Transition Cities: Moving from Today's Doom to Tomorrow's Boom
Julian H. Scaff
"One can either view the forthcoming Transition as a cause for misery and crisis,
or as the opportunity for
the greatest social, economic and cultural renaissance the world has ever seen." - Rob Hopkins
I was recently talking to a colleague about the effects of a possible rise in sea levels when he said "you're not becoming one of those 'doomers', are you?" I hadn't heard the term before and he explained that doomers are those gloomy people who can't stop talking about peak oil, climate change, the impending food and water crisis, the instability of the world economy, and as Jared Diamond puts it "coming to the end of world resources." Although my friend was joking he had a serious point: doomers are worse than just depressing, they're defeatist. Some believe that recent world events are a sign of biblical apocalypse, and they actually welcome the apparently impending doom as a fulfillment of prophecy.
No, I'm not a doomer. I believe there are solutions to all the problems we face. I believe the solutions are readily at hand and accessible to ordinary people. And I believe that changes can happen without new technology, large expenditures, or waiting for government leadership that is too slow or absent. But how? Solving a problem like climate change seems far too daunting for an individual or even a community to tackle, and recycling your paper, cans and bottles surely isn't going to solve the end of oil. Yet radical visions of sustainable societies in a post-oil world seem to either ask for painful degradations to our standard of living, or hope for magical new technologies that will solve all our problems without causing new ones. What we need is a clear sense of how to make a more gradual transition.
A recent movement in the UK and Ireland called "Transition Towns" attempts to address this very problem. Rob Hopkins, the author of Energy Descent Pathways and editor of the online blog TransitionCulture.org describes our addiction to a petroleum economy and a waste-based lifestyle as being just like a drug addiction. Yes, in the future we will not be able to drive personal cars as much, and we may not have the luxury to waste resources as thoughtlessly as we do today, but most people will not go cold turkey. Just as for drug addicts, we need a multi-step transition program to break our addiction to oil.
One of the many cities in the UK following this approach is Bristol, located about 100 miles west of London. Bristol is a medium sized city of over 400,000 people that has already seen transitions in its past. In the 19th century it relied heavily on factories and its sea port to support the economy. Although the port is still active today, it transitioned to automotive industries in the 1940's, aerospace industries in the 1950's, and micro-electronics in the 1990's. Bristol would not seem the most likely candidate for a green city. It has experienced some urban sprawl as a result of poor regional planning, does not have the best bus or train system in England, and has some neighborhoods that are run down and neglected.
But now many citizens of Bristol have recognized the opportunity to make the next great transition: towards a sustainable civilization. And seeing this as an opportunity is really a key point. Peak oil, if it hasn't already come, will come soon. Local economies and the global economy will change radically. Communities and societies that seize the opportunity now will be prepared for that change. Ones that do not are in for a big shock, perhaps even collapse. As it points out on the TransitionTowns.org website, "we used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and ... there's no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope."
So let's return to Bristol to look at a some of the concrete things they're doing. Firstly, based on Rob Hopkin's ideas of a multi-step transition culture, Bristol has adopted "12 Key Steps to embarking on your transition journey." This is important for laying the groundwork for what people, the community, and the city can do (You can read more about these at http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/12Steps):
- Set up a steering group and design its demise from the outset
- Awareness raising
- Lay the foundations
- Organize a great unleashing
- Form sub groups
- Use open space
- Develop visible practical manifestations of the project
- Facilitate the great re-skilling
- Build a bridge to local government
- Honor the elders
- Let it go where it wants to go
- Create an energy descent plan
To begin with, people have organized, are meeting, giving lectures, and talking to city government about what to do. Just raising the awareness of peak oil and climate change in the local communities is a big step.
Another on-going piece of the transition is the Bristol Virtual Orchard Project organized by the Bristol Permaculture Group. The idea is to get hundreds of people in Bristol to plant fruit trees in their own yards, as well as in public spaces. Buying as a group they can order the trees at bulk reduced prices, and will be creating a huge "virtual orchard" across the city. This very simple project is already raising awareness and is a positive action for improving the environment and reconnecting food production with community. Some of the fruit may find its way into local farmers markets.
Last year Transition Bristol organized "The BIG Event," a public gathering at Bristol's city hall with guest speakers and workshops on topics like eco-building, community-sponsored agriculture, and how to set up a CRAG (Carbon Reduction Action Group). CRAGs are described as being like Weight Watchers support groups; instead of trying to reduce your carbon footprint by yourself, you do it with a group of friends. By sharing your schedules, you can plan to go shopping together, carpool, and bicycle or walk places together. CRAGs not only reduce petroleum use but also help build community.
Not directly related to the Transition Bristol project is the Bristol Living Rivers Project, sponsored by the Environment and Planning Office of the city, to manage the sustainable development and stewardship of urban rivers and streams within the city. Besides restoring damaged waterways and improving the urban ecology, the project also improves public safety by warning residents of flooding, and helps to build community and improve quality of life by organizing riverside walks throughout the city.
A number of public schools in Bristol are working towards attaining "Eco School" status, which in the UK means a school must work towards education for sustainable development and a better quality of life for local and global communities. Already there are more than 3,000 Eco Schools across the UK, many of which are powered by wind and solar energy, maintain organic gardens, and encourage bicycling or walking rather than parents driving their children to school. Students at Eco Schools are excelling, scoring better test results than the national average and becoming more responsible citizens. The Eco Schools program has also shown, as with so many of the ideas with Transition Cities, that you don't need to spend more money. You only need to spend the money you would have spent anyway on the right things.
Involved in the Transition Bristol project is the CREATE Centre that organizes exhibitions and other projects on sustainability. CREATE has built an Eco Home for teaching both the public and architects and contractors how to make homes more efficient and environmentally friendly. And running through February CREATE is sponsoring a campaign called "Wish You Were Here" that encourages residents of Bristol to explore local vacation places that are accessible by train rather than flying on airplanes that produce far more pollution. Just as city funding encouraged high-tech micro-electronics growth in the 1990s, the hope is that CREATE will attract environmental businesses in the new post-oil economy.
Transition Bristol is barely more than a year old. Yet already there is a sense of a groundswell of change. The BIG event has connected citizens' efforts with their city government, the virtual orchard and living rivers projects are beginning to create more greenspace, and the city has recently committed to purchasing at least 15% of it's electricity from renewable sources by the year 2010. Last year the city council also signed the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change, allowing it to link its policies and achievements into a national agreement. And with at least 28 other transitions cities across the UK and Ireland there is a wealth of knowledge, experience, and creativity to be shared.
Pat Meadows asserts that most of what we have to do to solve the crises of global warming, over-reliance on petroleum, and environmental degradation are things we should already be doing because these things are morally right, will improve our quality of life, and are good for the economy. She calls this the "Theory of Anyway." Transition cities, towns, and communities provides one model for how grassroots groups can prepare for the changes we know are coming and seize the opportunities that come with change. Our world is changing, we can be certain of that, but that change is an opportunity for us to do what we should have been doing anyway.
More information about the transition town movement in the UK and Ireland can be found at: http://www.transitiontowns.org/
Julian H. Scaff is an ecological artist, designer, and filmmaker. He teaches media communications at Webster University in Leiden, The Netherlands. He rides his bicycle and takes the train to work, even when it's raining.
