Transition Handbook, 08 Oct 2008
This book is way overdue. I have been eagerly searching for books addressing the preparation for post peak oil for many many years. Books like this should have been written years ago so I was delighted to see that at last practical guides are starting to appear on the book shelves.

I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters dealing with peak oil and its implications for society. Subsequent chapters I did not enjoy as much particularly when the Kinsale Energy Decent Action Plan is promoted as a role model for sustainable community development.

There is a huge wealth of expertise in the development community, particularly which which was developed from overseas aid agencies. They have developed approaches, standards, principles and a multitude of methodologies for developing communities, with limited or almost non existent resources, and where success or failure costs lives. This expertise has been ignored and attempts made to reinvent the wheel.

I think the focus of the book should have built on the expertise of organisations such as Oxfam, VSO, Save the Children, and Overseas Development Administration and focused on the structures, processes and outcomes, which would help develop community resilience and sustainability, with limited resources.

I have a worry that communities who attempt to use this handbook as the basis for their transition will make fantastic progress initially through the generation of enthusiasm but due to improper planning, a lack of monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness and imprecise goals and objectives, people will become disillusioned and drop out. There is also the danger that communities who adapt this approach will not be able to communicate effectively with traditional disciplines, local authorities, health services, energy engineers or others. Who should change first? The current decision makers and service providers or the community development
organisations?

This process of conflict between service providers and community organisations has happened time and time again, without learning the lessons of what actually is sustainable in the long term. It usually results in the community organisation being unable to access state funding resulting in decline and or death. How can a community organisation sustain itself unless it becomes a business, with formal structures, job descriptions, terms of reference, fundamental guiding principles, training, development, salaries, income generation, sales etc. How can that fit with the "loose" concepts proposed?

Lets hope this is just the first of a huge range of increasingly sophisticated publications yet to come that will address these issues using the best expertise available in the fields of business, development management, community organisation, sustainability, public health, and many more, combined into a consensus best practice manual for transition. I hope these comments help to stimulate a critical approach to sustainable community development.


A smart, accessible guide to a resilient, low-carbon future, 11 Sep 2008
There is a powerful current in our contemporary, post-industrial culture that is arguing for a simpler, more sustainable alternative to our wasteful, environmentally damaging way of life. Proselytisers rely on a varying mix of three sets of arguments: the environmental challenge posed by climate change, the energy supply challenge posed by peak oil and, finally, the spiritual challenge emerging from the newest science on personal wellbeing (in a nutshell: beyond a certain point more money and stuff doesn't make us happier.)

Rob Hopkins' Transition Movement is pragmatic attempt to come to terms with the disruptions that are heralded by climate change and peak oil. Thoughtlessly addicted as we are to fossil fuels, our societies are ill equipped to deal with the adverse implications of energy scarcity and a hotter, less predictable climate. According to Hopkins, what we need to develop is resilience: the ability to deal creatively and locally with energy supply and environmental shocks.

The Transition Handbook is a hands-on guide to help communities make that transition towards a resilient, low-carbon future. It is useful to distinguish three layers in the book.

The first layer encapsulates the three main parts of Hopkins' argument, focused on the head (the facts about climate change and peak oil you need to know), the heart (the need for positive vision and commitment) and the hands (practical guidelines for enabling resilient communities).

The second layer consists of a range of design principles that can be relied on to shape resilient communities. For example, in preparing for an energy-scarce future we need to know that resilience relies on a small scale, modular and decentralised infrastructure. We also need to invest in high-quality productive relationships, integrate rather than segregate and use the creative edges of systems to make the most of their potential. There are many more of these principles that have been lifted from an eclectic mix of disciplines, including systems science, ecology and the psychology of change. Hopkins himself was deeply influenced by the permaculture movement, a radical design approach to constructing "sustainable human settlements".

The third layer features a range of practical solutions that comply with these design principles. These solutions are meant to be the cornerstones of any resilient community and include a template for working towards a more energy-thrifty ("energy descent planning"), decentralised energy generation, local food sourcing, re-skilling of consumers into creative citizens and local currencies.

Transition thinking is not only a theory but it is also a social movement and the book features a number of UK examples of communities that have started going down the path towards resilience. Hopkins is acutely aware that the governance of the Transition movement needs to mirror the design principles underlying resilience. It would hardly be credible and effective to embody a Transition movement by a tightly-managed, centralised bureaucracy. So, Hopkins is only willing to give pointers to help people in facilitating bottom-up, small-scale, self-steering initiatives. Lots is left to emergence and action learning ("... where it all goes remains to be seen ..." is an often used phrase in the book).

The Transition Handbook is an accessible, smart guide to helping us deal with the challenges we may face as a result of climate change and peak oil. In itself the book doesn't offer anything new, but it rearranges familiar pieces of a puzzle into a compelling and coherent approach towards learning again to help ourselves and to do more with less.

Enabling, 01 Jul 2008
Hooray. Despite some people's misgivings about the psychology section, which seem largely dependent on a definition of 'success', this is an outstanding book. It's primary achievement is to show the reader how societal change can take place in the absence of the usual too little too late response of governments, whose priorities lie with business, rather than people or environmental sustainability. The future security of Britain, and elsewhere, lies in groups of people with the will and power to make communities sustainable. It might seem unbelievable, but we have the power to transform our society, and are not at the whim of government. They will follow. If you admire Kohr, Schumacher, Papworth and Sale, you will respond positively to this book.

Brilliant in parts, dangerously foolish in others, 28 Jun 2008
I've the greatest sympathy with this book's concept in many respects. Rob correctly identifies the overriding need to reduce energy dependence, and that we must not wait for "them" to do anything about it, or even help us. Correctly he sees that we need a "how-to" manual for how to make communities (rather than just the reader) self-sufficient in food and so on. But the devil is in the practical details, or more precisely the practical unknowns which are all too easily glossed over.

The book gets hideously, dangerously misguided in its important section on psychology, with its notion of the importance of a "positive vision". History is bursting full of "positive visions" which ended in huge disasters. Instead, what is needed is a judiciously realistic vision. It is vitally important to recognise that criticism and doubt are just as important as hope and "constructive" "enthusiastic" thinking. Otherwise huge energy and effort is almost certain to be lost in enthusing down disastrous dead-ends.

In a traumatised society, many people become lost to despair, depression, negativity. But there is the equal problem that too many people desperately pin their hopes on "positive" but false solutions which ultimately fail them.

Someone said that the transition concept has been "phenomenally successful". That is seriously unhinged fantasy. There hasn't yet been a transition to test out how or even whether the ideas work out in practice.
You need to be very careful to avoid assuming that action is the same as achievement of solutions, or that international fame and crowds of enthusiastic followers is the same as success in solving the problem.

I would strongly urge the author to revise the psychology section of his book to take account of these comments. The importance of a realistic vision.

essential reading, 30 Apr 2008
I'm two thirds way through this book and overall find it an inspiring read. The first section in particular summarises some of the issues in a very easy to understand style. I liked the section on psychology particularly - I think both grieving, shock and addiction models are useful to understanding the apparently irrational responses of people to climate change and peak oil.

The rest of the book is harder to read - a lot of detail about how one should go about starting a transition initiative. Some of this stuff makes very important points about embedding the initiative into the community and I appreciate that it is derived from experience. At the same time I found it somewhat prescriptive, especially the directions for conducting meetings/workshops etc. This is a bit of a turn off - there are of course lots of ways of doing these things and I feel it would have been better just to refer to some resources or put these in appendices.

We have to act on climate change and peak oil and I buy the resilient local economy model. There is lots of useful stuff in this book, maybe some of it just more detailed than necessary.

Transition Handbook, 08 Oct 2008
This book is way overdue. I have been eagerly searching for books addressing the preparation for post peak oil for many many years. Books like this should have been written years ago so I was delighted to see that at last practical guides are starting to appear on the book shelves.

I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters dealing with peak oil and its implications for society. Subsequent chapters I did not enjoy as much particularly when the Kinsale Energy Decent Action Plan is promoted as a role model for sustainable community development.

There is a huge wealth of expertise in the development community, particularly which which was developed from overseas aid agencies. They have developed approaches, standards, principles and a multitude of methodologies for developing communities, with limited or almost non existent resources, and where success or failure costs lives. This expertise has been ignored and attempts made to reinvent the wheel.

I think the focus of the book should have built on the expertise of organisations such as Oxfam, VSO, Save the Children, and Overseas Development Administration and focused on the structures, processes and outcomes, which would help develop community resilience and sustainability, with limited resources.

I have a worry that communities who attempt to use this handbook as the basis for their transition will make fantastic progress initially through the generation of enthusiasm but due to improper planning, a lack of monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness and imprecise goals and objectives, people will become disillusioned and drop out. There is also the danger that communities who adapt this approach will not be able to communicate effectively with traditional disciplines, local authorities, health services, energy engineers or others. Who should change first? The current decision makers and service providers or the community development
organisations?

