About Transition Albany
Transition Albany is part of a worldwide grassroots movement dedicated to getting local communities together to create a resilient future. The Transition movement recognizes that money is not the bottom line, that an economy based on endless growth is unnatural and bound to fail, and that the consumer culture that many of us have enjoyed at others’ expense for the last 50 years - completely dependent on the supply of cheap oil and the result of relentless media and corporate advertising – is unsustainable.
The Transition movement believes that the collective genius of the community can envision, design and promote a localized way of life that uses a lot less oil, coal and gas, produces zero waste, relies on renewable, local resources and fosters a lot more creativity, community building, and fun.
The Context
Peak oil is the point at which maximum global oil production is reached. Once the peak is reached, oil production will begin to decline, oil will become increasingly expensive and we will begin to go into an energy decline.
The impact on developed, oil-dependent societies will be huge. All the key elements of industrial societies – transportation, manufacturing, food production, home heating, construction – are totally reliant on oil.
No one is sure when the oil peak will be reached but a growing body of experts predicts that it will happen some time in the next 10-15 years. Some believe that it has already happened.
All alternative energy sources combined come nowhere near the power of oil and will only replace a fraction of it.
Climate change, an unprecedented global threat to wildlife and humanity, is being caused by global warming, a result of increased levels of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) in the atmosphere.
Although greenhouse gas levels have been stable for thousands of years, they have risen steeply over the past century. Much of this is due to the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil which release carbon dioxide.
Climate change is already causing heatwaves, droughts, floods, famines, extreme weather events, changes in animal migration patterns, altered seasons and the melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets.
How Transition Albany Is Organized
We have no hierarchy and anyone can get involved. We are just a bunch of active people who want to get things going. We have an initiating group to coordinate activities, organise events and basically sort out the behind-the-scenes boring stuff.
We are beginning with awareness raising events to attract and interest people. Next we plan a big, positive community gathering – called a “Great Unleashing” in transition terminology – after which self-selected working groups in all the areas where we need to reduce our carbon footprint will be launched. Areas covered could include local food production, energy, transportation, building, etc.etc. Part of that effort will include “ReSkilling,” classes where we can learn practical skills that have been forgotten in our generation including food preservation, sewing, local building techniques etc. etc.
In the meantime, we recognize that strong feelings can be aroused by thinking about all this, from fear to anger, from sadness to helplessness, from numbness to denial. Our Heart and Soul group aims to provide safe spaces where people can come together to explore and move beyond the paralysis that such feelings can engender, and get to work in a positive frame of mind!
What else? Well …
- We are an independent, non-political community group.
- We are working with other local community groups.
- Our funding comes from donations from individuals.
- We are not a pressure group – we are leaving lobbying and political campaigning to other groups. Instead we are concentrating on local, practical solutions that people can get involved with right now.
- And – this is an important one – we need your help! Please get involved and share your creative skills and ideas.
- Transition Albany is part of the Transition Towns Network which already includes 278 (and counting) communities across the globe. It’s good to know you’re not alone!
To Contact Us
Email: transitionalbanyca@gmail.com
Phone: 510-528-2261
Join the Yahoo Group: Transition Albany
For More Information
Visit Transition US.
You can also read a great article in Orion Magazine and an article about Transition Albany in Yes Magazine Online.
Notes from the Founder of the Transition Movement
(Read more on his blog)
“Inherent within the challenges of peak oil and climate change is an extraordinary opportunity to reinvent, rethink and rebuild the world around us.” Rob Hopkins, The Transition Handbook
“It takes a lot of cheap energy to maintain the levels of social inequality we see today, the levels of obesity, the record levels of indebtedness, the high levels of car use and alienating landscapes. Only a culture awash with cheap oil could become deskilled on the monumental scale we have.” Rob Hopkins
A CHEERFUL DISCLAIMER
“Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale; we don’t know if it will work. If we wait for the governments it will be too little late. If we act as individuals, it’ll be too little. But if we act as communities, it might be just enough, just in time.
“The Transition movement is the result of real work undertaken in the real world with community engagement at its heart. There’s not an ivory tower in sight, no professors in musty oak-paneled studies churning out erudite papers, no slavish adherence to a model carved in stone.
“This work, just like the Transition model, is brought to you by people who are actively engaged in Transition in a community – people who are learning by doing and learning all the time, people who understand that we can’t sit back and wait for someone else to do the work.
… people like you, perhaps.”
