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.
Since the visit of Richard Heinberg to New Zealand, the place appears to have gone into a Transition-frenzy. James Samuel ran two workshops on the Transition approach after Heinberg’s talk at the EcoShow in Taupo, which apparently went very well. Also, Jo Duff of the Hawkes Bay Trust recently posted an excellent presentation she gave on the Transition model at an event there, which is a really heartening example of how people are taking the model and just starting to put it out there. The first part is below, the other 3 parts link from this.
In the Transition Network we are presently working on how best to support these nascent initiatives from lil’ole Devon, and given that we don’t fly. We are developing Transition Training materials, a presentation people can be trained to deliver and soon, of course, The Transition Handbook (the name has changed from ‘Small is Inevitable’) which will be out in March ’08. Who needs aeroplanes?!
The Big Melt report that caused me sleepless nights last week showed that climate change is happening far faster than anyone, the IPCC included, had predicted. Over the last week the peak oil argument has similarly sped up, exceeding predictions almost on a daily basis. It crashed through the $80 a barrel ceiling, which set experts talking about $90 a barrel sometime next year, but before the end of the week, there it was. Now the mythical $100 a barrel level could be as little as days away. It is worth remembering that when prices are adjusted for inflation, the highest oil prices we have ever had were during the last oil crisis in the 70s, and were around $102 a barrel, and that caused a major recession. Beyond $102 we are into new terrain; all bets, as they say, are off, with regards to what we might find when we get there.
**Global Public Media** just posted a great interview with Klaus Harvey of Transition Town Kinsale which looks at what has happened in Kinsale since the Kinsale Energy Descent Plan (KEDAP) was produced two years ago. Global Public Media has followed the Kinsale story since the beginning. The first mention of interesting things afoot in Kinsale came in an interview with Richard Heinberg when he was in Kinsale in June 2005 at the Fuelling the Future conference, the event where the KEDAP was first released. In it he mentions the KEDAP (which he calls “an extraordinary document”) and gives a sense of what a powerful event it was.
Since it began in September 2000, the Kinsale Practical Sustainability/Permaculture course has gone from strength to strength. This year the course could have filled twice over, and it has the largest amount of second years yet. Hundreds of people have passed through it, spent one or two years immersed in permaculture design and then gone off back into the world again. Where did they all go? What are they all doing now? Second year student Jeannie Timony has set up a website called Permies Portal to encourage past and present students to get in touch with each other. If you were ever a student at Kinsale please check out the site and post your details…. it’d be great to hear what you are all up to.
A while ago I told you about an interview I had done with Global Public Media which explored in depth the Transition concept. In the meantime, the very noble Kristin Sponsler has actually gone through it and transcribed the whole thing. I thought you might find it of interest… Many thanks to Andy, Julian and the GPM team for making it available.
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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