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.
We had a fantastic day on Saturday with the first Transition Tales and Wondermentalist creative day, held here in Totnes. Wondermentalist is a local poets/performers collective, who do monthly cabarets in Totnes, which are quite wonderful. Matt Harvey, one of its founders, can be seen today, on BBC South West at 7.30pm, doing a piece about Transition for a programme called ‘Inside Out’. For those of you outside the South West (or within the South West but with no telly, or who are in the South West and do have a telly but who have an important appointment at 7.30), it will be available on the i-Player. I’ll let you know, and we’ll try and get it onto YouTube as soon as we can. Anyway, back to the workshop, which was fantastic…
Here’s a fascinating clip. As Transition continues to spread across the US, interesting little pieces like this are popping up on US television. I love at the end how the presenter gives the date and time for the next Transition meeting in the town. Now if only we could get that kind of exposure everywhere!
Here is something rather wonderful that emerged in late 2008 from New Zealand, thanks for Dr. Susan Krundieck (about whom more below). It is an update of the US Declaration of Independence, brought up to date for a generation facing peak oil, climate change and economic contraction, and is attributed to the Representatives of the Transition Committee of Oamaru (a town in New Zealand). I love the list of ‘the Growth Economy has for its own sake…’ accusations statements… there is a deep, forceful power to this, a clearly spoken and resonant declaration of intent. Prepare yourself for a goosebumps moment.
I love my town. Its not something we say a great deal in England. In the US, people write songs about their towns and cities (Box Elder MO, Put Your Hands Up for Detroit, New York, New York…), as well as about the roads that join them together (Highway 61), but not here. Other than bands like the Smiths, who sang songs about rented rooms in Whalley Range and other parts of Manchester, and one or two other bands (such as It’s Immaterial’s song about driving across England from the 80s), we don’t have a strong tradition of celebrating where we come from.
That’s the country, not the pneumatically-enhanced uber-celebrity. Here is an article from JO, an English language Jordanian magazine, which looks at what the Transition concept might have to offer in a Jordian context. Also contains some great graphics….
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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