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Book Review: The Transition Handbook
Richard Barnett, Ethical Pulse
The newly published Transition Handbook is so important that I am tempted just to confine this review to five simple words ‘You must read this book!‘ But to do so would, of course, completely fail to communicate its message which is, I believe, so profound and inspiring that I want to do my very best to encourage its spread far and wide. Rob Hopkins is described on the book cover as ‘The Founder of the Transition Movement’.
I would add to that that he is a superb communicator, visionary and one of the most important thinkers in our chaotic 21st century world.Like many people I have been hearing snippets about Transition Towns for quite a while now. It seemed an interesting, if faintly ‘New Agey’, thing adopted by the usual suspects and really rather marginal at best. But now I know what it’s all about and for the first time in years I can feel genuine hope for the future.
The subtitle for the book is ‘From oil dependency to local resilience’ and that’s exactly the journey you are taken on when you read it. It’s divided into three sections – The Head, The Heart and The Hands – in other words get your mind round the need, become impassioned and then get working. It will engender very different reactions in readers depending on their current point of view and understanding. But I guarantee that everyone will feel a sense of change once they have read it.
(1 March 2008)
Implementing Rhizome at the Personal Level
Jeff Vail, rhizome
This fourth essay in a five-part series, The Problem of Growth, examines practical steps to implement rhizome at the personal level. In the last installment, I argued for the theoretical requirements of rhizome. Rhizome begins at the personal level, with a conscious attempt to understand anthropological processes, to build minimal self-sufficiency, and to engage in “small-worlds” networks. This installment will outline my ideas for implementing this theory at the personal level in an incremental and practicable way. This is by no means intended to be an exhaustive list of ideas, but rather a starting point for discussion:
Water
In the 21st Century, I think it will become clear that water is our most critical resource. We’ll move past our reliance on oil and fossil fuels-more by the necessity of resorting to dramatically lower consumption of localized energy-but we can’t move beyond our need for water. There is no substitute, so efficiency of use and efficacy of collection are our only options. In parts of the world, water is not a pressing concern. However, due to the fundamental and non-substitutable need for water everywhere, creating a consistent and resilient water supply should be a top priority everywhere. Climate change, or even just periodic extreme drought such as has recently hit the Atlanta area, may suddenly endanger water supplies that today may be considered a “sure thing.” How does the individual do this? I think that four elements are crucial: efficient use, resilient collection systems, purification, and sufficient storage.
… Defense
I’m not going to advocate that individuals set up their own private, defensible bunker stocked with long rifles, claymore mines, and cases of ammunition. If that’s your thing, great. I do think that owning one or more guns may be a good idea for several reasons-defense being only one (hunting, good store of value, etc.). Let’s face facts: if you get to the point that you need to use, or threaten to use a lethal weapon to defend yourself, you’re A) already in serious trouble, and B) have probably made some avoidable mistakes along the way. The single best form of defense that is available to the individual is to ensure that your community is largely self-sufficient, and is composed of individuals who are largely self-sufficient. The entirety of part five of this series will address exactly that topic. Hopefully, America will never get to the point where lethal force must be used to protect your garden, but let’s face it, large parts of the world are already there. In either case, the single best defense is a community composed of connected but individually self-reliant individuals-this is rhizome. If your neighbors don’t need to raid your garden or “borrow” your possessions, then any outside threat to the community is a galvanizing force. More on this next time.
Practical Considerations in Implementing Rhizome at the Personal Level
Rhizome isn’t an all or nothing proposition-it is possible, and probably both necessary and desirable, to take incremental, consistent steps toward rhizome. Learn how to do more with less. Work to consciously integrate the principles of rhizome into every aspect of your daily life-think about your choices in consumption, then make medium and long-term plans to take bigger steps towards the full realization of rhizome.
And, perhaps most of all, rhizome does not demand, or even endorse, a “bunker mentality.” The single greatest step that an individual can take toward rhizome is to become an active participant in the creation of rhizome in the immediate, local community. That, of course, is the subject of the next, and final, installment in this series.
