Post Oil Perth

As Richard Heinburg, author of the peak oil book "The Party's Over" points out:

"True individual and family security will come only with community solidarity and interdependence."

So, what are other communities doing to prepare for the transition to a post carbon society?

Your own welfare tomorrow may depend on what you do in your community today!  Why not pick a strategy that appeals to you and breath some life and resilience into your own neighbourhood?

Here are a number of projects currently being undertaken by
transitioning communities around the world.....

Transition Towns

Transition Towns, a permaculture inspired movement very active in the United Kingdom,  suggests a 12 Step development pathway that has proven effective.  The steps are:

1. Form a Steering Group and plan it's demise...
2. Raise awareness (films, talks etc)...
3. Lay the Foundation...building alliances with related groups
4. Official Unleashing/Launch celebration... about 6 - 12 months into project
5. Form working groups (or enlist those that already exist) to explore solutions for each aspect of society (eg food, transport, local govt, oral history...)
6. Use Open Space community meetings format and put results on the TT wiki
7. Develop visible, practical manifestations of the project e.g. local currency, community garden...
8. Facilitate "The Great Reskilling"...We are the most useless generation ever to walk the planet!  Time to utilize local skills to build capacity and a sense of "can do."  e.g. growing food, preserving, woodwork..
9. Build a bridge to local government
10. Honor the elders and their expertise and advice
11. Let the group evolve how it wants to....
12. Create an Energy Descent Plan..  A 20 year plan towards a tangible vision of a positive, powered down future.  

 The quality of advice and guidance is great.  Catch it all on their website here.

Post Oil Institute 

These come with with corresponding
guides developed by the Post Oil Institute to help us put them into
practice. 

Raising Community Awareness and Support for Transition Strategies

• Screen a Film About Relocalization Issues

Film screenings and film
festivals are a valuable tool for raising community awareness about energy,
environmental and other issues related to Relocalization. They can also be
valuable opportunities to spur discussion about local issues, announce and
promote local projects and organizations, and even raise fund for sponsoring
groups.

There are some great online videos available on the transitionculture.org website <a href=http://transitionculture.org/essential-info/interviews-and-talks-audio/>here.</a>

• Have Your Local Government Pass a Peak Oil Resolution

A Peak Oil Resolution is a
formal declaration by a government entity that identifies Peak Oil as a
pressing problem, and establishes steps to address and respond to it. Getting
your local government to pass a Peak Oil Resolution creates an important
context for future policy decisions, possibly guiding the jurisdiction on
planning and zoning, transportation, and investments in infrastructure. It also
draws community attention to the issue, encouraging individuals and businesses
to consider the ways
Peak Oil may impact their
interests.

Once a local government entity resolves to respond to Peak Oil, the next step many (e.g. cities of Portland and San Francisco) take is to establish a Peak Oil Preparedness Task Force whose job it is to develop an Energy Descent Action Plan.

Read the Transition Towns movement's Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan here.

A number of citizen's groups have engaged with local government through
the formation of a task force - see
http://postcarboncities.net/node/2039 for more info.

Anyone interested in being part of a small group to develop a great presentation that we can all then use to mobilize support for transition in our local communities? If so, contact me.

• Coordinate Letters to the Editor

The letters to the editor section of
your local paper represents is a valuable forum for getting your message about
peak oil, low-energy living and global
relocalization to the community, which includes both local citizens and
politicians. The editorial section is one of the most read
sections of any newspaper. Letters to the editor help editors decide which
topics to cover in future news stories and
editorials. Additionally, elected
officials often carefully monitor this section and the editorial page to gauge local opinion. Coordinate your efforts: gather together
several local organizations and plan to write editorials to the same newspaper within the same week.
The more letters an editor gets, the more weight your letter will have.

• Raise Awareness with Press Releases
  

The folks at Green For All have put together an excellent Media
Toolkit with useful info on approaching media. It can be downloaded
here: http://www.greenforall.org/resources/media-toolkit/download

Writing press releases can be an
effective means of sharing your message with your community. Focus your story
on specific issues, perhaps something that is
happening in your community, and outline the positive actions that your group
is taking to deal with these challenges. A
well-written press release can raise community awareness about the
ramifications of our society’s over-reliance on cheap
energy and will encourage others to speak out about these issues. Press
releases can inspire people to
action and will give your group and its activities legitimacy.

