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.
The final day started with the final session of workshops. There were sessions on funding, ESCOs, transport, training, avoiding burnout and Transition Universities. I co-presented one with Adrienne Campbell from Transition Town Lewes, sharing our experiences so far with developing Energy Descent Pathways. It was a very useful look at how the thinking is going on this process which is a key aspect of the work of Transition Initiatives. It also included a very powerful activity led by Adrienne, which was used to help people develop a sense of what visioning is.
Something historic happened the other day, and it went pretty much unreported. The price of oil reached $102.59 (and has since gone on to pass $103.95). Although the passing of $100 in early January and then again over the last couple of weeks has a psychological importance and generated a good bit of media attention, it is the passing of $102 that actually means something. It means that we have reached the point that I have for months now in talks referred to as the point beyond which we are into unexplored, unknown territory. We are there, we have arrived, bewildered and blinking into a new world. We have broken through the ceiling; the Age of Cheap Oil can well and truly said to be a thing of the past, and our idea that we can grow our way out of this will now prove itself to be the nonsense it always was.
A while ago I wrote here about the presentation I gave at the International Forum on Globalisation despite staying at home, sending a DVD and thereby saving 2,788kgs of carbon dioxide in the process. The response to that was very good, and as a dedicated no-flyer, I am always interested in other people who do the same. Prince Charles saw off all competition in this department recently by having himself beamed, 3D, in a Star Trek style, into a recent energy conference in Abu Dhabi (see below).
This whole question of how to attend conferences without travelling is a huge challenge, as the film above discusses, and
A recent train journey and my obligatory hoovering up of all the newspapers and crap magazines people leave behind gave me a long-overdue opportunity to get up to date with pop culture; which celebrities are happy with their big bottoms and which ones aren’t, and what’s ‘in’ and what’s not (with no TV I live a very sheltered life ordinarily you see). Apparently, all the rage at the moment are designer handbags, which various female celebs can’t be seen without, and which are put out in limited editions at knee-buckling prices, touted as being this season’s ‘must haves’. An article in the Observer magazine on Sunday explored the emergence of ‘designer water’, brands such as BlingH2O and Elsenham, spring water in fancy bottles, labelled so as to look exclusive, and sold at over £30 a bottle in the exclusive nightclubs of Soho and wherever else in London has exclusive nightclubs (told you I live a sheltered life), at something like a 10,000 to one mark up on tap water.
Lists of things you can do to ‘save the planet’ often get stuck at lightbulb changing and thermostat twiddling, failing to engage with the deeper challenges. The Environment Agency brought together 25 leading thinkers in the green movement, including Tony Juniper, Jonathan Porritt and David Boyle, and asked them for their 50 things that will save the planet. The list is deep and rich, and Transition Towns appear in No.8, and the Totnes Pound gets an honorary mention in No.6. Although their enthusiasm for importing solar panels from China and for carbon capture and storage might not get the thumbs up from this end, it is still a very enlightening read. You can see the document here.
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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The final day started with the final session of workshops. There were sessions on funding, ESCOs, transport, training, avoiding burnout and Transition Universities. I co-presented one with Adrienne Campbell from Transition Town Lewes, sharing our experiences so far with developing Energy Descent Pathways. It was a very useful look at how the thinking is going on this process which is a key aspect of the work of Transition Initiatives. It also included a very powerful activity led by Adrienne, which was used to help people develop a sense of what visioning is. 
