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.
Am home for a couple of days, and spotted that some of the TED talks have started going up. Here, as a sort of Transition Culture Summer Homework, is Paul Romer’s talk on ‘Charter Cities’ which I was so critical about in my write up. It offers a fascinating taste of unbridled human hubris, of an economist with no sense of economic or resource constraints, no sense of living within our means or of peak anything, no sense that perhaps unbridled neo-liberal free trade economics have been anything other than to the dazzling wellbeing of everyone. Have a look. Be fascinated to hear your thoughts on it. My two highlights are his raising the question as to why no-one else has thought of building cities in deserts, and the bit near the end where he says …“there is no roadblock, there is no impediment, other than a failure of imagination that will keep us from delivering on a truly global win win solution”. See what you think.
Ah, the English summer. Rain, rain and more rain. It is at this point that I take my leave of you for most of August, to spend some time building sandcastles with my kids on Cornish beaches, visit my newlyborn nephew, check in with family, and try not to think about Transition (well I can try). Was meant to be going to the Big Green Gathering, which has been outrageously policed and health and safety-ed out of existence, a tragic loss. Such a great event. In the meantime, you might enjoy the mashup of the ‘Can Totnes Feed Itself’ work that Geofutures have just put online, SeedtoPlate‘s rather excellent Plot Designer, and, in case you missed it, the story about the German brothel’s low carbon policies. My summer reading material is Alan Weiseman’s The World Without Us and, on Carolyn Baker’s recommendation, Al Siebert’s The Resiliency Advantage. Just finished Mark E Smith‘s autobiography, Renegade, which was very enjoyable. Business as usual will be resumed here at the end of August, by which time there will hopefully be some of the 2009 TED talks for you to enjoy. Have a great summer and thanks for all your support, encouragement, comments and enthusiasm thus far.
I’ve written about the Lewes Pound here before, but here is a piece by Adrienne Campbell about the recent launch of the new notes, which are absolutely gorgeous. It is fascinating to see how this initiative continues to develop and to innovate. Congratulations all.
“The Lewes Pound was relaunched by Transition Town Lewes at a celebration on Friday 3 July. The new notes, designed by people from the Lewes community, include higher denominations of Five, Ten and a Twenty One Lewes Pound note.
How, and how far, will we travel if we make the changes we need to in order to thrive in a carbon constrained society? For a range of interlocking reasons, the conclusion of this paper is that we will be happier, healthier and more resilient if we radically change from our current patterns to ones that fit into a relocalised world. In that world we will travel far less far and fast, overwhelmingly walking, cycling and using public transport.
‘In Transition’, the 50 minute film about Transition created, in part, using the stories that Transition initiatives themselves filmed, is now completed. The final cut is all done, and rather good it is too. It has been rearranged from that previewed online and that shown at the Transition Network conference, and it contains a whole new section too. As we mentioned before, the film will be released in different stages, ending up with a 2 disc DVD set available in December. The first stage is for Transition initiatives to screen the film, and we are keen to get as many initiatives as possible to show it on September 9th. Helen at Transition Network will be contacting all the ‘official’ Transition initiatives over the next few days, but if you would like to arrange a screening where you are, please contact her at transitionmovie (at) googlemail.com, or call her on 05601531882. You never know, we might get more premieres on one day than ‘Age of Stupid’!
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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