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.
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s ‘Ingredient’ which looked at Energy Descent Action Plans, here is a detailed and fascinating review of the Totnes one by Michelle Colussi, from i4 magazine. It offers some excellent insights and well informed commentary on the Plan, and argues that it should really be thought of as an ‘Invitation’ rather than a Plan. The Totnes EDAP is still available here. You can download the pdf. of this article (beautifully illustrated) here.Our thanks for their permission to reproduce.
The Transition Totnes Energy Descent Plan. By Michelle Colussi.
The Transition Town model is a series of steps or ingredients for engaging a whole community in the process of reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The model assumes that life with less oil is inevitable, and that making the changes required is up to us – to you and me. It also assumes that everyone needs to be part of the solution. Residents of Totnes, England first developed the model in about 2005. Today, close to 500 communities around the world have adopted it and are recognized as “Transition Towns.” An international Transition Network has formed to connect these initiatives and support training related to the model.
Strategies that bring people together with their neighbours to explore carbon reduction on a street-by-street level are very powerful. They can be a great way, through the support they offer, of tackling POST PETROLEUM STRESS DISORDER and providing EMOTIONAL SUPPORT/ AVOIDING BURNOUT. Being part of such a group has been found to increase PERSONAL RESILIENCE, while at the same time offering a powerful tool for MEASUREMENT, gathering hard data about very real carbon reductions. Finally, these tools are excellent AWARENESS RAISING methods.
It’s October already, so it’s time to share September’s Transition activities from across the world… we have lots of news from Transition groups in the Netherlands. Their Renewable Energy Project has 75 households involved in it, which between them will have about 800 solar panels on their roofs in the coming spring. Also their first Local and Interest Free money project was launched at the end of September, and they also recently held a Post-fossil Festival, with lots of interesting activities going on. Their ‘Share your stuff – with people you trust’ social website, launched in August, has seen 688 people share 832 goods…wow! They’ve also been making ‘eatable façade gardens’ in the heart of the old city of Deventer, and there’s a great video too:
Missed the Transition Conference and can’t wait till next year – or simply keen to delve deeply into understanding the wider movement of which Transition is a part?
Transition Scotland Support is hosting the Transitions, Diverse Routes to Belonging conference with the support of Transition Network and Edinburgh University. The conference is on the weekend of November 20th-21st (with overnight accommodation available from the 19th) and will be a chance to deepen and broaden our understanding, our alliances and our actions. This conference is a truly international feast and will be a fantastic opportunity to see how Transition can make new alliances and work with the other movements and initiatives which are all aiming at reclaiming our creative, collaborative, place-based way of living.
Over 40 people came together in Bristol on Wednesday to explore what the government’s Big Society agenda might mean for Transition initiatives. The venue was the Unitarian Church Hall, and the day proved to be very focused and yielded much insightful thinking and useful ideas. What follows is my attempt to produce a clear record of the event, the ideas and the debates, as well as the suggestions for where this might go next, dragged from my illegible notes, so any mistakes or misrepresentations are entirely my own doing.
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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Hot on the heels of yesterday’s ‘Ingredient’ which looked at Energy Descent Action Plans, here is a detailed and fascinating review of the Totnes one by Michelle Colussi, from i4 magazine. It offers some excellent insights and well informed commentary on the Plan, and argues that it should really be thought of as an ‘Invitation’ rather than a Plan. The Totnes EDAP is still available here. You can download the pdf. of this article (beautifully illustrated) here. Our thanks for their permission to reproduce.
