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.
You might be interested to see this great short film, called **Another End of the World is Possible** ( a curious and ultimately illogical statement, surely if there had been an original End of the World there wouldn’t still be a world for Another End to be possible in… if you get my drift…). Anyway, it was made as part of the promotion of the recent Climate Camp, and in it Duncan Law discusses climate change, peak oil and Transition initiatives, in particular the Transition Brixton project he is involved in. It is a rather nicely made and engaging film, and features Duncan sitting in what I assume is his back garden.
Transition Town Totnes‘s Autumn calendar of events until Christmas is launched today. Building on the previous year’s highly successful work and programme of talks, events, Open Space days and workshops, the new programme looks like the best yet. Highlights include a talk by David Strahan, an evening called ‘Economics in Transition’, with Richard Douthwaite, Bernard Lietaer and David Boyle, Open Space days on transport, education and one for young people, a performance of the travelling show ‘This Farming Life’ which presents traditional song and archive film of farming on and around Dartmoor since 1920, and it all starts with TTT’s first birthday party, celebrating one year since the Unleashing. You can download the inside of the new flyer here and the outside here. The programme in full appears below, and printed copies will be available by September 1st.
Dr. Chris Johnstone, author of Find Your Power was interviewed by Adrienne Campbell of Transition Town Lewes when he was in the town for their Unleashing a few months back. There are 6 films in all, each one a different question, and they explore the psychological aspects of Transition, I found them very insightful. I have recently been going back to Chris’s book, and I do think he offers some very important tools for this work.
What follows is a recent article by David Fleming (left) and Lawrence Woodward, which explores the concept of resilience which is so central to the Transition concept, in more detail. It also argues that the implementation of Tradeable Energy Quotas is a key part of the Transition, and indeed is the only way we can be sure it will happen. I am delighted to be able to post this article, and many thanks to the authors for allowing me to do so.
I didn’t get to many talks at the Big Green Gathering, but I did get to one excellent, and very important one, given by Paul Allen and Richard Hawkins of the Centre for Alternative Technology. The talk was to introduce the wonderful piece of work they have just completed, a report called Zero Carbon Britain. I think it is the most important piece of work CAT had ever produced, and is very important for Transition Initiatives too. In essence it is the first draft of an Energy Descent Plan for the UK, although its focus is largely on energy. The two of them presented the report, how it came about, and what its aims are, in a very accessible way. Here, reconstructed from my notes, is the general gist of their presentation.
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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