This process of conflict between service providers and community organisations has happened time and time again, without learning the lessons of what actually is sustainable in the long term. It usually results in the community organisation being unable to access state funding resulting in decline and or death. How can a community organisation sustain itself unless it becomes a business, with formal structures, job descriptions, terms of reference, fundamental guiding principles, training, development, salaries, income generation, sales etc. How can that fit with the "loose" concepts proposed?

Lets hope this is just the first of a huge range of increasingly sophisticated publications yet to come that will address these issues using the best expertise available in the fields of business, development management, community organisation, sustainability, public health, and many more, combined into a consensus best practice manual for transition. I hope these comments help to stimulate a critical approach to sustainable community development.


A smart, accessible guide to a resilient, low-carbon future, 11 Sep 2008
There is a powerful current in our contemporary, post-industrial culture that is arguing for a simpler, more sustainable alternative to our wasteful, environmentally damaging way of life. Proselytisers rely on a varying mix of three sets of arguments: the environmental challenge posed by climate change, the energy supply challenge posed by peak oil and, finally, the spiritual challenge emerging from the newest science on personal wellbeing (in a nutshell: beyond a certain point more money and stuff doesn't make us happier.)

Rob Hopkins' Transition Movement is pragmatic attempt to come to terms with the disruptions that are heralded by climate change and peak oil. Thoughtlessly addicted as we are to fossil fuels, our societies are ill equipped to deal with the adverse implications of energy scarcity and a hotter, less predictable climate. According to Hopkins, what we need to develop is resilience: the ability to deal creatively and locally with energy supply and environmental shocks.

The Transition Handbook is a hands-on guide to help communities make that transition towards a resilient, low-carbon future. It is useful to distinguish three layers in the book.

The first layer encapsulates the three main parts of Hopkins' argument, focused on the head (the facts about climate change and peak oil you need to know), the heart (the need for positive vision and commitment) and the hands (practical guidelines for enabling resilient communities).

The second layer consists of a range of design principles that can be relied on to shape resilient communities. For example, in preparing for an energy-scarce future we need to know that resilience relies on a small scale, modular and decentralised infrastructure. We also need to invest in high-quality productive relationships, integrate rather than segregate and use the creative edges of systems to make the most of their potential. There are many more of these principles that have been lifted from an eclectic mix of disciplines, including systems science, ecology and the psychology of change. Hopkins himself was deeply influenced by the permaculture movement, a radical design approach to constructing "sustainable human settlements".

The third layer features a range of practical solutions that comply with these design principles. These solutions are meant to be the cornerstones of any resilient community and include a template for working towards a more energy-thrifty ("energy descent planning"), decentralised energy generation, local food sourcing, re-skilling of consumers into creative citizens and local currencies.

Transition thinking is not only a theory but it is also a social movement and the book features a number of UK examples of communities that have started going down the path towards resilience. Hopkins is acutely aware that the governance of the Transition movement needs to mirror the design principles underlying resilience. It would hardly be credible and effective to embody a Transition movement by a tightly-managed, centralised bureaucracy. So, Hopkins is only willing to give pointers to help people in facilitating bottom-up, small-scale, self-steering initiatives. Lots is left to emergence and action learning ("... where it all goes remains to be seen ..." is an often used phrase in the book).

The Transition Handbook is an accessible, smart guide to helping us deal with the challenges we may face as a result of climate change and peak oil. In itself the book doesn't offer anything new, but it rearranges familiar pieces of a puzzle into a compelling and coherent approach towards learning again to help ourselves and to do more with less.

Enabling, 01 Jul 2008
Hooray. Despite some people's misgivings about the psychology section, which seem largely dependent on a definition of 'success', this is an outstanding book. It's primary achievement is to show the reader how societal change can take place in the absence of the usual too little too late response of governments, whose priorities lie with business, rather than people or environmental sustainability. The future security of Britain, and elsewhere, lies in groups of people with the will and power to make communities sustainable. It might seem unbelievable, but we have the power to transform our society, and are not at the whim of government. They will follow. If you admire Kohr, Schumacher, Papworth and Sale, you will respond positively to this book.

Brilliant in parts, dangerously foolish in others, 28 Jun 2008
I've the greatest sympathy with this book's concept in many respects. Rob correctly identifies the overriding need to reduce energy dependence, and that we must not wait for "them" to do anything about it, or even help us. Correctly he sees that we need a "how-to" manual for how to make communities (rather than just the reader) self-sufficient in food and so on. But the devil is in the practical details, or more precisely the practical unknowns which are all too easily glossed over.

The book gets hideously, dangerously misguided in its important section on psychology, with its notion of the importance of a "positive vision". History is bursting full of "positive visions" which ended in huge disasters. Instead, what is needed is a judiciously realistic vision. It is vitally important to recognise that criticism and doubt are just as important as hope and "constructive" "enthusiastic" thinking. Otherwise huge energy and effort is almost certain to be lost in enthusing down disastrous dead-ends.

In a traumatised society, many people become lost to despair, depression, negativity. But there is the equal problem that too many people desperately pin their hopes on "positive" but false solutions which ultimately fail them.

Someone said that the transition concept has been "phenomenally successful". That is seriously unhinged fantasy. There hasn't yet been a transition to test out how or even whether the ideas work out in practice.
You need to be very careful to avoid assuming that action is the same as achievement of solutions, or that international fame and crowds of enthusiastic followers is the same as success in solving the problem.

I would strongly urge the author to revise the psychology section of his book to take account of these comments. The importance of a realistic vision.

essential reading, 30 Apr 2008
I'm two thirds way through this book and overall find it an inspiring read. The first section in particular summarises some of the issues in a very easy to understand style. I liked the section on psychology particularly - I think both grieving, shock and addiction models are useful to understanding the apparently irrational responses of people to climate change and peak oil.

The rest of the book is harder to read - a lot of detail about how one should go about starting a transition initiative. Some of this stuff makes very important points about embedding the initiative into the community and I appreciate that it is derived from experience. At the same time I found it somewhat prescriptive, especially the directions for conducting meetings/workshops etc. This is a bit of a turn off - there are of course lots of ways of doing these things and I feel it would have been better just to refer to some resources or put these in appendices.

We have to act on climate change and peak oil and I buy the resilient local economy model. There is lots of useful stuff in this book, maybe some of it just more detailed than necessary.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Transition Handbook, 08 Oct 2008
This book is way overdue. I have been eagerly searching for books addressing the preparation for post peak oil for many many years. Books like this should have been written years ago so I was delighted to see that at last practical guides are starting to appear on the book shelves.

I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters dealing with peak oil and its implications for society. Subsequent chapters I did not enjoy as much particularly when the Kinsale Energy Decent Action Plan is promoted as a role model for sustainable community development.

There is a huge wealth of expertise in the development community, particularly which which was developed from overseas aid agencies. They have developed approaches, standards, principles and a multitude of methodologies for developing communities, with limited or almost non existent resources, and where success or failure costs lives. This expertise has been ignored and attempts made to reinvent the wheel.

I think the focus of the book should have built on the expertise of organisations such as Oxfam, VSO, Save the Children, and Overseas Development Administration and focused on the structures, processes and outcomes, which would help develop community resilience and sustainability, with limited resources.

I have a worry that communities who attempt to use this handbook as the basis for their transition will make fantastic progress initially through the generation of enthusiasm but due to improper planning, a lack of monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness and imprecise goals and objectives, people will become disillusioned and drop out. There is also the danger that communities who adapt this approach will not be able to communicate effectively with traditional disciplines, local authorities, health services, energy engineers or others. Who should change first? The current decision makers and service providers or the community development
organisations?

This process of conflict between service providers and community organisations has happened time and time again, without learning the lessons of what actually is sustainable in the long term. It usually results in the community organisation being unable to access state funding resulting in decline and or death. How can a community organisation sustain itself unless it becomes a business, with formal structures, job descriptions, terms of reference, fundamental guiding principles, training, development, salaries, income generation, sales etc. How can that fit with the "loose" concepts proposed?

Lets hope this is just the first of a huge range of increasingly sophisticated publications yet to come that will address these issues using the best expertise available in the fields of business, development management, community organisation, sustainability, public health, and many more, combined into a consensus best practice manual for transition. I hope these comments help to stimulate a critical approach to sustainable community development.


A smart, accessible guide to a resilient, low-carbon future, 11 Sep 2008
There is a powerful current in our contemporary, post-industrial culture that is arguing for a simpler, more sustainable alternative to our wasteful, environmentally damaging way of life. Proselytisers rely on a varying mix of three sets of arguments: the environmental challenge posed by climate change, the energy supply challenge posed by peak oil and, finally, the spiritual challenge emerging from the newest science on personal wellbeing (in a nutshell: beyond a certain point more money and stuff doesn't make us happier.)

