Product Description

We live in an oil-dependent world, and have got to this level of dependency in a very short space of time, using vast reserves of oil in the process without planning for when the supply is not so plentiful. Most of us avoid thinking about what happens when oil runs out (or becomes prohibitively expensive), but The Transition Handbook shows how the inevitable and profound changes ahead can have a positive outcome. These changes can lead to the rebirth of local communities, which will grow more of their own food, generate their own power, and build their own houses using local materials. They can also encourage the development of local currencies, to keep money in the local area. There are now over 30 Transition Towns in the UK, with more joining as the idea takes off. With little proactivity at government level, communities are taking matters into their own hands and acting locally. If your town is not a Transition Town, this upbeat guide offers you the tools for starting the process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4113 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
This book by the visionary architect of the Transition movement is a must-read labelled immediate . Growing numbers with their microscopes trained on peak oil are convinced that we have very little time to engineer resilience into our communities before the last energy crisis descends. This issue should be of urgent concern to every person who cares about their children, and all who hope there is a viable future for human civilisation post-petroleum. --Jeremy Leggett, founder of Solarcentury and SolarAid, and author of

The Transition concept is one of the big ideas of our time. Peak oil and climate change can so often leave one feeling depressed and disempowered. What I love about the Transition approach is that it is inspirational, harnessing hope instead of guilt, and optimism instead of fear. The Transition Handbook will come to be seen as one of the seminal books which emerged at the end of the Oil Age and which offered a gentle helping hand in the transition to a more local, more human and ultimately more nourishing future. --Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association

Rob Hopkins is the Gentle Giant of the green movement, and his timely and hugely important book reveals a fresh and empowering approach that will help us transition into a materially leaner but inwardly richer human experience. Full of reliable, readable, far-reaching scholarship, and warm-hearted practical advice on how to instigate transition culture wherever you are, this book will energise and regenerate your commitment to place, community and simple living. There is no better call to action than this book, and no better guide to the hands-on creation of a liveable future. --Dr Stephan Harding, co-ordinator of the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College and author of Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia

I can find nothing - absolutely nothing - wrong with The Transition Handbook. The format of this manual is extremely appealing. It is printed on heavy recycled paper, designed with simple natural colour tones, and is chock-full of exceedingly practical group exercises for clarifying and practising its principles. To its credit, this book does not sugar coat the daunting reality of peak oil and climate change, but rather it offers a positive vision of preparation and myriad practical steps for manifesting it. (For full review see website below) --Carolyn Baker, carolynbaker.net

Rob Hopkins is the Gentle Giant of the green movement, and his timely and hugely important book reveals a fresh and empowering approach that will help us transition into a materially leaner but inwardly richer human experience. Full of reliable, readable, far-reaching scholarship, and warm-hearted practical advice on how to instigate transition culture wherever you are, this book will energise and regenerate your commitment to place, community and simple living. There is no better call to action than this book, and no better guide to the hands-on creation of a liveable future. --Dr Stephan Harding, co-ordinator of the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College and author of Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia

From the Publisher
Review for the Transition Handbook:
If your town is not yet a Transition Town, here is guidance for making it one. We have little time, and much to accomplish - Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute, Santa Rosa, California, author of Power Down.

From the Back Cover
The Transition Handbook is a ground-breaking book which shows how we can move from feeling anxiety and fear in the face of `peak oil', to developing a positive vision and taking practical action to create a more self-reliant existence.
We live in an oil-dependent world, and have got to this level of dependency in a very short space of time, using vast reserves of oil in the process - without thinking ahead to plan for when the supply is not so plentiful. Most of us avoid thinking about what happens when oil runs out (or becomes prohibitively expensive), but The Transition Handbook shows how the inevitable and profound changes ahead can have a positive outcome. These changes can lead to the rebirth of local communities, which will grow more of their own food, generate their own power, and build their own houses using local materials. They can also encourage the development of local currencies, keeping money in the local area.
There are now over 35 formal Transition Initiatives in the UK, including towns, cities, islands, villages and peninsulas, with over 500 globally at the earlier stages of launching this process. The growth in interest in the Transition model continues to be exponential. With little proactivity at government level, communities are taking matters into their own hands and acting locally. Within peak oil and climate change is the potential for the greatest economic, social and cultural renaissance we have ever seen. And it's fun. In his Foreword, Richard Heinberg describes the Transition approach as being `more like a party than a protest march'. If your community has not yet become a Transition Initiative, this upbeat guide offers you the tools to get started.

