We live in an oil-dependent world, arriving at this
level of dependency in a very short space of time
by treating petroleum as if it were in infinite
supply. Most of us avoid thinking about what
happens when oil runs out (or becomes
prohibitively expensive), but The Transition
Handbook shows how the inevitable and
profound changes ahead can have a positive
outcome. These changes can lead to the rebirth
of local communities that will grow more of their
own food, generate their own power, and build
their own houses using local materials. They can also
encourage the development of local currencies to keep
money in the local area.
Chelsea Green’s 10th Anniversary Edition of Alan Weisman’s Gaviotas will be in stores this September. Gaviotas is a classic—one of the most elegant and hopeful environmental stories ever told. In the late 1960s, a young Colombian development worker named Paolo Lugari wondered if the nearly uninhabited, infertile land sixteen hours east of Bogota could be made livable. Lugari had no idea that four decades later his experiment would be one of the world’s most celebrated examples of sustainable living: a permanent village called Gaviotas. According to Gabriel Garcie Marquez, Paolo Lugari is “inventer of the World.”
