Thinking the change, knowing its own contradictions

Talking with a committed person and putting her face to her contradictions is a perilous act. First, one should be oneself free of bad practices. Then, it’s also a risk of hurting one way intimate a person in his pride, put it in front of contradictions, while yet according to her so many others do less. Risk of irritation, of counterproductive result, a purely counter-reaction emotional. Know your limits That’s why we have to learn …

Learning to share

The idea behind the Horizon Transition project is to carry ideas we saw and share them with other people and groups we meet. For more than a year on the roads now and always in the reflection of our first steps, I realize that knowing how to share is an knowledge just as vital as the ideas themselves. Kilometers are added to the counter, ideas accumulate, we go to places where fantastic ideas are in …

Transition handbook chapter 7-8; the power of a positive vision

If the model of transition initiatives is successful among the less militant, it is surely for its positive and concrete vision. In Chapter 7, Rob Hopkins puts forward imagining a future in which we would like to be. The exercise is simple, just let go. In which world would you like to live? Tell it and try to see what needs to change to make it happen. This is a way of doing that can …

A trivial act at the Wall Nut National Monument

The Walnut National Monument is located in the state of Arizona, in the middle of the desert, near the town of Flasgstaff. Archaeologists estimate about 300 dwellings, the peoples would have settled after a volcanic eruption around 1100 untill 1250. The time period inhabited is relatively short, we imagine that this place was seen as a transition site in order to move towards land easier to farm. A 1.6-kilometer course that sinks 90 meters from …

nomad or sedentary, a little thought about travelling

We start with a first kilometer and then we never stop, we learn to like changes, a life without obligation, a life to live it. The human being has evolved by becoming sedentary, but the present society encloses it in this way of life. In order to modernize them, nomadic cultures have been forced to settle down, this way of life is not desired, look how Roms’ people are treated in Europe. Possessions, accumulation, conformity …

Transition Handbook, chapter 5-6; psychology of changement

Chapter 5 How does peak oil and climatic chaos affect us? Post-petroleum stress syndrome A small chapter to evoke common reactions that people may have when they become aware of peak oil. Here is the list he evokes: Irrational faith in unrealistic solutions, fears, impulses of nihilism or survival, denial, foolish optimism and finally accusing finger. Most of the ideas mentioned could recall the different scenarios of the future of the after peak oil seen …

Transition Handbook chapter 4: Why we need do it small

In this final chapter of what makes up the head of the introduction manual, Rob Hopkins tries to explain why in the fight against global warming it is important to resize the scale at which we operate. Relocate to become a more local society to be less dependent on fossil fuels. Although China is singled out for the pollution it emits, in 2008, half of its emissions were destined for the manufacture of goods that …

Localwashing the new marketing tool

Do you know the term “Greenwashing”? This is what is known as marketing who tries to sell you a green car or any other product with an environmental value, but which in fact does not have any. Ecology is now trendy and advertisers have understood, so brands green themselve to be more attractive. It is the mission of marketing, find what sells the products we consume. While our travel we see a lot of different …

Transition and technology : the low-tech (3/3)

When I was working for a web company, during a lunch discussion a colleague had argued that “Since there is internet we are smarter because there is no need to know everything anymore, if you want to know something just look on Google.” What he meant was it is not necessary to have the knowledge, you just have to know how to search. I’ve been a philosophy student, I could not help telling me that …