Scott Kowalchuk

Gerald Wheatley is on a mission to rebrand Calgary so that it’s no longer seen as the home of big oil and big SUVs, but as a hotbed of community-based enviro-activism. Sounds like a tall order, but Wheatley, a co-ordinator at the Arusha Centre for social justice, says the spirit and the drive already exist, and now there’s a way to bring it all together via something called Transition Towns.

Wheatley and other local activists see Transition Towns as a robust and revolutionary tool for creating grassroots action through an optimistic and infectious form of environmental social networking.

“It’s about creating a culture where people are starting to really get excited by progressive work — knowing the background of climate issues and fossil fuel issues, but doing some things that are pretty exciting and fun,” he says.

The Transition Towns movement started five years ago in the small town of Totnes, England, and has expanded worldwide to include 278 towns and cities in 13 countries. The goal is to deal with two fundamental challenges: climate change and peak oil (the idea that world oil production will inevitably reach its maximum and begin to fall). The solution is for individuals, groups and organizations to begin “transitioning” towards lower-energy consumption lifestyles.

The movement uses the Transition Model, whereby local activists engage the communities they live in through various initiatives addressing any and all areas of life, including food, transportation, housing, economics, education and government.

As a first step in its involvement, the Arusha Centre created a YouTube video highlighting the efforts of a variety of groups, including the CATCO car-sharing program; the Hillhurst co-operative housing venture; the City of Calgary’s urban agriculture initiatives; Calgary Dollars, a barter program in support of a localized economy; and consciousness-raising public events like the Bow River Flow.

For Wheatley, the Transition Towns banner is an opportunity to highlight and grow existing initiatives. He believes this can trigger a culture shift enabling Calgarians to recognize, take pride in and participate in their own forms of environmental activism.

“It’s a great way to link specific projects to a social movement... it’s a rebranding of our civic culture,” says Wheatley.

While profiling existing initiatives is a key part of a Transition Towns movement, Tony Grimes is excited by the inherent social networking components. Grimes, an activist who has worked extensively with local citizens advocacy group Civic Camp, chaired a recent Transition Calgary meeting that attracted a diverse audience of eco-friendly groups, activists and concerned individuals.

According to Grimes, one of the great strengths of the Transition Model is its “scalability.” While it can be applied to large-scale projects, it remains meaningful at the small scale. A transition initiative could be as simple as a condo board deciding they want to create a community garden, recycle more and switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Or as fun as a group of neighbours holding an “ooooby” (Out-Of-Our-Own-Back-Yards) food festival.

Another of its strengths, says Grimes, is that it is completely organic and open-sourced. Taking a cue from the incredible growth and success of open-source development frameworks like Wikipedia and Linux, Transition Towns uses online social networking sites like YouTube and Wiki to provide tools and resources, while its Transition Model emphasizes networking, collaboration, openness and flexibility. This allows diverse groups to work together and share ideas, while cultivating the notion that no idea or action is too small.

Ultimately, by avoiding the psychological burden of trying to “solve” the planet’s problems, the Transition Model suggests that collective actions can make a cumulative difference to global issues, while offering the creation of stronger, more resilient and tightly knit communities where people garden together, share cars, support local businesses and engage actively with their government. In this sense, Transition Towns is rooted in an optimistic visioning of the future — avoiding the polarizing effects of protest and guilt, and the sharp gloom of relentless apocalyptic forecasting.

This optimism is something that Heather Hendrie of Green Calgary believes could help dramatically when it comes to public engagement. “It’s all based around hope, not fear,” notes Hendrie. “You include people instead of excluding them.”

If Transition Towns sounds like a million little things, perhaps that is its intangible yet greatest strength.