The Transition movement is a grass-roots, bottom-up community response to the combined challenges of climate change, resource depletion (including “peak oil”) and economic instability. It started in the UK several years ago and has been spreading by leaps and bounds ever since. There are currently 159 official transition initiatives in 14 countries and many more communities thinking about becoming Transitioners. Transition Initiatives work towards rebuilding the resilience of their communities to climate change, energy crises, and shocks to the economy.

Transition Initiatives are based on four key assumptions:
1. life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable, and that it’s better to plan for it than to be taken by surprise;
2. our settlements and communities presently lack the resilience to enable them to weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak oil;
3. we have to act collectively, and we have to act now;
4. by unleashing the collective genius of the whole community to creatively and proactively design our energy descent, we can build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching, and more cognizant of the biological limits of our planet.

Almost all local-development plans and government plans are based on the assumption that climate change won’t happen for a long time, if ever, and energy prices will remain low. The Transition movement is an attempt to design abundant pathways down from peak oil, to generate new stories about what might be waiting for us at the end of the descent, and to put resilience-building back at the heart of any plans we make.

Transition Powell River (TPR) is an independent community-action project which will encourage, rather than compete with, similar projects, seeking to work in partnership with individuals, local groups, businesses and City Council. We want to engage our whole community in finding and implementing practical alternatives to our fossil-fuelled and energy-intense lifestyles, and to foster the idea that everyone can make changes which matter, right now, without waiting for unknown experts or government to do it for us. This gives us the best opportunity to develop locally what our communities actually need, and improve the resilience of the area as a whole. The aim is to re-localise our town, making it vibrant, resilient and truly sustainable.

What’s special about Transition Initiatives?
• Transition initiatives are proactive. Rather than reacting to actions by others (government, business etc) and saying what we don’t want, Transition initiatives work out what we DO want and exactly how to get there.
• Transition initiatives are inclusive. Everyone will be affected by climate change and peak oil, and only by involving all of us will we come up with the most innovative, effective and practical ideas, and have the energy and skills to carry them out. Transition doesn’t seek to blame, to point fingers, or to emphasise difference.
• Transition initiatives are positive! While there’s plenty of doom and gloom to go around, it’s possible that the future with less oil could be preferable to the present, if we plan sufficiently in advance with imagination and creativity. We focus on the positive benefits of the changes we’re trying to bring about rather than the terrible consequences of worst-case climate and energy scenarios.

Interested in becoming a member of the Transition Initiative steering group?
A meeting is to be held on Wednesday 20th May, 7pm. This first meeting is intended to bring together people who might be interested in forming a steering group to get Transition Powell River started.
RSVP to Kevin Wilson at 483–9052 or transitionpowellriver@gmail.com for location (to be determined by RVSP volume). For more info visit: http://transitionpowellriver.wordpress.com