Rob Hopkins' Transition Movement is pragmatic attempt to come to terms with the disruptions that are heralded by climate change and peak oil. Thoughtlessly addicted as we are to fossil fuels, our societies are ill equipped to deal with the adverse implications of energy scarcity and a hotter, less predictable climate. According to Hopkins, what we need to develop is resilience: the ability to deal creatively and locally with energy supply and environmental shocks.

The Transition Handbook is a hands-on guide to help communities make that transition towards a resilient, low-carbon future. It is useful to distinguish three layers in the book.

The first layer encapsulates the three main parts of Hopkins' argument, focused on the head (the facts about climate change and peak oil you need to know), the heart (the need for positive vision and commitment) and the hands (practical guidelines for enabling resilient communities).

The second layer consists of a range of design principles that can be relied on to shape resilient communities. For example, in preparing for an energy-scarce future we need to know that resilience relies on a small scale, modular and decentralised infrastructure. We also need to invest in high-quality productive relationships, integrate rather than segregate and use the creative edges of systems to make the most of their potential. There are many more of these principles that have been lifted from an eclectic mix of disciplines, including systems science, ecology and the psychology of change. Hopkins himself was deeply influenced by the permaculture movement, a radical design approach to constructing "sustainable human settlements".

The third layer features a range of practical solutions that comply with these design principles. These solutions are meant to be the cornerstones of any resilient community and include a template for working towards a more energy-thrifty ("energy descent planning"), decentralised energy generation, local food sourcing, re-skilling of consumers into creative citizens and local currencies.

Transition thinking is not only a theory but it is also a social movement and the book features a number of UK examples of communities that have started going down the path towards resilience. Hopkins is acutely aware that the governance of the Transition movement needs to mirror the design principles underlying resilience. It would hardly be credible and effective to embody a Transition movement by a tightly-managed, centralised bureaucracy. So, Hopkins is only willing to give pointers to help people in facilitating bottom-up, small-scale, self-steering initiatives. Lots is left to emergence and action learning ("... where it all goes remains to be seen ..." is an often used phrase in the book).

The Transition Handbook is an accessible, smart guide to helping us deal with the challenges we may face as a result of climate change and peak oil. In itself the book doesn't offer anything new, but it rearranges familiar pieces of a puzzle into a compelling and coherent approach towards learning again to help ourselves and to do more with less.

Enabling, 01 Jul 2008
Hooray. Despite some people's misgivings about the psychology section, which seem largely dependent on a definition of 'success', this is an outstanding book. It's primary achievement is to show the reader how societal change can take place in the absence of the usual too little too late response of governments, whose priorities lie with business, rather than people or environmental sustainability. The future security of Britain, and elsewhere, lies in groups of people with the will and power to make communities sustainable. It might seem unbelievable, but we have the power to transform our society, and are not at the whim of government. They will follow. If you admire Kohr, Schumacher, Papworth and Sale, you will respond positively to this book.

Brilliant in parts, dangerously foolish in others, 28 Jun 2008
I've the greatest sympathy with this book's concept in many respects. Rob correctly identifies the overriding need to reduce energy dependence, and that we must not wait for "them" to do anything about it, or even help us. Correctly he sees that we need a "how-to" manual for how to make communities (rather than just the reader) self-sufficient in food and so on. But the devil is in the practical details, or more precisely the practical unknowns which are all too easily glossed over.

The book gets hideously, dangerously misguided in its important section on psychology, with its notion of the importance of a "positive vision". History is bursting full of "positive visions" which ended in huge disasters. Instead, what is needed is a judiciously realistic vision. It is vitally important to recognise that criticism and doubt are just as important as hope and "constructive" "enthusiastic" thinking. Otherwise huge energy and effort is almost certain to be lost in enthusing down disastrous dead-ends.

In a traumatised society, many people become lost to despair, depression, negativity. But there is the equal problem that too many people desperately pin their hopes on "positive" but false solutions which ultimately fail them.

Someone said that the transition concept has been "phenomenally successful". That is seriously unhinged fantasy. There hasn't yet been a transition to test out how or even whether the ideas work out in practice.
You need to be very careful to avoid assuming that action is the same as achievement of solutions, or that international fame and crowds of enthusiastic followers is the same as success in solving the problem.

I would strongly urge the author to revise the psychology section of his book to take account of these comments. The importance of a realistic vision.

essential reading, 30 Apr 2008
I'm two thirds way through this book and overall find it an inspiring read. The first section in particular summarises some of the issues in a very easy to understand style. I liked the section on psychology particularly - I think both grieving, shock and addiction models are useful to understanding the apparently irrational responses of people to climate change and peak oil.

The rest of the book is harder to read - a lot of detail about how one should go about starting a transition initiative. Some of this stuff makes very important points about embedding the initiative into the community and I appreciate that it is derived from experience. At the same time I found it somewhat prescriptive, especially the directions for conducting meetings/workshops etc. This is a bit of a turn off - there are of course lots of ways of doing these things and I feel it would have been better just to refer to some resources or put these in appendices.

We have to act on climate change and peak oil and I buy the resilient local economy model. There is lots of useful stuff in this book, maybe some of it just more detailed than necessary.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Informative Book........, 26 Oct 2007
I bought this as it seemed an interesting read. I'm glad I did!

In brief:

It starts off in China, showing how salt was won using gas fires to heat brine, with mud insulated bamboo pipes to provide the flames. The next great event is that of the discovery of the great cod fisheries off Newfoundland and also that cod could be salted and would not turn rancid like herring.

Also contains interesting facts such as until quite recently salt was a government monopoly in Italy and could only be bought from tobacconists (cancer and high blood pressure in one place!) and that gold was not traded weight for weight with salt, although it does show the great value placed upon it. Mark Kurlansky did his reserach well for this.

Elevates chips from blah to sublime, 25 Jan 2006
I'm occasionally scolded for using too much salt. SALT: A WORLD HISTORY simply reinforces the fact that NaCl has been in the human diet for millennia. So, get off my back already. If God hadn't wanted me to eat the stuff, he wouldn't have given me kidneys.

Besides being a narrative of how salt has been harvested through the ages, either by brine evaporation or the mining of rock salt, SALT is also a history of its link to food preservation and preparation and governments. Whether it be cod, cheese, herring, ham, beef, anchovies, butter, Tabasco sauce, sauerkraut, pickles, ketchup, or "1000-year-old" eggs, salt makes it happen. And successive bureaucracies over the centuries have harnessed the production, sale and shipment of salt for the enrichment of national coffers through monopolies and taxation schemes, some of them disastrously misguided. Perhaps most illustrative of the latter is the chapter describing Britain's curtailment of indigenous salt production in India during the Raj period. This imperial policy, designed to protect the domestic English salt industry, was of such detriment to large segments of the Indian population that it was the issue that sparked Gandhi's campaign of civil disobedience, ultimately leading to that colony's independence.

I would award five stars except for two statements made by author Mark Kurlansky in his chapter about salt and the American Civil War. These assertions have trivial impact on the book as a whole, but are so sloppy as to make me wonder about the accuracy of his interpretation of more relevant facts.

Regarding Confederate general George Pickett, who received a pouch of precious salt as a wedding gift: "... (he) later reached the most northerly point of any Confederate in combat when he ... led a ruinous charge up a sloping Pennsylvania field - the climax of the Battle of Gettysburg." The author is referring, of course, to Pickett's Charge, and perhaps he was speaking figuratively. While it is fact that one of his brigades briefly breached the Union line at Bloody Angle, it was that unit's commander, Brigadier General Louis Armistead, who was mortally wounded inside the Union position and was arguably the one who led the charge. Pickett wasn't in front on that one. Also, the site of that valiant effort was south of the town of Gettysburg, which had been occupied by the Confederates two days previous.

Further on, Kurlansky trips when describing the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee as "a standoff". Really? While Federal forces under Ulysses Grant took a shellacking on the first day of the battle, they rallied on the second to drive the Confederates into a full-scale retreat from the battlefield. Moreover, Albert Sidney Johnston, who began Shiloh commanding the Confederate forces and was perhaps the South's most respected general at the time, was killed. Though casualties were roughly the same on both sides, my scorecard has this as a Northern win.

But, I digress.

SALT is one of those books about something we take for granted that captivates the reader with useless but fun facts. Did you know that pastrami (salted beef) is of Romanian origin, that Laplanders drink salted coffee, that a Swedish favorite is salted licorice candy, that 51% of U.S. salt use is to de-ice roads, or that there's a working salt mine 1,200 feet below Detroit?

Curiously, though, Kurlansky says not one word about that most mystical of culinary inventions, salt on chips. What was he thinking?

Trade in salt and salted foods shaped economies for centurie, 26 Jul 2005
"Salt; A World History," by Mark Kurlansky is a meticulously researched account of how trade in salt...and salted foods shaped global economies for centuries. The production of salt powered empires. Moreover, the salting of fish, fowl and hams fed soldiers and sailors for extended periods...allowing for the expansion of trade and military empires.

