http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_M3B8h_KSk&feature=related

Transition towns is a grassroots movement of individuals and community groups that encourages action at the local and regional level to future-proof our towns and cities by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.  It is a positive response to the doom and gloom scenarios of post-peak oil and global warming.  It encourages individuals to work  with others co-operatively to develop the life skills and activities that will help us to live well in a post-carbon world.

These two video clips give an introduction.  The first is by Jo Duffs as a member of the Sustainable Hawkes Bay Trust and the second is by Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition movement.

Conservation efforts often throw up difficult ethical questions and some are easier to answer than others. On a global scale the world is locked in arguments about climate change, tolerable levels of emissions, the extent of damage caused by human actions etc. On a regional scale we are facing additional crises in terms of resource and biodiversity depletion. We understand that human activity is responsible for many problems in the environment and we have many choices to make about resolution. At what point should human activity be constrained? Where should our efforts be focused and how strenuous should these efforts be? How do we make these choices and what principles should we rely upon to guide us?

I have been reading Peak Everything, by Richard Heinberg (2007, ISBN 978-1-905570-13-3).  It’s a thought-provoking and worthwhile read on how we can adjust to the post-carbon world.  Heinberg believes that, “everything in the post-hydrocarbon world will operate on a smaller scale.  There will be less of nearly everything to go around, and virtually every process of production and transport will occur more slowly’ (page 79). 

He suggests that an important element for adjusting to our post-hydrocarbon world is aesthetics.  Art ‘is part of the necessary process of adaptation’.  It provides ways for people not just to endure change, but to adjust and find fulfillment.

Alexandra Redoubt

A fascinating element of the field trip referred to in the previous blog, was the opportunity to delve into the cultural history of the Waipa District. Led by Chuck Davis, iwi liaison officer for the Council we visited a wealth of pa, battlesites, fortification lines, redoubts and other such places in which repose the memories of past events and lives lived and spent.