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Friday, March 26, 2010

TRANSITION CENTRE: From Oil Dependence to Local Resilience by Bill Sharp


Transition Towns is underway in Centre County. A steering group of a dozen is meeting at Ahimsa to found Transition Initiatives in Bald Eagle Valley and in State College. Several other Central Pennsylvania communities are starting to move in this direction.

The goal of the Transition Towns Response is to preemptively adapt to energy scarcity, climate change and growing economic instability. Our goals are to dramatically reduce dependence upon fossil fuels, develop strong local communities, promote our capacity to meet more of our needs locally, achieving a harmony with the environment and leave a legacy of sustainable living for our descendants.

The Transition Response was started in Ireland in 2005 by permaculturalist Rob Hopkins. Rob moved to England where he developed the Transition Towns model published in his guide for forming local initiates, The Transition Handbook. Transition US was founded in December 2008 and Transition Centre in March of 2009. There are now over 265 recognized Transition Town projects (sixty-one of which are in the US) in sixteen countries and many hundreds more forming.

Three of us recently attended a weekend Transition Training and have returned home ready to support the launch of Transition Towns in central Pennsylvania. We are in the process of apply for formal Transition Iniative Status.

You will find our web site at www.transitioncentre.org

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