Society

First results from Transition Together evaluation

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“Transition Together”, the street-by-street behaviour change programme developed by Transition Town Totnes and now being piloted in 10 other communities, has just completed analysing the data that has come back from the first 4 groups, comprising 32 households in Totnes. They have completed all 7 of the sessions set out in the workbook, and the data offers a fascinating first look at whether the process works or not. The results from the other 31 groups currently underway are expected this Autumn. Here, Fiona Ward of Transition Together shares the results that have emerged.

A vision of the future : The Knights of God

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Hardly anybody today remembers The Knights of God. It was a children’s series produced by a now defunct British regional television channel in 1985. It was aired once, not so unfairly panned by critics, and quickly forgotten. It had a somewhat longer career in France where public television bought it and aired it at least twice, under the title Les Epées de Feu, before putting it in cold storage…Yet, despite its flaws, this piece of nearly lost lore tells us more about what post-peak politics could be than most doomer porn produced since.

Why am I here? Our struggle for meaning, in the world and church

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Perhaps the central reason I keep coming back to St. Andrew’s at this particular moment in history is the anguish I feel for the world.

It’s the concrete anguish we feel every day when we open the newspaper for the update on the amount of oil spilling into the Gulf. It’s that anguish that comes with hearing the news of the latest drone attack on a village in Afghanistan or Pakistan, or a reading a report on the most recent study of species extinction and reduction in biodiversity.

For me, anguish captures the emotion associated with recognizing that we humans have fallen out of right relation with Creation, and therefore inevitably out of right relation with each other.
(Sermon delivered yesterday at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas.)

The church, the peak, and my old watch

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I finish my talk pointing at one of the windows of the church. I say, “and a vegetable garden is sustainable as well, as the one I have seen when I came here.” They smile. One of the old men says, “Yes, we are cultivating it. The young ones don’t care too much about it.” I say, “They’ll learn and they’ll be happy that you left it to them.”

How to be maladaptive: Fourteen tips for mental activities guaranteed to enhance your misery during bad times

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Those who learn about Peak Oil, climate change, and economic hard times show a series of short-lived symptoms of stress over several months, but these are normal and expected reactions to these stunning findings. Roughly 50-60% of adults in North America are exposed to traumatic events, but only 5% to 10% develop maladjusted PTSD and related problems. What sorts of beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors promote the development of longer-term traumatic reactions?

Smart Decline in Post-Carbon Cities

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Many American cities—mostly in the Midwest and Northeast—have seen serious continuing shrinkage in recent decades and are now beginning to face up to it. A few have tentatively tried to craft measures that accept the persistence, even permanence, of their smaller size. As these cities search for answers, one of the few models they can turn to comes from, of all places, the buffalo country of the Great Plains states. There, communities that fought population decline for decades are now preparing for the realities of a smaller, but not necessarily worse, future. Through our work with these communities over many years, we believe that they have experience that can help guide shrinking cities in what we have called “smart decline.”

Good News from the Department of Energy

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Sometimes it seems as if little is happening and then suddenly a major shift occurs. This seems true of the Department of Energy (DOE) when it comes to energy use in buildings. The DOE is beginning to take big strides in supporting the reduction of energy use in existing buildings. Retrofit costs are still high and funding difficult to obtain but this should change over the next year. The nation’s consciousness is moving away from new green buildings to impressive energy retrofits of the existing stock.

Transition Towns: Local networking for global sustainability?

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The Transition Model has advanced a pathway towards ‘local sustainability’ distinct from previous sustainability models in a clear and important way: it is a grassroots, non-governmental model and also a networking movement. Still in its infancy, and with little academic attention so far having specifically focused on it; there is a clear gap in understanding of the Transition Model’s role in relation to (local) sustainability, which this research has sought to bridge.
(Highlights from a paper recommended by Rob Hopkins as “high quality research.”)

Fireflies In July

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Most of us have only a little knowledge of the awesome events going on in nature right around us all the time. That’s why we must ceaselessly travel in search of distraction far and wide. There are wonders at work right under our noses but we don’t notice. It is even more lamentable now that we have abandoned the real world for the electronic world.

Sailing the Salish Sea: Passenger Service in BC

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Carson Tak has made history as the first known modern-era sail-powered passenger service captain/entrepreneur… Such a life as Carson Tak’s is enviable. However, what he’s doing for a living is more than just float and gloat. He raises awareness on the world’s oil crisis every time he hoists his sails, and on land as well as sea he participates in sustainable economics: utilizing and promoting the gift economy.