[Pil-pc-oceania] Conversations for the Future with sustainability thinkers

[RussGrayson]

------ Forwarded Message From: Fiona Campbell
<Fiona.Campbell at randwick.nsw.gov.au>
Conversations for the Future with sustainability thinkers
Today's big challenges need small, local solutions...

WHEN: 1:30am to 3:20pm, Sunday 6 April 2008
WHERE: Randwick Community Centre, 27 Munda Street, Randwick

We all have good ideas on how we can live sustainably and enjoy life at the
same time. Share them with leading sustainability thinkers in Conversations
for the Future.

Our thinkers... 
* Helena Norberg Hodge, international speaker and author, discusses local
food systems, local economies and relocalisation
* Tim Winton, educator, discusses how we can prepare for peak oil, climate
change and the transition to a low carbon future
* Chris Reidy, UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures, will discuss policies
and actions to tackle global warming
* Peter Maganov, sustainability manager, Randwick City Council, will
introduce us to local government initiatives on global warming.
Facilitator: Greg Jenkins

The Details...
"Creating a positive future begins with human conversation. The simplest and
most powerful investment in renewal any member of a community or an
organisation may make is to begin talking with other people as though the
answers mattered." William Greider, Who Will Tell the People.

Education for sustainability has focused on practical ideas for our homes
and cities. That's fine, but it is only part of our journey. Now, we can
benefit by nourishing our intellectual side, the place from which all those
good ideas come. We all have ideas... we are all creative thinkers... and
there's no better way to clarify our thinking and find those things we share
in common than in conversation with others.

Conversations for the Future provides an opportunity for you to participate
and share ideas with leading thinkers and with each other.

A brief history of Conversations...
Conversations for the 21st Century started in Sydney in the early 1990s as a
gathering of a dozen or so people who were concerned about where the world
seemed to be heading. It was clear that the decisions to be made and
problems to be solved really needed to be preceded by a full and complete
dialogue among those affected.

As an exercise in deliberative democracy, Conversations is an enquiry and
exploration, both into the issues at hand and into our own journey of
understanding. Be inspired by the thinkers, who will stimulate discussion in
the areas of global warming, peak oil and the ideas for a post-carbon
transition and relocalisation.

Facilitator: Greg Jenkins is a professional facilitator, mentor and trainer
of change agents. Greg is a member of the Sydney Facilitators' Network.

About Conversations for the Future...
Our thinkers...
Helena Norberg-Hodge, International Society for Ecology and Culture
Options for relocalising Randwick
Faced by the challenges of global warming and Peak Oil (the coming
production peak and consequent decline of the global oil supply and the
increasing costs likely to follow), communities are looking to local
solutions through a process known as localisation. Localisation draws on the
knowledge and skills of ordinary people as well as experts and promises
neighbourhood renewal, community enterprise, the development of local
economies and a new role for local government.

The English town of Totnes and Willits in California have spearheaded a
localisation movement that now extends to hundred of communities.
Localisation is capturing people's imagination. In the process, they're
coming together to think about and develop local and regional sources of
food, energy, education, communication, water supply, livelihoods and local
economy as well as collaborative, deliberative and democratic local/regional
governance.

Helena Norberg-Hodge is an internationally known pioneer in the localisation
movement. She is author of numerous works, including the inspirational
classic, Ancient Futures (which together with a film of the same name has
been translated into more than 30 languages) and Bringing the Food Economy
Home. She is founder director of the International Society for Ecology and
Culture, which has been promoting local food economies in the UK and the US,
as well as in other parts of the world. She has addressed numerous
Australian audiences on the need to develop local economies and cultures.
She is also the winner of the Right Livelihood Award, or the "Alternative
Nobel Prize" as recognition for her work in Ladakh.

 

Tim Winton, director, Permaforest Trust, accredited Permaculture design
educator
Permaculture and Post Carbon Transition: Understanding and Preparing for
Peak Oil, Climate Change and the Transition to a Low Carbon Future
Tim believes that education and training must be among the top strategies
for adapting to the Peak Oil challenge and moving into a post-carbon world.
We must develop ways for people to feel empowered and to act, he says.

Resources such as oil go through a bell-shaped curve where first we find the
good easy stuff. Production increases but eventually it peaks and then
starts to decline. Tim says this is what is happening with the global oil
supply. And the consequences? He says you only have to look back to 1973 and
the OPEC oil shocks to see what happened to the economy. There was high
inflation, high interest rates, fewer jobs and many people found it
difficult to pay their bills.

If we're not careful, when Peak Oil arrives these same things will happen
but it will be terminal -  there will be no cycling out of it again because
oil supplies will continue to decline.

The good news? There are plenty of positive alternatives. We could live on a
fifth of the energy we now use. It would mean a change in lifestyle, in the
way we do things, and this would be more difficult than the technical
challenges ahead of us. We won't go back to the days of the horse and cart
but we will have more localised economies and well designed urban areas.

There are a lot of solutions, one of which Tim teaches at his base in
Northern NSW - Permaculture design. It's custom-designed for living well
with less and is about using design to maximise our energy resources.

Importantly, it was developed during the oil shocks of the 1970s.

Tim Winton is director of the Permaforest Trust which is developing a
training centre in northern NSW. He teaches nationally accredited
certificate level courses in the Permaculture design system and promotes the
virtues of relocalisation. Tim has developed a discipline called Pattern
Dynamics to help people understand the complex challenges of sustainable,
post-carbon transition.

Chris Riedy, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures,
University of Technology
Options for addressing global warming
Chris has ten years of experience as a researcher and consultant
investigating the economic, social, political and cultural dimensions of
sustainable development which has involved work with government, business
and consumer advocacy groups.

Chris has advised on public policy issues relevant to sustainable
development. His recent work focuses on the sustainable provision of energy
and water services, climate change response and public participation in
policy development.

Chris received his PhD in Sustainable Futures in 2005. His thesis explored
the behavioural, systemic, cultural and psychological perspectives of energy
and greenhouse policy in Australia . Chris drew on the emerging field of
Integral Studies to critique Australia's climate change response, identify
implications for sustainable development and propose an approach to policy
development that draws out and integrates discourse and worldviews.

He has a continuing interest in the development of public policy that
delivers an effective response to climate change and in innovative
communication approaches that can support policy development.

Peter Maganov, Manager, Randwick City Council Sustaining Our City program
Randwick Council's response to the sustainability challenge
With about 20 years experience in policy and community responses to
environmental issues, and currently Manager of Council's Sustainability
team, Peter has a good overview of local and regional activities and the
strong lead and action on sustainability being taken by local government.

Council's Sustainability team has been introducing a range of sustainability
initiatives such as the Sustainable Schools Initiative, Summer Activities
Program, Home Energy Makeover including home energy audits and rebates,
Bowen Library Sustainability Resource Collection, Sustainable Urban Living
community workshop series, "Sticky Beak" Open Days of Council facilities, a
local government carbon trading scheme, major water saving, solar
initiatives, public place recycling and sustainable transport initiatives.

For further information contact:
Fiona Campbell
Sustainability Education Officer
Randwick Council
T: 9399 0898
F: 9399 0903
E: Fiona.Campbell at randwick.nsw.gov.au

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