New Zealand: Gearing now for peak oil shock

A movement that “stops the ‘overwhelm’; the feeling ‘but what can I do’? It’s an opportunity for people to come from an individual standpoint and make a difference.”

That’s how Normandale resident Juanita McKenzie describes Transition Towns. It’s a model in which community-based initiatives facilitate transition from a globalised, oil-dependent society to a resilient, re-localised society that can thrive in a world where there is less abundant cheap oil.


A series of local meetings are about to get underway for people worried about the environment and the effects of rapidly escalating petrol prices, who are interested in talking about local action and being prepared.

The first Transition Town was kicked off in Kinsale, Ireland, in 2005 and repeated in Totnes, Wales, the next year.

It’s snowballed. It’s being replicated in several hundred ‘towns’ worldwide (that can be anything from overgrown villages to large cities), including 36 centres in New Zealand.

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