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Mark Brown »
Now in Charge of the Asylum
Posted on 11:21pm Tuesday 16th June 2009
You can’t choose. Then, sometimes you can.
Mark Brown »
Who’s in Transition?
Posted on 11:06pm Thursday 11th June 2009
In the last blog we tried to explain what “Transition” is in High Wycombe. It is the decarbonisation and relocalisation of the community necessary to rebuild resilience. Resilience that will be needed as a result of fossil fuel depletion and the actions we take to combat the threat of climate change. This time around we’ll look at who is in Transition and ‘transition’. We can differentiate between those members of the formal “Transition Town High Wycombe” team, and those members of the local commnity who are doing ‘transition activity’ but are unconnected with the Transition Movement. It is ‘transition’ with a big “T” and a small “t”.
Mark Brown »
What is Transition?
Posted on 10:30pm Tuesday 19th May 2009
In February 2009 The Transition Network published its long-awaited “Who we are and what we do” paper. I suppose I could just cut’n’paste that here and be done with this blog. However it would be lost on everyone. For a start – it was 24 pages long. Hardly a snappy advert. So let’s talk about why we are here in our own words. To explain what we ARE it is worthwhile saying what we ARE NOT.
Mark Brown »
Con or Consensus (II)
Posted on 5:22pm Monday 4th May 2009
In the first “Con or Consensus” blog I mused over the role of ‘science’ and ‘theory’ in the climate change debate. I concluded that the changes required to deal with climate change are inevitable and desirable. Although we should support healthy informed debate we probably should not get too hopeful of it leading to any radical new conclusions - even if we have much left to learn.
Mark Brown »
Con or Consensus? (I)
Posted on 7:33pm Tuesday 28th April 2009
A few weeks back there was a Climate Change presentation then debate at High Wycombe’s Environment Centre. The matter was quite fiercely discussed with different parties taking positions behind battlements built of science. Such passion made me wonder. Science cannot prove two sides of an argument to be correct at the same time. Does there have to be winners and losers?
Mark Brown »
Choosing Poverty amidst Plenty
Posted on 7:59pm Tuesday 17th March 2009
When our small team started the Transition Town work in 2008 we believed we were doing something good & inoffensive. We saw no reason to believe that a small Civil Society group, endeavouring to yield a sustainable town, would be remotely controversial. But still a minority oppose transition whilst the majority are just suspicious. Although we appreciate the change may be disconcerting our aim is to help people. Change will come all by itself. We can't stop it but we can plan ahead. Unless we transition in an orderly fashion (and in the right direction) then we may suffer. Many of our number take opposition & suspicion with good humour, many just ignore it, a few get angry - the normal range of human emotions. It is to be expected. However it is when the doomsayers seek to take the moral high ground that the eyes roll.
Julian Ilett »
When will the party start?
Posted on 12:55am Thursday 12th March 2009
Do you like to party? A chap called Richard Heinberg wrote a book called “The Party’s Over” in which he describes the likely outcome of declining oil production upon industrialised nations. No fun there. We like parties. A ‘party’ seems so much fun, so adventurous – so radical. However, recent experience makes me wonder if we really ‘party’ much at all around here.
Julian Ilett »
Its in the Cinema Stupid
Posted on 9:32pm Wednesday 4th March 2009
This must have happened to all of us at some point. You know. That moment when you wake up and wonder “Just when did the entire world go stupid?” This moment occurred about 8 years ago when my wife and I tuned in to (what we thought) was a TV documentary on weight loss. Imagine it - a bunch of people turn up to a health farm and everything seems normal until the trans-gender personality turns up and the video diaries turn into rants. Then we realised that we had been duped. It wasn’t a documentary at all. It was “Reality TV”. That was it. The age of stupid had officially begun. Endemol had won.
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