Cheer Up, It's Going to Get Worse

[Tim Willard]

Transition movements are starting to get some good press.

Transition Santa Cruz was featured in an article in the Santa Cruz Weekly, Santa Cruz Group Gears Up for Life After Cheap Oil.

Peak oil” is a familiar catch phrase, though the gravity of its truest meaning still eludes much of the populace. In theory it represents the end of modern society as we know it, a scenario in which global oil production has peaked and every barrel of crude oil drawn from the earth is more difficult to extract than the one before it. According to this theory, the time is approaching when the effort and cost of oil extraction will no longer be worth the oil itself, leaving humanity without the fuel to power our transportation, factories and farms—and disrupting the very essence of our oil-dependent lives.
But Transition Santa Cruz and its several hundred members firmly believe that, although dramatic change may be in the works, we can prepare for it if we reorganize the way we live. The organization was born last summer as just one localized faction of the worldwide Transition movement, which first began in 2007 in Totnes, England. It was there that one Rob Hopkins recognized that the modern world will not be able to continue on its current trajectory when fast, easy access to oil peaks and begins to dwindle—or when global warming and economic meltdown, the other two drivers of the Transition movement, become inescapable realities.

But in an ideal Transition town, society would be ready for such changes. With limited gas-powered transport or oil-based products, a Transition community’s people would live within cycling distance of one another in a township built upon complete self-sufficiency, with extremely localized infrastructure for agriculture, clothes making, metalworking and other basics of life that humanity largely abandoned to the factories in the late 1800s, when oil power turned life into a sort of leisurely vacation from reality.

Transition Sebastopol, in Sonoma County, CA was featured in an article called, Cheer Up, It's Going to Get Worse, featuring David Fridley who purchased two and a half acres of land in rural Sonoma County three years ago, planted drought-resistant blue Zuni corn, fruit trees and basic vegetables while leaving a full acre of extant forest for firewood collection. Today, Fridley and several friends and family subsist almost entirely off this small plot of land, with the surplus going to public charity.

But is it the end of the world? Fridley and other supporters of the Transition movement don't believe it is. First sparked in 2007 in Totnes, England, Transition was launched when one Rob Hopkins recognized that modern Western society cannot continue at its current pace of life as fast access to oil begins to dwindle. Global warming and economic meltdown are the two other principle drivers of the Transition movement, but in an ideal "Transition Town," society would be ready for such changes.

With limited gas-powered transport or oil-based products, a Transition community's citizens would live within cycling distance of one another in a township built upon complete self-sufficiency, with extremely localized infrastructure for agriculture, clothes making, metal working and the other basics of life which the Western world largely abandoned to factories in the late 1800s, when oil power turned life into a relatively leisurely vacation from reality.

Now, Transitionists say, it's time to get back to work—and quick. Localized efforts have sprouted from the ground up in Santa Cruz, Cotati, Sebastopol, San Francisco and many other towns worldwide, where residents and neighbors are putting their heads together and collaborating on ways to relocalize themselves, bolster self-sufficiency and build the resilience that communities will need to absorb the shock of peak oil.

For a movement that is only a few years old, the transition movement has resonated with remarkable speed. As each transition town emerges, it will undoubtedly have much to offer to the other transition towns around the globe.