Welcome everyone to the Transition Town Port Alberni Web Log (blog)!
There is an effort afoot to the start up a Transition Town movement in Port Alberni.
We’ve had 2 meetings so far. Our next meeting is May 27th. We’re looking for more people to help get this thing off the ground!
The basic premise is this: Climate Change and Peak Oil are big, ugly, doomerish topics. Not fun to deal with, but deal with them we must. And how best to deal with them!?
With a positive vision.
Just imagine for a minute the best possible future that you can imagine that does not include fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal, natural gas). OK, it might have a little of each, but only exactly what we need, without being totally dependent like we are now. It’s not really too hard to imagine, is it? In fact it can look pretty appealing no? That’s what we’re trying for.
So that’s it, that’s Transition Towns… it’s a positive vision in the face of daunting challenges. And rather than duplicating, or challenging, the environmental, social and economic groups we have now, TT tries to include those groups, because there are solutions to both issues that will naturally come from everyone, and we need everyone working together to have the best outcome possible.
Here are the basic principles. (taken from this big TT primer 
). (I’ve added bold for emphasis)
- Climate Change and Peak Oil require urgent action
- Life with less energy is inevitable and it is better to plan for it than be taken by surprise
- Industrial society has lost the resilience to be able to cope with energy shocks.
- We have to act together and we have to act now.
- Regarding the world economy and the consumptive patterns within it, as long as the laws of physics apply, infinite growth within a finite system (such as planet earth) simply isn’t possible.
- We demonstrated phenomenal levels of ingenuity and intelligence as we raced up the energy curve over the last 150 years, and there’s no reason why we can’t use those qualities, and more, as we negotiate our way down from the peak of the energy mountain
- If we plan and act early enough, and use our creativity and cooperation to unleash the genius within our local communities, then we can build a future that could be far more fulfilling and enriching, more connected and more gentle on the earth than the lifestyles we have today.
That’s it! If you would like to know more, come to one of our meetings! The next one will be May 27th, 7:30PM at someones house, email patransitions@gmail.com for more information.
#1 by Mike Lewis on May 16, 2009 - 12:19 pm
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Hi there. I will try and make the meeting on the 27th. I am anxious to try and be involved at the local level. It seems my work, which includes many of the concerns of the Transition Town movement, keeps me so away from my own town, that I rarely make a contribution directly where I live.
I am currently working on a short 30-35 page paper with a colleague from the New Economics Foundation in the UK that hopefully may be of some use here locally. It should be ready at the end of June. I would love to have people critique it here locally, if they are interested and willing.
After consultation around the draft, we will be releasing in, likely in October. This will be a joint release of the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal, the Rebuilding Society Network in Wales, the New Economics Foundation and the BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance.
Anyways, we are hoping it might provoke thinking about the practical challenges we have to face in localities and regions around food, fuel, finance, fashion and fun. The last one is not unimportant as we enter into the most challenging century the human species has ever faced.
I am looking forward to connecting with fellow citizens to help navigate the incredible SEE Change we need to make (Social, Ecological, Economic) All the best. Hope to see you on the 27th.
#2 by chrisale on May 16, 2009 - 12:40 pm
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Can hardly wait to see you there Mike and to see your paper!
I know you’ve been wanting to come. And I know you know the door is wide open!
I think there is a real undercurrent happening right now… people are recognizing that the past 50 years have done a lot of unnecessary damage to our society, our economy, and our environment…. and people are feeling a need to change and put things right.
#3 by Harald Wolf on May 16, 2009 - 10:43 pm
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Congratulations on getting this up and running!
Hopefully we will soon have a public face to our efforts in the Capital Region. We are currently aiming at starting movie and discussion evenings in the fall.
For me, the overriding urgency pertains to food! This Island is at the end of the supply chain bringing in 95% of our food and 95% of our energy. If there is ever a run on fuel (as suggested my Mat Simmons – see Youtube), or the droughts in California become worse, we will suddenly become aware how vulnerable we are.
Hopefully we will soon have a whole bunch of Transition-style initiatives going from down here up to Port Hardy. Then we can start some serious networking and figure out how we can help each other in our Energy Descent strategies.
I don’t think the “Hundred Mile Diet” approach makes much sense on an island. I’d rather know what food is being grown in the Comox Valley or seafood landed in PA than expect to be supplied by ferry from Washington State, only 50km away.
The other day I was in the Super Store and saw they were selling frozen carrots from Israel! Can you imagine – carrots from the desert! They were probably irrigated with desalinated water, produced with coal-generated electricity, then shipped halfway around the world for our pleasure and convenience!
