[OKC] The Rise of Transition Culture featuring Bill McKobben

[Shauna Lawyer Struby]

Lexicon of Change: The Rise of Transition Culture

A movement aimed at tackling the energy crisis with aplomb has been stepping
on the gas since its formation.

By: Judith D. Schwartz  | March 12, 2010 | 05:00 AM (PDT)

You may or may not have heard of the Transition movement
<http://www.transitiontowns.org/>  - described by its founder, Rob Hopkins,
as "an exercise in engaged optimism"- yet Transition's ideas are informing
and even guiding the conversation of how communities confront the twin
crises of peak oil and climate change.

The movement is driven by one simple idea: Rather than hand-wringing and
lamenting dwindling energy reserves and climate change, Transition wants
people to envision and create models for that future - and find much to be
cheerful about.

A variety of activities take place under the Transition banner. Scroll
around - the movement has had a strong Web presence from the start - and
you'll find numerous farm and food events, tree-planting get-togethers,
launching a local currency, campaigns to install Smart Meters (through
British Gas' Green <http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=111063>
Streets Energy Challenge), and a program in which teenagers interview
elderly people to learn about daily life before the era of cheap oil
<http://www.wirralnews.co.uk/wirral-news/local-wirral-news/2010/01/26/fundin
g%20%20-for-west-kirby-oil-project-92534-25683851/> .

"Transition is often seen as an environmental movement, but ultimately it's
about cultural change: enabling the shift from what's appropriate for the
upward net energy curve to what's appropriate for the downward curve," says
Hopkins, who had been a teacher of permaculture
<http://www.miller-mccune.com/science-environment/straw-homes-that-would-hav
e-foiled-the-wolf-6938/>  - a holistic design system rooted in ecology - the
principles of which underlie Transition.

Highlights:

.         "The Transition movement] has become part of the part of the
cultural scene, especially in places like Vermont, Oregon and Northern
California," says author and environmentalist
<http://www.billmckibben.com/> Bill McKibben. "When he started this, Rob
really understood that people needed to take their worries about the climate
and do something practical."

.         The movement remains low profile and unsung. One reason may be
that it's so hard to characterize: Transition is at once local and global,
high-tech and down-home, methodical and freewheeling.

.         "People have an intuitive understanding that we're much more
vulnerable than our forebears," says McKibben. "Today we're so specialized,
in that people tend to do one thing well enough to earn money and depend on
the larger system to do the rest. People enjoy the feeling of becoming more
competent in things."

Full article here :::
http://www.miller-mccune.com/science-environment/lexicon-of-change-the-rise-
of-transition-culture-10763  

Shauna, OKC

Imagine, innovate, create, collaborate

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