Transition Town Wandsworth

Transition Town Wandsworth - finding our common ground

Residents and community groups in the Wandsworth area are combiningtheir local knowledge and neighbourhood spirit to address and tacklethe issues of Peak Oil and climate change by volunteering their timefor projects, workshops and skills swaps in the Wandsworth Town area.Transition Town Wandsworth, spurred by the burgeoning nationwideTransition town movement, is a way for local people to take a directhand in planning resilience for tomorrow by getting involved insustainable projects today.

Peak oil, the theory that most of the cheap and easier to extract oilhas already ‘peaked’ in terms of discovery and extraction, has slowlygained ground over the last few years; tellingly the October 2008report of the UK government’s ‘Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil &Energy Security (ITPOES)’, plainly sets out its expectations for asupply ‘crunch’ around 2011 – 2013. These realities, coupled with theever present challenges of climate change, have resulted in a decisiveshift in recent years towards clean technologies and sustainable, localcommerce.

As people increasingly recognise the need for action to tackle this andother issues directly affecting their everyday lives - dependency oncheap imports, increasing instability in fuel markets and unsustainablelevels of consumption - Transition Town Wandsworth have decided to turnto the community for many solutions to these problems, believing thatsome of the answers to the Boroughs most pressing concerns are likelyto be found at the local level.