We’ve just discovered that here in Saanich – largest community on the Island – we are not allowed to have backyard chickens unless we have a 12,000 sq ft lot – about twice the average suburban lot! No, industry really wants us to buy the factory-produced poultry products from Abbotsford, and industry calls the shots.
We’ve got a lot of battles ahead of us, but Transition will help with positive motivation.
Harald Wolf – hwolf@wolfweb.ca
Greater Victoria Transition Initiative
#4 by Mike Lewis on May 24, 2009 - 12:29 pm
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Here is the latest from Jerry Rubin, one time the Chief Economist of CIBC. Peak Oil – get ready for the price to start climbing again. This is written by a journalist friend in Nova Scotia.
SUNDAY HERALD COLUMN – May 24, 2009 [HH0920]
PROPHET OF PETROLEUM
by Silver Donald Cameron
When Jeff Rubin said that oil was going to $50 a barrel, other
economists thought he was on drugs. But it did. They scoffed again
when he said it would go beyond $100. It went to $147 before dropping
to $50. Don’t be suckered, says Rubin. As the recession ends, oil
will go far higher — $200, $400, who knows?
For 20 years, Rubin was Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets. His
newly-published book Why Your World Is About To Get a Whole Lot
Smaller (Random House,$29.95) rests on a simple argument. Our entire
globalized economy depends on cheap oil, but we have already burned
most of the easily-obtained free-flowing oil. That’s why we’re now
spending vast amounts to wring the difficult oil from the deep sea
and the tar sands, because that’s all that’s left.
So the world’s steadily-rising demand for oil ultimately can’t be
satisfied. According to conventional economics, when a thing is
scarce, its price goes up. Higher prices stimulate more production,
which drives the price down again. But not this time. With the easy
oil already used, we’ll be hard-pressed even to maintain today’s
production for very long. More and more dollars will chase less and
less oil, and the price will soar.
When the oil price jumps, the economy slumps. One of Rubin’s
startling assertions is that four of the last five world recessions
were caused by upward spikes in oil prices — two after the OPEC oil
shocks of the 1970s, one after Iraq invaded Kuwait and torched its
oil wells, and another one right now. This recession, Rubin contends,
is a result not of malodorous mortgages in Middle America, but of $147 oil.
There’s a pattern, says Rubin. The oil price rises, and the economy
stalls. The demand for oil then drops sharply, and the oil price
falls. Consumers and producers alike heave a sigh of relief and get
back to work until the next spike. But notice this: the prices always
ratchet upward. In 2000, when Rubin predicted $50 oil, a $30 price
was considered high. Just eight years later, we regard $50 oil as cheap.
Without cheap oil, the globalized economy withers. As fuel costs
become prohibitive, companies stop importing raw materials and
shipping products halfway around the world. High transport costs,
says Rubin, work exactly the same as a tariff, penalizing
imports. Firms realize that they can compete more effectively if
their factory is close to the consumer.
The bad news is, no more Chinese-made bargains at Wal-Mart, no more
cheap food from California and Chile. The good news is, a lot more
jobs in factories close to home, and a bright new dawn for local agriculture.
Coping with climate change will also erode globalization. Rubin
predicts that the US will soon impose mandatory carbon controls on
its own industries — and will insist that its trading partners cut
their own emissions too, or face a carbon tariff for their products
at the border.
Indeed, a carbon-control bill now in Congress includes a provision to
impose tariffs on imports from countries with lax climate-change
rules. The main target is China, but Stephen Harper’s Canada is not
exempt. Expect hard questions about the tar sands, for instance. Bob
Page, an Alberta energy executive, chairs the national roundtable on
environment and the economy, a true fox in the henhouse. He condemns
the Congressional initiative as “protectionism.” I’d call it “leadership.”
The inevitable adjustments will be painful for a small province that
generates power from coal and heats its homes with oil, but we may
like the eventual results. Think of walkable neighbourhoods,
efficient public transit, revitalized small towns and villages, close
relationships between local businesses and customers. Cleaner air,
safer food, healthier forests. How bad is that? Europeans, Rubin
notes, already live like that. In 1950 we lived that way too, and we
thought our lives were pretty good.
Is Rubin correct? Well, this summer, Marjorie and I are going to
insulate and tighten the house, build a woodshed and install a solar
hot water heater. Last winter’s oil prices were an unexpected gift.
They gave us a chance to prepare for the next spike — and we’re not
going to waste it.
– 30 –
Silver Donald Cameron
24 Armshore Drive, Halifax, NS B3N 1M5
(902)446-5577 fax (902)446-6099
http://www.silverdonaldcameron.ca
“In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. In
practice there is.”
– Yogi Berra