Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
consumption in the town and its region. Although there can be many working groups
dealing with specific sectors of transitioning, space limits mean that not all can be
reviewed here. Instead the most important are discussed, namely those dealing with
energy, food and economic relationships, as well as a summary of key features in
other sectors. Although many of the policies discussed in previous chapters on sus-
tainable development can be used to achieve these goals, the TT approach attempts
to be more comprehensive, integrative and community-based by encouraging local
groups to identify and provide solutions to problems, not simply to issues of im-
mediate ecological concern, but to those that might occur, following the closure
of some local industrial plant, transport terminal, hospital or school. However the
Transition Town movement is not the only one to encourage a transitioning to local
sustainability and local resilience, so examples of related policies that have been
practiced in other centres are also included in this brief review.
7.4.1
Energy Reliance
One of the crucial sectors of concern to the Transition Town movement relates to
energy, its supply and use. So most transition towns try to produce a so-called en-
ergy descent plan, one designed to reduce the amount of energy consumed, which
will reduce demand and greenhouse gases. Holmgren's (
2009
) topic,
Future Sce-
narios,
outlines the four likely future energy alternatives and has often been used
by TT advocates. The two extremes are represented by a
Techno-Explosion
scenario
and the Collapse scenario. The former assumes a continued boom in technical prog-
ress and consumerism based on the discovery of some super new energy resources.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Collapse scenario, characterised by a rapid
societal breakdown due to a depletion in oil supplies and far higher prices which
will lead to the catastrophic decline in economic activity and the spatial linkages
that tie these activities together. It is often observed that the British lorry drivers'
strike in 2000, a protest against an increase in fuel taxes, provided a glimpse into
the way the collapse scenario would occur because of restricted fuel supplies. In 2
days the decline of deliveries to petrol stations and food to supermarkets were caus-
ing hardship because of the breakdown of the 'just-in-time' delivery systems and
the absence of any local back-ups that could provide new supplies that would give
resilience to local communities.
Holmgren also proposed two medium scenarios. The
Techno-Stability
Scenario
assumes that the rapid addition of more renewable energy sources will allow us to
carry on in a similar fashion to today, but with a gradual reduction. By contrast, the
Energy Descent
Scenario assumes a much larger reduction of energy needs because
of local reducing actions and the slowing of economic activity and population de-
cline, which will reduce the demand as well as the supply of energy.
It is argued that the first scenario is unlikely to occur because of the requisite
technologies have not been invented and will take too long to implement, while the
Techno-Stability model is limited because it assumes a massive growth in the pro-
portion of renewable energy supplies, which seems unlikely given the projections
