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 week sees the launch of Alexis Rowell’s Transition Book, “Communities, councils and carbon – what we can do if governments won’t”, which will be available here at Transition Culture from early next week. It’s a blood, sweat and tears account of life as an elected eco warrior trying to encourage local government to work with communities to make the world a greener place, packed with great case studies and tips for Transition initiatives and Councils alike. The book is being launched next week, at 7pm on Wednesday 13th October at Caponata, 3-7 Delancy Street, Camden Town (www.caponatacamden.co.uk) and speakers include: the Home Office Minister, Lynne Featherstone MP; the Chair of the Transition Network and Director of Sustrans, Pete Lipman; Author and Co-Founder of Transition Belsize, John-Paul Flintoff; and the Deputy Leader of the Local Government Association, Richard Kemp. The event is open to all interested Transitioners, although you’ll need to contact Stacey at Green Books (stacey (at) greenbooks.co.uk) for an invite. In the meantime, and to whet your appetite, here is my foreword for the book. Congratulations to Alexis on the publication of this landmark publication…
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s ‘Ingredient’ which looked at Energy Descent Action Plans, here is a detailed and fascinating review of the Totnes one by Michelle Colussi, from i4 magazine. It offers some excellent insights and well informed commentary on the Plan, and argues that it should really be thought of as an ‘Invitation’ rather than a Plan. The Totnes EDAP is still available here. You can download the pdf. of this article (beautifully illustrated) here.Our thanks for their permission to reproduce.
The Transition Totnes Energy Descent Plan. By Michelle Colussi.
The Transition Town model is a series of steps or ingredients for engaging a whole community in the process of reducing reliance on fossil fuels. The model assumes that life with less oil is inevitable, and that making the changes required is up to us – to you and me. It also assumes that everyone needs to be part of the solution. Residents of Totnes, England first developed the model in about 2005. Today, close to 500 communities around the world have adopted it and are recognized as “Transition Towns.” An international Transition Network has formed to connect these initiatives and support training related to the model.
A key consideration in SCALING UP to a more localised economy is addressing the fact that we have lost, or never learnt, many of the skills that such a shift would require. While fostering a culture of SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP and its role in creating a STRATEGIC LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE will be essential, its realisation will require a huge reskilling, a shift in the focus of existing education and training, not just in terms of LOCAL FOOD INITIATIVES, but across the board, particularly in terms of energy and construction.
Strategies that bring people together with their neighbours to explore carbon reduction on a street-by-street level are very powerful. They can be a great way, through the support they offer, of tackling POST PETROLEUM STRESS DISORDER and providing EMOTIONAL SUPPORT/ AVOIDING BURNOUT. Being part of such a group has been found to increase PERSONAL RESILIENCE, while at the same time offering a powerful tool for MEASUREMENT, gathering hard data about very real carbon reductions. Finally, these tools are excellent AWARENESS RAISING methods.
It’s October already, so it’s time to share September’s Transition activities from across the world… we have lots of news from Transition groups in the Netherlands. Their Renewable Energy Project has 75 households involved in it, which between them will have about 800 solar panels on their roofs in the coming spring. Also their first Local and Interest Free money project was launched at the end of September, and they also recently held a Post-fossil Festival, with lots of interesting activities going on. Their ‘Share your stuff – with people you trust’ social website, launched in August, has seen 688 people share 832 goods…wow! They’ve also been making ‘eatable façade gardens’ in the heart of the old city of Deventer, and there’s a great video too:
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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