Is it over?

The Transition Town movement, which is part of the Transition Network, is predicated on two environmental ‘tipping points’; climate change and ‘peak oil’.

Peak oil is the point at which reserves of oil, known and potential, become too expensive to extract – either due to the law of diminishing returns, or due to the limits of willingness to pay. Some people argue that ‘peak oil’ has already passed – that tar sands extraction, or exploration of Arctic reserves are merely the desperate measures of an oil-dependent society in decline.

What constitutes a ‘tipping point’ – the moment of tipping from abundance to paucity – is in part an economic, or resource, question, but it is also a political and, ultimately perhaps, ethical, question - see this video below.

 In terms of peak oil, and our response to this, it is a question for individuals, community groups and nations to address – urgently. ‘Transition Town’ is one measure that links these three levels of engagement together, seeking ways of living that are less dependent on oil for transport, heating, housing, furniture, food and so on.

Related to oil dependency is, of course, climate change. Here is another crucial environmental tipping point. At what point, scientists, technologists, social scientists and politicians are asking, will the earth’s self-regulatory mechanisms compensate for the pollutants in the atmosphere such that our climate changes radically, and our earth becomes uninhabitable by humans? Some say we have already passed that tipping point, giving erratic and dramatic weather events, rising sea levels, glacial melting. Some say there is still some hope that we can help the earth to self-regulate in such a way as to ensure our survival.

At the OU, we have a number of modules that address the environmental, political and social issues related to climate change. See some of the links below. We are also involved in research that draws together academics from across the faculties to address these foremost issues in our changing world. These include Creative Climate and the Energy and Environment Research Unit.

Taking your learning further