The Transition mission - a future worth getting exited about!

What is Transition town Sturminster Newton?

Well what we are finding is that it means different things to different people. To try to answer this question I will offer up what Transition means to me.

For me the Sturminster Newton Transition initiative is about sharing personal transitions from our present state of economic stress, environmental uncertainty, decreasing happiness and grim consumption to a different future where you call the shots. This brings together people with a common purpose – but we are not people with answers.

I am working together with a handful of local people at the community level to unlock the captive genius of the people all around us so we can compile our collective knowledge and visions and begin to manifest the environment that we want to live in. I feel empowered when I realise that the small changes I make in my life are being made by other people in my local community – together all the changed light bulbs, miles cycled, local food bought and interesting conversations had add up to be a sizable change, a Transition. It’s not about ‘what are you transitioner’s going to do for me’; its about ‘what are you going to do to be part of the change that is needed’.

Transition is not about pointing the finger at super market users or 4x4 drivers (I drive a 4x4 and I am happy to justify it) the blame game is not useful. Transition does not want to instil fear of a doom laden future in anybody, equally it doesn’t have its head in the sand about where we are just now.

Re-localising is about more than just getting your meat from the deli (that’s of course a good, direct re-localisation). I am finding that its about looking critically at your needs – work, money, fun, material items, shelter, energy, food, relaxation and seeing whether those needs are met locally. Try it. Then you start to get a handle on how resilient your lifestyle is to external shocks. I believe in local but we live in a world where it is not easy to meet our needs at a local level. I want to meet my needs more locally though? Something has to give. Set against a backdrop of unsustainable systems failing all around us and supposedly being fixed by the thinking that caused the failures, I am trying to cut the crap.  

Transition Town Sturminster Newton is part of a global movement of people who are cutting the crap, re-assessing what is really important and are having a go at doing. All I can say with certainty is that I am learning masses and all that learning is local, free and really enjoyable.

Ask any of the people involved in Transition Town Sturminster Newton this same question and you will get a different insight into transition – ask yourself!

The following article gives a feel for the transition movement and how it may manifest itself in Sturminster Newton - taken from the January 2009 edition of our community magazine.

Transition Town Sturminster Newton – Think global act local

Transition Town Sturminster Newton is something you will hear regularly over the coming year as we raise awareness within the town of what it is to be a Transition Town. The Transition Town model is a tool to pull our already vibrant and productive community together and unlock its collective genius in the face of the two most pressing issues of our time – Peak Oil and Climate Change.

So what is Peak Oil and what is Climate Change? Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global oil extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. Predictions of the timing of peak oil include the possibilities that it has recently occurred, that it will occur shortly, or that a plateau of oil production will sustain supply for up to 100 years. None of these predictions dispute the peaking of oil production, but disagree only on when it will occur.

Climate change is any long-term significant change in the “average weather” that a given region experiences. There is scientific consensus on climate change that human activity is beyond reasonable doubt the main explanation for the current rapid changes in the world's climate.

So why Transition Town Sturminster Newton? The Transition Town model has been applied by over 100 communities across the UK and is being considered by over 600 more as a simple, grass roots strategy for dealing with a very different future. Our closest examples are Shaftesbury, our county town Dorchester and Somerset who are using the model at a county level.TransitionTown Sturminster Newton fits well with the Cittaslow principles and will help us in our bid to be a Cittaslow town just as the Cittaslow goals will support the town’s transition process. The overall aims of the initiative are to foster community cohesion, develop community resilience to both environmental and economic shocks and to have a lot of fun along the way.

So watch this space and if you want to get involved then please contact us through Sarah Williams, Community Development Worker  at the Sturquest Office on 01258 471456 or by email: sarah@sturquest.org.uk

Wren Franklin on behalf of the Transition Town Sturminster Newton Steering group.