Rob Hopkins - The transition handbook : from oil dependency to local resilience

THE TRANSITION HANDBOOK

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 Carbon War and Half Gone

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

If ever there was a book that empowered the reader, this is it. Im struggling here to escape metaphors about having a tankful of petrol in my belly, but thats just what it feels like. Rob tells us that fossil fuels multiply the physical force of each human being by 70 times. Well, this book can do the same, but in a social way rather than a brute mechanical way, and to a positive end rather than a destructive one. Its not only a powerful read. but an easy one too. It flows along like a well-written novel, full of illustrations, well designed and produced. Anyone who has met Rob or heard him speak in public will recognise in its words the humour, power and humility of this remarkable person. The book is of course a product of the cheap oil era. But if we can create things of this quality, when the post-peak times come we have little to fear.

Patrick Whitefield, Permaculture Magazine

The newly published Transition Handbook is so important that I am tempted just to confine this review to five simple words You must read this book!.

Richard Barnett, Ethical Pulse

Rob Hopkins has written the most thorough description so far of how we get from the present chaos of cities and towns that are killing the planet and the people in them, to viable new ecologically sustainable urban and rural systems. This is more than a theoretical how-to manual; it is based on his own teams ground-breaking work, engaging whole communities in a transformative process that accepts the crucial need to reverse course, and has succeeded in doing so. The book is a great guide for how we must live in a future world where the limits of nature are honoured, but so are the basic comforts and joys of communities coming together in a great common cause. There is no more important book than this one for any community seeking change toward ecological sustainability.

Jerry Mander, founder/director of the International Forum on Globalization and author of In the Absence of the Sacred

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

This DIY manual for change is an intelligent and practical attempt to encourage people to think globally while acting locally.

P. D. Smith, The Guardian

The Transition movement is the best news theres been for a long time, and this manual is a goldmine of inspiration to get you started.

Phil England, New Internationalist

If Hopkins is right about the viral spread of the Transition Town concept then he has to be a runaway contender for a Nobel prize.

Friends of the Earths Earthmatters magazine

From oil dependency to local resilience

Rob Hopkins

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To my family: Mum, Dad, Jo, Ian, Jake, William, Steve, Hilary, Tessa, Robert, Harriet and Helen.

To Colin Campbell, Richard Heinberg, David Holmgren, David Fleming and Howard Odum for sowing the seeds of this concept.

To David Heath, Alan Langmaid, Barrington Weekes, Muriel Langford and Douglas Matthews for their insights into historic resilience.

To everyone testing the Transition model out, helping to nurture and water it and bring it to fruition.

To Geshe Jampa Gyatso, who taught me everything that really matters.

To Omeli, for a swift recovery.

To my wonderful sons, Rowan, Finn, Arlo and Cian; may they inherit this works beautiful and abundant harvests.

To Emma: companion, lover, friend and now wife.

Published in 2008 by Green Books Ltd, Foxhole, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EB

in association with

www.transitionculture.org

Reprinted 2008 (three times), 2009

First published in digital formats 2010

All text, cartoons and photographs are by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Cover illustrations Jennifer Johnson

Rob Hopkins has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work. Rob Hopkins 2008-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Print format ISBN 978 1 900322 18 8

PDF format ISBN 978 1 907448 70 6

ePub format ISBN 978 1 907448 71 3

Acknowledgements

Trailblazers and assorted sources of inspiration

Sharif Abdullah, Christopher Alexander, Peter Andrews, Peter Bane, Albert Bates, Graham Bell, David Boyle, Lester Brown, Colin Campbell, Fritjof Capra, Skye and Robin Clayfield, Alec Clifton-Taylor, Phil Corbett, Martin Crawford, Guy Dauncey, Josh Davis, Chris Day, Charles Dickens, Dr Carlo DiClemente, Chris Dixon, Richard Douthwaite, Matt Dunwell, Paul Ekins, Ianto Evans, Simon Fairlie, David Fleming, Elizabeth Fraser, Masanobu Fukuoka, Chellis Glendinning, Stephan Harding, Tim and Maddy Harland, Peter Harper, Lea Harrison, Robert Hart, Matt Haynes, Emilia Hazelip, Richard Heinberg, Colin Hines, Arthur Hollins, David Holmgren, Barbara Jones, Ken Jones, Martin Luther King, David Korten, Satish Kumar, Andy Langford, John Lane, Jeremy Leggett, Aldo Leopold, Bernard Lietaer, Jan Lundberg, Mark Lynas, Richard Mabey, Lucas Macfadden, Joanna Macy, Marcus McCabe, Dennis Meadows, Bill Mollison, George Monbiot, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Howard & Elisabeth Odum, Harrison Owen, Rosa Parks, Dr Stephen Rollnick, Mark Rudd, Kirkpatrick Sale, E. F. Schumacher, John Seymour, Vandana Shiva, Michael Shuman, Andrew Simms, Chris Skrebowski, Linda Smiley, Gary Snyder, Ruth Stout, Tom Vague and Meg Wheatley.