Transition Brighton and Hove

Before writing an article for brightonactivist.net, I felt compelled to look for the definition of ‘activism’ in Wikipedia, because I wasn’t entirely sure if Transition Brighton and Hove fell into this category. I tend to think of activism as things such as marches, publicity stunts, and lobbying the government. The Transition movement might get involved in things of this nature, but they’re certainly not our main focus, and even less the reason we are pulling our efforts together.

But in the third paragraph of Wikipedia I find a reassuring sentence: “In some cases, activism has nothing to do with protest or confrontation: for instance, some religious, feminist or vegetarian/vegan activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than persuade governments to change laws.” That’s good news; we are definitely activists of this type.

So, what is it that we would like to change? Ideally, we would change the composition of the atmosphere so that climate change wouldn’t happen, and discover a new plentiful renewable energy source that was also practically free so that we don’t need to worry about the depletion of oil, gas, or any type of fossil fuel. Considering that neither of these things seems very likely in the foreseeable future, we will settle for second or third best.

Some people believe the solution to climate change and peak oil production lies in governments passing new laws. That may very well be true, but democratic governments won’t pass new laws that don’t have great support among the public, and so far they have found it easier to deal with the problems of oil depletion by fighting wars in oil-producing countries. Other people believe the solution is running for the hills and establishing a small family organic farm in the countryside. The truth is, it doesn’t matter how self-sufficient you manage to be, if the rest of your neighbourhood isn’t anywhere close. The Transition movement emerged from the conviction that the best approach is to try to make a change that is neither too big nor too small. Within each town or city, each Transition group focuses on changing only their own community. Brighton and Hove is number twenty in a constantly growing list of towns and cities in the Transition Network.

Every Transition Town or City has their own approach to the problem, but there are some general ideas that we all follow, and we help each other whenever the occasion arises. Firstly, we aim to educate the public about the current energy situation in the world, the UK, and our specific location. At the same time, we inform people about local solutions, both at individual level, for businesses and other organizations, and establish ties with the local Council. We try to have a long view in our approach. The aim is to work out where ideally our city would be in twenty years time, if it became as sustainable as we realistically can hope for, and from that idea, write the steps we need to follow to get there. The plan is usually called an Energy Descent Action Plan, because we expect that one thing we will necessarily have to do is use less energy. This doesn’t mean reducing our quality of life; currently we are wasting energy in many unnecessary ways.

Transition Brighton and Hove began very recently: the initial meeting was last July, and we became officially part of the Transition Network in August. But we are proud to say we think we are definitely on the right track. We have a coordinating hub that helps organize our activities, and we have arranged several events to raise awareness of the problems and the solutions around our energy future. We launched a website you can visit at www.transitionbrightonandhove.org.uk. We have a logo, fliers, and are screening relevant documentaries in several venues.

We have also set up several Transition Interest Groups around particular subjects (transport, energy, food, waste & recycling, etc.), that hold their own meetings and set up their own area-specific projects. Very soon we expect to set up Neighbourhood Groups as well, that will concentrate their efforts in local areas within Brighton.

And of course, we are very aware that we are not alone in our efforts. We know Brighton and Hove is one of the greenest cities in the country, and there are many groups and organizations whose aims overlap ours. We have been establishing contact with quite a few of them and there have been some fruitful collaborations, and we want to continue in this vein. If you are a member of any organization (or business) that is trying to promote sustainability in Brighton, please get in touch! We need to work together to create in every resident the vision of a future Brighton that is sustainable, energy efficient and still “the place to be”.

And if you are not a member of any such organization, please get in touch as well. We need the help of every single Brightonian to make this happen.

The next general meeting of Transition Brighton and Hove is on Wednesday 30 January at The Werks in Hove – please come along and join our activities. See the website for more details of the meeting and of all our other future events – coming up in the next few weeks will be a programme of talks and film screenings around the city.

Doly Garcia, Transition Brighton and Hove.