On October 3, carpool with us to a conversation with Rob Hopkins, founder of the international Transition Towns Movement, to learn how communities across the country and around the world are transforming their economic, energy, and food systems from the bottom up.
Following Rob’s talk we will hear from a panel of local community resilience leaders including Mayor Michael J McGlynn, City of Medford, MA, and Mayor Lisa A. Wong, City of Fitchburg, on strategies and opportunities for local resilience and sustainability.
Location: Tufts University campus in the Cabot Intercultural Center – ASEAN Auditorium, 170 Packard Ave, Medford, MA 02155 (Campus map: http://campusmaps.tufts.edu/medford/)
Carpool leaves from Wayland Town Building parking (in back) at 6:00 pm. Talk begins at 7:30. Please register here, it’s free!
Co-sponsored by Transition US, Post Carbon Institute, Tufts University’s Peace and Justice Studies, Institute for Policy Studies, and New Economic Institute.
Who is Rob Hopkins?
A British permaculture teacher, Rob launched the first Transition Initiative in Ireland in 2005. Since then, the Transition Movement has taken root in 43 countries, with 142 Transition Towns in the US and more than 1,000 around the world. Rob continues lending his energy, ideas, and voice to the Transition Movement as it grows and deepens around the world, in addition to working with his own community, Transition Totnes, to pioneer innovative Transition strategies and projects like REconomy and Transition Streets. Rob’s new book, The Power of Just Doing Stuff, launched in June and has received rave reviews.
Rob was the winner of the 2008 Schumacher Award, is an Ashoka Fellow and a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, and was named by the Independent as one of the UK’s top 100 environmentalists.
In the words of Bill McKibben:
“In the leaking ship that we’ve made of our planet, the Transition movement is like a flotilla of life rafts. And they’ve come not to pull us off the earth, but to help us patch it and make it right. There’s no one on earth who’s just done more stuff–and inspired more doing – than Rob Hopkins.”
Rob doesn’t usually fly, but was asked to come to the US to speak with foundations about the power of local action to address the ecological and economic crises we face in light of passing 400 ppm… an invitation that’s hard to refuse given what is at stake.