Just Down the Road

In the town of our sister University of Wales institution just down the road in Lampeter, a fascinating public meeting took place last week on the town making a transition to beyond-oil living. The Guardian reported on it in a fairly lengthy article this past weekend, and I have arranged for one of the speakers at that meeting to deliver a presentation/lecture here in Aber at the end of the month - more to follow later.

The meeting was about how Lampeter can prepare, and take the first steps towards adaptation, for a world when the oil has run out. According to some accounts, we have passed the peak oil point - where world oil production peaks, and supply is only going to gradually decrease from here. And oil does run our world - all the plastic in our lives, transport, heating, medicines and drugs, machinery. So when it does run out, we'll be in a bit of a pickle.

The organizing concept is a Transition Town where the town as a whole, and most (hopefully) of its residents begin an 'energy descent' - cutting down on oil consumption, so that when the squeeze does happen, life isn't thrown into turmoil. Everything has to begin somewhere, and Lampeter is following in the footsteps of other towns elsewhere in the UK who have already set down that road. May it prosper and serve as an inspiration to all of us.