Transition Towns–Local Response to Global Issues

Adapting to Peak Oil and Climate Change - the Transition Initiative

Aug 21, 2008

Cheap oil is running out and climate change means we need to reduce carbon emissions. These imperatives will mean great changes to society.

Oil is the prime mover behind the globalised industrial economy, and the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change mean that society will have to use less energy per head in future. The change can either be forced upon people, or with some foresight some of the way things are run can be changed so that the reduction in energy requirements transforms the way we live to a better future.

The Problem

Market forces have used cheap oil profligately, transporting goods around the globe. While this is fine in the case of some high-value goods that have to made in a specialised way, a lot of trade leverages the low cost of transport, a result of relatively cheap oil. Nowhere is this more apparent than in food, which is often transported worldwide where it can be grown in the consumer’s country. Here, using a little bit more skill in choosing what is eaten to go with the local seasons, vast amounts of energy can be saved by eating local. Globalisation has generally tended to involve more travel, for goods and for people. The economics of this will be adversely affected if the cost of oil increases.

At the same time, globalisation has led to more specialisation, complexity and automation. This makes supply chains longer and more susceptible to disruption. The resilience of society to interruptions in supply is reduced – for example in the UK fuel protests of 2000 only four days of partial blockading of fuel depots led to widespread fuel shortages across the country.

The Solutions

The Transition Town Inititive acknowledges that society does not currently know how to adapt to the putative changes, but that it does know something about what needs to be changed. Essentially the excesses of globalisation need to be rolled back, and production and consumption need to be localised.

People involved in the Transition Town Initiatives discuss and implement more local solutions and adopt some incentives to localise trade. For instance, in the first UK Transition Town, Totnes is Devon, a local currency called the Totnes Pound is in local circulation. These can be converted to UK Pounds, but there is a 5% premium on conversion, so there is some incentive for consumers who receive Totnes Pounds to spend them in the area, a subtle way to change behaviour to favour local goods and services.

Energy Descent Action Plan

In 2005 Rob Hopkins had some of his students at a permaculture course draft an Energy Descent Action Plan for Kinsale in Ireland. This outlined how Kinsale could reduce its energy consumption, culminating in a 12-step plan for how to implement the changes.

In March 2008 Rob Hopkins published his book “the Transition Handbook – from Oil Dependency to Local Resilience”, which describes the reasoning behind the Transition Initiative, how to implement it and why.

Positive Vision for the Future

Unlike many exhortations by climate change campaigners, the Transition Town Initiative is a positive viewpoint. It looks at how people can adapt and live better, learning skills at a local level and developing a resilient economy. As such it is to be welcomed – with foresight and vision society may be able to navigate its way out of the oil and climate change crisis.

References

The Totnes Pound: Reclaiming our local economy. Published by the Totnes Currency Group, 2008

The copyright of the article Transition Towns–Local Response to Global Issues in Environmental Activism is owned by Richard Mudhar. Permission to republish Transition Towns–Local Response to Global Issues in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.