At our Green Mole Forum meeting on 3 September, three of us decided to start a Transition Steering Group for Mole Valley and others said they wanted to help when they could.  We had our first meeting on 10 September and our next is on 6 October.  The following article explains more and appeals for more people to get involved. The Transition approach is quite different from traditional climate change campaigning.  Transition argues that such campaigning might lead some people to take action but will not have much effect on most people because: 

• many don’t relate to climate change as it’s seen to be a problem for the future, not now
• the message is too negative and depressing
• we’ve become addicted to cheap and plentiful oil.  It takes more than awareness to change the behaviour of an addict.

 The transition movement addresses these problems as follows.  Firstly it addresses Peak Oil as well as Climate Change.  You might not have heard of ‘Peak Oil’ but we are all starting to feel the effects. It is not about running out of oil in the ground, but reaching the end of easy to get, cheap oil. If the demand for energy keeps increasing whilst the supply declines it is inevitable that the price will soar.  Industry experts estimate the peak will occur over the next few years if it hasn’t occurred already. We don’t currently have systems in place to replace oil. The key elements of our society including food production, transport, medicines and manufacturing all rely on it.  When oil becomes scarce and expensive, the impact on our lives will be huge. Experts predict a recession which will be far worse than anything we’ve experienced before.

OK – that bit was depressing.  The positive part of the Transition approach is to think about what life could be like if we can make the transition to a low carbon society.  Many people find this creates a picture of a future so enticing that they instinctively feel drawn towards it.

Finally the transition movement is intended to be enjoyable.  It has has pioneered various ways of holding meeting and events that involve and galvanise people.  A typical transition event does not consist of a speaker followed by questions.

A community that takes up this challenge is called a Transition Town.  The nearest one to us is Horsham which is preparing for a big launch or ‘unleashing’ in 2009.  You can see what they’re doing and learn more about the transition movement generally on this website: http://www.transitionhorsham.org.uk/.  Here in Mole Valley we have just taken the first step of forming a Transition Steering Group and we’ll have had our first meeting when you read this.  If you want to get involved, please contact us via the Contact button on the Green Mole Forum website. 

Derek Smith,  Green Mole Forum