Newcomers to Transition

Comment

Comment by RAHUL MITTAL on December 1, 2009 at 9:04am

hey first of all i wanna to thanx you for this type of great community for the new comers as we are not aware whats all happening here
thats all for today
but u hve done a fabolous job

Comment by Robert Schultz on November 11, 2009 at 12:25pm

Good luck Iver. Kathy Jacobson posted some info about some online webinars recently. Transition Clinic: The nitty-gritty of getting Transition rolling in your community.
Date: October 29, 2009

View a recording of this event, 90 min.

There is another webinar starting soon:
Decision-Making for Transition Groups: Part One
November 11, 2009 from 4:00 - 5:30PM (EST)

Comment by Iver Lofving on November 11, 2009 at 8:35am

I would like to start some kind of Transition initiative around here. I have a small maple sugaring operation and am a Peak Oil person for at least 10 years. I think the time to do something is now.

Comment by Robert Schultz on September 5, 2009 at 9:49am

I agree, David, we need to make our choices in our own communities to connect and form a resilient local economy. Sending a letter to Congress to support Climate Change legislation will only help to let decision makers at the National level see that these are issues that many concerned citizens find important. Acting to support those goals will help move the Transition forward, rather than create legislation to fight against the Transition.

Comment by David Eggleton on September 5, 2009 at 8:59am

"Transition will happen, with or without government legislation, but supporting Climate Change legislation will help make the Transition smoother."

I'd enjoy being able to share the belief that concludes that sentence, but I am not. Transition ultimately is about people taking back the power to connect and choose together from those who would separate them (or maintain separation) and choose for them. That's where resilience enters and thrives, not in a prescribed utopia. As I see it, the dividing and dominating interests are very present in all legislative processes and outcomes, especially at the national level. Transition involves making we a meaningful word and a sustainable reality in the 21st century. That's local because local doesn't require fossil fuels and/or nukes to function and persist.

Comment by Robert Schultz on September 4, 2009 at 5:40pm

Please take a look at the letter from Sustainable Energy Network regarding Climate Change legislation, posted in the discussions. This is something that supporters of the Transition Movement may be interested in signing. The letter to Congress supports; reduced CO2 emissions, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. It asks Congress NOT to support; fossil fuels, nuclear power, and environmental roll-backs.

Transition will happen, with or without government legislation, but supporting Climate Change legislation will help make the Transition smoother.

Comment by Larry Menkes on August 28, 2009 at 12:32pm

Nice to have you here.
Keep this up and we'll need to start a twelve-step group.

Comment by KateJohnston on August 27, 2009 at 4:07pm

Hi,
My name is Kate and I'm a Transition-a-holic.
Nice to be here.

Comment by Heather Valli on June 26, 2009 at 1:08pm

Hiya. I'm new here, but I suspect there are a number of people from my area involved in this movement. I'm looking forward to learning more.

Comment by Kathy Jacobson on June 9, 2009 at 8:54am

FYI:

What's up with this "Transition Initiatives" movement that I hear is spreading like a virus around the globe?

From the Transition Ohio home page:

The Wikipedia entry for Transition Towns provides very basic information about the Transition Initiatives movement, including:
...by shifting our mind-set we can actually recognise the coming post-cheap oil era as an opportunity rather than a threat, and design the future low carbon age to be thriving, resilient and abundant ...

The key phrase there is shifting our mind-set, easy to say, not so easy to do especially since it is about lifting our veils of denial with regards to climate change, post-oil realities and other worse case scenarios. However, it is also about realizing that it is a lot more fun and effective to free the beast and compassionately take it by the horns while leading it onto a path that offers greener pastures.

It's about accepting that we as a society has been programmed into a way of life that is out of balance. It's about knowing that sustainability must, by definition, include the environmental, social AND economic sectors. It's about knowing that sustainability isn't just about basic survival, it's about building a civilization that will thrive and prosper for generations to come. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness for ALL!

It is about preparedness with an all-hazard approach, adaptation and strengthening local resiliency with a bottom-up/top-down systems strategy. It is about re-skilling in all arenas, including communication and collaboration. It is about collectively developing energy descent and other preparedness plans in our local area.
It is about developing self-sufficiency while building interdependent systems on the local level.

However, the hardest part of all...it is also about shifting the way we think, make decisions, interact with each other and all life on this planet. It's up to each one of us as individuals to accept responsibility and to take the steps needed to create a more balanced way of life on this planet while reaching out to our neighbors to rekindle the fires of local community.

