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.
I have already posted a couple of articles that had to be left out of The Power of Just Doing Stuff, and there are more to follow. Another thing left out of the book, due to not fitting with the design feel Green Books wanted the book to have, were four line drawings I did to go with some of the stories. They are the result of several enjoyable evenings at the kitchen table with a pen, a paintbrush, and a bottle of ink. Rather than just pop them in a folder under the bed, I thought I would share them with you (click on them and you can see them in more detail). The first one, above, is of the Dunbar Bakery, set up by Sustaining Dunbar, a Transition initiative, following a community share offer.
The other day I read an excellent piece by Calvin Jones, Professor of Economics at Cardiff Business School (see right) called Technology Cannot Tackle Climate Change. Having argued that, due to a range of issues, economic growth is no longer possible, he writes:
“Faced with these issues it is easy to withdraw into either a belief in an economic growth fairy, or into passive, nihilistic depression. But this is not necessary. Many societies historically have functioned perfectly well without ever-increasing levels of growth and complexity”.
He also wrote “the cognitive dissonance we feel, as GDP figures rise, and we feel ever more tired, stressed and scared, is real, and must be challenged”, rapidly becoming one of my favourite quotes. Given the challenges of condensing complex arguments into short articles, I thought it would be good to have a chat with Calvin. So what follows is either the audio file to listen to while you’re hoovering the stairs, or a transcript of our talk.
Here’s a fantastic video from DW (“Germany’s International Broadcaster”) about Transition in South Africa. It is a clip from a longer programme called ‘Global 3000: The Globalisation Program’, and it looks at the work of Transition Town Greyton in South Africa. It is a fascinating response to the question of “what does Transition look like beyond Europe and the US?” It may well become one of my favourite videos about Transition:
Thanks to Transition Town Freiburg in Germany for this. Horst Köhler, recently-resigned German president (and former president of the IMF) gave a speech to a big world mobility conference (i.e. lots of car companies in the audience), in which he waxed lyrical about Transition! And a few days later he stood down. Here is the video of his talk, followed by a translation of what he said.
There are now just over six weeks until the publication of The Power of Just Doing Stuff: how local action can change the world. I thought this would be a good opportunity to tell you a bit more about it and why you might want to start building into a fever pitch of excitement. It will be published second week of June, will have 160 pages, will sell for £7.95, will be a thing of great beauty, and an inspiring introduction to what Transition is and the ‘Big Idea’ that it represents. Here’s a longer introduction:
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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