Revitalize Your Local Food Systems

• Reclaim Public Space

Relocalization needs public
space: if community members don’t have places where they can interact, it can
be very difficult for them to form relationships, share resources, and organize
to determine their community’s future.

Work with other members of your community to revitalize an existing public
space or to create a new site for neighborhood interaction. Each community will
have a different vision of how to develop such a project and how the finished
product will look, function and be managed. Project ideas include reclaiming an
underused parking lot for public space, converting a street intersection into
public space, or reclaiming a vacant or abandoned lot for a community garden.

• Start a Food Co-operative

Resources:
Co-operative Grocers’ Information Network:
Cooperative Directory Service

Help support local farmers and promote sustainable agricultural practices by forming a food co-operative to purchase and
distribute organic and locally grown produce. Forming co-ops can make organic local food more affordable because as mem-
bers of a co-operative your group will have more purchasing power. Individuals can pool their orders and receive discounts
for large quantity orders.

• Garden Gleaning Projects

Organize a Garden Gleaning
Project to harvest food from private gardens, trees and bushes where the
produce would otherwise go to waste. In this project, volunteers are matched up
with property owners who do not have the time or capability to harvest the food
already growing on their property; harvested food can then be shared between
property owners and the community, donated to local food banks, or even sold at
local markets.

The project can range from a few friends and a couple of
properties to a citywide organization that coordinates a large group of
volunteers, runs workshops, hosts harvesting celebrations and produces
preserves, juices, and jams.

Mapping Your Community's Strengths, Weaknesses and Resources

• Conduct a Community Inventory

Relocalization starts with
knowing your community. Where does your water come from? What is the basis of
your community’s economy? What was your locality like 100 years ago? Where is
your community headed in the future?

By mapping your community’s social, economic and ecological characteristics,
you will have a valuable resource from which you can identify opportunities and
constraints to Relocalization. Also, the very process of creating this
inventory will get community members talking to one another about their shared
hopes and concerns. Once completed, the information you collect can be
presented to the public and to elected officials to help spur new projects and
policies supporting Relocalization.

• Build a Neighborhood Skills Database

Compile a database of who
has what practical skills in your neighborhood. You may be surprised at the
talents your neighbors have, from general skills like carpentry and gardening
to very specific skills like diesel engine repair and child psychology. A
skills database is a great way to start relocalizing your community
immediately, because it helps everyone access the resources that are right in
their own neighborhood. It can help people buy, barter or donate services
within the neighborhood, as well as be a resource for education, community
projects, and establishing a local currency.

• Organize a Community Relocalization Walking Tour

Organize a walking tour of
your community focused on the potential for Relocalization. Highlight your
community’s history, discuss local issues, and demonstrate to the participants
the possibilities for Relocalization and working examples of Relocalization. A
Relocalization Tour ideally serves three purposes:

• Uncovering the localized economic and social
  culture that historically existed in your area.
• Highlighting current issues related to Relocalization
  in your community.
• Illustrating the potential your community has for
  building a strong relocalized future.

• Develop a Community Relocalization Directory

Create a directory that
lists the various businesses, organizations, and programs in your community
that relate in some way to Relocalization. Whether a printed booklet or a
website, a directory will encourage people to support local businesses, buy
local and sustainable products, and get involved in Relocalization efforts. It
will also help your community see what economic resources it already has
available for Relocalization, as well as what resources it lacks.

Transport Action

• Start a Car-sharing Cooperative

In a car-sharing co-operative, members own a
number of cars collectively instead of each owning a vehicle separately.
Car-sharing allows members to forego the large personal expense of owning and
maintaining a private car, while enjoying access to a car when needed. Car
co-ops have long been popular in some Western European countries, and have
started to catch on in the U.S.
and Canada
in recent years. They can vary in size from a few friends sharing a car to tens
of thousands of members sharing a large fleet of vehicles.

See our Directory for links to car sharing cooperatives that are already underway in Perth!

• Organizing a “Walking School Bus”

Organize a “Walking School
Bus” so that elementary school children can get to school in a safe, healthy
and fossil-fuel-free manner. Walking School Buses are programs that allow
children to walk to school in a supervised group along a predetermined route,
picking up and dropping off students at assigned stops. The program is an
alternative to parents driving their children to school, encouraging both
parents and children to walk, and making the area around the school safer for
pedestrians. Parents feel confident that their children are safe while walking
to school. And kids can socialize, stay fit, and learn the importance of
people-powered transportation at an early age.