Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of oil from other world areas meant that its impact on disrupting growth in America
was limited. However when applied to a situation of growing world demand for oil,
given finite supplies and world population growth, the prediction was for a peak of
production, followed by declining oil supplies and higher prices, which will mean
that in the long run many of our systems will not be able to operate or will be re-
duced because of increasing costs of this vital raw material (Herold
2012
). Indeed
the supply of most of the goods we consume in retail outlets or in production units
depend upon on long distant inputs with fragile, often 'just in time' globalised sup-
ply chains—whether of food, energy, or other goods. These inputs are easily subject
to disruption, since they depend upon an oil-based economy for the creation and
delivery of these goods. The higher degree of urban self-sufficiency in the past has
gone, along with the complex local rural economy that supported so many towns in
agricultural areas.
The fear of these impending disruptions have led many to believe that it was time
to start the transition to a new and more sustainable future, one which especially en-
courages the reduction of oil-based energy use and the re-building of more localised
life-styles and economies. Adherents to this cause maintain that action is urgently
needed because of four Transition Town imperatives.
First, they believe in
local action
, for towns cannot rely on governments to initi-
ate the necessary changes to counteract future oil or climate shocks by top-down ac-
tion. Certainly they accept that government policy will help mitigate many of these
effects, such as by reducing pollution or encouraging energy-saving and alternative
energy sources, But it is argued that the actions of governments have been too lim-
ited in these vital areas, and will be unable to transform lifestyles and economies
quickly enough to create meaningful change, at least in democratic countries,. Real
progress will only be achieved by grass-roots organisations that accept the need for
change in their settlements and find ways of modifying their community to increase
sustainability, rather than leaving everything to market forces with decisions being
made in distant places without concern over the impact on local areas. Such changes
will only occur by implementing these ideas through co-operative action and by
persuading local councils to incorporate these new ideas in their administrative and
planning processes.
A second feature of these grass-root organizations is that they should not be seen
only as creating specific policies to reduce the future shocks of oil shortage and
climate change. Their actions will also act as
community catalysts
, to re-vitalise
community relationships and interactions through their transitioning efforts, for
measures undertaken only by individuals will be too little to effect change. The
result will be the creation of a new local resilience, enabling adopting communities
to more effectively withstand the future shocks that TT advocates believe to be not
only inevitable, but imminent.
Third, adherents to the movement believe that the creation of more local link-
ages and sustainable actions will
make towns more liveable
, improving life by mak-
ing it more enjoyable, meaningful, fulfilling and ecological. This will provide an
important complement to the national and global associations we have developed
through access to contemporary forms of communication and transport, but which
have ignored local linkages.
