Transition Town High Wycombe

 
 

....from Oil Dependence to Local Resilience...

 
 

Transition Town High Wycombe

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High Wycombe is in Great Britain half-way between Oxford & London:

Transition Town High Wycombe

A Town's Proud Past

High Wycombe's Proud Past

Transition Town High Wycombe


"LILI" = "The Low-Impact Living Initiative"

Redfield Community Winslow, Bucks

MK18 3LZ

01296 714184

www.lowimpact.org

lili@lowimpact.org

 

For courses on everything from Photovoltaics to Permaculture.


Good Energy

 

Green Helpline.com


The Wycombe Strategic Partnership


We support the

Thames Valley Farmers' Market Co-operative

and

Berks, Bucks & Oxon Food Group


Single-use Bags are Rubbish - WFOE


  ACT ON CO2 top 10 fuel efficient cars


Transition Network

 

Post Carbon Institute


Buy the Books

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Borrow the movies:

In Transition 1.0 - Movie

 

The Great Warming DVD

 

The End of Suburbia - DVD

 

The Power of Community - DVD

 

Money as Debt - DVD

 

Peak Oil - Imposed by Nature - DVD

 

The Story of Stuff - DVD

To borrow any of the books or DVD's referenced here please contact us.


The Oil Depletion Protocol


Twitter - Transition Town High Wycombe

A 10:10 website: Transition Town High Wycombe


 About Us & FAQ

So, you're an Oil Crisis Survival Project?

 

The terms "survival project" or "oil crisis" are not ones we choose to use. Transition is about building a better future. It is a positive vision. A better way. People should choose this path because it will build a happier & healthier community that is more resilient. How well High Wycombe endures climate change, credit crunches and future energy shocks will be the measure of our success. If we continue to do nothing then we will remain vulnerable and get weaker. If we transition we will become stronger, tackle climate change, cope with peak oil, prevent fuel poverty and offer hope. Doing nothing is not an option. Doing nothing is irrational. We plan to do more than just survive - we plan to thrive! There should be no crisis for a community in transition.

 


A World Without Oil - The Independent


 

You are demanding sacrifices of us!

 

No, we are not. We have been asked if we will stop people from flying. We have been accused of hypocrisy and of wanting our pensioners to freeze in winter. Nothing could be further from the truth. No one need sacrifice anything they need, but they must be ready for the transition. The simple truth is that it will soon be too expensive to fly. The price of oil will see to that. Our pensioners will suffer from fuel poverty unless we adapt to a low energy future. We wish to prevent fuel poverty and hunger. The challenge will come all by itself. Transition is about an action plan and a vision to combat these inevitable changes.

 


Supply will be less than Demand - Shell


 

So, this is an environmental thing?

 

We have links to environmental groups and some individuals are members of both. We raise awareness of the effects of Climate Change not only because it is an "environmental" matter but because it will detrimentally effect our community's well-being. In order to move forward we must transition to a post-carbon society no longer reliant upon fossil fuels for our food, energy and wealth. This change is inevitable (regardless of climate change) as the depletion of finite fossil fuels will force this change upon our communities. So we must be ready. Instead of working on specific environmental projects, such as the elimination of plastic bags or the revitalisation of the Wye, we work on a broad spectrum of civil society projects with the community. As such the Transition Network almost defies traditional categorisation. We don't fit inside any old comfortable pigeon hole. We are new and without precedent. More a social movement than anything else. This makes what we do incredibly exciting. It is groundbreaking.

 


Shortages by 2012 - FT


 

But, what will you actually do?

 

'Transition' is not prescriptive. It is more a journey than a destination. A means not an ends. First we will raise awareness of the need to change. Then, once enough people come to accept the need to change, we will work on our Transition Plan. We will then gather into sub-groups to create a 'road-map' to where we need to be. This map takes into account the unique features of the local community and local resources. This plan will be different in High Wycombe from that for the Wirral. No two plans should be the same but they will have common features.

 

Just a plan? Is that all?

