On Wednesday, April 22 at 7 p.m., Transition Newburyport presents an introduction to the Transition Town Initiative, entitled, Peak Oil, Climate Change, and the Global Transition Movement: Transitioning Communities From Oil Dependency to Resiliency and Self Reliance.
What is a Transition Town?
It started with a small group of motivated individuals who came together with a shared concern to answer the following question:
For all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of peak oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of climate change)?
Processes involve:
- awareness raising around peak oil, climate change and the need to undertake a community lead process to rebuild resilience and reduce carbon
- connecting with existing groups in the community
- building bridges to local government
- connecting with other transition initiatives
- forming groups to look at all the key areas of life (food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, economics & livelihoods, etc)
- kicking off projects aimed at building people’s understanding of resilience and carbon issues and community engagement
- eventually launching a community defined, community implemented “Energy Descent Action Plan” over a 15 to 20 year timescale
The community also recognized two crucial points:
- We used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and that there’s no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope;
- If we collectively plan and act early enough, there’s every likelihood that we can create a way of living that’s significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves on today.
To weave the climate change and peak oil situations together, it is important to note that climate change makes the carbon reduction transition essential, peak oil makes it inevitable, and transition initiatives make it feasible, viable and attractive.
If you would like to learn more about Transition Newburyport and how you can join the conversation, the dialogue will occur Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day) at 7 p.m. at the Newburyport Public Library.
While in the area for Earth Day activities, please consider attending free author readings and lectures of the 4th annual
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