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.
I travelled to London yesterday for an event which was part of the Big Energy Shift (BES). BES was commissioned and supported by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government and was facilitated by Ipsos Mori. Over the last few months, members of 9 communities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have met for a series of facilitated “deliberative discussions”, looking at the bases on which the public would be prepared to take up renewable energy generation and energy conservation. Yesterday’s meeting was the last in the series, and brought representatives of all the communities involved to London. It was a fascinating day.
So Shaun, you’ve just got copies of the first book you’ve ever published in your hand. What does that feel like?
Wow, what a question! Relief I think! It’s been a long process, and it feels so good to finally see the fruits of everyone’s labours that have gone into this book, and to feel that it can now go out and be a help to people. And I can’t get over how much I love the cover design – we spent ages getting it right, and I’m totally in love! I think it’ll be a while before it all sinks in. (Below is a short promotional film for the book produced by Green Books).
I know from email and comments I have had that many of you watched and loved Rebecca Hosking’s programme that was shown on BBC2 on Friday called ‘A Farm for the Future’. The programme looked at Rebecca’s father’s farm in Devon, and at her wanting to rethink the farm in the light of peak oil. The programme introduced the nation to such permaculture luminaries as Martin Crawford, Patrick Whitefield and the wonderful Chris Dixon, as well as to the work of the late Arthur Hollins (who I was fortunate enough to meet in the mid 90s). You can watch the programme for the next 24 days here.
Here is a link to a rather good piece that appeared last week on BBC East Midlands, called ‘Energy Transitions’, with the subtitle “A look at how the East Midlands’ towns and cities are dealing with future energy issues”. It features some film done at the Cities Conference, as well as a look at the work of some of the local groups there. I particularly love the way she explains peak oil by walking over a bridge, very nice. Here is how they describe the programme on the Inside Out website;
We are often asked whether the Transition model should be adapted to explicitly reflect what is happening in the global economy at the moment. This is an ongoing discussion, and one I will return to in subsequent posts, but of course, the intertwining of what is happening in the economy and the peaking in world oil production have been explored by others, as well as the recent observation that peak demand seems to have arrived in advance of peak supply, although peak supply is, of course, not far behind. One of the tools that I personally have found extremely useful over the last few weeks in terms of really getting my head around how economics works, has been Chris Martenson’s ‘Crash Course’.
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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I travelled to London yesterday for an event which was part of the Big Energy Shift (BES). BES was commissioned and supported by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government and was facilitated by Ipsos Mori. Over the last few months, members of 9 communities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have met for a series of facilitated “deliberative discussions”, looking at the bases on which the public would be prepared to take up renewable energy generation and energy conservation. Yesterday’s meeting was the last in the series, and brought representatives of all the communities involved to London. It was a fascinating day. 
