| |
Ben Brangwyn and Rob Hopkins
Introduction to Transition
abstract from: Transition Primer, february 2010
Transition is a flexible set of principles and practices built through the experience and observation of comunities as they develop local resilience and reduce CO2 emissions.
Underpinning the Transition Model is a recognition of the following:
• Climate Change and Peak Oil require urgent action
• life with less energy is inevitable and it is better to plan for it than be taken by surprise
• industrial society has lost the resilience to be able to cope with energy shocks
• we have to act together and we have to act now
• regarding the world economy and the consumptive patterns within it, as long as the laws of physics apply, infinite growth within a finite system (such as planet earth) simply isn't possible.
• we demonstrated phenomenal levels of ingenuity and intelligence as we raced up the energy curve over the last 150 years, and there's no reason why we can't use those qualities, and more, as we negotiate our way down from the peak of the energy mountain
• if we plan and act early enough, and use our creativity and cooperation to unleash the genius within our local communities, then we can build a future that could be far more fulfilling and enriching, more connected and more gentle on the earth than the lifestyles we have today.
The Peak oil
In response to the twin pressures of Peak Oil and Climate Change -the two toughest challenges facing humankind at the start of this 21st century- some pioneering communities in the UK, Ireland and beyond are taking an integrated and inclusive approach to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their ability to withstand the fundamental shift that will accompany Peak Oil.
The Climate Change is well documented and very visible in the media. Peak Oil, however, remains under the radar for most people. Yet Peak Oil, heralding the era of ever-declining fossil fuel availability, may well challenge the economic and social stability that is essential if we are to mitigate the threats posed by Climate Change.
Peak Oil is not about “running out of oil” – we'll never run out of oil. There will always be oil left in the ground because either it's too hard to reach or it takes too much energy to extract. Ponder on a fact that the economists conveniently gloss over – regardless of how much money you can make selling oil, once it takes an oil barrel's worth of energy to extract a barrel of oil, the exploration, the drilling and the pumping will grind to a halt.
Peak Oil is about the end of cheap and plentiful oil, the recognition that the ever increasing volumes of oil being pumped into our economies will peak and then inexorably decline. It’s about understanding how our industrial way of life is absolutely dependent on this ever-increasing supply of cheap oil.
From the start of the 1900s, plentiful oil allowed a coal-based industrialised society to massively accelerate its “development”. From that time, each year there has been more oil (apart from the two oil shocks in the 1970s when Middle East crises caused worldwide recessions). And each year, society increased its complexity, its mechanisation, its globalised connectedness and its energy consumption levels.
Writings and interviews
Visit the website transitionnetwork.org
Rob Hopkins, Transition to a world without oil, video, july 2009
Transition Towns and Resilience Thinking, november
2009
Rob Hopkins, the Transition handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience, Green Books, 2008
WHITE PAPER Adapting to climate change: Towards a European framework for action, april 2009
Transition Towns e Decrescita Felice in: Terranauta.it
Interview with Ellen Bermann, president of Transition Italy in: Terranauta.it, february 2009
Enough is Enough
Summary of the conference held in Leeds UK, on june 19 2010, an initiative by two no-profit organisations: ‘Economic Justice for All’ and ‘Centre for Advancement of the Steady State Economy’
Economia della Condivisione e Alternative: Costi Ambientali della Globalizzazione
in genitronsviluppo.com, november 2010
Il Principio di Sussidiarietà estratto da Wikipedia
Ecological footprint for cities Global Footprint Network
|
|
