!  The hashtag will be #ttcomp, and all are welcome (@robintransition).  Here is this week’s Transition object film, a rather lovely one about Transition Belsize and their Draughtbusters project.

https://vimeo.com/30004830

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6 Oct 2011

Giving Robert Socolow a Wedgie (so to speak)

In 2004, Steve Pacala and Robert Socolow published a paper in Science about climate mitigation which introduced the concept of ‘stabilisation wedges’.  This proposed that rather than waiting for some ‘magic bullet’, one amazing technology that would bring climate change under control, what was needed was the immediate and much expanded application of a combination of existing and proven technologies which, combined, would have the desired effect.  “Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate problem for the next half-century” they wrote.  It was a timely and seminal approach.  But it strikes me that, given that their underpinning assumptions neglect a wider perspective in term of the ‘perfect storm’ of other challenges that increasingly keep climate change company in the “reasons-to-lie-awake-at-night” charts (powerfully described by Jeremy Rifkin recently), that it is in desperate need of a profound overhaul, rather than having been ‘reaffirmed’ by the intervening 7 years.

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