A sister capital city also begins the transition

Nice op-ed in The Olympian introducing readers of that paper to their Transition movement. Excerpt below.

Salem has a small transition group forming now (STIR, the Salem Transition Initiative for Relocalization) too. We're in the early stages of coming together and figuring out how we want to help co-create answers to the questions the writer mentions (the central questions our elected and appointed officials should have on their walls and on every piece of letterhead):

“How are we going to

• drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change);
  
• significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil); and
• greatly strengthen our local economy (in response to economic instability)?”

Resources available now to begin the transition toward life we’re seeking

The Transition Town Movement – a grass-roots initiative spreading around the globe – is asking, “How are we going to drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change); significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil); and greatly strengthen our local economy (in response to economic instability)?”

The movement, originated by Rob Hopkins, a UK ecological designer and permaculturist, provides a roadmap away from this triple threat and toward a sustainable future.

Transitioning encompasses the work we must do in the outer world, but equally important, it invites the inner work we must do to adapt to unprecedented change in our lives.

This roadmap is a 12-step process resulting in a community generated re-localization and energy descent action plan (REDAP). In the last 150 years we have quickly climbed to a peak of energy consumption fueled by cheap oil and now we face descending the other side. Without a plan we are likely to experience chaos and catastrophe. With a REDAP we can downshift to lifestyles that are simpler, more pleasurable and sustainable.

It is not coincidental that this movement contains 12 steps, since one of the triple threats we face is our addiction to cheap oil. People working within Transition Initiatives hold deep-seated confidence in our collective genius – within our communities and as a species – to solve the problems we face and create a desired future.

Recently Paul Hawkin, renowned entrepreneur and environmental activist, said: “If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.” . . .