Transition Whatcom

Rob Hopkins summarizes the EDAP essence in the Transition Handbook.
“If your mental picture of the final EDAP is community planning documents you have seen before, think again. Your EDAP should feel more like a holiday brochure, presenting a localized, low-energy world in such an enticing way that anyone reading it will feel their life utterly bereft if they don’t dedicate the rest of their lives towards its realization.”

A recent article by Pat Murphy on the EDAP Process: http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2011-02-01/transition-and-tot...


Also, the City of Bellingham's Final Report of their Energy Task Force has a lot of relevant information and is a must read. http://www.cob.org/documents/mayor/boards-commissions/energy/energy...


Forest Row's Transition Plan (EDAP) - http://transitionus.org/sites/default/files/ForestRow_In_Transition...


Kinsale's EDAP - http://transitionculture.org/essential-info/pdf-downloads/kinsale-e...


Totnes's EDAP - http://www.transitiontowntotnes.org/EDAPwebversion

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Here's more links I just got from Transition US:

 

Pattern page: 

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/patterns/implementing-infrastructu...

 

TN 2010 Conference EDAP workshop recording:

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/conference-2010/2010-07/edap...

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/anonymous/2010-06-28/transit...

 

Rob's blog on EDAP's for Cities:

http://transitionculture.org/2010/05/19/energy-descent-action-plans...

 

Note the "How Did They Do It" section of the following:

Canadian Transition Trainer, Michelle Colussi's review of the Totnes EDAP : http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/rob-hopkins/2010-10-08/trans...

 

.

This is not an official Transition project, but it has most of the same elements and is a really professional product.  It looks like it is targeted at influencing electeds, the possibility of which is up for discussion at our next meeting I believe.  http://www.cityofventura.net/files/public_works/maintenance_service...

The question of Emergency Preparedness Training came up in yesterday's TW General meeting and I promised to provide the link to that website, so I am putting it here as the most logical place.  Hope everyone can find it!  http://www.co.whatcom.wa.us/dem/educate/cert/cert.jsp

 

Here are Adam's hotlinks that I didn't find in my junk mailbox in time to include in the minutes:  

 


Common Security Clubs:

http://commonsecurityclub.org/

http://commonsecurityclub.org/what-is-a-common-security-club/

Peak Moment TV:

http://peakmoment.tv/

http://www.wordpress.peakmoment.tv/conversations/

Post Carbon Institute:

http://www.postcarbon.org/

http://www.postcarbon.org/media-library/

Energy Bulletin:

http://energybulletin.net/

Chris Martenson (The Crash Course: free online video in upper left
corner of the home page):

http://www.chrismartenson.com/

Thanks, Adam!

Here, thanks to David MacLeod, are a couple of other useful references for our research:

 

Oakland and Cleveland have both now got Energy and Climate Action Plans (ECAP).  Looking briefly at the Oakland plan, I see some good things.

http://www.ellabakercenter.org/index.php?p=gcjc_ocac_policies

 

Eugene's plan is here:

http://www.eugene-or.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_361126...

I just came across a short list I made some time ago regarding the most important books to prepare for the EDAP (ARC) process:

 

1) The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins (obvious choice)

 

2) the Transition Timeline by Shaun Chamberlin

The Transition Timeline lightens the fear of our uncertain future, providing a map of what we are facing and the different pathways available to us.

 

3) Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren

Rob Hopkins says he's learned more about how to respond to peak oil from this book than any other.  This is a crucial conceptual framework for an ARC/EDAP in my opinion (the reason I was inspired to organize a class on this for the folk school).

The official blurb: "Holmgren draws a correlation between every aspect of how we organize our lives, communities and landscapes and our ability to creatively adapt to the ecological realities that shape human destiny. ... For the general reader it provides refreshing perspectives on a range of environmental issues and shows how permaculture is much more than just a system of gardening. For anyone seriously interested in understanding the foundations of sustainable design and culture, this book is essential reading. Although a book of ideas, the big picture is repeatedly grounded by reference to Holmgren's own place, Melliodora, and other practical examples."

 

4) Future Scenarios by David Holmgren
I've discussed this book extensively in other threads. The entire book can be read online at http://www.futurescenarios.org/

"These aren't two-dimensional nightmarish scenarios designed to scare people into environmental action. They are compellingly fleshed-out visions of quite plausible alternative futures, which delve into energy, politics, agriculture, social, and even spiritual trends. What they do help make clear are the best strategies for preparing for and adapting to these possible futures."