(3 March 2008)
It’s interesting to compare the different approaches from Jeff Vail in the U.S. and Rob Hopkins in the U.K. (Transition Culture). Both cover similar material, but so far Jeff has a more greater emphasis on individual self-sufficiency, whereas the Transition Town concept is centered on the community. Jeff promises to talk more about his conception of community in the next installment.
Jeff Vail’s site rhizome is “weekly notes on the emergent system, geopolitics, energy, & philosophy. Jeff Vail is:
an author, former intelligence officer, and law student. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Sustainable Settings proving unsustainable
Nonprofit plans to leave for greener pastures
Charles Agar, Aspen Times (Colorado)
Call it a failed experiment in Roaring Fork Valley sustainability, but officials at the Carbondale nonprofit Sustainable Settings are threatening to leave.
Despite growing from 5,700 visitors from area schools in 2006 to more than 9,000 in 2007, and a booming business in organic produce on the 244-acre ranch, local regulations and the high cost of operating in Pitkin County are driving him out, said Brook LeVan, the organization’s founder. Sustainable Settings is a nonprofit focused on education and building model, sustainable communities.
…
His decision comes after he failed to provide county commissioners with master plan updates. The board of commissioners said the ranch, which is zoned as a public facility, did not have adequate toilets for guests or hand-washing stations for kids who pet farm animals.
LeVan agreed to the make the improvements, including a solar-compost toilet. But that didn’t stop the board from closing the ranch to the public in December until LeVan could get everything up to speed – something LeVan estimates will cost the nonprofit some $150,000.
“They’ve got a tough job and they have to deal with an overly regulated place. It’s not their fault,” LeVan said of the county board. “It’s not a personal thing at all; we know we just can’t continue here.”
… And instead of suffering as a “land-rich” nonprofit, LeVan will sell the ranch for land elsewhere, he said, in a “less-regulated county,” according to a press release.
“We’re doing what we need to do. We’re here to build a lifeboat,” LeVan said, adding that the threat of peak oil or global crisis makes the models and studies of “smarter living” at a new ranch site very important. “We think what we are doing is urgent, but we can’t build this model here.”
(6 March 2008)
The continuing theme of misguided regulation obstructing sustainabale projects. Other examples: prohibitions on hemp cultivation, composting, clotheslines, and small-scale slaughter operations. -BA
Interfaith forum on the environment to be held in North Carolina
Morgan Glover, Catawba College
An interfaith forum addressing environmental challenges and solutions will be held at the Center for the Environment at Catawba College from May 29-31.
The Center for the Environment at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, will hold a conference on May 29-31 to make connections between faith and environmental sustainability and help participants take moral responsibility for how they use energy and resources.
Those who attend the conference will:
- Hear nationally recognized thought leaders discuss environmental issues from a spiritual perspective;
- Listen to presenters and panelists talk about such subjects as lifestyle and sustainability, eco-spirituality, and environmental policy and decision-making;
- Participate in workshops that are geared for action;
- And dialog with others about what faith communities can do.
Keynoters:
- Dr. Matthew Sleeth, author of “Serve God and Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action”
- Gary Gardner, director of research at WorldWatch Institute
- The Rev. Sally Bingham, originator of Episcopal Power & Light and executive director of The Regeneration Project
- Dr. Karen Baker-Fletcher, eco-justice theologian at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology
- Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland; board member of the Coalition of the Environment & Jewish Life
For more infromation, visit www.centerfortheenvironment.org.
(4 March 2008)
Mining exec an activist himself
Robert P. King, Palm Beach Post
e’s a vegan, the ultimate Deadhead and a friend of the Earth – the kind of environmentalist who has gone to jail to save old-growth forests, built his house from recycled lumber and raised money to send a socialist to the U.S. Senate.
He might sound like one of those eco-protesters who blockaded the mining company Palm Beach Aggregates two weeks ago.
But no. Michael Klein is one of the company’s owners.
(3 March 2008)
