Carl Etnier

Transition Towns: Learning to build a good life together

by

The Transition Town model is a very different way to address peak oil and climate change than most of those now getting headlines. We hear a lot about getting other people to do something: Build electric cars, erect wind turbines, re-build passenger rail or sign the Kyoto Protocol. In Transition Towns, people get together themselves to weatherize each others’ homes, repair bicycles, create community gardens, and plant nut and fruit trees in parks and along streets.

Timing is everything

by

The key question is whether we have the time for said gradual energy transition. … Should the analogy be the American entry into World War II which led to a command economy directed by the federal government with the aim of winning the war? One could certainly argue that the United States did not make optimal use of its resources during World War II. But, it did win.

Book review: Plan C

by

In Murphy’s typology, Plan A is “Business as Usual”- which will be prevented by absolute resource and environmental constraints; Plan B is the proposed switch to “Clean Green technology”- which will not be able to replace oil in time; while Plan D is “Die Off”. Thus we are lef twith Plan C which the plan of “curtailment and community”- the kind of responses being explored in the Transition movement, as well as our own Powerdown Community project, for which this book is a key resource.

For an energy future, look to the past

by

A response to a request for new ideas from the Obama-Biden Transition team: “Our nation and our people are passing into the most dynamic shift in direction since the beginning of the industrial revolution in 1750. We are going from a time of future promise to past wisdom. We are entering a time when we need to relearn old, simple lessons combined with a liberal application of efficient, low energy, low capital and high technology solutions. For the first time in human history, we will have to model the future after the past.”