The Roman Empire required salt for its soldiers and at times soldiers were paid in salt...which was the origin of the word "salary"...and the expression "worth his salt" or "earning his salt," according to Kurlansky. After the fall of Rome, Venice became the dominant commerical force in Europe. To this end, salt trade maintained Venice's palatial public building and the complex hydralic system that prevented the metropolis from washing away.

Soon farmers in France discovered that curdled milk drained and preserved in salt made many different types of cheese. In Parma, Italy the production of salted "Prosciutto" ham and "Parmesan" cheese made the city famous. The same thing happened with the production of salted "Salami" in Felino and Genoa, Italy. However, a major factor in the prodcution of salted fish was the Medieval Roman Catholic Church's decision to forbide the eating of meat on religious days and the Lenten fast (40 days) and all Fridays. This was serious business...under English law at the time the penalty for eating meat on Friday was hanging. Consequently, trade in dried fish boomed...especially for Northern Cod, which had a white flesh with little fat (fat resists salt) and dried easily.

Page after page of this book is filled with significant historical information on how salt impacted economies especially with sea vessels and river steamboats. The author also includes little tid-bits of information about the develpment of our language...particularly the origin of expressions. For instance, when early American settlers hunted they would leave red herring along the trail because the strong smell would confuse wolves which is the origin of the expression "red herring," meaning..."false trail." Finally, Kurlansky explains that "Generals from George Washington to Napoleon discovered without salt...war is a desperate situation...salt was needed to treat wounds, preserve food for soldiers and for the diet of the calvary's horses." Recommended.

Bert Ruiz

Trade in salt and salted foods shaped economies for centurie, 23 Jul 2005
"Salt; A World History," by Mark Kurlansky is a meticulously researched account of how trade in salt...and salted foods shaped global economies for centuries. The production of salt powered empires. Moreover, the salting of fish, fowl and hams fed soldiers and sailors for extended periods...allowing for the expansion of trade and empires.

The Roman Empire required salt for its soldiers and at times soldiers were paid in salt...which was the origin of the word "salary"...and the expression "worth his salt" or "earning his salt," according to Kurlansky. After the fall of Rome, Venice became the dominant commerical force in Europe. To this end, salt trade maintained Venice's palatial public building and the complex hydralic system that prevented the metropolis from washing away.

Soon France farmers discovered that curdled mild drained and preserved in salt made many different types of cheese. In Parma, Italy the production of salted "Prosciutto" ham and "Parmesan" cheese made the city famous. The same thing happened with the production of salted "Salami" in Felino and Genoa, Italy. However, a major factor in the prodcution of salted fish was the Medieval Roman Catholic Church's decision to forbide the eating of meat on religious days and the Lenten fast (40 days) and all Fridays. This was serious business...under English law at the time the penalty for eating meat on Friday was hanging. Consequently, trade in dried fish boomed...especially for Northern Cod, which had a white flesh with little fat (fat resists salt) and dried easily.

Page after page of this book is filled with significant historical information on how salt impacted economies especially with sea vessels and river steamboats. The author also includes little tid-bits of information about the develpment of our language...particularly the origin of expressions. For instance, when early American settlers hunted they would leave red herring along the trail because the strong smell would confuse wolves which is the origin of the expression "red herring," meaning..."false trail." Finally, Kurlansky explains that "Generals from George Washington to Napoleon discovered without salt...war is a desperate situation...salt was needed to treat wounds, preserve food for soldiers and for the diet of the calvary's horses." Recommended.

Bert Ruiz

You'll never look at food in the same way again..., 26 Sep 2003
As I started reading this book, I thought to myself that Mark Kurlansky had performed a miracle, and actually made the subject of the history of salt quite interesting.

However, as you delve deeper into the book, you appreciate two things. First, just how important salt was in history - Kurlansky isn't exaggerating when he says wars have been fought, lost and won over salt. Second, how the author does actually have a very good writing style about him - the numerous fascinating facts he brings out may not have been quite so fascinating if told by a different author.

For me, two things put the book into perspective. These two things are explained about two-thirds of the way through the book, and suddenly make you realise why salt has been so important to society, governments, armies, etc.etc.etc throughout history - and why we can take it for granted now.

More than an epic history of salt (and it does actually work on that level too - such is Kurlansky's depth of research), this is packed so full of great little facts that it's also just a great read. Recommended for anyone who wants to understand more about a substance that's so common, it's very easy to take for granted these days. You just won't look at food in the same way again...

Transition Handbook, 08 Oct 2008
This book is way overdue. I have been eagerly searching for books addressing the preparation for post peak oil for many many years. Books like this should have been written years ago so I was delighted to see that at last practical guides are starting to appear on the book shelves.

I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters dealing with peak oil and its implications for society. Subsequent chapters I did not enjoy as much particularly when the Kinsale Energy Decent Action Plan is promoted as a role model for sustainable community development.

There is a huge wealth of expertise in the development community, particularly which which was developed from overseas aid agencies. They have developed approaches, standards, principles and a multitude of methodologies for developing communities, with limited or almost non existent resources, and where success or failure costs lives. This expertise has been ignored and attempts made to reinvent the wheel.

I think the focus of the book should have built on the expertise of organisations such as Oxfam, VSO, Save the Children, and Overseas Development Administration and focused on the structures, processes and outcomes, which would help develop community resilience and sustainability, with limited resources.

I have a worry that communities who attempt to use this handbook as the basis for their transition will make fantastic progress initially through the generation of enthusiasm but due to improper planning, a lack of monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness and imprecise goals and objectives, people will become disillusioned and drop out. There is also the danger that communities who adapt this approach will not be able to communicate effectively with traditional disciplines, local authorities, health services, energy engineers or others. Who should change first? The current decision makers and service providers or the community development
organisations?

This process of conflict between service providers and community organisations has happened time and time again, without learning the lessons of what actually is sustainable in the long term. It usually results in the community organisation being unable to access state funding resulting in decline and or death. How can a community organisation sustain itself unless it becomes a business, with formal structures, job descriptions, terms of reference, fundamental guiding principles, training, development, salaries, income generation, sales etc. How can that fit with the "loose" concepts proposed?

Lets hope this is just the first of a huge range of increasingly sophisticated publications yet to come that will address these issues using the best expertise available in the fields of business, development management, community organisation, sustainability, public health, and many more, combined into a consensus best practice manual for transition. I hope these comments help to stimulate a critical approach to sustainable community development.


A smart, accessible guide to a resilient, low-carbon future, 11 Sep 2008
There is a powerful current in our contemporary, post-industrial culture that is arguing for a simpler, more sustainable alternative to our wasteful, environmentally damaging way of life. Proselytisers rely on a varying mix of three sets of arguments: the environmental challenge posed by climate change, the energy supply challenge posed by peak oil and, finally, the spiritual challenge emerging from the newest science on personal wellbeing (in a nutshell: beyond a certain point more money and stuff doesn't make us happier.)

Rob Hopkins' Transition Movement is pragmatic attempt to come to terms with the disruptions that are heralded by climate change and peak oil. Thoughtlessly addicted as we are to fossil fuels, our societies are ill equipped to deal with the adverse implications of energy scarcity and a hotter, less predictable climate. According to Hopkins, what we need to develop is resilience: the ability to deal creatively and locally with energy supply and environmental shocks.

The Transition Handbook is a hands-on guide to help communities make that transition towards a resilient, low-carbon future. It is useful to distinguish three layers in the book.

The first layer encapsulates the three main parts of Hopkins' argument, focused on the head (the facts about climate change and peak oil you need to know), the heart (the need for positive vision and commitment) and the hands (practical guidelines for enabling resilient communities).

The second layer consists of a range of design principles that can be relied on to shape resilient communities. For example, in preparing for an energy-scarce future we need to know that resilience relies on a small scale, modular and decentralised infrastructure. We also need to invest in high-quality productive relationships, integrate rather than segregate and use the creative edges of systems to make the most of their potential. There are many more of these principles that have been lifted from an eclectic mix of disciplines, including systems science, ecology and the psychology of change. Hopkins himself was deeply influenced by the permaculture movement, a radical design approach to constructing "sustainable human settlements".

The third layer features a range of practical solutions that comply with these design principles. These solutions are meant to be the cornerstones of any resilient community and include a template for working towards a more energy-thrifty ("energy descent planning"), decentralised energy generation, local food sourcing, re-skilling of consumers into creative citizens and local currencies.

Transition thinking is not only a theory but it is also a social movement and the book features a number of UK examples of communities that have started going down the path towards resilience. Hopkins is acutely aware that the governance of the Transition movement needs to mirror the design principles underlying resilience. It would hardly be credible and effective to embody a Transition movement by a tightly-managed, centralised bureaucracy. So, Hopkins is only willing to give pointers to help people in facilitating bottom-up, small-scale, self-steering initiatives. Lots is left to emergence and action learning ("... where it all goes remains to be seen ..." is an often used phrase in the book).

