deardancer3
10 kW
Transition Towns on the horizon in PA?
Fear about peak oil is spreading
http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/09-12-03/news-transition.html
By TOM KANE
HONESDALE, PA  There’s a great deal of local interest in a movement located mainly in Europe called Transition Towns.
Local environmental groups like Sustainable Energy Education and Development Support (SEEDS), Northeast PA Audubon and numerous others have been watching and discussing a unique film about communities in England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and New Zealand which have organized groups to address something called peak oil and its consequences.
Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. It means that eventuallyâ€â€nobody is sure when the supply of oil in the oil fields of the world will decline to the point where serious impact on the global social order will be felt.
Some experts are saying that this point in time will come a lot sooner than at first believed.
If you think too hard about this and what it will mean to our way of life, it can cause frightening visions of Armageddon.
Rather than just wringing their hands over this draconian vision of vast global change and its dire consequences, groups around the world are attempting to do something about it: namely, change the way they live in their towns. Thus, Transition Towns was born.
Some examples of activities in the towns are: one hundred percent recycling, ensuring the purity of food, support of local farmers, promoting farmers markets, sharing means of transportation, sharing common garden space, creating a local currency that is used in place of traditional money to buy locally produced products and changing policies of local governments.
Can this movement take root here in the United States and in Wayne County? That’s the question these groups are asking.
Last month, SEEDS and Audubon showed the film in Manchester Township and in Honesdale on November 10. A third viewing took place in the Wayne County Complex on November 17.
The November 10 meeting brought together other groups like Awakening the Dreamer, Permaculture and Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), WaynePeace, Delaware Highlands Conservancy, and the Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and their Fair Trade coffee and chocolate project.
Before viewing the film, each group explained what their mission was and participated in a discussion of the film after the viewing. Many expressed convictions that transitioning was already happening in small ways among their groups.
“It’s going to take time to make the transition happen here,†said Honesdale resident Vina Miller. “It doesn’t happen over night.â€Â
“Things are beginning,†said Stephen Stuart of the Upper Delaware Unitarian group. “Little steps like turning down your thermostat, putting on a sweater, becoming aware of the global implications of the products we use are some ways to do it. This is the way important movements happen.â€Â
In Sullivan County, a group in Liberty, NY is working on transitioning there. They held a meeting on June 9 at the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Liberty resident Tim Shera and Youngsville resident Maria Grimaldi are behind the movement.
“We can’t be transporting food 1,500 miles after the price of fuel gets so high,†Shera said. Some of this type of concern is addressed by the concept of the Transition Town, he said.
According to the transition movement’s website, such town projects are already happening in the United States with some 27 communities involved.
Visit transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/12Steps for more information.
Fear about peak oil is spreading
http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/09-12-03/news-transition.html
By TOM KANE
HONESDALE, PA  There’s a great deal of local interest in a movement located mainly in Europe called Transition Towns.
Local environmental groups like Sustainable Energy Education and Development Support (SEEDS), Northeast PA Audubon and numerous others have been watching and discussing a unique film about communities in England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and New Zealand which have organized groups to address something called peak oil and its consequences.
Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. It means that eventuallyâ€â€nobody is sure when the supply of oil in the oil fields of the world will decline to the point where serious impact on the global social order will be felt.
Some experts are saying that this point in time will come a lot sooner than at first believed.
If you think too hard about this and what it will mean to our way of life, it can cause frightening visions of Armageddon.
Rather than just wringing their hands over this draconian vision of vast global change and its dire consequences, groups around the world are attempting to do something about it: namely, change the way they live in their towns. Thus, Transition Towns was born.
Some examples of activities in the towns are: one hundred percent recycling, ensuring the purity of food, support of local farmers, promoting farmers markets, sharing means of transportation, sharing common garden space, creating a local currency that is used in place of traditional money to buy locally produced products and changing policies of local governments.
Can this movement take root here in the United States and in Wayne County? That’s the question these groups are asking.
Last month, SEEDS and Audubon showed the film in Manchester Township and in Honesdale on November 10. A third viewing took place in the Wayne County Complex on November 17.
The November 10 meeting brought together other groups like Awakening the Dreamer, Permaculture and Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), WaynePeace, Delaware Highlands Conservancy, and the Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and their Fair Trade coffee and chocolate project.
Before viewing the film, each group explained what their mission was and participated in a discussion of the film after the viewing. Many expressed convictions that transitioning was already happening in small ways among their groups.
“It’s going to take time to make the transition happen here,†said Honesdale resident Vina Miller. “It doesn’t happen over night.â€Â
“Things are beginning,†said Stephen Stuart of the Upper Delaware Unitarian group. “Little steps like turning down your thermostat, putting on a sweater, becoming aware of the global implications of the products we use are some ways to do it. This is the way important movements happen.â€Â
In Sullivan County, a group in Liberty, NY is working on transitioning there. They held a meeting on June 9 at the Cornell Cooperative Extension. Liberty resident Tim Shera and Youngsville resident Maria Grimaldi are behind the movement.
“We can’t be transporting food 1,500 miles after the price of fuel gets so high,†Shera said. Some of this type of concern is addressed by the concept of the Transition Town, he said.
According to the transition movement’s website, such town projects are already happening in the United States with some 27 communities involved.
Visit transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/12Steps for more information.
