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.
A few people have asked me what my thoughts are on the whole ‘Big Society’ concept being promoted by the new British government. I have attended a couple of events over the last week that have given me space to think about it all, so here I am with a few reflections. Last week I attended the Community Land Trust conference, and yesterday I was at the launch of the Sustainable Development Commission’s ‘The Future is Local’ report. So, for those new to the idea, the ‘Big Society’ idea is David Cameron’s big idea, focusing on localism, returning power to local communities, making central government smaller and shifting its role to the devolution of power wherever possible, calling for “a massive, radical redistribution of power”. Here he is talking about it….
Here’s a press release from Transition Town Tooting about yesterday’s wonderful Trashcatchers’ Carnival….
Tooting Trashcatchers Carnival stops the traffic.
Traffic on Tooting High Street came to a stop today when the Tooting Trashcatchers Carnival came to town! Over 800 participants from local schools, community groups and clubs took part in this unique carnival made almost entirely from household rubbish. Over 1 million plastic bottles and shopping bags, half a million crisp packets, half a ton of renewable willow and half a ton of materials were collected over a six month period to create this extravaganza. Check out the great piece on local ITV News… and this film, filmed from the Turtle, which gives a flavour of the event…
Transition Maastricht in the Netherlands open their new community garden (see below)...
This month we’re starting with some Transition snapshots from the US…and here we see the US is permablitzing too, with a potluck to follow up, while T Mill Valley has combined their potluck with a rambling hike along local trails. They recently held a very successful and enthusiastically received first event focussing on ‘Resilience from the Ground Up’, so we wish them success for the future. T Putney has now got a community garden to divide into twelve plots…great for improving people’s access to land. We look forward to seeing some pics of work in progress! Here’s a piece about TT Albany written by an interested follower. From TT Milwaukee we have lots about their Powerdown Week 2010: there’s a week’s events calendar, a report with an audio story too, and a slideshow.
I have been giving occasional updates on the progress of the Trashcatchers Carnival in Tooting, which takes place this Sunday. It is going to be amazing, but it has been touch and go as to whether the Carnivalistas are going to be able to do what they want to, to process down Tooting High Road. Now we know they will be able to, but getting to that stage has been an amazing story, which Lucy Neal of Transition Town Tooting now relates…. . If you live anywhere near London, do get over on Sunday and give them your support.
Here is a fascinating short film about Transition Heathrow, which has emerged from the proposed (and now scrapped) Third Runway at Heathrow Airport, and is now focused around a community garden project called ‘Grow Heathrow’, a wonderful reclaiming of a derelict market garden site. It will hopefully spark an interesting discussion here about how Transition and activism come together … thanks to the JustDoIt people for making the film…
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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A few people have asked me what my thoughts are on the whole ‘Big Society’ concept being promoted by the new British government. I have attended a couple of events over the last week that have given me space to think about it all, so here I am with a few reflections. Last week I attended the Community Land Trust conference, and yesterday I was at the launch of the Sustainable Development Commission’s ‘The Future is Local’ report. So, for those new to the idea, the ‘Big Society’ idea is David Cameron’s big idea, focusing on localism, returning power to local communities, making central government smaller and shifting its role to the devolution of power wherever possible, calling for “a massive, radical redistribution of power”. Here he is talking about it….
Traffic on Tooting High Street came to a stop today when the Tooting Trashcatchers Carnival came to town! Over 800 participants from local schools, community groups and clubs took part in this unique carnival made almost entirely from household rubbish. Over 1 million plastic bottles and shopping bags, half a million crisp packets, half a ton of renewable willow and half a ton of materials were collected over a six month period to create this extravaganza. Check out the
I have been giving occasional updates on the progress of the 
Here is a fascinating short film about
