SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Transitioners: Leading the Way to a Smarter Future
People living in "transition" cities and towns are working together to make their communities more resilient to economic and environmental uncertainty.
Sep 27, 2010
Moments of crisis offer two options: You can respond out of fear by hunkering down, arming yourself, and planning to shoot anyone that comes near your end-of-days outpost. Or you can embrace a smarter option by banding together and taking creative action toward a positive transition.
As our nation grapples with chronic unemployment and the growing negative effects of climate change, the good news is that the transition approach is taking off in more and more places. People living in cities and heartland towns are starting to work together, to make their communities more resilient to economic and environmental uncertainty by moving to end their oil addiction.
There's a growing network of neighborhoods, cities, and states exchanging methods for weathering economic, energy, and climate shocks--and creating a better quality of life in the process.
Much of the transition movement is about "re-skilling," or gaining expertise in areas that help families and communities meet more of their own needs. For example in Anderson, Ohio, locally organized workshops teach everything from how to raise chickens in your backyard to composting.
Participants have fun and strengthen relationships with their neighbors as they learn these skills. Community garden plots offer a way to not only eat healthier and potentially shrink food expenses, but also to reduce your carbon footprint, since you're not buying lettuce shipped across the country. Learn how to pickle cucumbers from a neighbor and you'll help save the planet at the same time.
These initiatives are also about building collective power. Employees of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry in Cleveland, for example, are taking business into their own hands. With the support of Kent State University and other local institutions, the facility's 50 workers have turned the laundry into a cooperative that will be Northeast Ohio's greenest commercial-scale laundry and provide its worker-owners with fair wages.
And building local power also means engaging locally elected officials and state governments. To help shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources on a community-wide scale, Sustainable Tucson has assembled information on relevant local government offices. Together, stakeholders have developed concrete plans for a sustainable future, in everything from food and water to cultural expression and green building.
Similarly, the residents of Keene, New Hampshire recognized the impacts of climate change on their city--and did something about it. Keene has added an adaptation and climate resiliency action plan to its existing program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent from 1995 levels by 2015.
Americans are coming together to prepare for the inevitable changes in the coming century with imagination. It's time that the federal government did the same. President Barack Obama has many opportunities to shape the transition in a positive way.
The United States should join together with other nations that are investing in renewable energy, protecting forests and rolling out low-carbon technology to slow climate change. Obama should also support proposals endorsed by several European governments to ensure that the worldwide costs of this economic transition are paid for equitably, including through a tax on Wall Street speculation.
Coming together as a global community to face the transition needed to survive climate change also simply offers a better way to live--one that's more peaceful and fair.
When Obama meets with other world leaders at the end of this year, he should push hard for a global deal to combat climate change. And afterwards, wouldn't it just be nice if he invited them all to the White House dining room to share canned tomatoes from the First Lady's garden?
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Janet Redman
Janet Redman is the director of Greenpeace USA's climate campaign, where she sets the strategic direction of the organization's work to end the era of fossil fuels and create a more equitable future. She also serves as an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Follow her on Twitter: @JanetRedman_DC
Moments of crisis offer two options: You can respond out of fear by hunkering down, arming yourself, and planning to shoot anyone that comes near your end-of-days outpost. Or you can embrace a smarter option by banding together and taking creative action toward a positive transition.
As our nation grapples with chronic unemployment and the growing negative effects of climate change, the good news is that the transition approach is taking off in more and more places. People living in cities and heartland towns are starting to work together, to make their communities more resilient to economic and environmental uncertainty by moving to end their oil addiction.
There's a growing network of neighborhoods, cities, and states exchanging methods for weathering economic, energy, and climate shocks--and creating a better quality of life in the process.
Much of the transition movement is about "re-skilling," or gaining expertise in areas that help families and communities meet more of their own needs. For example in Anderson, Ohio, locally organized workshops teach everything from how to raise chickens in your backyard to composting.
Participants have fun and strengthen relationships with their neighbors as they learn these skills. Community garden plots offer a way to not only eat healthier and potentially shrink food expenses, but also to reduce your carbon footprint, since you're not buying lettuce shipped across the country. Learn how to pickle cucumbers from a neighbor and you'll help save the planet at the same time.