The Transition Handbook is an accessible, smart guide to helping us deal with the challenges we may face as a result of climate change and peak oil. In itself the book doesn't offer anything new, but it rearranges familiar pieces of a puzzle into a compelling and coherent approach towards learning again to help ourselves and to do more with less.

Enabling, 01 Jul 2008
Hooray. Despite some people's misgivings about the psychology section, which seem largely dependent on a definition of 'success', this is an outstanding book. It's primary achievement is to show the reader how societal change can take place in the absence of the usual too little too late response of governments, whose priorities lie with business, rather than people or environmental sustainability. The future security of Britain, and elsewhere, lies in groups of people with the will and power to make communities sustainable. It might seem unbelievable, but we have the power to transform our society, and are not at the whim of government. They will follow. If you admire Kohr, Schumacher, Papworth and Sale, you will respond positively to this book.

Brilliant in parts, dangerously foolish in others, 28 Jun 2008
I've the greatest sympathy with this book's concept in many respects. Rob correctly identifies the overriding need to reduce energy dependence, and that we must not wait for "them" to do anything about it, or even help us. Correctly he sees that we need a "how-to" manual for how to make communities (rather than just the reader) self-sufficient in food and so on. But the devil is in the practical details, or more precisely the practical unknowns which are all too easily glossed over.

The book gets hideously, dangerously misguided in its important section on psychology, with its notion of the importance of a "positive vision". History is bursting full of "positive visions" which ended in huge disasters. Instead, what is needed is a judiciously realistic vision. It is vitally important to recognise that criticism and doubt are just as important as hope and "constructive" "enthusiastic" thinking. Otherwise huge energy and effort is almost certain to be lost in enthusing down disastrous dead-ends.

In a traumatised society, many people become lost to despair, depression, negativity. But there is the equal problem that too many people desperately pin their hopes on "positive" but false solutions which ultimately fail them.

Someone said that the transition concept has been "phenomenally successful". That is seriously unhinged fantasy. There hasn't yet been a transition to test out how or even whether the ideas work out in practice.
You need to be very careful to avoid assuming that action is the same as achievement of solutions, or that international fame and crowds of enthusiastic followers is the same as success in solving the problem.

I would strongly urge the author to revise the psychology section of his book to take account of these comments. The importance of a realistic vision.

essential reading, 30 Apr 2008
I'm two thirds way through this book and overall find it an inspiring read. The first section in particular summarises some of the issues in a very easy to understand style. I liked the section on psychology particularly - I think both grieving, shock and addiction models are useful to understanding the apparently irrational responses of people to climate change and peak oil.

The rest of the book is harder to read - a lot of detail about how one should go about starting a transition initiative. Some of this stuff makes very important points about embedding the initiative into the community and I appreciate that it is derived from experience. At the same time I found it somewhat prescriptive, especially the directions for conducting meetings/workshops etc. This is a bit of a turn off - there are of course lots of ways of doing these things and I feel it would have been better just to refer to some resources or put these in appendices.

We have to act on climate change and peak oil and I buy the resilient local economy model. There is lots of useful stuff in this book, maybe some of it just more detailed than necessary.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Informative Book........, 26 Oct 2007
I bought this as it seemed an interesting read. I'm glad I did!

In brief:

It starts off in China, showing how salt was won using gas fires to heat brine, with mud insulated bamboo pipes to provide the flames. The next great event is that of the discovery of the great cod fisheries off Newfoundland and also that cod could be salted and would not turn rancid like herring.

Also contains interesting facts such as until quite recently salt was a government monopoly in Italy and could only be bought from tobacconists (cancer and high blood pressure in one place!) and that gold was not traded weight for weight with salt, although it does show the great value placed upon it. Mark Kurlansky did his reserach well for this.

Elevates chips from blah to sublime, 25 Jan 2006
I'm occasionally scolded for using too much salt. SALT: A WORLD HISTORY simply reinforces the fact that NaCl has been in the human diet for millennia. So, get off my back already. If God hadn't wanted me to eat the stuff, he wouldn't have given me kidneys.

Besides being a narrative of how salt has been harvested through the ages, either by brine evaporation or the mining of rock salt, SALT is also a history of its link to food preservation and preparation and governments. Whether it be cod, cheese, herring, ham, beef, anchovies, butter, Tabasco sauce, sauerkraut, pickles, ketchup, or "1000-year-old" eggs, salt makes it happen. And successive bureaucracies over the centuries have harnessed the production, sale and shipment of salt for the enrichment of national coffers through monopolies and taxation schemes, some of them disastrously misguided. Perhaps most illustrative of the latter is the chapter describing Britain's curtailment of indigenous salt production in India during the Raj period. This imperial policy, designed to protect the domestic English salt industry, was of such detriment to large segments of the Indian population that it was the issue that sparked Gandhi's campaign of civil disobedience, ultimately leading to that colony's independence.

I would award five stars except for two statements made by author Mark Kurlansky in his chapter about salt and the American Civil War. These assertions have trivial impact on the book as a whole, but are so sloppy as to make me wonder about the accuracy of his interpretation of more relevant facts.

Regarding Confederate general George Pickett, who received a pouch of precious salt as a wedding gift: "... (he) later reached the most northerly point of any Confederate in combat when he ... led a ruinous charge up a sloping Pennsylvania field - the climax of the Battle of Gettysburg." The author is referring, of course, to Pickett's Charge, and perhaps he was speaking figuratively. While it is fact that one of his brigades briefly breached the Union line at Bloody Angle, it was that unit's commander, Brigadier General Louis Armistead, who was mortally wounded inside the Union position and was arguably the one who led the charge. Pickett wasn't in front on that one. Also, the site of that valiant effort was south of the town of Gettysburg, which had been occupied by the Confederates two days previous.

Further on, Kurlansky trips when describing the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee as "a standoff". Really? While Federal forces under Ulysses Grant took a shellacking on the first day of the battle, they rallied on the second to drive the Confederates into a full-scale retreat from the battlefield. Moreover, Albert Sidney Johnston, who began Shiloh commanding the Confederate forces and was perhaps the South's most respected general at the time, was killed. Though casualties were roughly the same on both sides, my scorecard has this as a Northern win.

But, I digress.

SALT is one of those books about something we take for granted that captivates the reader with useless but fun facts. Did you know that pastrami (salted beef) is of Romanian origin, that Laplanders drink salted coffee, that a Swedish favorite is salted licorice candy, that 51% of U.S. salt use is to de-ice roads, or that there's a working salt mine 1,200 feet below Detroit?

Curiously, though, Kurlansky says not one word about that most mystical of culinary inventions, salt on chips. What was he thinking?

Trade in salt and salted foods shaped economies for centurie, 26 Jul 2005
"Salt; A World History," by Mark Kurlansky is a meticulously researched account of how trade in salt...and salted foods shaped global economies for centuries. The production of salt powered empires. Moreover, the salting of fish, fowl and hams fed soldiers and sailors for extended periods...allowing for the expansion of trade and military empires.

The Roman Empire required salt for its soldiers and at times soldiers were paid in salt...which was the origin of the word "salary"...and the expression "worth his salt" or "earning his salt," according to Kurlansky. After the fall of Rome, Venice became the dominant commerical force in Europe. To this end, salt trade maintained Venice's palatial public building and the complex hydralic system that prevented the metropolis from washing away.

Soon farmers in France discovered that curdled milk drained and preserved in salt made many different types of cheese. In Parma, Italy the production of salted "Prosciutto" ham and "Parmesan" cheese made the city famous. The same thing happened with the production of salted "Salami" in Felino and Genoa, Italy. However, a major factor in the prodcution of salted fish was the Medieval Roman Catholic Church's decision to forbide the eating of meat on religious days and the Lenten fast (40 days) and all Fridays. This was serious business...under English law at the time the penalty for eating meat on Friday was hanging. Consequently, trade in dried fish boomed...especially for Northern Cod, which had a white flesh with little fat (fat resists salt) and dried easily.

Page after page of this book is filled with significant historical information on how salt impacted economies especially with sea vessels and river steamboats. The author also includes little tid-bits of information about the develpment of our language...particularly the origin of expressions. For instance, when early American settlers hunted they would leave red herring along the trail because the strong smell would confuse wolves which is the origin of the expression "red herring," meaning..."false trail." Finally, Kurlansky explains that "Generals from George Washington to Napoleon discovered without salt...war is a desperate situation...salt was needed to treat wounds, preserve food for soldiers and for the diet of the calvary's horses." Recommended.

