We’re in for enormous disruption,
no matter what.
The question is how we deal with it
and ameliorate its worst effects. 
  David Korten, author and economist

We live in a time of transition – movement into the Ecozoic Era, as Thomas Berry has called it. Signs are increasingly apparent: Peak oil, climate unpredictability, and ecological and economic instability. How are we to live into such a moment with intention and hope? How can we act on our commitment to life and the common good?

Out of Kinsale, Ireland, come fresh possibilities. Five years ago, permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins challenged his students with this question: How might we plan for moving from oil dependence to local resilience and community self-reliance? Kinsale town leaders ultimately adopted the students’ Energy Descent Plan, and since 2006, with Rob’s leadership, a community-based process for any locality to create such a plan has been spreading around the world. Over 250 officially designated Transition Initiatives now exist around the world – Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK among others. The first in North America was designated in 2008 in Colorado – Transition Boulder County, which is now Transition Colorado, a regional hub. As of fall 2010 there are 75 official Transition Initiatives in the U.S.

Co-founder of Transition Boulder County/Colorado Michael Brownlee says the Transition movement is a "significant and highly inspirational world-wide movement." Theologian and professor Timothy Gorringe from the U.K. affirmed this view last year in New York City, stating that “The Transition movement is the most hopeful and practical possibility” he sees. It “puts faith in ordinary people,” he said. “It’s about people shaping their world through conversation and action. Things happen without the local government doing anything. It’s a profound and tremendously hopeful reinvention of democracy.”

The Transition movement makes “no claim to have all the answers,” states Lynette Marie Hanthorn, also a co-founder of Transition Boulder County, “but by building on the wisdom of the past and accessing the pool of ingenuity, skills, and determination in our communities, the next steps can readily emerge.”

Friends of Genesis Farm have been doing the work of transition for the last quarter century, so in collaboration with other organizations in our bioregion, we take a next step on the journey by connecting to this growing world-wide grassroots movement.

For more on Transition, visit the following key websites:  
www.transitionus.org
www.transitionnetwork.org
www.transitionculture.org 
www.transition-times.com.

Programs will be posted soon.