These initiatives are also about building collective power. Employees of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry in Cleveland, for example, are taking business into their own hands. With the support of Kent State University and other local institutions, the facility's 50 workers have turned the laundry into a cooperative that will be Northeast Ohio's greenest commercial-scale laundry and provide its worker-owners with fair wages.
And building local power also means engaging locally elected officials and state governments. To help shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources on a community-wide scale, Sustainable Tucson has assembled information on relevant local government offices. Together, stakeholders have developed concrete plans for a sustainable future, in everything from food and water to cultural expression and green building.
Similarly, the residents of Keene, New Hampshire recognized the impacts of climate change on their city--and did something about it. Keene has added an adaptation and climate resiliency action plan to its existing program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent from 1995 levels by 2015.
Americans are coming together to prepare for the inevitable changes in the coming century with imagination. It's time that the federal government did the same. President Barack Obama has many opportunities to shape the transition in a positive way.
The United States should join together with other nations that are investing in renewable energy, protecting forests and rolling out low-carbon technology to slow climate change. Obama should also support proposals endorsed by several European governments to ensure that the worldwide costs of this economic transition are paid for equitably, including through a tax on Wall Street speculation.
Coming together as a global community to face the transition needed to survive climate change also simply offers a better way to live--one that's more peaceful and fair.
When Obama meets with other world leaders at the end of this year, he should push hard for a global deal to combat climate change. And afterwards, wouldn't it just be nice if he invited them all to the White House dining room to share canned tomatoes from the First Lady's garden?
Janet Redman
Janet Redman is the director of Greenpeace USA's climate campaign, where she sets the strategic direction of the organization's work to end the era of fossil fuels and create a more equitable future. She also serves as an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. Follow her on Twitter: @JanetRedman_DC
Moments of crisis offer two options: You can respond out of fear by hunkering down, arming yourself, and planning to shoot anyone that comes near your end-of-days outpost. Or you can embrace a smarter option by banding together and taking creative action toward a positive transition.
As our nation grapples with chronic unemployment and the growing negative effects of climate change, the good news is that the transition approach is taking off in more and more places. People living in cities and heartland towns are starting to work together, to make their communities more resilient to economic and environmental uncertainty by moving to end their oil addiction.
There's a growing network of neighborhoods, cities, and states exchanging methods for weathering economic, energy, and climate shocks--and creating a better quality of life in the process.
Much of the transition movement is about "re-skilling," or gaining expertise in areas that help families and communities meet more of their own needs. For example in Anderson, Ohio, locally organized workshops teach everything from how to raise chickens in your backyard to composting.
Participants have fun and strengthen relationships with their neighbors as they learn these skills. Community garden plots offer a way to not only eat healthier and potentially shrink food expenses, but also to reduce your carbon footprint, since you're not buying lettuce shipped across the country. Learn how to pickle cucumbers from a neighbor and you'll help save the planet at the same time.
These initiatives are also about building collective power. Employees of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry in Cleveland, for example, are taking business into their own hands. With the support of Kent State University and other local institutions, the facility's 50 workers have turned the laundry into a cooperative that will be Northeast Ohio's greenest commercial-scale laundry and provide its worker-owners with fair wages.
And building local power also means engaging locally elected officials and state governments. To help shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources on a community-wide scale, Sustainable Tucson has assembled information on relevant local government offices. Together, stakeholders have developed concrete plans for a sustainable future, in everything from food and water to cultural expression and green building.
Similarly, the residents of Keene, New Hampshire recognized the impacts of climate change on their city--and did something about it. Keene has added an adaptation and climate resiliency action plan to its existing program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent from 1995 levels by 2015.
Americans are coming together to prepare for the inevitable changes in the coming century with imagination. It's time that the federal government did the same. President Barack Obama has many opportunities to shape the transition in a positive way.
The United States should join together with other nations that are investing in renewable energy, protecting forests and rolling out low-carbon technology to slow climate change. Obama should also support proposals endorsed by several European governments to ensure that the worldwide costs of this economic transition are paid for equitably, including through a tax on Wall Street speculation.
Coming together as a global community to face the transition needed to survive climate change also simply offers a better way to live--one that's more peaceful and fair.
When Obama meets with other world leaders at the end of this year, he should push hard for a global deal to combat climate change. And afterwards, wouldn't it just be nice if he invited them all to the White House dining room to share canned tomatoes from the First Lady's garden?
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.