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 “Localisation” category

Showing results 66 - 70 of 684 for the category: Localisation.


13 Jul 2012

The Four Slugs of the Apocalypse

The other day my wife sent me a text while I was at work.  “Get some broccoli”.  During my lunch break, I duly headed out into Totnes in pursuit of the afore-mentioned brassica.  I started out by visiting all the places that might sell local, organic broccoli, but they were all out, one telling me “it’s like gold dust mate, you’d be lucky”.  I then tried the places that would stock non-organic, non-local broccoli, but they were out too.  All of a sudden it transpired that I lived in a broccoli desert.  Turns out it’s not just Totnes, the crappest summer the UK has ever faced has hit UK farming hard.  It has also led me, I must confess, for the first time, to abandon my garden to an unprecedentedly vast slug population.

Read more»


12 Jul 2012

‘Can Totnes build itself?’: a new paper from Atmos Totnes

[Here is a press release just put out by Atmos Totnes] When it comes to building houses, which offers the best return to a local economy, concrete blocks or straw bales?  Gypsum or clay plasters?  Imported timber or local timber?  Atmos Totnes today announces the release of a ground-breaking new paper, ‘Can Totnes build itself?’ (a kind of successor to 2009’s ‘Can Totnes and district feed itself?’ study), which looks at the local building materials potentially available for the construction of the Atmos Totnes development.

Read more»


4 Jul 2012

A June Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

Let’s start this month’s round-up in the UK, in Cheltenham.  Transition Town Cheltenham have been making some gorgeous short films recently.  In the last roundup we shared the one about Ken and his allotment.  This month, firstly, Ivor, Remi and Leon talk us through the chickens in their garden, and their 8-person cargo bike:

… and secondly, a short film about In Stitches, who held their The Big Knit event at the Global Footsteps Cafe. A beautiful film about the power of knitting to build community:

Read more»

Discussion: Comments Off on A June Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

Categories: 'In Transition' 2.0., Community Involvement, Culture, Education for Sustainability, Energy, Healthcare, Localisation, Resilience, Social enterprise, Storytelling, Transition Initiatives, Trees and Woodlands, Waste/Recycling


4 Jul 2012

Some Transition reflections on George Monbiot’s announcement that “we were wrong on peak oil”

George Monbiot announced in the Guardian on Monday “We were wrong on peak oil. There’s enough to fry us all“, an article which concluded “peak oil hasn’t happened, and it’s unlikely to happen for a very long time”.  Several people have written, and even stopped me while I’ve been out shopping, to ask for my take on his piece, so here it is.  It has been a tricky thing to write, as in the time it took me to compose it, so many other interesting analyses of it have been posted, many of which I have tried to reference here.  In a nutshell, I think Monbiot’s piece swallows an over-optimistic take on peak oil, and there are things in his piece that I disagree with and things that I agree with, although I don’t for a moment consider myself a peak oil expert.  What he does prompt is a rethink in terms of how we present peak oil.  Let’s start with the things I disagree with.

Read more»


29 Jun 2012

A new film about Atmos Totnes

Here is a new short film about the Atmos Totnes campaign I am involved in in Totnes.  Something light and inspiring for a Friday morning.  If you want to find out more about Atmos, visit the website here.  I am particularly fond of the ‘Atmos Voices’ interviews.

Read more»