What we can do
2
At the Environmental Change-Makers we understand: we need to start PLANNING and PREPARING for sweeping changes. Peak oil and climate change demand that we set in place new systems which will be functional as the old systems disintegrate and eventually fail. reduce reuse Our future won’t be like George Jetson and Luke Skywalker. It can’t be. We don’t have the fuel or raw materials to run those techno-fantasies. We must begin now to plan for a realistic future: a “power down” future that demands less fuel and energy, a future that consumes less stuff, a future that eliminates waste and reuses materials. • Shopping? Do you really need that item? • Rather than a car, can you use a bike or go on foot? • Learn how to compost your food and yard waste. • How many times can you use water before it leaves your property? Part of preparing for our realistic future is educating ourselves and others about these problems. As we study and learn we’ll begin to understand why certain proposed techno-fixes can’t possibly work. • Learn where your basic essentials come from: food, clothing, and perhaps water. • Seek local farmers, local craftsmen, local businesses, and “vote” for them with your buying dollars. You’ll help to develop and set in place the LOCAL SOLUTIONS we’ll need in coming years. relocalize PEAK OIL CLIMATE CHANGE Understanding The Problems + Our climate is changing. The sedate, steady weather patterns upon which humans have relied for generations – upon which farmers depend to grow our food, upon which we depend for safety and security as well as comfort – are changing. Regardless of your age -- whether teen or senior -- during your lifetime you will see massive changes. We’re already seeing them with record droughts in parts of Africa, severe firestorms in Our present lifestyle is completely dependent upon cheap, abundant, unrestricted fossil fuels. We use oil to transport our food from far away. Our conventional style of agriculture uses enormous amounts of petroleum products. Our planetary oil supply is finite. The earth isn’t making more oil, we’ve discovered most of what the planet has, and we’ve now used about half of the entire supply. We’ve used up the cheap, easy-to-get-to stuff. Australia, and hurricanes like Katrina. And all forecasts say we will see much more with coming years. How bad will it get? Scientists tell us we have a choice: it’s up to our current choice of actions. We can choose now to shift to lifestyles which lower our carbon emissions. Scientists tell us 350 is the most important number on the planet. To preserve a planet similar to that on which mankind developed, and to which all life on earth is adapted, we must reduce carbon dioxide concentrations from the current 388 parts per million to 350 parts per million. We must begin now to move toward the era beyond fossil fuels. That means that in coming years we’ll face extreme price volatility, limited supply, and shortages in oil and everything that comes from oil: food, transportation, water, goods, and more. In short, we’ll experience disruption of most of the systems that our developed nations have set in place. System disruptions of this magnitude – if we haven’t planned for them or prepared our citizens – are the recipe for civil unrest, starvation, and war. It’s time to get down to work; it’s time to plan and prepare for the future of humanity. We must begin now to move toward the era beyond fossil fuels. --James Hansen, NASA Our clothing and goods are manufactured in energy-intense factories on foreign continents, and brought here with enormous amounts of oil. We burn oil in cavalier fashion as we zoom around in personal automobiles and travel around the world. “The future with less oil could be better than the present, but only if we engage in designing this Transition with creativity and imagination.” --Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Towns movement Graphic from 350.org More on Peak Oil at www.energybulletin.net/primer.php
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Transcript of What we can do
At the Environmental Change-Makers we understand: we
need to start PLANNING and PREPARING for
sweeping changes. Peak oil and climate change demand that we set in place new systems which will be functional as the old systems disintegrate and eventually fail.
reduce
reus e
Our future won’t be like George Jetson and Luke Skywalker. It can’t be. We don’t have the fuel or raw materials to run those techno-fantasies.
We must begin now to plan for a realistic future: a “power down” future that demands less fuel and energy, a future that consumes less stuff, a future that eliminates waste and reuses materials.
• Shopping? Do you really need that item? • Rather than a car, can you use a bike or go on foot?• Learn how to compost your food and yard waste.• How many times can you use water before it leaves your property?
Part of preparing for our realistic future is educating ourselves and others about these problems. As we study and learn we’ll begin to understand why certain proposed techno-fixes can’t possibly work.
• Learn where your basic essentials come from: food, clothing, and perhaps water. • Seek local farmers, local craftsmen, local businesses, and “vote” for them with your buying dollars. You’ll help to develop and set in
place the LOCAL SOLUTIONS we’ll need in coming years.
re localize
PEAKOIL
CLIMATECHANGE
Understanding The Problems
+
Our climate is changing. The sedate, steady weather patterns upon which humans have relied for generations – upon which farmers depend to grow our food, upon which we depend for safety and security as well as comfort – are changing.
