Post Copenhagen -its down to us

Richard Heinberg - the Peak Everything guru has written a great post Copenhagen blog - it is well worth a read - at end end of the day after after the demos and the politics it is down to us locally - politicians wont ever deliver - they cant!

Rob Hopkins introduces the Transition Movement

15 minute introduction to the ideas behind the Transition Movement - well worth the time.

The Transition Timeline

The Transition Timeline for a local resilient future by Shaun Chamberlin published by Green Books

This is the second book to emerge from the Transition Network, the first being, Rob Hopkin’s essential read the Transition Handbook. For people unfamiliar with the Transition Network it is basically a grass roots movement in which local communities prepare themselves for a future without oil in a changing climate.

Transition Timeline follows on from the Handbook.

The book is divided into five parts.

Part 1 deals with visions for the future and cultural stories. 4 visions are presented: Denial which is the business as usual model; Hitting the Wall which is business as usual but at least you know there is a problem; the Impossible Dream – fighting climate change but forgetting that oil is running out and finally the Transition Vision which accepts and responds to the challenges of climate change and peak oil.

Part 2 of the book looks in more detail at the Transition Vision by examining issues such as population and demographics; food and water; electricity and energy; travel and transport and finally health and medicine. This is radical stuff but unlike so many ‘environmental’ books it paints change as a positive and achievable goal.

Part 3 is written by Rob Hopkins and examines how to use and create Timelines. In a nutshell communities are encouraged to paint a positive vision of how their world might be in a post peak oil world and a world where mitigation against climate change is in full flow. The Timeline is then a backcast of the series of detailed actions that need to be taken over a 20 year period to achieve the vision.

Part 4 is a detailed summary of the science and politics of climate change and oil depletion. This is very up to date and readable – a very good introduction.

Part 5 concludes the book by putting the issues discussed in part 4 into a UK context. The peak oil and the UK section is pretty frightening and would motivate most to take action if they knew about it!

A great book and one you should read. Get it from here.

Happy 2nd birthday Bovey Climate Action

Congratulations to Bovey Climate Action on their second birthday. Held tonight in the Parish Church this was a well attended do with around 200 people present.

Two prominent speakers gave presentations: Rosie Boycott, (former Editor of the Independent, the Independent on Sunday and the Daily Express), the recently appointed London Food Czar an Somerset farmer and Tim Smit Chief Executive and driving force behind the Eden Project (Heligan gardener, song writer and record producer.

Both gave deeply personal accounts of their commitment to the environment - an evening not to be be missed. It followed on from a very impressive First Birthday Party where Jonathon Porritt and Mark Lynas were guest speakers. Both also sent good luck messages for tonight's celebrations.

BCA has made good progress on a number of fronts: energy, food, transport and engagement - it is a model transition town initiative.

If you live in Bovey Tracey - get involved - if you don't get involved in something local to you.

I work for the National Trust in Bovey Tracey at Parke and we are developing a new partnership project with BCA over the management and community use of the Trust's currently unused Walled Garden. It was really heartening tonight that when it was announced that this partnership had been formalised a spontaneous round of applause rang out around the Church - thanks BCA.

Next year BCA is going to focus its attention on lobbying - particularly the 350 campaign. Get involved and support - lobbying isn't party political - its about our future - so go for it

What is the Transition Initiative?

A very important initiative that has sprung up in the south west in 2005 is the formation of the Transition Towns Initiative. A Transition Town can be best described as ‘a small collection of motivated individuals within a community who come together with a shared concern: how can the community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?’

The first Transition Town was set up in Totnes and today there are over 100 TTs around the world and over 600 who are ‘mulling over the idea’.

Transition Initiatives are based on four key assumptions:

• That life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable, and that it is better to plan for it than to be taken by surprise
• That our settlements and communities presently lack the resilience to enable them to weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak oil
• That we have to act collectively, and we have to act now
• That by unleashing the collective genius of those around us to creatively and proactively design our energy descent, we can build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching and that recognise the biological limits of our planet.

Full details can be found in The Transition Handbook – from oil dependency to local resilience. Rob Hopkins (2008) Green Books. Totnes.

The table above helps to define the Transition Initiative. There are also six underlying principles that underpin the Transition model which are encapsulated in an Energy Descent Plan. The six principles are:

1. Visioning – paint a future without oil where life has improved and developed
2. Inclusion – we need to include everyone – not just the ‘green’ ones
3. Awareness raising – if we are not all informed of peak oil and climate change we won’t act
4. Resilience – the changes ahead will be very challenging so our plans need to include solutions which will survive at the local level
5. Psychological insights – many of the barriers to finding solutions lie within our heads – psychology can help us overcome these
6. Credible and appropriate solutions – we need solutions which are of a scale, resilience and sustainability to solve the problem

In producing an Energy Descent Plan a scenario is agreed by the group, for example, as a community we must be oil independent by 2030 and we must cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2030.

A vision is then drawn up to illustrate the community flourishing in 2030 have achieved the above objectives. The final part of the planning involves ‘back casting’ from the vision date to the present and ascribing a series of actions that will be required every year across the following areas of daily life to achieve the objectives:-

• Food
• Youth & Community
• Education
• Housing
• Economy and Livelihoods
• Health
• Tourism Transport
• Waste
• Energy
• Marine Resources

There is a worked example of an Energy Descent Plan from Kinsdale in Ireland – the first produced in the world.

The Transition Handbook

New book just published! By Rob Hopkins, co founder of the Transition Towns Network and founder of Transition Town Totnes.

At first glance this looks excellent. £12.95 RRP or from Amazon.

Energy descent plans

In an earlier entry The End of Oil I described the concept of peak oil and Transition Towns.

One of the key concepts for Transition Towns is to produce an Energy descent Plan which hopefully prepare and allow the local community to live a low carbon life without being dependent on oil.

Such a plan has 6 core considerations

1. create a sense something is happening

2. Ask the right questions

3. Plan for the great re-skilling

4. Find new ways to engage people

5. Stress the new opportunities

6. Vision and backcast

Perhaps the best known Energy Descent Plan is the first one that was produced in Kinsdale, Ireland. You can download their Plan here. This will show how they have explained the 6 core considerations above and how that community is planning for a life without oil