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 bumper harvest of apples has resulted in an abundance of top Transition stories in the UK! Local fruit harvesters, now part of Transition Kensal to Kilburn (K2K) were joined by the newly- formed Transition Willesden in setting up stall with traditional apple press in tow on the Kilburn High Road to make juice from locally-picked fruit. As temperatures soared on an unusually hot autumn day, over 200 shoppers and children helped press the fruit, taste the juice and join in the fun (see above). Pictures of the stall can be seen here; and local press coverage here, here and here. Thanks to Viv Stein of K2K for this great story!
For the past year, Catrina Pickering has been Transition Network’s diversity person, developing trainings networks and insights around Transition and how initiatives might better embed diversity and inclusion in their work. Sadly, the funding for her post recently came to an end, but before she moved on, we asked her to distil her learnings and accumulated wisdom into a guide for Transition initiatives. So, hot off the press, here it is, your fantastic, free, 25 page guide to embedding diversity and inclusion in your Transition initiative or community project. Pass it around, and do let us know what you think.
Today sees the launch of three exciting new developments and outputs from Transition Network, the results of many months of work, that finally emerge blinking into the daylight. We are sure that they will greatly deepen your understanding of Transition, bring depth and richness to your work, re-inspire and energise you. They represent a radical shift in how Transition is understood and communicated.
They are, in no particular order, the book ‘The Transition Companion’, the online version of the ingredients and tools of Transition, and a beautifully designed set of Ingredients and Tools Cards which can be used to better understand all this. Together, they represent a sea-change in how we understand what Transition is and how to do it. So, let’s have a look at those things one-by-one.
Here is an article I wrote that just appeared in the National Trust’s latest ‘Views’ magazine. You can read it below, or download it as a pdf here, or see the whole magazine here.
As I write this in May 2011, some amazing things are happening. A report1 from Australia shows that car ownership there has peaked, having been in steady decline since 2004. John Lewis report that, over the last year, trade at their UK out-of-town stores has fallen by 12 per cent while it has remained steady in their stores in town centres, the drop being partly blamed on the rising costs of fuel. A survey2 by B&Q showed that 37 per cent of adults plan to grow some of their own food this summer. In the Sussex town of Lewes, the community energy company OVESCO (Ouse Valley Energy Services Company) has raised over £300,000 to put 540 photovoltaic panels on the roof of the local brewery, Harveys.
Here, thanks to those good people over at PermanentCultureNow, is a film of the talk I gave at this summer’s Sunrise Off Grid Festival in Somerset. Part 3 also includes the ‘milling’ exercise with the ingredients cards which will be available to download and use on October 27th, the official launch date of The Transition Companion.
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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