What If we imagined a better future? - Rob Hopkins - BS011

In this month's 'Building Sustainability' podcast, we talk with Rob Hopkins. A massive thanks to Rob for being such a wonderful guest... even if Google Maps tried to sabotage our meeting!Rob Hopkins is a cofounder of Transition Town Totnes and Transition Network, and the author of The Power of Just Doing Stuff, The Transition Handbook, and The Transition Companion. In 2012, he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and was on Nesta and the Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it’s more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it.In these times of deep division and deeper despair, if there is a consensus about anything in the world, it is that the future is going to be awful. There is an epidemic of loneliness, an epidemic of anxiety, a mental health crisis of vast proportions, especially among young people. There’s a rise in extremist movements and governments. Catastrophic climate change. Biodiversity loss. Food insecurity. The fracturing of ecosystems and communities beyond, it seems, repair. The future—to say nothing of the present—looks grim.But as Transition movement cofounder Rob Hopkins tells us, there is plenty of evidence that things can change, and cultures can change, rapidly, dramatically, and unexpectedly—for the better. He has seen it happen around the world and in his own town of Totnes, England, where the community is becoming its own housing developer, energy company, enterprise incubator, and local food network—with cascading benefits to the community that extend far beyond the projects themselves.Support this podcast:https://www.patreon.com/buildingsustainabilityShow links Buy 'What is to What If' - publisher link - https://tinyurl.com/25nvoz3uRob Hopkins Podcast - Research interviews for the bookThe Totnes Pound / Wikipedia13 Minutes to the moon - podcastNaomi KleinTorrance test for creativityThe Transition Network  - A movement of communities coming together to reimagThe Mick & Pat ShowJoin us for informal conversations surrounding beer, film, politics and philosophy.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the showConnect with me:IG - @jeffreythenaturalbuilderTwitter - @JNaturalBuilderFacebook - JeffreythenaturalbuilderLinkedIn - JeffreythenaturalbuilderSupport this podcast - https://www.patreon.com/buildingsustainability Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.