Bert Ruiz

Trade in salt and salted foods shaped economies for centurie, 23 Jul 2005
"Salt; A World History," by Mark Kurlansky is a meticulously researched account of how trade in salt...and salted foods shaped global economies for centuries. The production of salt powered empires. Moreover, the salting of fish, fowl and hams fed soldiers and sailors for extended periods...allowing for the expansion of trade and empires.

The Roman Empire required salt for its soldiers and at times soldiers were paid in salt...which was the origin of the word "salary"...and the expression "worth his salt" or "earning his salt," according to Kurlansky. After the fall of Rome, Venice became the dominant commerical force in Europe. To this end, salt trade maintained Venice's palatial public building and the complex hydralic system that prevented the metropolis from washing away.

Soon France farmers discovered that curdled mild drained and preserved in salt made many different types of cheese. In Parma, Italy the production of salted "Prosciutto" ham and "Parmesan" cheese made the city famous. The same thing happened with the production of salted "Salami" in Felino and Genoa, Italy. However, a major factor in the prodcution of salted fish was the Medieval Roman Catholic Church's decision to forbide the eating of meat on religious days and the Lenten fast (40 days) and all Fridays. This was serious business...under English law at the time the penalty for eating meat on Friday was hanging. Consequently, trade in dried fish boomed...especially for Northern Cod, which had a white flesh with little fat (fat resists salt) and dried easily.

Page after page of this book is filled with significant historical information on how salt impacted economies especially with sea vessels and river steamboats. The author also includes little tid-bits of information about the develpment of our language...particularly the origin of expressions. For instance, when early American settlers hunted they would leave red herring along the trail because the strong smell would confuse wolves which is the origin of the expression "red herring," meaning..."false trail." Finally, Kurlansky explains that "Generals from George Washington to Napoleon discovered without salt...war is a desperate situation...salt was needed to treat wounds, preserve food for soldiers and for the diet of the calvary's horses." Recommended.

Bert Ruiz

You'll never look at food in the same way again..., 26 Sep 2003
As I started reading this book, I thought to myself that Mark Kurlansky had performed a miracle, and actually made the subject of the history of salt quite interesting.

However, as you delve deeper into the book, you appreciate two things. First, just how important salt was in history - Kurlansky isn't exaggerating when he says wars have been fought, lost and won over salt. Second, how the author does actually have a very good writing style about him - the numerous fascinating facts he brings out may not have been quite so fascinating if told by a different author.

For me, two things put the book into perspective. These two things are explained about two-thirds of the way through the book, and suddenly make you realise why salt has been so important to society, governments, armies, etc.etc.etc throughout history - and why we can take it for granted now.

More than an epic history of salt (and it does actually work on that level too - such is Kurlansky's depth of research), this is packed so full of great little facts that it's also just a great read. Recommended for anyone who wants to understand more about a substance that's so common, it's very easy to take for granted these days. You just won't look at food in the same way again...

Very informative book, 08 Aug 2007
This book is used as a study material at the Open University in Energy for a sustainable future course (T206).

The boook won't tell you how to fit a solar panel or a wind turbine on your roof nor how to connect your panels to the battery but it will tell you about various renewable energy sources and its pros and cons. The book looks at the energy needs on local, national and international scale, not on individuals scale. Each chapter also has a large list of references for further information.

There is a lot of calculations present so, you'll be able for example to calculate the area of solar panels required for your needs or prove that off shore wind turbines generate more electricity than on shore ones.

I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in renewable energy.

Transition Handbook, 08 Oct 2008
This book is way overdue. I have been eagerly searching for books addressing the preparation for post peak oil for many many years. Books like this should have been written years ago so I was delighted to see that at last practical guides are starting to appear on the book shelves.

I really enjoyed the first couple of chapters dealing with peak oil and its implications for society. Subsequent chapters I did not enjoy as much particularly when the Kinsale Energy Decent Action Plan is promoted as a role model for sustainable community development.

There is a huge wealth of expertise in the development community, particularly which which was developed from overseas aid agencies. They have developed approaches, standards, principles and a multitude of methodologies for developing communities, with limited or almost non existent resources, and where success or failure costs lives. This expertise has been ignored and attempts made to reinvent the wheel.

I think the focus of the book should have built on the expertise of organisations such as Oxfam, VSO, Save the Children, and Overseas Development Administration and focused on the structures, processes and outcomes, which would help develop community resilience and sustainability, with limited resources.

I have a worry that communities who attempt to use this handbook as the basis for their transition will make fantastic progress initially through the generation of enthusiasm but due to improper planning, a lack of monitoring and evaluation of effectiveness and imprecise goals and objectives, people will become disillusioned and drop out. There is also the danger that communities who adapt this approach will not be able to communicate effectively with traditional disciplines, local authorities, health services, energy engineers or others. Who should change first? The current decision makers and service providers or the community development
organisations?

This process of conflict between service providers and community organisations has happened time and time again, without learning the lessons of what actually is sustainable in the long term. It usually results in the community organisation being unable to access state funding resulting in decline and or death. How can a community organisation sustain itself unless it becomes a business, with formal structures, job descriptions, terms of reference, fundamental guiding principles, training, development, salaries, income generation, sales etc. How can that fit with the "loose" concepts proposed?

Lets hope this is just the first of a huge range of increasingly sophisticated publications yet to come that will address these issues using the best expertise available in the fields of business, development management, community organisation, sustainability, public health, and many more, combined into a consensus best practice manual for transition. I hope these comments help to stimulate a critical approach to sustainable community development.


A smart, accessible guide to a resilient, low-carbon future, 11 Sep 2008
There is a powerful current in our contemporary, post-industrial culture that is arguing for a simpler, more sustainable alternative to our wasteful, environmentally damaging way of life. Proselytisers rely on a varying mix of three sets of arguments: the environmental challenge posed by climate change, the energy supply challenge posed by peak oil and, finally, the spiritual challenge emerging from the newest science on personal wellbeing (in a nutshell: beyond a certain point more money and stuff doesn't make us happier.)

Rob Hopkins' Transition Movement is pragmatic attempt to come to terms with the disruptions that are heralded by climate change and peak oil. Thoughtlessly addicted as we are to fossil fuels, our societies are ill equipped to deal with the adverse implications of energy scarcity and a hotter, less predictable climate. According to Hopkins, what we need to develop is resilience: the ability to deal creatively and locally with energy supply and environmental shocks.

The Transition Handbook is a hands-on guide to help communities make that transition towards a resilient, low-carbon future. It is useful to distinguish three layers in the book.

The first layer encapsulates the three main parts of Hopkins' argument, focused on the head (the facts about climate change and peak oil you need to know), the heart (the need for positive vision and commitment) and the hands (practical guidelines for enabling resilient communities).

The second layer consists of a range of design principles that can be relied on to shape resilient communities. For example, in preparing for an energy-scarce future we need to know that resilience relies on a small scale, modular and decentralised infrastructure. We also need to invest in high-quality productive relationships, integrate rather than segregate and use the creative edges of systems to make the most of their potential. There are many more of these principles that have been lifted from an eclectic mix of disciplines, including systems science, ecology and the psychology of change. Hopkins himself was deeply influenced by the permaculture movement, a radical design approach to constructing "sustainable human settlements".

The third layer features a range of practical solutions that comply with these design principles. These solutions are meant to be the cornerstones of any resilient community and include a template for working towards a more energy-thrifty ("energy descent planning"), decentralised energy generation, local food sourcing, re-skilling of consumers into creative citizens and local currencies.

Transition thinking is not only a theory but it is also a social movement and the book features a number of UK examples of communities that have started going down the path towards resilience. Hopkins is acutely aware that the governance of the Transition movement needs to mirror the design principles underlying resilience. It would hardly be credible and effective to embody a Transition movement by a tightly-managed, centralised bureaucracy. So, Hopkins is only willing to give pointers to help people in facilitating bottom-up, small-scale, self-steering initiatives. Lots is left to emergence and action learning ("... where it all goes remains to be seen ..." is an often used phrase in the book).

The Transition Handbook is an accessible, smart guide to helping us deal with the challenges we may face as a result of climate change and peak oil. In itself the book doesn't offer anything new, but it rearranges familiar pieces of a puzzle into a compelling and coherent approach towards learning again to help ourselves and to do more with less.

Enabling, 01 Jul 2008
Hooray. Despite some people's misgivings about the psychology section, which seem largely dependent on a definition of 'success', this is an outstanding book. It's primary achievement is to show the reader how societal change can take place in the absence of the usual too little too late response of governments, whose priorities lie with business, rather than people or environmental sustainability. The future security of Britain, and elsewhere, lies in groups of people with the will and power to make communities sustainable. It might seem unbelievable, but we have the power to transform our society, and are not at the whim of government. They will follow. If you admire Kohr, Schumacher, Papworth and Sale, you will respond positively to this book.

