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Ever had to talk to somebody who denies the existence of climate change, or doesn’t believe that it is caused by humans, but weren’t sure what to say? This article from this month’s New Internationalist magazine gives some useful tips for tackling climate change denial head-on.

Switching Off Denial

On January 8th and 25th, we held our first public events – two film nights, designed to introduce the Transition concept to the community, raise awareness about climate change, peak oil and some possible solutions to them, and begin to discuss how a Transition Initiative might work in Guildford, and what sort of actions it might take. We had a fantastic turnout for both events, with around 20 people attending each, participating in some great discussions.

At the first film night we watched a TED talk on the Transition Movement by Rob Hopkins, who began the first Transition Town, followed by the Story of Stuff, a short animated documentary about excessive consumerism and the life-cycle of material goods, and finally Tipping Point Ahead, another short animated documentary which outlines the notion of climate tipping points, highlighting why urgent action on climate change is necessary.

At the second film night we watched the Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, a documentary about Cuba’s oil crisis in the 1990s and how it led them to become a much more resilient and self-reliant country in ways which we can learn from and be inspired by.

Based on the level of interest at these film nights, we are confident that we have enough interest to initiate a Transition Town in Guildford (and surrounding suburbs) and our next step is to set up small groups to look at how we might take action on issues such as food, transport, energy, heart and soul, etc.

We also have another film night coming up on the 8th of February, at the Guildford Primary School hall at 6.30pm. If you are interested in helping to start a Transition Town in Guildford or in the idea of Transition Initiatives in general, please come along!

Transition Initiatives are an emerging and evolving approach to community-level sustainability, which began in England in 2005 and has rapidly spread around the world since then.

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

If we collectively plan and act early enough there’s every likelihood that we can create a way of living that’s significantly more connected and more vibrant, with a happier and less stressed population, an improved environment and increased stability. Transition Initiatives make no claim to have all the answers, but by building on the wisdom of the past and accessing the pool of ingenuity, skills and determination in our communities, the solutions can readily emerge.

Established Transition Initiatives consist of many sub-groups in key areas such as food, transport, energy, housing, education, flora and fauna,  and create practical projects in response to the question “how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?”

They then design and implement an Energy Descent Action Plan, a 15-20 year plan that creates a coordinated range of projects in all these key areas, with the aim of bringing the community to a sufficiently resilient and low CO2-emitting state.

To learn more about the Transition movement, click here.