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 was honoured to be one of the signatories of a letter which was sent to the Queen last month, a response to the British Academy’s letter to her which sought to address her question as to why no-one had seen the economic meltdown coming. Here is the text of the letter in full.
Open Letter to the Queen: 14th August 2009
Your Majesty,
We, the undersigned, noted with interest the letter to Your Majesty of 22nd July 2009 from the British Academy in which they respond to your question about how the current economic meltdown was missed. They talked of a “failure of the collective imagination of many bright people” and a “psychology of denial”.
On May 30th 2009, Transition Glastonbury hosted an event called ‘Somerset in Transition’, which brought together people involved in Transition initiatives from across the county. Speakers included Jeremy Leggett, Shaun Chamberlin and Jacqi Hodgson. A young budding film maker, Jack Thompson-Roylance, from Glastonbury, brought along his camera and made a short film about the day. Here it is. Enjoy, and have a good weekend.
** Note: the salary for this post has now increased from £22,000 pro rata to £28,500 pro rata. **
Transition Network is looking for a part time fundraiser to join its team. The function of the post is “to help fulfil Transition Network’s objective of supporting community-led responses to peak oil and climate change through building resilience and happiness, by maximising the short and long-term income for core and project costs”. You can read the job description and other information here. To apply, send a CV and covering letter to Jo Coish at Transition Network, 43 Fore Street, Totnes, Devon. TQ9 5HN by Wednesday September 23rd.
September 17th sees the release of the first in a series of ‘how to’ books published under the imprint of ‘Transition Books’ (due soon, guides to money, working with local government and cities). Entitled ‘Local Food: how to make it happen in your community’ it is the work mainly of Tamzin Pinkerton (who was recently interviewed here at Transition Culture) with bits from me, and it is really quite brilliant. Rather than being an intellectual exercise, it is really about the nitty gritty of setting up local food projects, drawing largely (but by no means exclusively) from the successes and failures of Transition initiatives around the world. It is packed with examples, tips, links, ideas and inspiration for rebuilding food resilience where you live. ‘Local Food’ is available from Transition Culture (and elsewhere) from September 17th, but you can preorder it now, and be among the first people to get a copy! To give you a taste, here, in full, is my introduction to the book. There will be two book launches, one in Totnes on October 1st, and another in London, to be confirmed. I’ll keep you posted.
As I mentioned in my write up of the TED Talks, the two most extraordinary presentations I saw there were Itay Talgam (whose talk is not yet posted) and Emmanuel Jal. Emmanuel’s talk was extraordinary, uplifting, sobering and inspirational. By the end there was not a dry eye in the house. It has just been posted by TED, so here it is.
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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I was honoured to be one of the signatories of a letter which was sent to the Queen last month, a response to the British Academy’s letter to her which sought to address her question as to why no-one had seen the economic meltdown coming. Here is the text of the letter in full.
September 17th sees the release of the first in a series of ‘how to’ books published under the imprint of ‘Transition Books’ (due soon, guides to money, working with local government and cities). Entitled ‘Local Food: how to make it happen in your community’ it is the work mainly of Tamzin Pinkerton (who was 
