Transition Culture

An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart and Hands of Energy Descent

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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 “Resilience” category

Showing results 371 - 375 of 401 for the category: Resilience.


17 Nov 2008

The Great Betrayal: why global recession means we can abandon Tibet

One of the most appalling betrayals in recent history slipped by unseen by most people in last week’s media.  The UK Government stated that Tibet has actually always been a part of China, and that it has no claim whatsoever to be viewed in anyway differently from the rest of China.  For the Tibetan people, who have suffered genocide, the suppression and erosion of their cultural and religious identity, huge population transfer, famine and police brutality, this is the final kick in the teeth, the final glimmer of hope snuffed out.  The fact that that the Olympics are over, and China can stop pretending again that it gives a toss what the rest of the world thinks about anything, coupled with Western governments’ decision that the way out of crippling recession is to spend, spend, spend in order to encourage us to spend, spend, spend, means that no-one needs Tibet. It is dispensible and can now officially crawl away and die slowly.  This is a disgusting betrayal.

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Discussion: 8 Comments

Categories: Economics, Politics, Population, Resilience


3 Oct 2008

The Totnes Energy Descent Pathways Launch: report, podcasts and poem

We had a wonderful evening in Totnes last week, where we launched the Totnes EDAP process.  About 180 people turned up, and were provided with wine and nibbles, as well as with live guitar music on their arrival.  I felt it was one of those great Transition events that appeals to both sides of the brain, some talking, some chatting, some moving around, some laughter, some poignancy, some food and drink, some fun.  To set the scene, here is how the evening was reported in the Totnes Times, the first time a TTT-related story graced the front page.  Under the headline “Why Time is Running Out”, the article ran as follows;

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23 Sep 2008

Transition Glastonbury’s Submission to Mendip District Council’s Future Planning Document

I wrote last week about the submission that Transition Leicester made about eco-towns, today I want to celebrate the excellent piece of work done by Transition Glastonbury in pulling together their response to a report prepared by their local Council setting out plans for the development of the area over the next 20 years.  As with most Council plans, it starts with assuming a graph with a line that rises as it moves towards the right, increased growth, increased investment, increased energy availability.  Transition Glastonbury’s submission asks, what if it doesn’t?  How might this area thrive in uncertain times?  This is a timely post, as tomorrow night in Totnes sees the formal launch of our Energy Descent Pathways process, the creation, in effect, of the town’s Plan B.  Congratulations to Transition Glastonbury for blazing a trail with this so brilliantly.

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12 Sep 2008

Transition Makes the Pages of the Christian Science Monitor

Communities plan for a low-energy future

‘Transition initiatives,’ begun in Britain, aim to empower people to tackle effects of climate change and decline of oil.
By Judith D. Schwartz
|The Christian Science Monitor/ September 11, 2008 edition

A year ago, Pat Proulx-Lough felt so overwhelmed by reports about climate change that she couldn’t even listen to the news. “My husband was finishing a dissertation on water resources, and I became hopeless and fearful,” says Ms. Proulx-Lough, a therapist in Portland, Maine.

Fast-forward to summer ’08 and Proulx-Lough is not just hopeful, but excited about the future. What happened? She tapped into the Transition movement.

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11 Sep 2008

‘A Peak into the future’, from yesterday’s Guardian

A peak into the future.
Described as ‘a social experiment on a massive scale’, the Transition Town movement offers positive ideas for low-carbon living

Sarah Lewis, The Guardian, Wednesday September 10 2008

When Waterstone’s recently asked 150 MPs about their favourite summer reads, number five on the list was a book from an environment group that only two years ago almost no one had heard of. But in that time, the Transition Town movement has grown from a classroom idea to a sprawling international network, which many think holds some of the answers to our environmental problems.

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