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Comment by Frank James on May 17, 2010 at 9:53pm

Friends

I continue to believe that we are kidding ourselves a bit thinking that the upcoming change will some how be a slide down a 'dissent' path. I see the biology and history lessons and, sadly, believe that we are much more likely to hit not a hole in the road but a cliff in the freeway. War, pestilence and famine have been how most biological populations have been reduced in number to fit the biological foot print that they have over grown. None of this is new thinking, Malthus comes to mind, but also many of those that study biology and biological systems. My hope is that I am very wrong and that there is a glide path and a smooth landing. However I also believe that we need to turn to core beliefs and basic values to guide our behavior today, again nothing in the least new here. No matter what tradition of values one follows the teachings are clear. Care, be fair and be humble. If you are humble you can grow, if you are fair you leave enough for others, if you care you have an invincible shield against being dead while you are still living. This is wisdom from Lao Tze some two thousand five hundred years ago. I often think about the talk that Severn Suzuki gave at the Rio Summit, I think in 1992 or 1996 (time flies) when she was just 12 years old. She hit the nail on the head. "I am only a child".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZsDliXzyAY

Frank

Comment by Tris Shirley on May 17, 2010 at 4:01pm

I agree with both David and Mr. Hopkins. It may take a lot of discussion to arrive at a common understanding of what the Whatcom EDAP is - and a name that conveys that understanding. The people best prepared to contribute to that discussion are the ones who write the document.

The concept and implications of decreasing petroleum supplies should be more broadly understood within the community. Clearly, part of TW’s role is to continue building that understanding. But I’m not sure that the phrase “energy descent” is the best language with which to engage the broader community. It might work well in Europe, but I question how effective it is here - at least from a PR standpoint.

Finally, I agree that any specific steps in a plan we produce now will likely be of little use when addressing challenges that might arise years in the future (if we’re lucky). But the underlying factual basis and the data required to define those steps WILL be of great value.

I would differ slightly in that I think the exercise of creating an actual plan to address a specific set of future conditions has the benefit of teaching us how to create such plans. With that experience, it will be a lot easier to revise the original or to recreate the document in the future, especially if it has to be done quickly. But if there isn’t the will to do that, then the “story” based, or scenario type plan Mr. Hopkins suggests might also be useful.

Comment by David MacLeod on May 17, 2010 at 12:38pm

There are numerous names for the EDAP floating around the Transition Network, including Energy Downshifting Action Plan, Energy Descent Action Pathway, etc. The name actually used for the plan will, I suppose, be determined by the committee that writes the plan.

I think "Energy Descent" is an important term we need to get more familiar with, and continue to raise awareness about. The phrase came from David Holmgren or Howard Odum. Holmgren liked it because it was the "least loaded" term he could think of to use in talking to people about the back side of Hubbert's descending curve of oil production.


Regarding the "Plan," here's what Hopkins said recently:
"Although it is called a Plan, I see it more and more as a story. After all, who are we to write a step-by-step plan? What we have created here is one story of how we could do this. It is rich with research and data, the facts and figures that we will need. "

Read more about the Totnes EDAP here:
http://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/forum/topics/totnes-unleashes-its...

Comment by Tris Shirley on May 17, 2010 at 10:30am

I also would welcome a different name for the EDAP. But we do need a plan.

The reason for wanting a plan is that we now have no idea of how 200,00 people in Whatcom County can sustain themselves with dramatically less energy consumption. Unless we investigate various techniques and determine which can be scaled up to serve the entire community, and then figure out in advance how to get everybody adapted to using those techniques, we will have chaos. It won't matter that a few hundred Transition members have minimized their carbon footprints, We will have chaos. And I thought the main purpose of TW was to avoid that.

Comment by Heather K on May 17, 2010 at 9:41am

Let us be in the 'Process' of reducing our carbon footprint, versus creating a "Plan".

Comment by Jamie Jedinak on May 16, 2010 at 10:03pm

Yes!

Comment by Chris Wolf on May 16, 2010 at 9:58pm

I have a question about the name of the EDAP. A few times I have been talking about it with someone, and they have thought I said "Energy DISSENT Action Plan", (rather than DESCENT, as they sound the same) and they thought it was a document of radical rebellion "dissenting" against the use of energy. I know some other towns have renamed it an "Energy Downshifting Action Plan" or something like that, and I wonder if we would want to consider that term.

Comment by Renata Beata Kowalczyk on May 1, 2010 at 1:45pm

NAMA Living Foods Wellness Cafe that Unleashed with us on April 10th and 11th is now open! Serving delicious raw meals with the intention to heal. The hours are 11-4 Tuesday - Saturday, located next to The Ground Floor entrance at 1111 North State Street. The phone number is 360.594.4448. e-mail address: Namalivingfoods@hotmail.com Come see us soon!

Comment by David MacLeod on April 20, 2010 at 10:13am

Re: Calendar tool.
There's one called JCalPro that we use on the Sustainable Bellingham site, but I don't think it would work as a plug in here. Maybe it could be implemented at the transitionwhatcom.org site, but would take a while to get it up and going.

I suggest starting a Discussion in this group that is dedicated to posting meeting times. One place where everyone can cross-check. The other idea is to post all of these meetings as Events on the Events page?

There are so many things going on in the community, so that scheduling conflicts are always going to be a challenge. Remember to "Google Doodle" as suggested by Rick Dubrow at the Great Unleashing. A good tool for getting meetings scheduled.

Comment by Renata Beata Kowalczyk on April 20, 2010 at 8:22am

David, is there a master calendaring tool on ning site or another one you can recommend that we use for all groups? We are beginning to encounter scheduling conflicts where two or more groups are meeting same time and that does not work very well when someone wants to be part of those groups.

Is there a way to create a master calendar for everyone to see?

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