Pete and I called an Ooooby Flashmob on Thursday, at Rupa’s cafe in Freeman’s Bay. 21 people showed up and after a brief presentation on Ooooby by Pete, I ran a compressed “World Cafe” event that had people focus around one practical question. You can get a sense of the buzz from these two short videos. Continue Reading »

Of course we all make our own unique story out of what we see, one that suits and supports our world view, but what I like about numbers is that it is easier to see things, then discuss how we see them and more easily challenge each other’s perception. My friend Pete Russell helped me gain a respect for the numbers, so here’s what the last year looked like for the website of Transition Towns Aotearoa New Zealand - www.tt.org.nz.

Here is the story I read into these Google Analytic statistics.

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I’m heading off to Prana Festival for a week, so you won’t get any updates from me for a while. I’m going to offer some talks and a workshop on the Transition Towns model and what I have seen as it’s unfolded in New Zealand over the last two years. I’ll leave you with this video and a few thoughts of my own.

The video is of Dmitry Orlov speaking for a hour unpacking and describing collapse of civilisation, from his perspective of having witnessed it in Russia and studied the trends and signs of it in the US. Continue Reading »

Rob Hopkin’s thoughtful response to the failed Copenhagen event.

So how about this, as a co-ordinated approach for the next time there is such a gathering, which will again, no doubt, be trailed as ‘the last chance to save the planet’?  We (that is, those who care passionately about climate change and the need for a proportionate response), confound expectations, and stay at home.  Using the web-based technologies we now have at our disposal, we co-ordinate an international festival of meaningful change.  We stay home and insulate whole streets, create community gardens, work meaningfully with our local authorities to do projects with them, eat local food diets for the duration of the conference, live without cars, insulate our schools, set up an area of the settlement in question as a model for what it would look like transitioned.  We start bringing the future that we can imagine but which is still beyond the comprehension of so many, into focus.  We would have enough lead-in to the conference to be able to do something meaningful and which tells a powerful story.  We could even chip in what we would have paid to get there towards helping to resource it.

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Dec 9th – Naomi Klein, author, acivist, and columnist for The Nation, tells The UpTake’s Jacob Wheeler what she thinks of Obama’s language of hope permeating the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen. In short: The action and funds it would take to make a real difference are not even on the table.

Klein does find hope, however, in the new alliances forming around the environment. Organizations previously focused on international trade and poverty are starting to work on climate change. Continue Reading »

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I saw this film at a Transition Nelson event a month or so ago, and was quite touched to know that I have been one of so many people, who have contributed to the growing Transition movement here in New Zealand. A big thank you to the makers, for having created this film and now for having the courage to make it available in its entirety on youtube.

Watch all six videos in sequence:

Posted via email from Transition TV

"Let's Do It!" – a grassroot initiative to clean up the country from illegal waste in just one day. There was over 10 000 tons of illegal waste lying around all over Estonia and it was an outrageous plan — to clean it all up on one day! More than 600 volunteers were working to make it all happen with only 3 full-time employees. On May 3, 2008 with help of 50 000 volunteers more than 10 000 tons of garbage gathered and Estonia was cleaned up from illegal waste.

A friend sent me this and I unsuspectingly clicked play. I grinned, chuckled, laughed, cried and wept to see the power of imagination and collective action. 50,000 people coming together for one day to achieve something great. Sure beats sitting in front of the TV!

Some friends who coordinate Grey Lynn 2030, a Transition Towns initiative in Auckland. This kind of action epitomises the guiding principle they use for all their meetings:

If you know of more stories like this, please let me know.

Posted via email from Transition TV

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The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you. www.storyofstuff.com/capandtrade

For a long time, I have had an uncomfortable feeling about the Copenhagen talks. I couldn't help thinking that giving "world leaders" a mandate to meet up and design some solutions that they think are a good idea, is like giving them a big stick to beat us with. Sorry to put a downer on an event that so many seem to be hanging their hat on as the solution to the climate change problems. This approach doesn't seem to acknowledge that the solutions are going to have to come from us, in our lifestyle changes, and by tapping into the collective and creative genius of motivated communities. This film has given me some of the background to why I haven't signed on yet.

Posted via email from Transition TV

Over the last few days I have been posting a number of videos on the subject of money. The financial implosion is almost certainly directly related to the state of our global energy reserves. Since Transition Towns look the energy issue and its related Climate issue squarely in the eye, I thought it was time to hear from Rob Hopkins about how people in communities all over the world are responding, to these very real challenges of the day.

Oil – as we love it and leave it.

We’ve been astonishingly lucky [to have lived through the oil age]. Let’s honour what is has brought us and move forward from this point, because if we cling to it, and assume that it can underpin our choices the future it presents to us is one that is really unmanageable. By loving and leaving all that the oil age has done for us we are able to begin the creation of a world which is more resilient, more nourishing, and in which we find ourselves fitter, more skilled and more connected to each other.

Rob Hopkins is the founder of the Transition movement, a radically hopeful and community-driven approach to creating societies independent of fossil fuel.

Where I live in New Zealand, the Transition model has been growing steadily, and offers a means for people to get involved and take some practical action towards building the brighter future they know is possible.