I think we are discovering, as we attempt to enroll communities in the transition model, or the transition process, that the U.S. is different. Our culture is different. Our history is different, our mind-set is different. Some of the aspects of transition that were created in the UK need to be adapted for here. For instance, the transition works as if was defined by Rob Hopkins and The Transition Handbook – speaks really to Peak Oil and climate change as the primary drivers. It does not mention the economic situation that we are facing.

In older, more traditional civilizations preceding our own, one finds a remarkable capacity for embracing paradox. In fact, paradox inhabited the psyches of indigenous cultures as if in their DNA, as exemplified in their art, literature, stories, and other cultural artifacts. It was not until the dawn of modernity, greatly facilitated by Rene Descartes’ dualistic perspective which became increasingly predominate in Western intellectual tradition, that either/or thinking triumphed.

Seattle hopes to become the world’s first climate-neutral city. It’s no small task: The City must account for, and reduce, the carbon footprint of everything from transportation to trash for hundreds of thousands of people. City Council President and YES! Magazine board member Richard Conlin is blogging about the city’s efforts. The climate is already changing and will keep changing—no matter how rapidly we are able to turn around greenhouse gas accumulation. So we will need a strategy for adapting to the expected impacts (which were reviewed in the previous post). Here is what Seattle is doing.

This isn’t a future you can, or should, face alone. If we are prepared for a transition, we will be in much better shape than if we simply hope life will somehow return to normal. If we have our “core group,” we can face changes with less fear and more sense of our personal agency.