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.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
22 Nov 2007
The other day in the Independent, a full page ad drew my attention to the latest book by Vernon Coleman, ‘Oil Apocalypse’ (note this is not a link). Vernon Coleman has previously produced countless books, mostly based on fear-mongering and reactionary politics, and now he has hopped onto the peak oil bandwagon. The way Coleman’s books work is simple; here is a problem, it is far bigger and worse than you thought, be afraid, this is whose fault it is. I once read (rather I once *started* to read) his book ‘England, Our England’, an appalling load of rubbish which tried to argue that everything bad that ever happened to anyone can be traced back to the European Union, and that poor, noble England has been enslaved by this evil monster. Another book, which I picked up mistaking it for William Blum’s rather good ‘Rogue State’, was Vernon’s ‘Rogue Nation’, which described itself thus, “America is responsible for worldwide economic and political chaos. This book contains everything you need to know – and must know – about America”. It was possibly the worst written book I have ever read.
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21 Nov 2007
Not too many posts over the last few days as I have been travelling a lot giving talks (Low Carbon Exeter, Be The Change, Environment Kernow) and being flat out trying to finish the book. At the moment I am wrestling with cover designs for **The Transition Handbook**, and am always on the lookout for graphics that convey the idea of Transition. It was with some surprise therefore that yesterday, while visiting google.co.uk I spotted the graphic to the right. They often customise their logo for different occasions, events or anniversaries, yesterday’s looked rather like it was to celebrate Transition Google (whatever that might look like…). The other one I saw recently was produced by Transition Brighton and Hove, and is a very funky take on Transition (see below).
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14 Nov 2007
Not content with having written The Single Scariest Thing I Have Ever Read, the recent **Big Melt** report, David Spratt at Carbon Equity has just produced the second in what will be a series of three reports. The new one, Target Practice; where should we aim to prevent dangerous climate change builds on the insights from the first report, namely that the thawing of the Arctic ice is happening so much faster than anyone had ever thought, nearly 100 years ahead of the IPCC projections and before we have even reached a 1 degree rise in global temperature, that we need to reassess our concept of where a ‘safe’ limit might lie. In the new report, Pratt, now joined by Philip Sutton, asks the question, given that 2 degree is no longer a ‘safe’ limit, where might that limit be?
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13 Nov 2007
What follows is an article from the Western Mail newspaper by Christina Zaba which looks at how the Transition concept is spreading across Wales. It shows how much was initiated by the talk in Lampeter a few months ago, and how since then the idea has begun to spread all over the country. This Saturday sees the first coming together of Transition Initiatives from across Wales to explore the need for a **Transition Wales Network**. The event is a 11am, Saturday 17th November at the Royal Welsh Showgrounds, Builth Wells. If you are interested in going, contact martin(at)mfitton.wanadoo.co.uk. More detail on this event can be found below Christina’s article.
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12 Nov 2007
Working with Transition Town Totnes, one so often sees the dilemma facing journalists, especially those from national newspapers, when covering TTT or events to do with the town. Do they go for the ‘Totnes woo-woo’ angle, emphasising the town’s alternative aspects, or do they resist that and look for what is actually happening and what is interesting about that? In the main, reporters have managed to resist, but in this weekend’s Telegraph, their property reporter just couldn’t quite help himself. The headline “Wizards of the Wacky West”, it would be fair to say, didn’t bode well. The article, which actually gave TTT some pretty fair(ish) coverage, dripped with references to Totnes having “more vegetarians per square yard than a Hindu tofu festival” and shops “peddlling stones and crystals and a Friday market that smells of marijuana and incense”. Groan.
Read more»
The other day in the Independent, a full page ad drew my attention to the latest book by Vernon Coleman, ‘Oil Apocalypse’ (note this is not a link). Vernon Coleman has previously produced countless books, mostly based on fear-mongering and reactionary politics, and now he has hopped onto the peak oil bandwagon. The way Coleman’s books work is simple; here is a problem, it is far bigger and worse than you thought, be afraid, this is whose fault it is. I once read (rather I once *started* to read) his book ‘England, Our England’, an appalling load of rubbish which tried to argue that everything bad that ever happened to anyone can be traced back to the European Union, and that poor, noble England has been enslaved by this evil monster. Another book, which I picked up mistaking it for William Blum’s rather good ‘Rogue State’, was Vernon’s ‘Rogue Nation’, which described itself thus, “America is responsible for worldwide economic and political chaos. This book contains everything you need to know – and must know – about America”. It was possibly the worst written book I have ever read.
