3 The Transition Movement and the Post Carbon Institute

The Transition Movement and the Post Carbon Institute advocate a pro-active approach to preparing a low-carbon economy, for both climate change and peak oil reasons. Transition towns are a grassroots, bottom-up approach, often planning on a 20-year timescale. The Post-Carbon Institute's campaign is aimed at local and regional governments.

The following resources provide helpful information:

  • Post Carbon Institute website

  • Transition Towns UK wiki

  • Transition US website

  • Wikipedia article on peak oil

  • Peak oil online primer

  • The best list of critiques of transition is in a pro-transition blog

  • ‘Transition culture’, a thoughtful article by Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Movement

Activity 7

Make notes on the following question:

  • Would transition towns and post-carbon cities still be a good idea if there was no climate change and no peak oil?

2.2 Limitations of permaculture as an approach to tackling climate change

4 A synthesis of geoengineering and permaculture – ‘geonurturing’