Let’s hurry, we have no time to lose, but please take the time to read this

This blog is inspired by ‘how did we do that? the possibility of rapid transition’.

It’s undeniable that the World is ‘in’ transition, with lately lots of focus on energy transition, by some called ‘the mother of all transitions’. Being in transition can range from feeling uncomfortable, scary, unwanted for some while others might see only positive outcomes and will want to enforce it to happen. As always, the truth may lie somewhere in the middle.

More and more we here that we need to accelerate the energy transition. Because we get more and more scared of the negative outcomes from inaction or inertia, we tend to look for solutions where technooptimism and market mechanisms whisper to us that something external to us will solve the problem. But there is much more to it ofcourse. In fact we need from time to time a slowdown, look carefully at lessons learned from previous transitions, and embed that within our ethics, morals, politics, laws and regulations and governance. This calls for courage on all levels. A combination of many paths, a combination of top-down and bottom-up learning. Maybe even the greatest learning experiment in history, but there is hope!

Given the fact that transitions are not a direct goal in itself, but a consequence of retrospect (e.g. climate change impact), it seems ‘we’ can benefit if we can in some way enforce a ‘rapid’ transition. Fortunately, there is already a good collective knowledge of previous transitions and their succes factors. By accident I stumbled upon this very good overview ‘how did we do that? the possibility of rapid transition’ which I would like to recommend and share here, so it can reach even more readers.

For those who want to have a quick overview of factors that matter in rapid transitions, please go read page 44 in the excellent booklet which gives many good examples. I truly hope this blog reaches at least those that are active in transitions and that are in positions to make a difference. Good luck with your personal transition in discovering this exciting helpful research, with a great thanks to the contributors!

I also found out that Kate Raworth who’s Doughnut economy idea I greatly support, also seems to have stumbled upon the rapid transition research, she mentioned it in a tweet: ‘This is goeing high up upon my reading list’.  Thanks Kate for your excellent ideas!