Rob Hopkins' The Transition Handbook is available for sale online, or locally, at The Sacred Circle.

Funny to finally be tackling the question, What is Transition? after having been a part of this worldwide movement since last December, officially so since Transition Staunton Augusta became the 61st US group this past March.

In part because much of the work we do is self-evident in its intent, and covered in our About Us page, we did not feel a pressing need to remark on the more sweeping historic factors driving the imperatives behind the transition movement.

But consistently being a part of this movement, researching more and more, getting involved and talking to others both locally and in the online community, has now compelled us to address those factors in helping our own community learn more about why we’re doing this, and why we’re doing this now.

The Transition Movement, begun by a permaculture teacher, Rob Hopkins, who is also a writer and profoundly gifted community organizer, takes as its starting point a response to the energy crisis known as “peak oil“.

Essentially a technical term, peak oil refers to the highest point on the bell curve of oil extraction, meaning that point when we’re pumping more of the stuff out of the ground than we ever will again. Peak oil happens not only in individual wells, when the max output occurs and then the rest of the well basically empties out, but also in individual oil fields, when the max comes out of the whole field and then supply goes downhill from there. Similarly this occurs in whole regions, say the United States for example, which, in spite of what the Sarah Palins and Rush Limbaughs of the world would have you believe,  hit the peak of its production in the 1970s. Peak oil also refers to worldwide peak oil–that point when we’re pumping the most out that we possibly can on a global scale, and then after that, we’re on the downward resource slope, never again able to get as much oil out as we once did. Oil is a finite, nonrenewable resource after all. You can’t pump the same well twice.

Add to this peak an increasing worldwide competition for oil due to its nearly magical exponential power output, and we have the twin problems of increasing demand and decreasing supply. Oil is so “magical” in fact, that, however much we must embrace clean energy, nothing green will ever take the place of oil.

That’s the short story of peak oil on what is already becoming too long of a post. You can read more about it in books such as Richard Heinburg’s The Party’s Over and Peak Everything, James Howard Kustler’s The Long Emergency, and John Michael Greer’s The Long Descent, to name a few of my favorites (and the most readable).

Suffice it to say that while peak oil is an undeniable geologic fact its not a topic that government and “leaders” have the stomach for, particularly as they remain beholden to business interests rather than exhibiting the vision and action necessary for the long term arc of success in the broader economic organization of societies. Similarly, the main stream media has better things to talk about, such as Lindsay Lohan’s recent court-ordered  jail time, the merits of Lady Gaga, and LeBron James’ relocation choices.

In the end, the Transition movement is about people who aren’t waiting for government to step up to the plate, for business to “self-correct” in response to market imperatives, or for broadcast media to get the word out about a coming shift in society’s most basic common resource denominator–energy–and the way this affects EVERY aspect of how we live and how we will live going forward.

The Transition movement offers one response to the crisis of peak oil, and is among the most positive responses in that its key feature rests on the involvement of ordinary citizens to strengthen their communities through shared ideas, plans, and actions that relocalize their areas for resilience. By that I mean to address local economy, food, production and manufacturing, transportation issues, water quality and many other of the infrastructural elements undergirding localities. The model could in fact broaden to include states, regions, countries, and the globe, but for now its defining feature is the local nature of the project as expressed in citizen groups throughout the world.

Hopkins built a model for nurturing and developing local involvement, and his founding group, Transition Town Totnes, released a comprehensive Energy Descent Plan governing their local infrastructure that could be a model for localities worldwide. It is our aim to engage the Staunton-Augusta community to produce one for our area. An energy descent plan is considered necessary to transition groups because resource depletion requires a cogent response. If we’re used to living one way, utterly dependent on a fuel source, a sole crop, or any other central infrastructural feature, its absence requires that we adapt to a new reality and craft a workable response so that we can preserve life and social stability.

There’s ten million other things that can be said about peak oil and the Transition Town response model, but this is just one blog entry designed to deepen the conversation at the local level and broaden transition outreach where we can.

One thing worth addressing is the sense of looming catastrophe and social collapse that some in the peak oil movement believe is immanent. That view is not one taken by the Transition movement, which looks to respond with positive local solutions to the predicament of peak oil.

