[Pil-pc-oceania] Relocalisation

[pacific-edge]

On 11/3/07 8:33 AM, "Janet Millington" <miltech at bigpond.com> wrote:
> We are having about 5 or maybe 6 of the John Seed presentations in our region
> and hope that something may come out of the forum to move our efforts in
> Permaculture and Relocalisation along up here.

I went to a Rainforest Info Network presentation a few weeks ago, put on by
Coogee Climate Action group featuring a woman from the Network. Interesting
enough, but more a presentation than anything that elicited audience input.
There were Q & A at the end but I thought it would include more dialogue
with the audience.

Much use was made of snippets of Gore's video and a video of an interview
the organiser's distributed free to anyone that wanted it, hoping they would
use it in some public sense.

The session, made possible because Randwick City Council donated use of
their town hall (the mayor was there too), was useful as a briefing for
people new to global warming. What I felt was missing was any practical
course for people to follow. Don't know if all such sessions are like this.

In the US, a newish trend is to make use of video showings in private homes
to invited people. This can be followed by a discussion. It has proven
successful as a means of communication and seems to be akin to the 'salons'
that were popular as shared discussion a decade or longer ago in the US.
Don't know how this format would go here but don't see why it wouldn't work.

> It is vital that the direction comes from the public....we can put all the
> structure in place waiting but they need to be "moved" to do it.
> We have the framework now to cater for all the  people who want to learn to
> "Skill Up for Power Down" which is the series of courses we are prepared to
> offer.

Do you hang this off global warming, peak oil or both Janet? In discussions
about doing something similar in Sydney, the opinion seems to favour global
warming because it is a topic in the news and something broadly understood.
Peak oil is less prominent and the wide disparity in estimates of
uncertainty for the peaking of oil production make it a little more
problematic as a tool, I think.

Even George Monbiot, a journalist and commentator on peak oil and global
warming says in his recent book 'Heat' that his research suggests that there
really is no reasonably accurate estimate for the peaking of the oil supply.
Nor does he look forward to the likely global depression that it could
bring, an event of such potential magnitude that its political and social
ramifications could pull attention away from sustainability to everyday
survival and quick-fix solutions like nuclear power.

I know some people say they welcome the onset of peak oil, however they seem
to imagine that there will be some kind of smooth transition to a new stable
state. Maybe this would happen, but there is a good chance that it would
instead be accompanied by widespread social upheaval, loss on livelihoods,
homelessness as people can no longer afford to buy their home, family
disintegration and political upheaval.
 
> So timely to have the climate change such a hot topic.

Having had a look at the stuff Tom Hopkins is doing in Totnes, I think we
have a clue as to the way forward. Really, it's something of a revival of
the bioregional movement of the late 1980s, the difference being that there
is something concrete - global warming - as a tangible rationale for it now.
In this sense, the conversation-style format Robyn Francis is doing in
Nimbin is probably the preferred method. I participated in such public
conversations in the 1990s when Noel Winterburn organised the Conversations
for the C21 in Sydney, and found them popular. People wanted to talk about
contemporary life as a means of validating or changing what they already
thought of it and to explore topics in greater depth.

Hopkin's process works because Hopkins has let go of it and handed it over
to the Open Space days and the working groups. This implies a level of trust
that can otherwise be absent in such deliberations.

...Russ