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.
This month’s round-up adds in a new dimension for the first time. Thanks to the newly established network of international Transition hubs, we have a number of international stories sent in especially for this roundup. We’ll start in Canada. Here, sent in by Jennifer Rice, is a speech by Lee Brain, a young man in the community of Prince Rupert, BC. He is one of the main coordinators for the Transition Prince Rupert initiative, still in the mulling stage about to become official. His speech is in regards to a 1200km pipeline project being built from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia. He delivers riveting testimony to a government Joint Review Panel that is holding community hearings. It has already been viewed nearly 37,500 times on YouTube.
So today we have some good news, and some bad news. First the good news. We are delighted to announce four events that Transition Network is involved in at the Guardian’s Open Weekend, which is coming up 24-25th March at the Guardian’s new offices in London. On Saturday 24th, we are presenting, at 1.45pm, a workshop called “How to start a community business” which looks at how to create a community-supported food business. The presenters are Greg Pilley of Stroud Brewery (as mentioned in yesterday’s post), and Dan McTiernan of The Handmade Bakery (one of the stars of ‘In Transition 2.0’).
Just thought you might be interested to hear that Transition Network was announced this morning by NESTA and The Observer as one of ‘Britain’s 50 New Radicals’. We’re honoured, and are in some great company. You can see more about the process here, the full list of finalists here (although there seem to only be 44 in the list, you can also see them all here, but have to scroll through one-by-one), and the page about why Transition Network was chosen here. Thanks to whoever it was that nominated us and to the judges …
Here are the notes of the talk I gave that went out just now on Radio 4’s ‘Four Thought’ programme. You can download the podcast of the programme here (which also includes the Q&A that followed as a bonus feature). I hope you enjoy(ed) it.
“It’s generally considered unwise to use props when speaking on radio, especially on your first appearance on Radio 4. However, this talk will contain two props, and here’s the first. It’s a £10 note from Brixton in London, but it’s a Brixton Pound. Rather than the Queen’s head, it features David Bowie’s. I’ll tell you more about it later, but it matters because it leads us into what I want to discuss this evening, the question of resilience.
Tonight, on BBC Radio 4 at 8.45pm, you can hear the talk I gave for their ‘Four Thought’ series. Here’s how the BBC website describes it:
“Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition Culture movement, believes that “engaged optimism” is the best way to face the global challenges of the future, be it climate change, oil supplies running out or the economic downturn. He believes initiatives enabling people to produce their own goods and services locally – from solar powered bottled beer to micro currencies like the Brixton pound – are the best way to build community resilience. Four Thought is a series of talks in which speakers give a personal viewpoint recorded in front of an audience at the RSA in London”.
I hope you enjoy it. I’ll post the text of it tomorrow…
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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