There is no getting around, however, that a permanent decline in a finite resource suggests that the paradigm under which industrial society has developed stands to change. At Transition Staunton Augusta, we’re not in the crystal ball business. Although the transition model engages with scenario planning, looking at a variety of responses and their degree of effectiveness, it does not purport to entirely know the future. In the face of positive planning, there may yet be (and likely will be) mini scenarios that aren’t pretty, whether in the form of disease, safety and security threats, scarcity, and perhaps worse. There are also overly optimistic responses not grounded in physical reality, such as technology saving us with its ever-renewing discoveries. This response fails to acknowledge advanced technology’s complete dependence on fossil fuels, and the role of fossil fuels in the deployment of vast new infrastructure for a giant global population.

In our group we aim to take the middle way approach, planning for the best, preparing for the worst. This is a must do in response to an entire shift of the economic and energy paradigm as we know it today. And while this may take a century or more to fully play out, precipitating events along that trajectory suggest that we can’t wait to begin planning the response. If we look at how vast our given infrastructure is now, in its current state, it does not take much intelligence or insight to recognize that a comprehensive response will take time–the idea that things shift on a dime is a foolish approach.

I hope this small primer helps folks in the Staunton Augusta area (and others reading this online) to begin to think about the pervasive quality of energy in our lives, and the essentially hidden aspect of its role in how we live now, and how we are likely to live going forward. I view this as an opportunity, not only for humanity but frankly, for business.

In my view peak oil is the most serious crisis modern civilization has ever faced, the extent of which will touch all of our lives and, even more, the lives of our descendents. I take the transition to the next paradigm as a moral imperative calling us to engage as stewards, responsible, caring, and committed to the best that can be realized in our human relationships as social creatures at a specific time in history. This is what Transition is about, building the resilience that allows us to advance humanity in a manner that goes beyond current views of progress, and into the unknown, with open hearts and minds, willing hands, individual initiative, and community strength. I hope you’ll join us on this journey.

Joel Salatin holds one of his hens while talking about Polyface Farms.

Hardworking local farmer (and international farming superstar extraordinaire), Joel Salatin, of Polyface Farms, is the confirmed speaker for Transition Staunton Augusta’s first ever Locavore Fest this Labor Day weekend.

Salatin, whose farm and farming methods were profiled in Michael Pollan’s groundbreaking work, The Omnivore’s Dillema, a book that addresses food production and consumption sustainability, was also featured for his farming methods in the documentary films Food, Inc. and Fresh! An author himself, Salatin’s books include Holy Cows & Hog Heaven, and Everything I Want to do Is Illegal, among others.

In a generous show of support for Transition Staunton Augusta’s mission, Salatin waived his customary speaking and expenses fee and is donating all ticket sales to Transition Staunton Augusta. The event happens Saturday, September 4, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. at the new Shenanarts space in the newly renovated Gypsy Hill Place. Shenanarts also generously donated the space for this event, making it possible for all proceeds from the event to benefit Transition Staunton Augusta.

Tickets are $18 for general admission, $15 for students and seniors, $8 for children 6-12. Ticket sales outlets will be announced soon–please watch this blog for details (subscribe via RSS feed) or sign up to be on our mailing list.

Locavore Fest will also include special menus at downtown restaurants in celebration of the Locavore theme.

Anne Armentrout in front of her art work for Transition Staunton Augusta.

Congratulation to Anne Armentrout, the artist referenced in an earlier blog post, for her 3rd place win in the Staunton Downtown Development Association’s Filling the Half-Empty Glass: A Storefront Art Initiative with her piece, In Your Hands, Triptych to the Third Power, Plus.

Armentrout worked in collaboration with Transition Staunton Augusta to create her triptych collage which she has since donated to TSA for use at events, festivals, and conferences. Thank you Anne for all you hard work and for the terrific artistic interpretation of the issues behind the Transition movement.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

I hope our infamous Attorney General Ken “The Cooch” Cuccinelli doesn’t get any craz(ier) ideas from today’s blog title. I’m not referencing immigration law in comparing Virginia to Arizona, nor do I want the Old Dominion to sink into that negative canyon of thought.

No, it’s all about the heat.

It’s blisteringly hot in Virginia right now, with nary a raindrop in sight. And, where we normally have withering humidity that we, admittedly, complain about constantly, without it, we are not getting those daily sub-tropical late afternoon thunderstorms that cool the evenings and make life bearable.

