From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience

Sally Ludwig & Chris Millswww.transitionguelph.org

“Resilient Guelph 2030”

Peak Oil & Climate Change

CLIMATE CHANGE(a la Stern et al.)• climate engineering• carbon capture and

storage• tree-based carbon

offsets• international

emissions trading• climate adaptation• improved

transportation logistics• nuclear power

PLANNED RELOCALISATION• local resilience• carbon reduction• consume closer to home• produce closer to home• play closer to home• decentralised energy

infrastructure• the Great Reskilling• localised food• energy descent plans• local medicinal capacity• local currencies

PEAK OIL(a la Hirsch et al.)• coal to liquids• gas to liquids• relaxed drilling

regulations• massively scaled

biofuels• tar sands and non-

conventional oils• resource nationalism

and stockpiling

Here's how it all appears to be evolving...A small group comes together with a shared concern:

• How can our community respond to the challenges and opportunities of peak oil, climate change and economic stagnation?

They recognise that:

• living with less energy - imperative because of climate change and inevitable because of fossil fuel depletion - is an opportunity if we plan for it, but a threat if we wait for it to happen to us

• we were very clever and creative while using increasingly large amounts of

energy, and we'll need to be just as clever and creative as we learn to live with decreasing amounts

• our communities currently lack the resilience to withstand some of the

disruptions that will accompany climate change and unplanned energy descent

• we have to work together and we have to work now, rather than waiting for the government or "someone else"

• this transition has to happen at an inner personal level as well as a community level

• by unleashing the collective genius of the communities we live in, we can proactively design our own energy descent and build ways of living that are more connected, more enriching and that recognise the ecological limits of our biosphere

They begin by:

• forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model in order to engage a significant proportion of the people in their community to help find the answers to the BIG question :

• "how can we make our community stronger and happier as we deal with the impacts of peak oil and economic contraction while at the same time urgently reducing CO2 emissions?"

They then:

• start awareness raising around peak oil, climate change and the need to undertake a community-led process to rebuild resilience and reduce carbon

• connect with existing groups in the community, including local government

• form groups to look at all the key areas of life (food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, economics & livelihoods, etc)

• kick off practical projects aimed at building people's understanding of resilience and carbon issues and community engagement

• engage in a community-wide visioning process to identify the future we want for ourselves rather than waiting for someone else to create a future that we won't like

• eventually launch a community defined, community implemented "Energy Descent Action Plan" over a 15 to 20 year timescale

This co-ordinated initiative strives both to rebuild the resilience we've lost as a result of cheap oil and also to drastically reduce

the community's carbon emissions.

Resilience

Benefits to a community with enhanced resilience:

If one part is destroyed, the shock will not disable the whole system. Wide diversity of character, solutions developed creatively in response to local

circumstances. It can meet its needs despite the substantial absence of travel and transport. Big infrastructures and bureaucracies of the oil-addicted economy are replaced by fit-for-

purpose local alternatives at reduced cost.

• “The capacity to respond creatively to change”

• The ability of an ecosystem (from an individual person, to a community, to a whole economy) to…

Hold together and maintain its function in the face of change and shocks from the outside.

• Resilient systems can roll with external shocks and adapt as needed

Transition principles

• Positive visioning

• Help people access good information and trust them to make good decisions

• Inclusion and Openness

• Enable Sharing and Networking

• Build Resilience

• Inner and Outer Transition

• Transition makes sense - the solution is the same size as the problem

• Subsidiarity: self-organisation and decision making at the appropriate level

Projects & Initiatives

• Awareness-raising: film nights, public talks, round-table discussions, workshops, displays, neighbourhood groups, inner transition.

• Re-localization: food resources and distribution, energy, localized economy, sustainable building, strengthening neighbourhoods.

• Sustainable transportation infrastructure: “walkable city”, bike paths, low-carbon public transit and goods transport, support car sharing

• Re-skilling: meaningful work for a lower-energy future.• Community gardens. Backyard gardens. Fruit trees.• Encourage CSAs and local organic farming.• Collaborate with partners for stronger communities.

The Goal: an “Resilience Action Plan” (RAP) for Guelph.

EnergyFood Security

Transportation

Intentional Communities

U of G

Awareness-Raising

City As Ecosystem

Inner Dimensionsof Change

Resilience Festivals

Neigbourhood Groups

The Treemobile

Alternative Building and Retrofit

Health

Local Government

Local Economy

Resilience 2011:Community FestivalMarch, 2011

Visit guelphresiliencefestival.ca

for lots more!!

Visit guelphresiliencefestival.ca

for lots more!!

Resilience 2012:Community FestivalMarch, 2012

New Initiatives

Permablitz

The Vision

A community of volunteers who regularly congregate to implement Permaculture Design plans in backyards around Guelph, not-for-profit, and at cost. Based on reciprocity: in other words, you attend three blitzes, help out, gain knowledge (and have fun!) and you are then entitled to have a blitz at your place.

The Day of Permablitz a team of volunteers gathers to:

•Create an edible garden where somebody lives •Share skills related to sustainability and gardening •Build community, and have fun

New Initiatives

Fair Trade Town

Fair Trade is a different way of doing business. It's about making principles of fairness and decency mean something in the marketplace. It seeks to change the terms of trade for the products we buy - to ensure the farmers and artisans behind those products get a better deal. Most often this is understood to mean better prices for producers, but it often means longer-term and more meaningful trading relationships as well.

The Fair Trade Towns campaign is an exciting initiative that recognizes communities that actively support Fair Trade, increasing both availability and awareness at the local level.

New Initiatives

Community Orchard Program

The Guelph Community Orchard Project: Guelph’s first community orchardsThe project aims to:1. Nurture relationships between residents, school and church groups, urban farmers, and environmental organizations.2. Foster fruit and nut tree awareness through demonstration and education programs.3. Increase food security through providing fruit and nut donations to a local food shelf.4. Make a positive difference to the local environment by creating habitat for wildlife, improving air quality, providing shade and cooling, filtering water, and reducing the community’s carbon footprint.

New Initiatives

Time Banking

What is Time Banking?

• A volunteer time exchange.• Time banking is about spending an hour doing something for another person in your community.• How it works: The time dollar you earn for your efforts is punched into a central online database. You might do some grocery shopping for a shut-in, for instance, and then spend your dollar on having your dog walked. • Connect with your neighbours.• Time banking leverages the power of networking to build community and share resources.

New Initiatives

Transition Streets: ultra-local transition!

Transition Streets is a seven-part “curriculum” that enables you to take a number of practical, effective, money and energy-saving steps together with a group of friends, family or neighbours.

How it Works• Groups of friends or neighbours get together every few weeks with a practical workbook to make easy changes tohow they use energy, water, food, packaging and transport. It’s easier to make changes with the support of your friends.

How to Get Started• Just ask a few neighbours and friends who live near you if they’d like to form a Transition Streets group. Register and we’ll give you the workbooks and a facilitator to get you started.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

— Margaret Mead

“All things are possible, once enough human beings realize thateverything is at stake.”

— Norman Cousins

Conclusion“We will be transitioning to a lower-energy future, whether we want to or not…

and it’s far better to ride the wave...

than be engulfed by it!”

— Ben Brangwyn (co-founder of the Transition Network)

Climate Change makes carbon-reduction essential. Peak Oil makes it inevitable. Transition Community Initiatives

make it feasible and viable.

We can all have a part in creating a more resilient community, and a better world!