Synopses & Reviews
In 2008, the best-selling The Transition Handbook suggested a model for a community-led response to peak oil and climate change. Since then, the Transition idea has gone viral across the globe, from Italian villages and Brazilian favelas to universities and London neighborhoods. In contrast to the ever-worsening stream of information about climate change, the economy, and resource depletion, Transition focuses on solutions, on community-scale responses, on meeting new people, and on having fun.The Transition Companion picks up the story today, drawing on the experience of one of the most fascinating experiments under way in the world. It tells inspiring tales of communities working for a future where local economies are valued and nurtured; where lower energy use is seen as a benefit; and where enterprise, creativity, and the building of resilience have become cornerstones of a new economy.The first part discusses where we are now in terms of resilience and vulnerability in the face of rising oil prices, climate change, and economic challenge. It presents a vision of the future if we do not address these issues, and how things might change if we start to do so. The book then looks in detail at the process a community in transition goes through, calling on the experience of those who have already embarked on this journey. These examples show how much can be achieved when people harness energy and imagination to create projects that will make their communities more resilient.The Transition Companion combines practical advice--the tools needed to start and maintain a Transition initiative--with numerous inspiring stories from local groups worldwide.
Review
"What Rob Hopkins has done-in this book, and with the Transition movement-simply couldn't be more important. We're coming to a powerful crunch time for our civilization, and if you read this you'll be well ahead of the curve in understanding how to prepare your community. There's much beauty here, and hope."--Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth
Review
"This is the biggest urban brainwave of the century. A visionary, practical blueprint that took root in a town and is circling the globe. This is a book that can change your life-our lives."--Nicholas Crane, broadcaster and author of Clear Waters Rising
Review
"There is no more important journey we can undertake than the transition from our current fossil-fuel dependency to locally based economic resiliency. This book is the ideal companion for that journey-optimistic yet clear-headed; informed by experience yet playful and encouraging. Hopkins's wisdom, creativity, and gentle humor pervade each captivating page."--Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, and author of The End of Growth
Review
"Here, Rob sets out an exciting, much-expanded idea of what Transition is and could become; one that is rich with hard-won insights and practical advice. It's a work full of bold answers, inspirational ideas and daring solutions. Although profoundly serious at heart, it's never somber. In fact, it's a great deal of fun, frequently demonstrating how Transition is a highly creative, stimulating, and even playful process. ...The Transition Companion offers an extraordinarily rich yet highly accessible model for drawing together the people around you, and describes the tools needed to start an economic and social renaissance in the place you live. It's a book that is unashamedly ambitious and far-reaching in its scope and vision. But, if we are to successfully navigate what's coming toward us, and hold on to our identity, our community, and our shared optimism for the future, that is exactly what we need."--Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, from the foreword
Review
"Transition is the most vital social experiment of our times. The Transition movement has already motivated thousands to begin to adapt their lives to the twin challenge of peak oil and climate change. Drawing on this collective experience, The Transition Companion offers communities a combination of practical guidance and real vision for the future."--Tim Jackson, author of Prosperity without Growth
Synopsis
This book seeks to answer the question:"What would it look like if the best responses to peak oil and climate change came not from committees and Acts of Parliament, but from you and me, and the people around us?"For the first
Transition Handbook, published in 2008, this was pretty much a speculative question, but with this new book we are able to draw from what has, in effect, been a four-year worldwide experiment, and attempt to try to put the Transition idea into practice.This book is a move away from The Twelve Steps of Transition that underpinned the work of Transition initiatives up to this point toward a more holistic, more appropriate model. It imagines the work involved in transforming the place you live from its current highly vulnerable, unresilient, oil-dependent state to a resilient, more localized, diverse, and nourishing place, as a journey.With this book, the author has created a highly useful companion on the journey toward community resilience. It is rich with stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, of tried and tested tools, and offers many of the ingredients you may find you need to create this process where you live.The way it has been created embodies this sense of collaboration and creativity. Each of the tools and ingredients was written in draft and posted to the author's blog, TransitionCulture.org, as well as on the Transition Network's site. Comments and feedback were invited. Transition initiatives around the world were invited to send in their stories and photos, which abound in this book.