Totnes is the first UK town preparing for the time when oil production has peaked and energy from fossil fuels is in short supply. Rob Hopkins, the man behind Transition Town Totnes, believes that we are on the threshold of peak oil. After that, each citizen of the planet will have to manage, assuming equal distribution, with a fossil fuel ration which diminishes by three per cent every year.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />

‘A town that uses much less energy and resources than we currently consume could, if it was properly planned for and properly designed, be more resilient, more abundant and more pleasurable than it is at present,’ Rob Hopkins says.

The question we must ask is, how can we get from where we are now ñ an oil dependent economy with very little food security, to a more resilient, local and self-reliant food economy? Over the coming months, an Energy Descent Action Plan will be drawn up that creates this vision of an abundant, low-energy future.

The idea is to pull together a time-table for moving away from dependence on oil. Anyone can get involved and already subgroups have started on Energy, Health, Food, the Arts, Economics, Livelihoods, Local Government and the Psychology of Change. Next up is the launch of the Totnes Pound, that will be accepted as valid currency within Transition Town Totnes and by a number of local shops.

Eight towns and one city, Bristol, have joined the Network of Transition Towns, with more enquiries coming in all the time. All are planning for a new reality.

As American visionary, Buckminster Fuller, said years ago: ‘You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.’

Contact: Rob Hopkins, Transition

Town Totnes, tel: +44 (0)1803 866866

Email: robjhopkins@​gmail.​com

Website: www​.transitiontowns​.org

High Street, Totnes

Photo: © Transition Town Totnes