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.
“We’re on a mission here now with this group. We all are co-ordinated and there’s something powerful about having fifteen people completely dedicated to the degree where we all know we’re going to do absolutely what it takes to make this happen in our community”.
Transition Prince Rupert, in British Columbia, Canada, launches its website today. Nothing extraordinary about that you might say. But the process that led to it, and its contents, are a story worth telling. The interview I did recently with Lee Brain, a young man who is one of the group’s founders, was one of the most inspiring I have yet published here at Transition Culture. So inspiring in fact that it is, in effect, this month’s Transition podcast. In today’s installment, he gives a fascinating taste of what it looks like when an emerging Transition group gives over some time to getting the foundations of its work as solid as possible before proceeding any further. Here is the interview:
You’ll remember Lee from the last Transition round-up, the young man in Prince Rupert in Canada who spoke out at a hearing about a proposed pipeline, and who is also active in founding Transition Prince Rupert. I recently interviewed him, and the content of that will emerge in a three separate pieces over the next few days. Originally it was to be part of the March podcast, but it was so interesting, that they will replace this month’s podcast. To start with though, here are his thoughts when I asked him how he thought Transition initiatives might best engage more young people (Lee is 26).
Here’s a great short film about ‘A Little Patch of Ground’, a wonderful project run by Encounters Arts in Hackney, London and in Dartington, Devon. A very heartwarming way to spend 8 minutes on a Wednesday morning.
A while ago I mentioned the Big Lottery Fund’s ‘Communities Living Sustainably’ fund. The shortlist was announced last week, and it was great to see 4 Transition initiatives among the 30 who got through to the second round of being given £10,000 each to prepare their bids, which will see 10 of them winning £1 million each. Transition Norwich, Transition Market Harboroughand Transition Minehead & Alcombe all successfully engaged in BIG funded projects in their own communities which have made it through to the second stage of the initiative. Also, Transition Finsbury Park were part of one bid, and today Jo Homan from the group tells its story, and of the partnerships they have created to deliver it. A great example of the Transition ingredient ‘building partnerships’.
This month’s round-up adds in a new dimension for the first time. Thanks to the newly established network of international Transition hubs, we have a number of international stories sent in especially for this roundup. We’ll start in Canada. Here, sent in by Jennifer Rice, is a speech by Lee Brain, a young man in the community of Prince Rupert, BC. He is one of the main coordinators for the Transition Prince Rupert initiative, still in the mulling stage about to become official. His speech is in regards to a 1200km pipeline project being built from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia. He delivers riveting testimony to a government Joint Review Panel that is holding community hearings. It has already been viewed nearly 37,500 times on YouTube.
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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