‘The Impact of Transition. In numbers’ – a note of caution

‘The Impact of Transition. In numbers’ – a note of caution

by | May 19, 2014 | All Posts, Cultural stories, Economics, Philosophy, Transition Movement

This post was originally written by me as a guest post for Rob Hopkins’ Transition Culture blog, but I have kindly given myself permission to reproduce it here ?

A response to a recent post by Rob Hopkins ‘The impact of Transition. In numbers.’.

Transition is a wonderful melange of conversations, projects, interactions, inspirations, hard work, failures, successes and entirely unexpected events which we are altogether unsure what to make of! Transition initiatives themselves are as unique as the people who make them up. Initially termed ‘Transition Towns’, they have twisted and squirmed out from under that label like squealing children from under a favourite uncle, becoming Transition Islands, Sustainable Villages, Cities in Transition and all the rest.

TEQs (downstream) or Cap and Dividend (upstream)?

TEQs (downstream) or Cap and Dividend (upstream)?

by | Jun 8, 2008 | All Posts, Climate Change, Cultural stories, Favourite posts, Peak Oil, Politics, TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas)

In the climate policy community there is a growing debate between advocates of ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ carbon caps (dams?). The terms draw an analogy between the flow of water in a stream and the flow of energy through an economy. ‘Upstream’ advocates want to regulate the few dozen fuel and energy companies that bring carbon into the economy, arguing that this is cheaper and simpler than addressing the behaviour of tens of millions of ‘downstream’ consumers.

At first glance this seems a convincing argument, but there is one important regard in which an upstream scheme fails — it does not engage the general populace in the changes required.