Nelson Mail / Gord Stewart / 17 May 2013
Most Transition initiatives start with the formation of a steering group. This may be followed by some awareness raising and the launch of a community project or two. Some take on a charitable trust structure to allow easier access to funding. Many engage actively with local government and business.
Local interests and ingenuity drive activities, which can range from community supported agriculture, seed swaps and urban orchards to shared transport, tool “libraries”, crowd funding for wind energy and even local currencies.
The Transition movement attracts people who would rather change the future, than worry about it. What many groups are up to is not so dramatic really. It’s subtle change they’re after.
Sharon Astyk, writing on the UK Transition website (transitionnetwork.org), calls it the Theory of Anyway. She says, “What Transition promotes – living more simply, using less, reconnecting to our local economy and to more seasonal foods – is what I would be doing ‘anyway’, even if climate change proved to be no longer a problem, or peak oil was ‘solved’.”
