The purpose of Transition is “to support community-led responses to peak oil and climate change, building resilience and happiness.”
Transition is about the local community taking practical action now, rather than waiting for some sort of ‘rescue’ from government or technology. It is about positive action, focussing on solutions to using less oil and producing less carbon.
Transition aims to build thriving, resilient, local communities that can withstand change by becoming less reliant on the global economy. The community needs to be resilient to withstand the changes we expect in the near future. Transition is for the long-term future of our children, but it is urgent because:-
we expect oil prices to rise steadily, since production is not enough to satisfy demand, and will start declining ('peak oil') by about 2020 and
we need to reverse the steady increase in carbon emissions and start reducing emissions by 2015 to avoid too much climate change.
A key idea is energy descent, which means the reduction of energy consumption to where it needs to be. At some point in the future, Sustainable Thornbury intends to produce an Energy Descent Plan that will map out how the area can achieve the energy descent it needs.
There's lots on the Transition websites about what Transition is, why we should do it and how to do it, including a video of a recent talk by Rob Hopkins and his slide show with synchronised audio.
The Transition Network is a community of towns, cities and countries across the world that are Transition Initiatives. Sustainable Thornbury was given official Transition Initiative status on 11 April 2009. We are number 154 on the list of all the official transition initiatives in the world.
The original idea came from Rob Hopkins in Kinsale and Totnes, and is described in the official Transition Network website and in The Transition Handbook. There is also a Transition Culture website and an online Transition Primer. You can sign up to the Transition Network Newsletter. Other nearby Transition Initiatives include Transition Bristol, Transition Chepstow and Transition Stroud.