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Devon Transition Towns looking to the future

  • by JW

– the quiet, networked revolution

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Bishop Steignton is a small town but a very active one:

Bishopsteignton Banter | Facebook

With a particularly active Transition Town group, with zooming and tree-planting and all sorts – and that was just today:

Sustainable Bishop | Facebook

And some very good homemade entertainment tomorrow:

The Ring Of Bells in Bishopsteignton – Posts | Facebook

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That particular Transition Town group is in a small enough community perhaps to be able to bring so many things together.

But even larger towns have TT groups which act as both meeting place and catalyst for further action.

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And one such is Transition Town Totness:

Transition Town Totnes – Taking positive action together in a changing world

For example, their enthusiasm for the town’s Traffic and Transport Forum:

Green Travel Totnes | Facebook

Totnes is the home of the Transition Town movement – and as such has some great initiatives going:

Incredible Edible – Transition Town Totnes

REconomy Project – Transition Town Totnes

Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP) – Transition Town Totnes

Skillshare Project – Transition Town Totnes

And these are all excellent examples of how we can transition to a more resilient, low-impact local economy.

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Exmouth offers another excellent example of a group with initiative:

“Several of our Support Local Christmas Advent Calendar posts to catch up on over on our Facebook page”:

Transition Exmouth | Facebook

And last month they launched a very exciting new initiative, supported by the town council:

“Helping people and businesses live more sustainably”

Our Place Our Planet

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And then there is Exeter

Transition Exeter

They are of course very interested in initiatives coming from the council:

Transition Exeter » Exeter’s Net Zero Carbon Plan – is it up to the job?

Is the “Net Zero” Exeter plan fit for purpose? Part I: Exeter’s carbon footprint – Exeter Observer

Including county-wide:

Devon Climate Emergency | Facebook

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And there are many more:

turn lyme green

Sustainable Crediton – Welcome to Sustainable Crediton

VGS – Vision Group for Sidmouth

Take a look here:

Initiatives – Transition Hubs & Initiatives

Sustainable Sidmouth and the Transition Town movement – Vision Group for Sidmouth

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Most importantly, these groups offer a way of transitioning to a realistic and positive future:

What is Transition? – Transition Town Totnes

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With a final piece this time last year:

Transition Towns – the quiet, networked revolution

The Transition Network is interesting because it is a positive, empowering movement that has spread organically through word of mouth and communities of practice. Its principles of localism, learning through action, collaboration and building community means that it has translated well across different cultures with sufficient flexibility to respond to very different conditions on the ground. The movement has described itself as a social experiment.

Transition offers people a wide range of reasons to get involved:

  • to get to know their neighbours;
  • to feel like they are making a difference in the world;
  • because the world’s huge challenges (climate change, social inequality, economic decline and so on) feel more manageable if addressed at the local scale;
  • to catalyse all manner of new projects, enterprises and investment opportunities;
    to learn new skills;
  • to feel like they are creating a new story for their place;
  • to feel connected to other people and to something historic and exciting happening around them;
  • because they feel it is “the right thing to do”.

The Transition movement describes successful work as finding a balance between the head, heart and hands:

  • The Head: acting on the basis of the best information and evidence available and applying collective intelligence to find better ways of living.
  • The Heart: working with compassion, valuing and paying attention to the emotional, psychological, relational and social aspects of any work.
  • The Hands: turning vision and ideas into a tangible reality, initiating practical projects and starting to build a new, healthy economy wherever people live.

Unlike other campaign groups, the Transition network never set out to alarm people, and has remained resolutely upbeat, determined to find opportunity in what most regard with dismay. One of the movement’s most fundamental ideas was to ask what the world might look like in the future “if we get it right” – then work out backwards how to get there. The idea of “visioning” is important in the Transition process, often resulting in a move towards self-sufficiency at the local level, in food, energy and much else. What is important is that whatever “getting it right” might look like, no one is waiting for the answer to be handed down from above. For example, the US L.A. Transition Town branch is now focused on food-growing initiatives – community gardening above all, and lawn renewal, along with alternative medical practitioners they have identified as low-impact. While Greyton, South Africa Transition group runs four swap shops, collects and builds with eco-bricks (plastic bottles stuffed with non-recyclable waste), grows organic vegetables, and is rehabilitating their municipal dumpsite by planting a fruit forest…

Transition Towns – the quiet, networked revolution | Rapid Transition Alliance