Customer Reviews

essential reading
I'm two thirds way through this book and overall find it an inspiring read. The first section in particular summarises some of the issues in a very easy to understand style. I liked the section on psychology particularly - I think both grieving, shock and addiction models are useful to understanding the apparently irrational responses of people to climate change and peak oil.

The rest of the book is harder to read - a lot of detail about how one should go about starting a transition initiative. Some of this stuff makes very important points about embedding the initiative into the community and I appreciate that it is derived from experience. At the same time I found it somewhat prescriptive, especially the directions for conducting meetings/workshops etc. This is a bit of a turn off - there are of course lots of ways of doing these things and I feel it would have been better just to refer to some resources or put these in appendices.

We have to act on climate change and peak oil and I buy the resilient local economy model. There is lots of useful stuff in this book, maybe some of it just more detailed than necessary.

An exceptional book in its class.
Rob Hopkins has produced a brilliant assessment of the two major problems facing the world today, that of the depletion of oil and the rapidly changing global climate. He explains the scale of the crisis we all face, and outlines how our response to this crisis could result in a better world for everyone, if we act now.

The first chapters of the book explain clearly how the duel problems of peak oil and climate change threaten every aspect of our modern way of life. Hopkins goes on to offer his own analysis of how each of us can respond to the crisis from the level of our local community. He makes it clear that only by acting together in an informed way, can we successfully bring about an effective transition to a viable future, no longer dependent on oil.

Extremely inspiring, relevant and a must read for everyone who is concerned about the future of our world. I give it 5 stars.

Transition Handbook
This book is way overdue. I have been eagerly searching for books addressing the preparation for post peak oil for many many years. Books like this should have been written years ago so I was delighted to see that at last practical guides are starting to appear on the book shelves.

I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters dealing with peak oil and its implications for society. Subsequent chapters I did not enjoy as much particularly when the Kinsale Energy Decent Action Plan is promoted as a role model for sustainable community development.

There is a huge wealth of expertise in the development community, particularly which which was developed from overseas aid agencies. They have developed approaches, standards, principles and a multitude of methodologies for developing communities, with limited or almost non existent resources, and where success or failure costs lives. This expertise has been ignored and attempts made to reinvent the wheel.

I think the focus of the book should have built on the expertise of organisations such as Oxfam, VSO, Save the Children, and Overseas Development Administration and focused on the structures, processes and outcomes, which would help develop community resilience and sustainability, with limited resources.

I have a worry that communities who attempt to use this handbook as the basis for their transition will make fantastic progress initially through the generation of enthusiasm but due to improper planning, a lack of monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness and imprecise goals and objectives, people will become disillusioned and drop out. There is also the danger that communities who adapt this approach will not be able to communicate effectively with traditional disciplines, local authorities, health services, energy engineers or others. Who should change first? The current decision makers and service providers or the community development
organisations?

This process of conflict between service providers and community organisations has happened time and time again, without learning the lessons of what actually is sustainable in the long term. It usually results in the community organisation being unable to access state funding resulting in decline and or death. How can a community organisation sustain itself unless it becomes a business, with formal structures, job descriptions, terms of reference, fundamental guiding principles, training, development, salaries, income generation, sales etc. How can that fit with the "loose" concepts proposed?

Lets hope this is just the first of a huge range of increasingly sophisticated publications yet to come that will address these issues using the best expertise available in the fields of business, development management, community organisation, sustainability, public health, and many more, combined into a consensus best practice manual for transition. I hope these comments help to stimulate a critical approach to sustainable community development.