Adam Grubb, founder, Energy Bulletin

 

5) A Prosperous Way Down: Principles and Policies, by Howard and Elizabeth Odum

Holmgren has been to a great degree the inspiration behind Rob Hopkins and the Transition Handbook.  In the same way, Howard Odum was the inspiration behind Holmgren's work.  As a systems ecologist, Odum has an utterly indepsensible perspective on the energy basis of man and nature.  The difference is that Holmgren advocates a bottom up grassroots response, Odum discusses possibilities of a top-down response.

Official blurb: "Consider the future with less fossil fuel and no new natural or technological energy sources. How can it be peaceful and prosperous? More and more leaders concerned with the global future are warning of the impending crisis as the surge of unsustainable growth exceeds the capability of the earth's resources to support our civilisation. But while history records the collapse of countless civilisations, some societies and ecosystems have managed to descend in orderly stages, reducing demands and selecting and saving what is most important. Although some scientists predict disaster, this book shows how our world can still thrive and prosper in a future where we live with less and charts a way for our modern civilisation to descend to sustainable levels. The authors make recommendations for a more equitable and co-operative world society, with specific suggestions based upon their evaluations of trends in global population, wealth distribution, energy sources, conservation, urban development, capitalism and international trade, information technology, and education. This thoughtful and provocative book will force us to confront our assumptions and beliefs about our world's future, which is all too often taken for granted."

 

6) Energy Basis of Man and Nature by Hoard and Elisabeth Odum
Out of print, but can be found on the internets.  Essential reading. 

 

7) Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change by Pat Murphy
Blurb: "This book goes further than any of the other titles considered here, both in terms of the deep societal ills it examines and the radical solutions it proposes. It is not just peak oil, but peak America Murphy takes as his subject. His plan is based on "curtailment" - we must not only make drastic cuts in our use of fossil fuels, but also cut our rates of consumption, buy less, use less, want less, waste less, watch less televsion, eat better foods, give up driving private cars, and become, in short, "a nation with new values." Murphy's work is perhaps easy to dismiss - i.e. fringe, hairshirted- but if, as the best scientific evidence suggests, the world is already in a dangerous state of overshoot, then its message may not be that far out after all."

 

8) Energy Descent Pathways by Rob Hopkins (Master's Thesis)

Hopkins early thinking, which gave birth to the Transition Towns concept. 

 

9) Localisation and Resilience: The Case of Transition Towns Totnes by Rob Hopkins (PhD thesis)
Hopkins recent thinking, base on the experience of what he's learned from doing the Transition Towns Totnes project.

 

10) The Transition Companion by Rob Hopkins

Not yet published, but manuscript is complete. Otherwise known as the Transition Handbook 2.0

 

 

O.K. I'm reading everything here and starting.

http://prn.fm/nature-bats-last-12-23-14/ Albert Bates offers some advice...

J.C.,

Thanks for the Port Townsend Local 2020 link and their post about being a place for "climate refugees."  The Cliff Mass article they link to is also worth looking at:

So what conclusion does one inevitably reach by studying the IPCC reports, the U.S. Climate Assessment, and the climate literature?

The Northwest is the place to be during global warming.   
  • Temperatures will rise more slowly than most of the nation due to the Pacific Ocean (see below)  
  • We will have plenty of precipitation, although the amount falling as snow will decline (will fall as rain instead).  But we can deal with that by building more reservoir and dam capacity (and some folks on the eastern slopes of the Cascades have proposed to do exactly that).
  • The Pacific Ocean will keep heat waves in check and we don't get hurricanes.
  • Sea level rise is less of a problem for us due to our substantial terrain and the general elevation rise of our shorelines.  Furthermore, some of our land is actually RISING relatively to the sea level because we are still recovering from the last ice age (the heavy ice sheets pushed the land down and now it is still rebounding).
  • There is no indication that our major storms...cyclone-based winds (like the Columbus Day Storm)... will increase under global warming.  
  • Increased precipitation may produce more flooding, but that will be limited to river valleys and can be planned for with better river management and zoning.

Kunstler also felt the northwest might fare best in The Long Emergency.  Of course there are a lot of things that could go haywire here as well, not to mention how to handle a huge population influx.

KUOW also recently had a story about how climate change is affecting the glaciers in the pacific northwest. My blog post about it is here.

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