Did Elijah come to town? Is this a harbinger of things to come? Will it stay this way until we stop worshiping the Baal of oil and the almighty freakin’ dollar? Or can we just blame it on global warming, cuz this ain’t no Virginia weather I know.

That got me to thinking. I wonder what kind of dwelling Senator James Inhofe would build now? Back when the champion of the anti-global warming movement built Al Gore a new igloo home from the bounty of a D.C. snow storm (and bragged about it on his Facebook page) I bet he sure wasn’t thinking much about how, you know, it snows in winter and its, uh, hot in summer.

Well, in what amounts to an adult version of “I know you are but what am I,” I’d like to build, at least in the recesses of my mind, a hut for Inhofe out of the increasingly dry and cracked Virginia soil. He can throw snowballs at me, and I’ll pelt him with clods of earth. Of course, violence doesn’t solve problems, but, it still sounds like fun. Except the building it part, particularly in this unforgiving nuclear heat.

Did I mention how how it is?

I tried my best to do something about it. In the past I’ve noticed that whenever I plant something, it rains later that day. I attributed this to some supernatural powers on my part, like a subtle flapping-of-butterfly-wings relationship to the cosmos type thing. So, this morning I finally planted the four remaining sunflowers left over from Transition Staunton Augusta’s Earth Day project where we gave away 250 sunflower plants.

Needless to say, today’s planting yielded no rain. The day remains horrifically hot and I’ve had to confront the unpalatable notion that my ability to control the weather may not, in fact, be real.

You know, I have a degree in dance and choreography and I would go outside RIGHT NOW and do a rain dance in the middle of the street if it wasn’t so damned hot!

But seriously folks, there’s not a lot that a layperson like myself can say about global warming. But I do know a hot day when I melt under one, and after about 15 in a row (save the minor respite late last week), the region appears increasingly grim. From here to Harrisonburg, all the farmer’s fields look baked to a crusty brown. Normally lush Virginia trees sport nearly lifeless, wilted leaves, shriveling in on themselves. While temperature in and of itself is not a global warming indicator, and daily weather is not to be evaluated through the global warming lens, drought is one of its features. If this is a preview, I don’t want to see the real show.

I’m afraid. I’m afraid of peak oil and afraid of global warming and afraid of my society for not paying attention, or enough attention, or the right kind of attention. I’m afraid when instead of dealing with the most serious matters of our time, we engage with gross distractions, reward cheaters, and enact halfway measures. I’m afraid that we’re not boldly taking on these life and death matters with nothing short of a war footing and committing to a comprehensive plan of action with meaningful, measureable results that would change for the better the way every single one of us live and do business.

If I’m afraid and yet still willing to deal with the problem, I think its a safe bet that America is ready now, too. Run the matchbook campaign, Obama. Run the matchbook administration. Begin the peak oil conversation, and put the global warming tussle to bed. Break out the bully pulpit and start kicking ass and taking names. The time for debate is over.

Please, God, let it rain.

A clarion call, time to wake up.

In passing glances the occasional journalist points in the direction of us all, suggesting that it is not just rogue oil companies, in-bed government agencies, or an administration on auto-pilot who are responsible for the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. They suggest, perhaps a bit sheepishly, that two other culprits may be to blame here. Those two being you, and me.

But they don’t push it. It’s not part of the marketing plan.

Instead, we get finger pointing, show trials with execs taken to the C-Span woodshed, ritual firings, new policy proposals, and anger at the administration for lacking both a crystal ball and a magic wand. Deserved perhaps, but…

In what amounts to a recapitulation of President George W. Bush’s post 9-11, “…just go shopping” advice, in the wake of the Gulf Gusher, we citizens and consumers are not once asked about our role or our culpability in the economic, environmental, and resource fiasco that the oil economy has become. Instead, we’ve got our regular cast of characters, evil but necessary, to glower over while they continue to run the diabolical show. Didn’t we just play the passive chorus when the great bank heist of 2009 was perpetrated in plain sight and then we handed the thieves a second bag of cash?

Wake up time, kids.