 

Plans need to be promoted and implemented. You will see a physical manifestation of elements of the plan. Indeed, there is not an option. The core of the plan will be the 'relocalisation' of our community's economy, ie, local food and local energy. As a social movement we also need to educate and change expectations. We will challenge misconceptions and prepare people for the new path. This can involve a whole host of initiatives that steer us clear of the old dying paradigms of infinite growth, the consumer society and junk culture. We need to refocus on that which matters the most. To do this we will build a coalition of like-minded local organisations, societies, charities, businesses, local government and community groups. We will also seek help and advice from members of society that we do not normally expect to get asked about the future - our parents and grand-parents.

 

It sounds very backward looking.....

 

Far from it. Although we can learn from the past we will not wallow in nostalgia or sentiment for bygone days. This is not about returning to the stone age. We cannot turn High Wycombe into a museum. It is a living community full of diverse hopes and dreams for the future. Some of these aspirations have a future. Some, sadly, do not. Our vision is for a diverse, prosperous and vibrant community that is self-reliant in all its essential needs. The past represents a fragile society propped up with vast quantities of cheap fossil fuel energy. The past represents unlimited consumption where little or nothing is built to last. The past is disposable. The idea of a future local community that can feed itself, keep itself warm in winter, light its homes and sustain prosperity, without shipping vast quantities of energy & 'stuff' from a thousand miles away, is truly revolutionary. That is futuristic. And it isn't a dream - it is a necessity. We will not thrive without a transition.

 

But, you're against technology - right?

 

No. There can and will always be a place for appropriate technology. However technology will only sustain if it too can be sustained. A car won't go without petrol. Likewise, if we can't build a wind turbine without oil then this too has a questionable future. So we will witness a sea change in our relationship to technology. Today we see it as a way of producing non-essential, disposable, consumer products, made in a factory on the other side of the planet. Tomorrow its role will be to supply the essentials locally. Fifty years from now it may be that we could have mobile telephones. However, each phone will be very expensive & very simple. It will come from a small factory maybe 100 miles away. All its components will have been recycled or are biodegradable. If it breaks you could have someone locally mend it for you. You may have the one phone for twenty years before returning it to the factory for recycling. The factory is powered by hydro-electricity. Last, but not least, we will only have mobile phones after we have fed ourselves, clothed ourselves, kept warm and had financial security. Let's say that a mobile phone may not be high in your list of priorities. You'll probably be spending your money on solar panels, fuel, insulation and so on.... There will also be renewed interest in what might be thought of as 'traditional' skills, ie, making things with your hands. We'll see things differently and will need to 'reskill' for this future.

 

Sounds like a vision of hell to me...

 

Technology without community is miserable. We should start to focus on quality of life as well. Your well-being does not increase with the more stuff you have. Imagine that your house catches fire. What do you do? Rush your TV & DVD player outside as top priority? Or do you rescue your family and take them to a neighbour's house? You are nothing without your family & community. Community is the solution.

 

It's wooly-thinking liberal nonsense.....

 

The Transition Network is a broad slice of society which includes many accountants, economists, Business men & women and so on. Few would describe themselves as being particularly liberal. Preparing a plan for how your local Community and local Business will adapt to climate change and expensive fuel and food is hardly the mark of "wooly thinking". It sounds coldly rational. A little like fastening your seat-belt when you get in your car. If anything the "business-as-usual" view is the last resort for the wooly thinker. Ignoring the obvious is not rational. Preparing for it is.

 

There are 'intentional communities' (ie, experimental) all around the globe that have set out to live sustainably. They are successful and are populated by as many scientists & engineers as horticulturists. The world has moved on since the 1960's. All the technologies exists too. It can be done. It HAS to be done. We just lack social & political will. We seek a way of rolling sustainable living/thinking out to our communities so they can benefit too. Not because it is nice but because we no longer have a choice. Ironically the critics of the Transition ideal are often those who feel uncomfortable with a truly inclusive social movement that may appeal as much to members of the Rotarians as attendees of climate camps. We welcome everyone. Your local Transition movement looks forward to seeing you at the next meeting so you can contribute your ideas... We don't know better and don't seek to lecture. How about coming along? Tell us why it will never happen so we can work on the problem. Not transitioning is not an option. We need your solutions.

 

 
 
 
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