Transition Towns (also known as Transition network or Transition Movement) is a grassroots network of communities that are working to build resilience in response to peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability.
[1]
Transition Towns is a brand for these environmental and
social movements “founded (in part) upon the principles of
permaculture”, based originally on
Bill Mollison’s seminal
Permaculture, a Designers Manual published in 1988.
[2] The Transition Towns brand of permaculture uses David Holmgren’s 2003 book,
Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.
[3] These techniques were included in a student project overseen by permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins at the Kinsale Further Education College in Ireland. The term
transition town was coined by Louise Rooney
[4] and Catherine Dunne. Following its start in
Kinsale,
Ireland it then spread to
Totnes,
England where Rob Hopkins and Naresh Giangrande developed the concept during 2005 and 2006.
[5] The aim of this
community project is to equip communities for the dual challenges of
climate change and
peak oil. The Transition Towns movement is an example of socioeconomic localisation. In 2007, the UK-based charity Transition Network was founded to disseminate the concept of transition and support communities around the world as they adopted the transition model.
[6]
[edit] Features
The main aim of the project generally, and echoed by the towns locally, is to raise awareness of sustainable living and build local
ecological resilience in the near future. Communities are encouraged to seek out methods for reducing energy usage as well as reducing their reliance on long supply chains that are totally dependent on fossil fuels for essential items. Food is a key area, and they often talk of "Food feet, not
food miles!" Initiatives so far have included creating
community gardens to grow food; business waste exchange, which seeks to match the waste of one industry with another industry that uses that waste material; and even simply repairing old items rather than throwing them away.
The Transition Network website contains a listing of the initiatives that have registered there.
[7]
While the focus and aims remain the same, the methods used to achieve these vary. For example, Totnes has introduced its own
local currency, the
Totnes pound, which is redeemable in local shops and businesses, helping to reduce "food miles" while also supporting local firms.
[8] This idea is also planned to be introduced in three
Welsh transition towns
[9] and in
Maleny Australia, the Baroon Dollar as a part of a regional transition towns project.
[10]
Central to the transition town movement is the idea that a life without oil could in fact be far more enjoyable and fulfilling than the present: "by shifting our mind-set we can actually recognise the coming post-cheap oil era as an opportunity rather than a threat, and design the future low carbon age to be thriving, resilient and abundant — somewhere much better to live than our current alienated consumer culture based on greed, war and the myth of perpetual growth."
[11][12]
An essential aspect of transition in many places, is that the outer work of transition needs to be matched by inner transition. That is in order to move down the energy descent pathways effectively we need to rebuild our relations with our selves, with each other and with the "natural" worlds. That requires focusing on the heart and soul of transition.
[13][14]
[edit] History
The Transition concept emerged from work that
permaculture designer
Rob Hopkins had done with the students of Kinsale Further Education College in writing an "Energy Descent Action Plan". This looked at across-the-board creative adaptations in the realms of energy production, health, education, economy and agriculture as a "road map" to a sustainable future for the town. Two of his students, Louise Rooney and Catherine Dunne, set about developing the transition towns concept and took the far-reaching step of presenting it to Kinsale Town Council, resulting in the historic decision by councillors to adopt the plan and work towards energy independence.
The idea was adapted and expanded through 2005, 2006 and beyond in Hopkins' hometown of Totnes where he is now based. The initiative spread quickly, and as of May 2010, there are over 400 communities
[15] recognized as official Transition Towns in the
United Kingdom,
Ireland,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand, the
United States,
Italy and
Chile. The term
transition towns has morphed into
transition initiatives to reflect the range and type of communities involved - e.g. villages (
Kinsale), neighbourhoods of cities (
Portobello, Edinburgh), through council districts (
Penwith) to cities and city boroughs (
Brixton).
In the United States, transition initiatives have sprung up in many communities.
Transition US is the national hub and has a vision "that every community in the United States will have engaged its collective creativity to unleash an extraordinary and historic transition to a future beyond fossil fuels; a future that is more vibrant, abundant and resilient; one that is ultimately preferable to the present". Transition US is a resource and catalyst for building resilient communities across the United States that are able to withstand severe energy, climate or economic shocks while creating a better quality of life in the process. They are accomplishing this mission by inspiring, encouraging, supporting, networking and training individuals and their communities as they consider, adopt, adapt, and implement the transition approach to community empowerment and change.
A large number of state sites have also been set up using the
Ning social networking platform. These state sites, under the umbrella of a National Ning site,
[16] were set up to help facilitate, network, inform, monitor, and house regional and organizational Transition initiatives and further the rapid spread of the Transition Movement while networking related organizations, projects, ideas and activities. In addition, many Transition initiatives can be found on the
WiserEarth community.
[17] These social networking sites have now begun to spread worldwide.
[edit] Energy Descent Action Plans
A key concept within transition is the idea of a community-visioned, community-designed and community-implemented plan to proactively transition the community away from fossil fuels. The term "community" in this context includes all the key players - local people, local institutions, local agencies and the local council. With a
website devoted to the plan and the publication of Totnes' Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP), the definition of the concept of transition towns has recently seen a significant development.
[citation needed]
[edit] Future
The number of communities involved in the project is increasing with many localities in the process of becoming "official" transition towns.
[18][19] Transition Towns has even featured in the plot line of the long-running
BBC Radio 4 series
The Archers,
[20] which illustrates the media attention and rapid growth the movement is generating.
As of 2010, transition initiatives are generally including the global financial crisis as a third aspect beside peak oil and climate change. Initially, this has been linked to the creation of a series of local currencies in transition towns including the
Totnes pound, the
Lewes pound, the
Stroud pound as well as the
Brixton pound in London.
[edit] International elements
There are transition initiatives all over the world now, and much of the material has been translated and adapted to other languages/cultures. These translated materials are linked
from this page, and cover:
- Portuguese
- Danish
- German
- Dutch
- Spanish
- French
- Hungarian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Irish
[edit] Publications
Transition Network, the charity based in the UK whose mission is to "inspire, encourage, connect, support and train communities as they adopt/adapt the transition model in response to climate change, peak oil and economic contraction" has released a number of publications. These are designed to help communities through the varying stages of their initiative.
The books listed on the
Transition Network books page are:
- The Transition Handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience - by Rob Hopkins
- The Transition Timeline: for a local, resilient future - by Shaun Chamberlin
- Local Food: how to make it happen in your community - by Tamzin Pinkerton and Rob Hopkins
- Local Money: how to make it happen in your community - by Peter North
- Local Sustainable Homes: how to make them happen in your community - by Chris Bird
- Local Communities and Local Councils: working together to make things happen - by Alexis Rowell
In 2008, the Transition Handbook was the joint 5th most popular book taken on holiday during the summer recess by the UK parliamentary MPs.
[21]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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