With fossil fuels on the decline, vanishing jobs, a stacked house for a financial system, an economy deep in the toilet, and leadership unwilling to speak the hard truths of our times, its no surprise that we should assume the Durkheimian position of tribalism. “If only they hadn’t done this to us, those corporate types, those greasy politicians.”

My advice? Its a little bit of performance art I like to call Narcissus, Awake! Broadcast one hour with just a mirror on the screen of every channel on TV, of every Internet site in all the world. Gather pals, and gaze.

Until we consumers and citizens share the blame for a resource gambit so dangerous, ultimately useless, and finally catastrophic, the conversation won’t move an inch.

Until we begin participating, really participating, beyond updates on our own Facebook pages and groundbreaking tweets that we imagine will form the final connective tissue of the whole matrix of change, but really, really, really getting engaged with it all, breaking into self consciousness in a way that transcends our imagined impotency and takes on our historical moment, we will again and again simply play the victim and finger point in response, getting nowhere fast with increasing asthma and widening lard asses.

This is just the beginning, the Gulf spew nothing but a clarion call. No executive, no elected official, no government policy, no war, and no new technology will stop the inverse gusher coming our way in the form of fossil fuel decline, the potential disaster of which could make the Gulf crises look like nothing more than a big swimming pool with suntan lotion BUILT RIGHT IN!

Wakey, wakey folks. No one is doing this to you, or at least, not without your consent. It may be learned behavior, but at some point it comes down to you…and me. The first step is admitting you have a problem. I’ll take the lead here.

My name is Lindsay Curren and I am addicted to oil. Its running out and I don’t know what to do. I just know I can’t do nothing and I can’t live like I have. I have to take responsibility for myself and my family. I have to do something. I won’t live with the lies anymore. I wont stop until we are all talking honestly about peak oil and what it means for today and for the future of our country. I am powerful to change this thing, and with truth on my side, I will.

You?

Anne Armentrout in front of her art work for Transition Staunton Augusta.

Today we installed phase one of Transition Staunton Augusta’s contribution to the Staunton Downtown Development Association‘s Filling the Half-Empty Glass storefront art initiative. Part of the Virginia Commission for the Arts’ “Minds Wide Open: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts” project, the empty storefront initiative helps to make local organizations and their missions more accessible to the public, both locals and tourists, during the summer months.

The first of our two artists, Anne Armentrout, installed her Triptych to the Third Power, Plus, in the “fishbowl window” at 107 West Beverley Street, the space directly next to Minuteman Copies. In conceptual collaboration with Transition Staunton Augusta, Armentrout devised three panels, each a triptych, depicting the three pillars of the TSA mission: Clean Energy, Local Food, and Rail.

Calling this a project that required entirely new research on her part, Armentrout pulled off an amazingly rich and complex collage depiction of our mission in record time. Just three weeks from initial discussion to finished piece, Armentrout came up with a design that exhibits the heart of our local mission–a relationship with our immediate community–with the broader aims of the transition movement–to effectively move localities off of the the fossil fuel economy while downshifting in a way that makes economic and socio-cultural sense.

In a final nod to our unique place in the transition movment, Armentrout added one more triptych, effectively making the piece a quadrupletych, (though I like calling it a Triple Triptych to the Third Power, Plus.) That little triptych, set at the very front of the piece, depicts Staunton’s humble yet gracious train station as a place for growth in a world that is within our hands. We are the force for change, should we choose to take up the challenge as a community.

Will we?

Please share your thoughts on the Eyes Wide Open project by posting in here, or sending us a message on the contact us page.

Photo: catchesthelight from Flickr via Creative Commons.

Welcome to Transition Staunton Augusta, a citizens’ group to help the city of Staunton and its surrounding area in Augusta County, Virginia, move beyond fossil fuels.

As the world runs out of cheap oil, we will need to make other arrangements.

In the new economy, globalization and massive scale are out and re-localization and human scale are in.

To get there, we will face huge challenges. But there will also be fantastic opportunities for those who are prepared.

In this economy, small cities and their surrounding rural areas can again prosper.

Local food, local manufacturing, and local services offer opportunities for entrepreneurs, good jobs for our families, and a high quality of life in our revitalized communities.

A century ago, Staunton and its surrounding area thrived in a world that used a fraction of today’s energy.

We can look toward that past to inspire us — as we bring the best of modern technology to bear on creating a new economy that is built to last.