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
I had a phone call last night from a pub in Kinsale from the Transition Design team, Louise, Catherine and Graham, to tell me some historic news. At a meeting of **Kinsale Town Council** last night, Transition Design’s proposal that Kinsale become Ireland’s first ‘Transition Town’ was unanimously approved. The proposal put before the Council was;
>**Notice of Motion**
>This council supports the efforts of the not-for-profit company “Transition Design
I know it is a bit early for New Year’s Resolutions, but I have already made one of mine. I am going to teach myself to shave with an old fashioned razor. What’s this got to do with **Transition Culture** and energy descent you may wonder? Well, read on.
I did grow a beard once, and it’s not an experience I wish to repeat. Facial hair grows to a point where it becomes unbearably itchy under the chin, usually the point where one shaves it off. Only those determined to grow a beard persevere beyond this point. I did it once, when I was travelling in Pakistan many years ago, when it seemed like a useful tool for blending in in certain situations. It looked terrible though, and the one photograph of it has thankfully disappeared over the years. Despite having firmly decided from that day on
I read about **Geoff Lawton’s** work a while ago in an article he wrote that almost moved me to tears, about his work in Jordan. Geoff is doing such amazing work, watch this short movie on his website, and believe that this world can be healed, anywhere. If you thought permaculture was just some odd kind of gardening for people with a borage obsession and too many old newspapers in their garages, take 5 minutes to watch this.
All the indications are that we are nearing the peak in world oil production, indeed, if Kenneth Deffeyes, author of ‘Beyond Oil’, is to be believed, it passed a couple of weeks ago. Predictions from a range of writers and professionals seem to be converging into two ‘clumps’. The one group, who comprise mostly people with a background in geology, such as Colin Campbell and Chris Skrebowski, tend to gather around 2007-2010 as the date for the peak. A second group, mostly economists or Government bodies, present more optimistic scenarios, around 2020 -2035. But what of the oil companies? What do those who ultimately hold the true reserves data that most other researchers can only guess at, have to say about when we might reach the peak?
It is becoming clear to me that one of the important elements of the response to peak oil is a relocalisation of the energy grid. Most of the current scenarios about energy for the UK, including those that have prompted the Government’s revival of the nuclear option, are based on a National Grid (and also on maintaining current levels of consumption rather than attempting to rein in our out-of-control consumer culture, but that’s a subject for a later post…). I have yet to see figures for the national implications of a localised energy scenario rather than the National Grid. It would be interesting to see how much it would reduce demand. Very little research exists as to the feasibility of localised grids. **FEASTA** in Dublin have produced a very useful document, the ENLIVEN Report, looking at some of the real nitty gritty of applying this concept to actual settlements.