Brilliant in parts, dangerously foolish in others, 28 Jun 2008
I've the greatest sympathy with this book's concept in many respects. Rob correctly identifies the overriding need to reduce energy dependence, and that we must not wait for "them" to do anything about it, or even help us. Correctly he sees that we need a "how-to" manual for how to make communities (rather than just the reader) self-sufficient in food and so on. But the devil is in the practical details, or more precisely the practical unknowns which are all too easily glossed over.

The book gets hideously, dangerously misguided in its important section on psychology, with its notion of the importance of a "positive vision". History is bursting full of "positive visions" which ended in huge disasters. Instead, what is needed is a judiciously realistic vision. It is vitally important to recognise that criticism and doubt are just as important as hope and "constructive" "enthusiastic" thinking. Otherwise huge energy and effort is almost certain to be lost in enthusing down disastrous dead-ends.

In a traumatised society, many people become lost to despair, depression, negativity. But there is the equal problem that too many people desperately pin their hopes on "positive" but false solutions which ultimately fail them.

Someone said that the transition concept has been "phenomenally successful". That is seriously unhinged fantasy. There hasn't yet been a transition to test out how or even whether the ideas work out in practice.
You need to be very careful to avoid assuming that action is the same as achievement of solutions, or that international fame and crowds of enthusiastic followers is the same as success in solving the problem.

I would strongly urge the author to revise the psychology section of his book to take account of these comments. The importance of a realistic vision.

essential reading, 30 Apr 2008
I'm two thirds way through this book and overall find it an inspiring read. The first section in particular summarises some of the issues in a very easy to understand style. I liked the section on psychology particularly - I think both grieving, shock and addiction models are useful to understanding the apparently irrational responses of people to climate change and peak oil.

The rest of the book is harder to read - a lot of detail about how one should go about starting a transition initiative. Some of this stuff makes very important points about embedding the initiative into the community and I appreciate that it is derived from experience. At the same time I found it somewhat prescriptive, especially the directions for conducting meetings/workshops etc. This is a bit of a turn off - there are of course lots of ways of doing these things and I feel it would have been better just to refer to some resources or put these in appendices.

We have to act on climate change and peak oil and I buy the resilient local economy model. There is lots of useful stuff in this book, maybe some of it just more detailed than necessary.

A wood that pays is a wood that stays, 30 Aug 2007
An excellent book for students and landowners, it starts with a brief history of woodland in Britain, followed by a chapter on tree biology and sylvicultural systems which is comprehensive and written in refreshingly plain english. The native and commonly used non-native trees are then detailed followed by how to draw up a management plan, essential if you want grant aid. Then the nitty-gritty of planting, protecting, measurement and marketing.

This is a very practical book on managing woodlands as a whole, very sensitive to their wildlife and landscape value but stressing that woodlands that pay are more likely to last.

A Starr read!, 29 Mar 2006
I found this book to be an insightful and stimulating guide to managing woodlands. The authour's writing style holds your attention and the information supplied is highly relevant and will be of value to a wide range of readers. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in purchasing or managing woodlands in the future.

Good Introduction, 07 Jan 2006
This book is an excellent introduction to Forest Management. It starts from the beginning, with no assumption of prior knowledge.

Ideal for potential forestry students as well as those with an interest in woodland.

Informative Book........, 26 Oct 2007
I bought this as it seemed an interesting read. I'm glad I did!

In brief:

It starts off in China, showing how salt was won using gas fires to heat brine, with mud insulated bamboo pipes to provide the flames. The next great event is that of the discovery of the great cod fisheries off Newfoundland and also that cod could be salted and would not turn rancid like herring.

Also contains interesting facts such as until quite recently salt was a government monopoly in Italy and could only be bought from tobacconists (cancer and high blood pressure in one place!) and that gold was not traded weight for weight with salt, although it does show the great value placed upon it. Mark Kurlansky did his reserach well for this.

Elevates chips from blah to sublime, 25 Jan 2006
I'm occasionally scolded for using too much salt. SALT: A WORLD HISTORY simply reinforces the fact that NaCl has been in the human diet for millennia. So, get off my back already. If God hadn't wanted me to eat the stuff, he wouldn't have given me kidneys.

Besides being a narrative of how salt has been harvested through the ages, either by brine evaporation or the mining of rock salt, SALT is also a history of its link to food preservation and preparation and governments. Whether it be cod, cheese, herring, ham, beef, anchovies, butter, Tabasco sauce, sauerkraut, pickles, ketchup, or "1000-year-old" eggs, salt makes it happen. And successive bureaucracies over the centuries have harnessed the production, sale and shipment of salt for the enrichment of national coffers through monopolies and taxation schemes, some of them disastrously misguided. Perhaps most illustrative of the latter is the chapter describing Britain's curtailment of indigenous salt production in India during the Raj period. This imperial policy, designed to protect the domestic English salt industry, was of such detriment to large segments of the Indian population that it was the issue that sparked Gandhi's campaign of civil disobedience, ultimately leading to that colony's independence.

I would award five stars except for two statements made by author Mark Kurlansky in his chapter about salt and the American Civil War. These assertions have trivial impact on the book as a whole, but are so sloppy as to make me wonder about the accuracy of his interpretation of more relevant facts.

Regarding Confederate general George Pickett, who received a pouch of precious salt as a wedding gift: "... (he) later reached the most northerly point of any Confederate in combat when he ... led a ruinous charge up a sloping Pennsylvania field - the climax of the Battle of Gettysburg." The author is referring, of course, to Pickett's Charge, and perhaps he was speaking figuratively. While it is fact that one of his brigades briefly breached the Union line at Bloody Angle, it was that unit's commander, Brigadier General Louis Armistead, who was mortally wounded inside the Union position and was arguably the one who led the charge. Pickett wasn't in front on that one. Also, the site of that valiant effort was south of the town of Gettysburg, which had been occupied by the Confederates two days previous.

Further on, Kurlansky trips when describing the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee as "a standoff". Really? While Federal forces under Ulysses Grant took a shellacking on the first day of the battle, they rallied on the second to drive the Confederates into a full-scale retreat from the battlefield. Moreover, Albert Sidney Johnston, who began Shiloh commanding the Confederate forces and was perhaps the South's most respected general at the time, was killed. Though casualties were roughly the same on both sides, my scorecard has this as a Northern win.

But, I digress.

SALT is one of those books about something we take for granted that captivates the reader with useless but fun facts. Did you know that pastrami (salted beef) is of Romanian origin, that Laplanders drink salted coffee, that a Swedish favorite is salted licorice candy, that 51% of U.S. salt use is to de-ice roads, or that there's a working salt mine 1,200 feet below Detroit?

Curiously, though, Kurlansky says not one word about that most mystical of culinary inventions, salt on chips. What was he thinking?

Trade in salt and salted foods shaped economies for centurie, 26 Jul 2005
"Salt; A World History," by Mark Kurlansky is a meticulously researched account of how trade in salt...and salted foods shaped global economies for centuries. The production of salt powered empires. Moreover, the salting of fish, fowl and hams fed soldiers and sailors for extended periods...allowing for the expansion of trade and military empires.

The Roman Empire required salt for its soldiers and at times soldiers were paid in salt...which was the origin of the word "salary"...and the expression "worth his salt" or "earning his salt," according to Kurlansky. After the fall of Rome, Venice became the dominant commerical force in Europe. To this end, salt trade maintained Venice's palatial public building and the complex hydralic system that prevented the metropolis from washing away.

Soon farmers in France discovered that curdled milk drained and preserved in salt made many different types of cheese. In Parma, Italy the production of salted "Prosciutto" ham and "Parmesan" cheese made the city famous. The same thing happened with the production of salted "Salami" in Felino and Genoa, Italy. However, a major factor in the prodcution of salted fish was the Medieval Roman Catholic Church's decision to forbide the eating of meat on religious days and the Lenten fast (40 days) and all Fridays. This was serious business...under English law at the time the penalty for eating meat on Friday was hanging. Consequently, trade in dried fish boomed...especially for Northern Cod, which had a white flesh with little fat (fat resists salt) and dried easily.

Page after page of this book is filled with significant historical information on how salt impacted economies especially with sea vessels and river steamboats. The author also includes little tid-bits of information about the develpment of our language...particularly the origin of expressions. For instance, when early American settlers hunted they would leave red herring along the trail because the strong smell would confuse wolves which is the origin of the expression "red herring," meaning..."false trail." Finally, Kurlansky explains that "Generals from George Washington to Napoleon discovered without salt...war is a desperate situation...salt was needed to treat wounds, preserve food for soldiers and for the diet of the calvary's horses." Recommended.

Bert Ruiz

Trade in salt and salted foods shaped economies for centurie, 23 Jul 2005
"Salt; A World History," by Mark Kurlansky is a meticulously researched account of how trade in salt...and salted foods shaped global economies for centuries. The production of salt powered empires. Moreover, the salting of fish, fowl and hams fed soldiers and sailors for extended periods...allowing for the expansion of trade and empires.

