On March 17, 2009, Transition Newburyport was designated the first official Transition initiative in Massachusetts. A Transition initiative is a model for engaging the community in a thoughtful process of planning a local response to the looming challenges of Peak Oil, Climate Change and Economic Instability, all of which will bring dramatic changes to life as we know it today. The issues of climate change and economic instability have been well documented and are very visible in the media today, however there is much less public awareness about the issue of Peak Oil. Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached and the rate of production then enters terminal decline. While predictions vary it is generally accepted that we will soon reach or have already passed the peak of global oil production. The peak in oil production does not signify 'running out of oil', but it does mean the end of a way of life based on cheap and abundant oil.

Transition is a movement that emerged in Kinsale Ireland in 2005, spread rapidly across the UK and is now active in 14 countries, including 21 official initiatives in the US. The founder of the movement is Rob Hopkins a teacher of permaculture and natural building in the UK. He is the author of the 2008 book The Transition Handbook: From oil dependency to local resilience that serves as the guidebook for communities undertaking the transition journey. The transition process begins with a period of awareness-raising about the impact of Climate Change and Peak Oil, then harnesses the collective vision and creativity of the community to develop a comprehensive plan for how to address these challenges at the local level. The plan is developed by self-formed groups based on what the community feels are the key areas needed to insure local resilience. Types of groups that typically form are focused on meeting the basic needs of the community; such as food, energy, local economy, health care, natural resources, and transportation.

Transition Newburyport formed when four Newburyport residents independently became aware of the transition movement and discovered each other through the Transition Massachusetts Ning site. Shortly afterwards they met in person and over a period of weeks decided that they had the interest, time, energy and commitment to undertake the introduction of transition to the community. Members of the initiating committee are John Brown, Elizabeth Marcus, Niall Robinson and Ben Twombly.

Transition Newburyport kicked off its awareness efforts on Wednesday April 22 at 7:00 PM in the Newburyport Public Library Program Room. "Introduction to Transition Towns Initiative" was part of the Greater Newburyport Eco Collaborative Earth Day Celebration. The program is an introduction to the transition initiative and will focus on how we can act together to make the transition to a post-fossil fuel world in a thoughtful and planned way, resulting in a more fulfilling, socially connected, sustainable, resilient and self-reliant community. This group plans to host a series of awareness raising events over the course of the next six months.

What is a Transition Town?

It started with a small group of motivated individuals who came together with a shared concern to answer the following question:

For all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of peak oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of climate change)?

Processes involve:

- awareness raising around peak oil, climate change and the need to undertake a community lead process to rebuild resilience and reduce carbon

- connecting with existing groups in the community

- building bridges to local government

- connecting with other transition initiatives

- forming groups to look at all the key areas of life (food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, economics & livelihoods, etc)

- kicking off projects aimed at building people’s understanding of resilience and carbon issues and community engagement

- eventually launching a community defined, community implemented “Energy Descent Action Plan” over a 15 to 20 year timescale

The community also recognized two crucial points:

1. We used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and that there’s no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope;

2. If we collectively plan and act early enough, there’s every likelihood that we can create a way of living that’s significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves on today.

To weave the climate change and peak oil situations together, it is important to note that climate change makes the carbon reduction transition essential, peak oil makes it inevitable, and transition initiatives make it feasible, viable and attractive.

If you would like to learn more about Transition Newburyport and how you can join the conversation, come join us at one of our Upcoming Events. For more information, please check out the following links to; Transition Newburyport Network NING - http://transitionmassachusetts.ning.com/group/newburyport Transistion U.S. - http://www.transitionus.org