EDN - Feb 09 issue.indd - St Edward's Church, Eggbuckland ...

From Oil Dependency to Local
Resilience
The Transition Handbook - Rob Hopkins
Green Books, 2008, pp 240
The Transition Handbook is a ground breaking
book which explores what will happen once
we reach oil depletion and have to think of
alternate ways of living.
The first part of the book deals with peak oil
and climate change which needs to be looked
at as a whole and asks the question what will
be required for societies to adapt themselves
painlessly to a different energy regime. For
those still not wholly convinced that peak
oil and climate change has arrived this first
chapter leaves you in no doubt that it has
and sooner than we thought. It is very well
researched and gives some very thoughtful
and interesting reading. It goes on to look at
the view from the mountain top of peak oil
to depletion and shows how out of necessity
these changes can lead to the rebirth of local
communities which will grow their own food,
generate their own power, and build their
houses using local materials, and develop their
own local currencies.
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BOOK REVIEW
Read more about sustainable living at:
www.exeter.anglican.org/society
The author allows us the awareness of what
is called “the End of Suburbia” the shock of
life as we know it falling away before our eyes
which can lead to traumatic shock, illness and
depression. Many spiritual traditions speak of
dark nights of the soul and I have certainly felt
that at times reading this book.
The light and hope central to this book is
the concept of resilience. This refers to
communities’ and settlements’ ability not
to collapse at the first sight of oil and food
shortages, but to think on a smaller scale.
This entails bringing life back to how some of
us remember it in the fifties and further back
still, with local being the key word. It tells of
the re-skilling of two lost generations and how
permaculture will be central to success.
The author then shares with us the success
of Transition Towns (of which there are many
in Devon) and gives us models of how they
have reached the position they are at to-day.
Dotted throughout the book is what are called
the twelve tools for transition which gives
instructive advice on how to start out as a
Transition city, town village or small settlement.
This is a book which has to be read from cover
to cover initially, you cannot dip in and out at
will. It left me both with a vision and the hope
that human society will be able to adapt, but
I can also see that unless something is done
on a much more dramatic scale, society as we
now know it will face collapse. Maybe the times
we are entering will bring a wake up call and
lead people away from greed and selfishness
and bring us back to the way God intends us to
be in relation with his creation.
This handbook is a vital working tool for church
communities, community councils, local and
national government. I recommend its reading
to all interested in ecology and green matters
and hope some of the facts will be brought to
the general public in the way of advertisements
over the next few years.
Sue Tucker
Diocesan Rural Officer
susan@exeter.anglican.org
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