Regardless of your age -- whether teen or senior -- during your lifetime you will see massive changes. We’re already seeing them with record droughts in parts of Africa, severe firestorms in
Our present lifestyle is completely dependent upon cheap, abundant, unrestricted fossil fuels.
We use oil to transport our food from far away. Our conventional style of agriculture uses enormous
amounts of petroleum products.
Our planetary oil supply is finite. The earth isn’t making more oil, we’ve discovered most of what the planet has, and we’ve now used about half
of the entire supply. We’ve used up the cheap, easy-to-get-to stuff.
Australia, and hurricanes like Katrina. And all forecasts say we will see much more with coming years.
How bad will it get? Scientists tell us we have a choice: it’s up to our current choice of actions. We can choose now to shift to lifestyles which lower our carbon emissions.
Scientists tell us 350 is the most important number on the planet. To preserve a planet similar to that on which mankind developed, and to which all life on earth is adapted, we must reduce carbon dioxide concentrations from the current 388 parts per million to 350 parts per million. We must begin now to move toward the era beyond fossil fuels.
That means that in coming years we’ll face extreme price volatility,
limited supply, and shortages in oil and everything that comes from oil:
food, transportation, water, goods, and more. In short, we’ll
experience disruption of most of the systems that our developed
nations have set in place.
System disruptions of this magnitude – if we haven’t planned for them or prepared our citizens –
are the recipe for civil unrest, starvation, and war.
It’s time to get down to work; it’s time to plan and prepare
for the future of humanity.
We must begin now to move toward the era beyond fossil fuels. --James Hansen, NASA
Our clothing and goods are
manufactured in energy-intense
factories on foreign continents,
and brought here with enormous
amounts of oil. We burn oil in
cavalierfashion as we zoom around in personal automobiles
and travel around the world.
“The future with less oil could be better than the present, but only if we engage in designing this Transition with creativity and imagination.”--Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Towns movement
Graphic from 350.org
More on Peak Oil at www.energybulletin.net/primer.php
• public meetings and workshops on a variety of environmental solutions• Community Garden and Organic Vegetable Gardening class series http://holynativityparish.org/wordpress• Harvest Westchester community fruit harvest program www.HarvestWestchester.org
What We Can Doabout peak oil and climate change
combined
Environmental Change-Makers
The Transition Network links communities around the world which are “in Transition” -- actively growing their local self-sufficiency and resilience. Look for a group in your neighborhood (or start one yourself!).
Environmental Change-Makerswww.EnviroChangeMakers.org
•Transition Network (international) www.TransitionNetwork.org•Transition US www.TransitionUS.org•The Transition Primer is free online at http://transitiontowns.org/TransitionNetwork/TransitionPrimer
RESOURCES:
6700 West 83rd StreetLos Angeles, CA 90045
(310)670-4777 [email protected]
www.EnviroChangeMakers.org
As we learn about growing food, weather patterns, and harvesting water, we cannot help but learn more about the
cycles of this small planet we call home. We’ll discover that human beings are only one of many living things that share
this planet, and that we’re all part of an intricately
INTERCONNECTED system that supports all life. We’ll
reevaluate our role within that interconnected ecosystem, and embrace our place within it.
Along the way, we’ll realize that to access this future, we’ll have to rely on our fellow man a lot more than we ever have.
We’ll need a new sense of COMMUNITY
in order to survive.
• Create events which help your neighbors reconnect and build bridges between people.
• Encourage your community to visualize positive possibilities for a lean-energy future.
• Seek out other organizations which are working toward similar solutions, and form partnerships. Share the task of
building a new, realistic future for human society.
res ilience
reconnect
Another part of preparation is learning NEW SKILLS – the
basic skills of everyday living, skills our forefathers took for granted, skills which we’ve gleefully outsourced during this
brief 50 to 100 years of energy surplus.
• Learn how to grow, prepare, and store food and teach your neighbors.
• Learn how to make clothing and shelter.• Help develop plans for localized water
and energy supplies.
Resilience is our ability to adapt and flex with changes. At the Environmental Change-Makers we are actively cultivating our local community’s self-sufficiency and resilience. We’re helping to
prepare and plan for the sweeping changes ahead. And we’re having a lot of fun along the way!
res kill
• Environmental Change-Making, our book which explains how we have set these ideas in motion in our local community and tells how you can do it too.
Part of Transition Los Angeles www.TransitionLA.org
A community greening our lives together."These folks understand better than almost anyone the odd and powerful connection between the local, the global, and the national --between the personal and the political. And they understand that it all needs to be full of fun and charged with meaning. They are activists and activators!"
--Bill McKibben, renowned environmentalist
