The speaker at our April chapter meeting and Earth Day program was Leslie MacKenzie, a community organizer with Transition Twin Cities and a founding member of Transition Longfellow. Transition is a grassroots movement of people around the world who are shifting their lifestyles away from dependence on fossil fuels toward a lower-carbon, more sustainable and resilient future.
Transition is a way of thinking, being mindful of how we approach decision-making every day. Transition is concrete action by ordinary people taking responsibility for climate change – not waiting for government or industry or others to act. And it’s a global movement for change. It’s not always called Transition across the country or globe, but it’s people everywhere moving in the same direction to mitigate and prepare for climate change.
Transition groups support neighbors and friends in making daily decisions that align our actions with our understanding of the seriousness of the problem. We can choose what we will eat, how we will travel, and where we will live. We can choose the amount of consumer goods we purchase and how we dispose of them. And the most impactful decision we can make as an American is whether or not to have children and how many we will have.
Leslie challenged us to accept personal responsibility for transitioning to a more sustainable and resilient world. Are we willing to use our resourcefulness and influence – however large or small that may be – to help make the change we want to see in the world.
After the program several people signed up to explore starting a Transition Humanists Group. Contact Audrey at president@humanistsofmn.org if you would like to learn more.
— Audrey Kingstrom
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