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The Transition mission - a future worth getting exited about!
"With these solutions we will bring about a change in course - a great 21st centuary Transition. If we get it right, we have an extaordinary future. If we get it wrong, we face a disruption that will set humanity back centuries."
James Martin - Founder of the James Martin 21st-century school at the University of Oxford
The following article gives a feel for the transition movement and how it may manifest itself in Sturminster Newton - taken from the January 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.
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