Some folks have found the frequently distributed Hopi Elders Speak message to be a nice place to start and a helpful reminder on this adventure.

Transition Resources:
* What is a Transition Town (or village, neighborhood, watershed, forest or island)?
* Transition Culture
-- How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march?
*The Transition Primer, pdf file.
* Who we are and What we do, a pdf file.
* 7 Buts
* 12 steps
* Criteria for becoming an official Transition Initiative
*The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience by Rob Hopkins.

* Transition US is a newly established non-profit organization, that is working in close partnership with the Transition Network and the Post Carbon Institute to catalyze, inspire, encourage, network, support and train communities throughout the U.S. as they consider, adopt, adapt and implement the Transition model.

* Transition US therefore offers us Getting Started information.
* Transition US also facilitates official Training for Transition (T4T) programs around the country; including at the Wabi Community; hosted by Healing Heart Herbals on October 3 & 4th in Meigs County, SE Ohio.

Transition US reports:
These courses are designed to give a detailed introduction to the most important skills necessary to successfully set up, develop and run a Transition project in your locality. It is designed for people who are already in a group working to achieve this, or are thinking of creating such a group.

Prerequisites for these trainings usually include:
*** The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience by Rob Hopkins.
***The Transition Primer.
The Transition Network says: If you've read The Primer and are "mulling over" whether you might set up an initiative in your locale, then you may want to consider getting yourself onto one of the GoogleMaps ...

These maps can be accessed by clicking on these hotlinksGoogle map official Transition Initiatives and href="http://www.transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/Mulling">Mullers.

The Transition Ohio group:
The Mullers is a place for us to share thoughts and questions about the materials while also consulting and collaborating with each other regarding our respective efforts. The hope is that we will also develop an alliance of interdependency with clear communications and a unifed voice toward a common goal.

*** other recommended materials:
* The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century by James Howard Kunstler. There is also a wikipedia description about the book.
* Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines by Richard Heinberg.
Videos:
*** Crude Impact
Wikipedia offers a brief description and here is a 4 minute sneak peak of Crude Impact . There are also four video clip excerpts available in the Transition Ohio Video Library.
*** A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash. There are six excerpts available in the TO video library and a Wikipedia description.
*** The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
(It is available in 6 parts in the Transition Ohio video library)
*** Arithmatic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101 by Dr. Albert Bartlett. (It is available in 8 parts in the Transition Ohio video library)

The Manpollo Project may also be of interest given that Transition Initiatives are inclined to take a dual driver approach that includes peak oil AND climate change. The creator of the Manpollo Project is a science teacher who presents information regarding climate change and risk management in a fun and easily understood fashion.

The Manpollo Project homepage offers links to the videos and other information. There are also quite a few in the TO video library.

The Manpollo home page reports: Our mission is to provide a risk-management perspective to the often political debate of global warming. We aim to quantify the possible consequences of various international, national, statewide, and personal actions (or inaction), based upon economic and climate models provided by top scientists in their respective fields.

Furthermore, we wish to shift the question often asked in popular culture from "Are we certain we're responsible for global warming?" to
"Given the risks and uncertainties of global warming, what is the best action to take?"

So...if you've gotten this far...what do you think?

Are you ready to join a team, step up to the plate and hit a home run for life on this planet?
If so, come on over to Transition Ohio and join the party!

Everybody, with their own unique strengths, weaknesses and quircks is needed if we're going to win this game!

From the Transition Ohio home page:

Welcome to Transition Ohio!...Reaching beyond what we're used to in terms of social networking and environmental, green, sustainability movements.

Tom Atlee, Co-intelligence Institute shares:
Perhaps most remarkable is that the Transitions Towns approach engages people NOT by scaring them out of their wits or telling them what to do, but by providing powerful motivations, possibilities, and ways for them to explore creative local responses for and among themselves. There is no blueprint. The guidance provided involves tools, ways of talking and co-creating together, visions, and links to other people and resources engaged in this effort.
What we do with it is up to us.

This Transition Ohio Ning site, and those for the other states, have emerged from the people, for the people. They are not official projects of the Transition US organization or the Transition Network; however the cooperative partnership is growing stronger all the time.

May the wisdom and creativity of our hands, hearts and heads weave together into a beautiful vine thriving, with bountiful fruit for all, upon the Transition

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