From oil dependency to local resilience
(official since 15th July 2008)

Adapting to the twin threats of Climate Change & Peak Oil

Transition Town Stafford addresses both Climate Change and Peak Oil
through local people transitioning their area from oil dependency to local resilience.

Don't forget 'The Spring Sowing Event'
Sunday 28th March in Stafford's Market Square 11-4pm
This will be a festival of hope and inspiration-
a step towards Stafford's local food culture and security,
a creation of the green shoots of recovery,
a sowing of ideas and a coming together as a community...
How can you be involved? Get in touch, come along....
More info..

From The Transition Handbook's introduction:
"Rebuilding local agriculture and food production, localising energy production, rethinking healthcare,
rediscovering local building materials in the context of zero energy building,
rethinking how we manage waste, all build resilience and
offer the potential of an extraordinary renaissance - economic, cultural and spiritual."

Most people are aware of Climate Change, but few as yet know of Peak Oil which refers to the point at which world oil production peaks and then declines. Predictions vary for the timing of the peak, but many put it between about now and about 5 years hence. As supply falls, and demand rises, the cost can only go up and you'll have noticed the oil price...

What will the end of cheap, readily available oil mean for our way of life?

What practical steps can be taken for a vibrant post-oil economy?

How can we drastically reduce carbon emissions to mitigate the effects of Climate Change?

Transition Towns address these issues.

Quotes from The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins:

• Quote from the forward by Richard Heinburg "Rob Hopkins has grasped all of this in the Transition formula, and made it one that any community can enthusiastically buy into. Using Permaculture principles, the psychology of social marketing, and inclusive processes like 'open space', he has found a way for people worried about an environmental apocalypse to invest their efforts in ongoing collective action that ends up looking more like a party than a protest march."

• Quote from the back cover: "This is much more than a book. It's a manual for a movement. And not just any movement, but one which - in avoiding the civilisational collapse threatened by the twin crises of peak oil and climate change - could prove to be the most important social force humanity has ever seen" Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees.

• Quote "While peak oil and climate change are undeniably profoundly challenging, also inherent within them is the potential for an economic, cultural and social renaissance the likes of which we have never seen. We will see a flourishing of local businesses, local skills and solutions, and a flowering of ingenuity and creativity. It is a Transition in which we will inevitably grow, and in which our evolution is a precondition for progress. Emerging at the other end, we will not be the same as we were; we will have become more humble, more connected to the natural world, fitter, leaner, more skilled, and ultimately wiser."

• Quote "Peak Oil and Climate Change are a bigger threat together than either are alone. Our biggest hope is to similarly converge our understanding of them, and how to deal with the problems they present. Peak Oil and Climate Change must be fused as issues - an approach is needed to deal with them as a package. If we are looking for answers, the environmental movement has pushed suitable ones for a long time. Peak Oil presents a tremendous chance to push those solutions ahead; failure to incorporate a full understanding of Peak Oil into the solutions argument for Climate Change would be an abject failure" James Howard, powerswitch.org.uk.