treebeard » Pioneer Valley Resiliency Group: I had an understanding intuitively…

I had an understanding intuitively of the three "E"s as we call them now back in the early 70's and had a basic understanding of our predicament sometime in the early 80's. I would call that the first wave, as a result of the oil embargo, environmental movement and the unsustainable wars of that time. There was the New Alchemy Institute out on Cape Cod, but almost everyone else was focused in the Environmental movement, which was more of a resistance, rather a positive alternative movement. John Todd (New Alchemy) is still doing great work.

I wrote an article in the school paper in architectural graduate school about the New Alchemy institute and most of the reaction was "what is this about, you must be one of those crazy environmentalists." This was back in '82. When you google John Todd's name now you get all this crazy stuff, new age satanist, under cover agent for the illuminati and new world order. This is not 5 pages back in the listings, this is more than half the hits on the first page. Here is a guy who is a biologist and engaged in scientific work his whole life on how to treat waste with biological systems, and how to create restorative ecological systems.

I was following Chris putting his chapters out and thinking how great his work was in building a coherent comprehensive picture in one place that people could look to rather then having to read multiple books and web sites. He has really done an amazing job of publicizing the issues and getting the word out.

The Transition Movement has being going on in Litchfield for a little over a year. I have been involved for about 6 months. It was going for a while before I found out about it. I did the transition training in Vermont a few years back, and we did it again in Litchfield this year. We had Tina Clarke come down and do the Transition Training for us, she is an amazing person and did a great job.

We do have a monthly film series that we put on that shows films related to the three E's at the Litchfield community center. The rest of the members of the transition initiating committee are reticent about showing films that deal directly with peak oil and global warming, so we are mostly showing films about community building, farming and alternative energy. They are generally afraid of a negative back lash in town. Attendance is has been pretty good but not great. Anybody in the area, we would love to have you drop in. The evening is free and food is served.

Sorry for the long preamble, but sometimes I feel like my life has been a bad episode of the twilight zone. Hear we are, 30 years into this thing, the roots go back farther than that, and the local transition movement in town is still afraid to address the main issues head on that are staring us in the face. All this sometimes feels like a day late and a dollar short. But hey, any step in the right direction is a good one. I can certainly relate to your feeling about there not being to much awareness of the three E's around.

One thing that is a little disturbing about people involved in the transition movement is that they tend to get a little xenophobic. None of this is coming from Rob Hopkins obviously, I think it just comes from the fear that comes up when people start to understand the magnitude of the issues facing us. I think that is great that Chris changed the name of the site to peak prosperity, great move.

How do we get away form this me vs. you, my town vs your town, my state vs your state, etc.?