Transition Highgate: Living Sustainably and Building a Resilient Community
Who We Are: We are residents of Highgate and neighbouring communities with a shared concern about climate change and are part of the global Transition Movement. We believe that positive practical action is urgently needed to deal with these challenges, and that by coming together as a community and contributing to the Transition Movement, we will have greater success.
The Transition Movement is about working together to live more sustainably and strengthening community resilience at a local level. It’s about taking positive action to enhance our quality of life while improving the environment. Each Transition group takes a local focus, varying from Community Energy, Businesses and Food growing through to lobbying and education.
The Transition Movement is evolving as it grows to enable it to reach out across countries and communities. See here for the Transtion Network’s strategy 2014-2017.
Transition Highgate developed from the work of HiCAN – the Highgate Climate Action Network – that was established in 2008. HiCAN objectives had a prime focus of raising awareness locally about the threat of runaway climate change, the importance of political engagement locally, nationally and internationally and local green initiatives. Transition Highgate now largely collaborates with other groups on local initiatives and leads on lobbying and providing information on current issues regarding Climate Change.
Transition Highgate’s Aims:
- Educate and raise awareness of the issues we face, by arranging talks and with an internet presence
- Collaborate with other local groups with focus on home efficiency, renewable energy and other
- Work with local councils and lobby at national and international level
Our Inspiration:
- Humans are rapidly causing Global Warming and Climate Change, particularly by the unchecked emission of Greenhouse Gases
- Reducing energy from fossil fuel with its ever increasing carbon emissions and increasing energy from renewable very low carbon sources is now urgent.
- Industrial society has been based on fossil fuel energy and careless disposal of waste and needs to ‘transition’ to a low GHG, low waste society.
- We have to act together at a Global level, harnessing every aware citizen and community group, now.
- We (humanity) demonstrated great ingenuity and intelligence as we raced up the energy curve over the last 150 years. We can use those qualities, and more, to free ourselves from dependence on fossil fuels.
- Helping people become aware of the dire situation of Climate Change, and the many ways that individuals can make a difference is the first step to halting the damage.
- By working together, using our creativity and cooperation to unleash the genius within our local communities, we can build a future far more fulfilling and enriching, more connected to and gentler on the Earth, than the life we have today.
