Twog's Blog (32)

In the interest of keeping our online conversation as inclusive, informative, respectful, participatory and fun as possible, the TWOG and our web administrator have come up with some guidelines which we hope will be clear and helpful. The guidelines include some suggestions to make your communication as clear and effective as possible, and also a (short!) list of types of communication that we won’t tolerate. These last include obvious things like: name…

Transition Whatcom sponsors many wonderful events every month. They include co-sponsored author events at Village Books, our monthly movie night, gatherings and talks. In addition our members create and participate in many, many events.  With such a creative, diverse community, it is easy to miss out. The TWOG has decided to provide a recap each month of some of the many events that have brought us together and inspired us during the month.

Hopefully we will see you at some of the TW…

          Transition Whatcom sponsors many wonderful events every month. They include co-sponsored author events at Village Books, our monthly movie night, gatherings and talks. In addition our members create and participate in many, many events.  With such a creative, diverse community, it is easy to miss out. The TWOG has decided to provide a recap each month of some of the main events that have brought us together and inspired us during the month. 

           Please recognize that…

There is a distinction made by John Michael Greer in his writings about the difference between a “problem” and a “predicament”.  I have really enjoyed his view on this.  A problem is something that has a solution that can be solved and gotten past. A predicament is something that you have to deal with but cannot solve in the sense that you can implement something that will make it go away.  Both climate change and peak oil are predicaments for humans and not problems that can be solved. …

I have been living with some unexplained major health issues for almost two years now.  The most recent trip to the American Medical establishment for some new tests has yet to produce clarity as to what is going on.  I am starting to feel better than I have for a year and a half which is nice.  At this rate it may go away and I will never understand what was happening.  It is interesting at my age when one asks questions the answer often is well these things show up with aging.  It is a…

A New York Times article from the sunday edition today is highly relevant to the Transition Movement. Michael Kimmelman writes about parking lots and other parking spaces as holding potential for much more democratic uses than enabling consumers to find convenient access to marketplaces, and dwellings to have spaces for tenants.

This is relevant to…

After spending a number of months without passing south of Burlington a trip to eastern Washington provided me with a number of realizations. 

Communities throughout the US are making great steps towards local resiliency, food security and addressing an uncertain future.  But the intensity and innovative energy present in our corner of the north-north-west-west goes above and beyond the current standards of our nation.  Our civic leaders are pushing the envelope of green development. …

Wow we are approaching the shortest day of the year and official WINTER. I go for a walk at 6am three days a week with a friend in Whatcom Falls Park. We do not use any lights and this time of year it is sometimes a challenge to see where we are going. We refer to it as walking by brail. It is clear that we slow down some because of this and that reminds me of what the natural world is doing, slowing down and resting getting ready for another summer. It often brings up questions for me about…

          Thanksgiving is my favorite "American" holiday. It is a celebration of life, of the harvest, of the power of people coming together, of remembering. Although it wasn't a holiday until Lincoln made it one, the story it tells is powerful mythology. Early European settlers fleeing persecution in Europe, for their ideals, would have died out but for the help of local Native American communities. Thanksgiving Day commemorates their profound generosity, the neighborliness that resulted,…

As we make our way to a lower level of cheap energy use we need to find ways to increase our energy for our own personal Transitions. Daily life can sometimes drain our energy for doing the hard work of Transition- with new worries about the economy, climate change, the growing rifts in our culture (just to name a few) we can end up finding ourselves to drained to make progress on thew tasks we need to do to prepare.

I have found that making the time (and saving the energy)…

I knew when I decided to run for County Executive that I would give up most of my income making capacity to do so. I also knew from past experience running for election that it would take all of my focus and not allow me to seek consulting clients for my business. Well all that was true and so when I lost in the primary I had a wonderful opportunity to look at the last couple of years of being self employed critically and make a decision as to whether this was going to work going forward.…

The multipettaled blooms of delicate daisies,

shower us with wonder and calmness.

Richness in powerfully, and subtly scented herbs…

Here are some things I do to help with the energy descent problem:

Ride my bike, take the bus, walk, and skateboard.

Shop at thrift stores, and other second hand goods establishments.

Shop at local businesses.

Practice growing food naturally.…

    As the TWOG continues to explore ways to spark and support Transition Whatcom's efforts, we have begun a discussion about our own personal efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and prepare for climate change. The next few TWOG blog posts will be about our individual efforts, questions and dilemmas. Hopefully this will become the beginning of a community-wide discussion, which can then help inform the creation of an EDAP/ARC for neighborhoods, and eventually for our county as a…

We are getting close to having 1,000 Transition Whatcom registered members on the ning site! This is a great achievement and it means it’s time for us to become more active and visible in the community. Some of the best ways for you to help out are to:

1) Become a member of the Transition Whatcom Operating Group (TWOG)

2) Become an active leader of one of the Working groups

3) Volunteer to either help support working group activities or to help spread the word about the…

Transition Whatcom (TW) is an exciting grassroots project aimed at social change. I was one of the original organizers of the group and am the only member who transferred to the Transition Whatcom Operating Group (TWOG) last year. Since we started TW, we have inspired many people to make positive changes in their lives by looking seriously at the threats caused by climate change, peak oil, and economic instability. As time has passed, these threats continue to show up in significant…

It is difficult to stay pessimistic when the sun is out, the lettuce in our garden is growing faster than we can eat it, our dog wants to stay outside all the time because there is so much neighborhood activity to see from our front yard (mostly, I think, the cat traffic across the street), new neighbors (very nice ones) have moved in next door, our son just got married to the love of his life, etc, etc, etc.

But once in a while I will see something that makes me wonder- how…

Dreams are attractive,

the Present is decisive,

wading through the mud,

singing in the trees,

What is Transition?

What is the…

At our last TWOG meeting on Wed., we were talking about the EDAP/ARC.  Creating and implementing the "Energy Descent Action Plan" or "Actions for a Resilient Community" is at the center of the mission of Transition Whatcom.  As we reflected on what that actually meant, Paul commented that really the ARC/EDAP is a culture, the culture of the future.

This hit me like a bolt of lightning. Transition Whatcom is attempting to create a path to a culture, and all of its elements (community,…

Transition is all around us- global, local and personal. If you attended Bill McKibbons talk last month you probably, like I did, came away with a better perspective on how our local (Bellingham) Transition actions can make an impact to reduce flooding in communities across the globe. If we can keep the ‘carbon bomb’ in the ground instead of shipping it to China our local actions can make a big global difference. It’s not just about our backyard, it’s about every back yard around the…