Transition Towns: Inspiring Change
Imagine communities where people know their neighbours and feel a sense of belonging, places where resources and skills are shared, where people grow and share their own food, where people car-pool, walk and bike. Imagine reconnection with neighbours, nature, seasons, healthy food, skills that our grandparents took for granted that we have lost.
- Article from the latest edition of Just Living-
I first got involved in Transition Towns after we went round the neighbourhood introducing ourselves to the new neighbours right after moving into a new house in the centre of Wellington. The spunky guys down the road were really excited about this new movement that seeks creative local responses to the twin challenges of climate change and peak oil.
We’re constantly fed this litany of depressing information, overwhelming, dismal facts about how we’re all stuffed. This gets pretty disempowering because the problems just seem so huge and lots of us just figure, “I’m only one small person and really the politicians / business corporations / exuberant activists are the ones whose responsibility it is to do something about them.”
The Transition Towns initiative gives us the opportunity to say “Hey, what can we do right here in our neighbourhood to respond positively to these problems and actually do something about them?” There’s an amazingly inspiring sense that rather than being a dismally austere place, a lower-energy, more local future could actually be preferable and a much more fun place to live.
Imagine communities where people know their neighbours and feel a sense of belonging, places where resources and skills are shared, where people grow and share their own food, where people car-pool, walk and bike. Imagine reconnection with neighbours, nature, seasons, healthy food, skills that our grandparents took for granted that we have lost.
Transition Towns are local, community based movements trying to find creative, empowering responses to climate change and the end of cheap oil by creating vibrant, resilient communities. Transition initiatives are popping up like mushrooms all over Britain, Australia, Ireland, Wales and New Zealand. There are over 40 groups in New Zealand, and counting.
They are based on Rob Hopkins’ model in his inspiring and easy-to-read 2008 book “The Transition Handbook,” which outlines twelve steps that can be adapted to suit local contexts and priorities, and individual passions and areas of interest. You can buy the book online in various places, including our website, justice.net.nz. For more on Transition Towns, visit transitiontowns.org.nz.
Anne Heins likes her name to be pronounced properly (Ana) and lives in Stillwaters urban community in central Wellington.
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