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Transition

We live in a world that is dependent on fossil fuels. We burn coal, oil and gas in our homes, in our cars and to produce the electricity we take for granted, producing carbon dioxide that has already caused temperatures to rise, ice sheets to melt, rainfall patterns to change, storms to become fiercer, and sea levels to rise.  Climate change is already a reality and will continue, unless we do something different.

We also use oil to produce plastics and many other goods.  Consumption of oil is increasing every year.  However, we know that oil is a non renewable resource, and there is a lot of evidence which suggests that oil production across the world is about to peak and then go into decline.  Increasing consumption and decreasing production means the end of cheap oil and some very difficult times ahead, unless we do something different. ‘Transition’ is about that something different.

‘Transition’ is used as a shorthand way of describing the transition that we need make – individually, and as a society, from our current unsustainable ways of living, to ways of living that enable us to meet the economic, environmental and social challenges that we are facing through climate change and peak oil. It is about communities taking matters into their own hands and acting locally, about reducing our dependence on oil and reducing our carbon dioxide emissions, and about massively reducing our food miles.  Transition communities have a positive vision.  We are taking practical action to build a more resilient community that will thrive in a low carbon future, and we are having fun along the way.

More about Transition communities

There are hundreds of Transition communities, and communities thinking about Transition all over the world. The Transition Network was set up in spring 2007 to support Transition initiatives around the world.

By working together we can tap into the collective genius of the community and find ways of living that are more enriching and connected, and that recognise the biological limits of our finite planet. At a local level Transition communities are playing a significant role in the process of relocalising all the key elements a community needs to sustain itself and thrive – including food, energy, transport and waste.

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More about Climate Change

Climate Change is the way in which the earth’s atmosphere and climatic conditions are changing as a result of a build-up of ‘greenhouse gases’ produced by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity.

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More about Peak Oil

Peak Oil is the point at which global oil production reaches a maximum, after which it goes into an irreversible decline.  Not to be confused with oil running out, Peak Oil is predicted to occur when the oil is about half gone. Many experts believe that we may already have reached this point, or that we will reach it in the next couple of years. The impact of the supply of oil not keeping up with demand will be felt intensely by all of us.

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