Post Carbon Cities Blog
Though it's been around for longer, the Transition Towns initiative really blossomed as an international movement this year with the release of the Transition Handbook. In its home country, the United Kingdom, Transition activities led to several peak oil related resolutions (as well as a host of non-governmental community developments, like the creation of local currency). This year, the idea leapt the pond, taking root in the United States with the formation of Transition United States.
Though it's been around for longer, the Transition Towns initiative really blossomed as an international movement this year with the release of the Transition Handbook. In its home country, the United Kingdom, Transition activities led to several peak oil related resolutions (as well as a host of non-governmental community developments, like the creation of local currency). This year, the idea leapt the pond, taking root in the United States with the formation of Transition United States.
This year saw the Transition Towns initiative, born in Ireland and England, blossom into more of an international movement. March 2008 saw the publication of founder Rob Hopkins's book The Transition Handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience, which makes several strong, clear and important arguments: that peak oil and climate change are critical and immediate issues, that they must be addressed together, and that local, community-based action may be the best hope for effective resilience building. Those arguments are combined with a basic organizing model to allow people to start Transition Initiatives in their towns. So far, Transition Initiatives have formed in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Australia, Chile, Japan, New Zealand, and the USA. (Find out more at the Transition Network site.)
Post Carbon Cities doesn't focus on citizen groups except insofar as they pursue goals at the local governmental level (which is not infrequent -- see the examples of Chapel Hill, N.C. and Nevada City, Calif.) So while we read, appreciated, and recommended the Transition Handbook on our site, we haven't been following the individual initiatives closely. But perhaps we should.
This year saw peak oil-related resolutions in Bristol, Nottingham, and Somerset in the U.K. -- that's two relatively major cities and a county -- and all three grew out of the work of local Transition groups. The fact that political action is not the entirety of their mission may well be one of their strengths. We heard from Transition Nottingham's Jerome Baddley that on top of the group's political lobbying and education,
There has also been plenty of space for creativity and non political positive direct community action, with local groups and hub members setting up their own initiatives such as the urban harvest festival, skills shares and a recycled bicycle trailer give away, all under the transition banner. While ostensibly practical and non-political, these events have certainly caught the imagination of local communities and the local press, creating fertile ground for political support.
It's hard to get political traction on issues that the public isn't aware of. That's practically a truism. It's also common that people feel overwhelmed by the immensity of the issue when they start to understand peak oil. The Transition model helps such people form a positive vision of what adaptation to energy uncertainty might look like in their area, and work to implement that vision, step by step, in concert with their community. An essential part of that is educating the community, which can start to open the way for local government action.
Transition United States is gaining momentum; I wouldn't be surprised to see that translate into multiple new towns on our local actions map in the next year.
Photo credits:
dachalan 
London Permaculture
