Musings on ‘Transition Bell’ by Ian Wood
I bought a copy of Rob Hopkins’ Transition Towns Handbook in October 2009 and became empassioned by the Transition Towns movement. In a nutshell, Transition Towns is about localisation rather than globalisation. It’s about community, where we have time and support for each other. We support each other by trading with each other – trading products and skills – rather than trading with someone across the other side of the planet. For me the movement starts with food, growing food locally on our allotment, buying food from the market garden.
The Transition Towns movement brings together various things I’ve thought for a long time. The main thing is that oil is inevitably going to run out. Our burning of oil is going to come to an end due to environmental factors – that is, the environment not being able to absorb the carbon being pumped into it – or oil running out. Our whole society is very fragile due to its dependence on that oil. Learning about the Transition movement, initially from the Transition Towns Handbook, both gave me hope and also underlined some things that hadn’t occurred to me: oil as an addiction, and that as a society we have no resilience to large scale change – which I feel is inevitable.
Transition Towns is important because when the inevitable change occurs in oil dependency or oil running out, there has to be a new society. Society has to change really quickly; people’s opinions and way of looking at life has to flip really quickly. And it has to flip to something positive. When this big change comes, and it will be groundswelling and massive, we’ve got to be ready. So resilience is essential, that’s why it’s important to learn how to prune trees, to grow vegetables, to sew and mend clothes. It doesn’t even matter if the change, because of oil running out, doesn’t happen because all these things are good in their own right.
I feel that there is a place and need for spirituality now and in the future society. There is so much to be found within, and busy as the pace of life may be, it is essential to find the space for inner work. The Yoga I teach is spiritual in nature, very uplifting and connecting with the divine inside.
Resources
- Transition Bath is a local environmental organisation whose aim is to build a sustainable future by harnessing the power of community in the face of declining natural resources and increasing fuel and food costs.
- Bath LETS is a community trading network in the Bath area for people to exchange time, skills and resources using our local currency called Olivers – recently launched as a paper currency you can spend in local businesses
- Dry Arch – Bathampton Community Supported Agriculture The project began in August 2010. You can become part of the story of how it develops from the generosity of the Hughes family, who own the 6 acre site in Holcombe Lane, tethered to the passion of Transition Bath and the local community.