Transition Town is concerned about how well we live our lives!

There are no hidden agendas associated with the Transition movement.  Although we are concerned about Climate Change, CO2 levels and things that impact our well being. The four major tenets of Transition are;

Conserve Energy – Conserve Water – Grow Food – Build Community

We are not affiliated with the United Nations, nor any other governmental organization, think tank or politically inspired group.

When environmental changes come, there should be a new shifting of focus on jobs associated with coal and oil to those associated with solar, wind, geothermal and innovative ways to clean our atmosphere and improve our ways of transportation to be less impactive.

Carlos Jaeger from the Potsdam Institute has along with numerous other economists and sustainability experts from Europe developed a paper called “A New Growth Path for Europe” for the European Union.  Many people think that trying to reduce emissions will result in more unemployment and impacts to the public.  This heavily researched report says differently.

The following quote comes from the Executive Summary of the report.

“Post-crisis Europe can revitalize its economy by tackling the climate challenge. Raising the European climate target from 20% to 30% emissions reductions can open the way
towards higher growth and increased employment.”

“In the coming decade, Europe will need to accept the challenge of increasing economic growth while reducing both unemployment and greenhouse gas emissions. New model results show that these three goals can actually reinforce one another.
The link to the full 154 page report is;

Click to access A_New_Growth_Path_for_Europe__Final_Report.pdf

Carlos Jaeger has recently been at the ASU School of Sustainability working with American Sustainability experts to see if his European model might fit or be adapted to our American needs to change our way of dealing with our environmental and employment concerns.

If not now, when do we deal with our changing future? Damage estimates from Hurricane Sandy are now approaching 100 Billion dollars!  Extreme weather is not a chance occurrence anymore.

Twelve Steps to Transition