The Roman Empire required salt for its soldiers and at times soldiers were paid in salt...which was the origin of the word "salary"...and the expression "worth his salt" or "earning his salt," according to Kurlansky. After the fall of Rome, Venice became the dominant commerical force in Europe. To this end, salt trade maintained Venice's palatial public building and the complex hydralic system that prevented the metropolis from washing away.

Soon France farmers discovered that curdled mild drained and preserved in salt made many different types of cheese. In Parma, Italy the production of salted "Prosciutto" ham and "Parmesan" cheese made the city famous. The same thing happened with the production of salted "Salami" in Felino and Genoa, Italy. However, a major factor in the prodcution of salted fish was the Medieval Roman Catholic Church's decision to forbide the eating of meat on religious days and the Lenten fast (40 days) and all Fridays. This was serious business...under English law at the time the penalty for eating meat on Friday was hanging. Consequently, trade in dried fish boomed...especially for Northern Cod, which had a white flesh with little fat (fat resists salt) and dried easily.

Page after page of this book is filled with significant historical information on how salt impacted economies especially with sea vessels and river steamboats. The author also includes little tid-bits of information about the develpment of our language...particularly the origin of expressions. For instance, when early American settlers hunted they would leave red herring along the trail because the strong smell would confuse wolves which is the origin of the expression "red herring," meaning..."false trail." Finally, Kurlansky explains that "Generals from George Washington to Napoleon discovered without salt...war is a desperate situation...salt was needed to treat wounds, preserve food for soldiers and for the diet of the calvary's horses." Recommended.

Bert Ruiz

You'll never look at food in the same way again..., 26 Sep 2003
As I started reading this book, I thought to myself that Mark Kurlansky had performed a miracle, and actually made the subject of the history of salt quite interesting.

However, as you delve deeper into the book, you appreciate two things. First, just how important salt was in history - Kurlansky isn't exaggerating when he says wars have been fought, lost and won over salt. Second, how the author does actually have a very good writing style about him - the numerous fascinating facts he brings out may not have been quite so fascinating if told by a different author.

For me, two things put the book into perspective. These two things are explained about two-thirds of the way through the book, and suddenly make you realise why salt has been so important to society, governments, armies, etc.etc.etc throughout history - and why we can take it for granted now.

More than an epic history of salt (and it does actually work on that level too - such is Kurlansky's depth of research), this is packed so full of great little facts that it's also just a great read. Recommended for anyone who wants to understand more about a substance that's so common, it's very easy to take for granted these days. You just won't look at food in the same way again...

Very informative book, 08 Aug 2007
This book is used as a study material at the Open University in Energy for a sustainable future course (T206).

The boook won't tell you how to fit a solar panel or a wind turbine on your roof nor how to connect your panels to the battery but it will tell you about various renewable energy sources and its pros and cons. The book looks at the energy needs on local, national and international scale, not on individuals scale. Each chapter also has a large list of references for further information.

There is a lot of calculations present so, you'll be able for example to calculate the area of solar panels required for your needs or prove that off shore wind turbines generate more electricity than on shore ones.

I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in renewable energy.

OK, but could go further., 23 Jul 2008
Easily readable book covering the problems of further oil exploration, discovery and extraction, and then talks briefly about the problems of global warming. He then goes on to talk about alternatives to oil. Here he gets a little confused between two separate things, one, the source of energy, and two, the delivery of that energy to where it's needed. Oil does both of these. Roberts talks about a possible future "hydrogen economy" as the most viable alternative, while dismissing nuclear and renewables and other sources of energy, but hydrogen is not an energy source: it is an energy delivery method. Some energy source has to make the hydrogen in the first place. Therefore his dismissal of solar and nuclear is not as easy as he makes out. Also, he dismisses geothermal energy in less than a sentence, which is far less than it deserves. In doing this, he confuses the physically possible with the economically viable. Solar, nuclear and geothermal are at least physically viable as alternatives, as they can probably produce the required energy: the only question is their economics. His discussion of their economics is perhaps valid, but economics is all relative. The question is at what point other energy sources become economic and what the consequences of using them are.

All that is less of a review, and more of a critique. While the book is highly topical, and very readable without dumbing down, it confuses a number of points that need to be distinguished.

Peak Oil - and what happens next, 24 Apr 2007
Paul Roberts' The End of Oil, is a thorough and comprehensive study of the petroleum economy, a book that examines the three-pronged threats to the existing energy order: oil depletion, environmental [...] and geopolitical instability.

Roberts' analysis on depletion asks the question, `what should we do before the oil runs dry?' For run dry it will. Peak Oil, as the subject has come to be known, is based on variables, some known and some unknown. Disregarding the most wildly optimistic forecasts proposed by mouthpieces within the Saudi Arabian and United States' oil businesses (as well as those with the current occupiers of the pro-oil Whitehouse), production of oil is reasonably estimated to peak around the year 2025. After that, oil reserves will be in terminal decline (some analysts say that production has already peaked). If the developed countries of this planet are to maintain their standards of life and if less developed countries want to give their citizens the same access to energy (and everything that goes with it: education, health care, material goods and so forth), how is this to be achieved? What is the solution to demand that is rapidly escalating and oil supplies that are dwindling?

After articulating in some depth the scale of the problem, without reverting to "the end is nigh" doom-mongering, Roberts examines potential solutions: from coal (massive reserves but an environmental catastrophe) and nuclear (`clean' if you don't mind burying the waste in your back garden), to so-called `alternatives' such as solar and wind, to liquefied natural gas and hydrogen fuel cell micro grids (but no mention, alas, of the ellusive zero-point technologies).

These solutions also bring in the second facet of the book, environmental [...]. Just what is the impact of oil on the environment? This is not simply analysing the automotive industry's reaction to miles-per-gallon fuel efficiency, which Roberts does but also looking at the construction of modern buildings - how construction firms win bids by offering the lowest up-front costs, which often means incredibly wasteful energy usage; more expensive construction techniques that actually reduce long-term running costs by fuel efficiencies are often seen as uncompetitive in the immediate short-term. Roberts also discusses alternative energy generating techniques and just how much of an impact this could have, given the proper government backing. The Kyoto Protocol and carbon emissions - why 550 parts per million is pretty much the threshold below which the planet can sustain life without the threat of severe and permanent damage? Discussed. Why, even if carbon emissions were cut to zero immediately, they would still keep on rising? Discussed. What we can do about this? Discussed.

As with the rest of this book, Roberts' examines so many other issues that here I can only hint at the amount of information that this book contains.

Paul Roberts also breaks down the geopolitical implications of the existing order: why the price of oil is so volatile, what the relationship betwixt the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is based around (read Craig Unger's superb book, House of Bush, House of Saud, for much more on this disturbing connection), why Big Oil has a vested interest in the status quo, in that to upgrade existing energy infrastructure would literally take trillions of dollars and oil companies are making money without spending this capital on unproven energy technologies. Again, these few sentences can only hint at the thorough research that Roberts has undertaken, in order to bring these complex and often subtle factors to light.

Roberts does also pose solutions, not simply articulate the problems. In short, there is no magic bullet but a combination of several programmes might go some way to ensuring that all citizens of this planet have a future - ultimately a combination of energy efficiency strategies (supply is running out, so make savings in the consumption side of the equation) and alternative fuel sources, coupled with governmental incentives to consumers and suppliers, alongside benefits to less developed countries, to help them to modernise their energy economies and leapfrog the worst aspects of the West's industrial revolution development.

For just one example: with the car industry, an idea might be to internalise externalities. With the tobacco industry, the cost of growing the leaf and bringing it to market is quite low. The price of cigarettes is relatively high because governments' recognise that there are costs associated with smoking that are borne by society (the externalities) - most notably, hospital care for patients suffering from self-inflicted-smoking-related cancers. Therefore, cigarettes are highly taxed in order to off-set the costs that the product causes, to place that cost back on the manufacturer. If this logical approach was applied to cars, the cost of an inefficient large car or so-called Sports Utility Vehicle would be much higher because the environmental cost of bringing that oil to the market would be placed back where it belongs; the costs of maintaining a large military presence in the Middle East, combined with the costs to the health care industry of car-related pollution and respiratory diseases, would not be paid for by society at large but by those who choose to buy those particular cars. This would encourage people to buy less of these wasteful and usually unnecessary vehicles until they became more energy efficient; it would also incentivise the auto industry to rekindle the spirit of fuel economies that was once so prevalent after the Arab oil embargo of the mid 1970s. Unfortunately, energy savings - energy capital - like this is often turned into an energy deficit, by having more people purchasing these aspirational vehicles. This leads to a paradox that the more energy we save, the more we end up consuming. This incredibly brief illustration, which probably does no justice to the original text, is but one of numerous examples that Roberts' provides.

Above all, Paul Roberts argues that a do nothing, business a