We are now experiencing climate destabilisation caused by excessive emission of greenhouse gases from human activities, carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels being the main culprit. If we are to avoid irreversible and potentially catastrophic destabilisation it is widely accepted that at least an 80% reduction is essential by 2050. Thanks to the increased media coverage most people are aware of the problem but largely look to the Government to fix it. The message is that it is up to us as individuals to drive the governments around the world to honour their pledges. More importantly we each need to play our part with the choices we make in just about every aspect of our everyday lives. We have the power to push producers and manufacturers along more sustainable pathways. We need to look urgently at how we can each reduce our personal carbon footprint.

Climate change and Peak oil are closely related. The International protocols to reduce emissions and ration carbon-based fuels will help to slow down the depletion of oil. It can also be argued that diminishing supplies of gas and oil will reduce our carbon emissions enough to limit climate change. However if runaway oil prices trigger recession there will be pressure to keep business as usual going by any means necessary. This could mean using coal to make liquid fuel, burning biomass or cutting down rainforests to grow biofuels which could produce a climate catastrophe. The strength of the Transition Approach is that it looks at peak oil and climate change together rather than in isolation. The challenge is not 'how do we keep things going as normal?' but 'how do we learn to live within realistic energy restraints?'

Recommended reading

'The Hot Topic' by Gabrielle Walker and Sir David King

'Heat' by George Monbiot