Transistion Towns

I joined about 2 weeks ago in Victoria, BC. I think this is powerful and different. For starters, in Victoria, some of the meetings are in Churches. These are the people that Conservatives traditionally rely upon. Suddenly we find them going environmental and awol from the partys that they traditionally vote for! Whether you believe in man made global warming or not, warming is happening. That is why all the plant and animal zones in north America are moving north. And it is not rocket science either. Soon, the good food growing climates will no longer corispond to the areas of good soil.

A lot of these people are concerned about smaller things, like food security. Aparently in Victoria, about 15 years ago, they had a big snowstorm that disrupted transport and within 3 days, all the food stores were bare. So this can happen in an earthquake or pandemic situation too. Much of transitions right here is about better food security, being ready for disaster and "reskilling". Change is happening very quickly, my neighbour has chickens and sows a vegetable garden on city land, the university uvic has students currently at war with the uni administrators and police because they are insisting on planting veg on university lawns. Workers grubbed it up and another action of planting will happen next week! Another of my neighbours is starting the process to have my street administered by the people who live here. This means we choose the trees to plant etc.

Currently I have a city hawthorn in front of my house on the street. If I cut it down, it will cost me at least 600 dollars even if I replace it with 4 apple trees.

I live in the best fruit and vegetable growning climate I have ever seen and yet we import over 90% of our produce from California. I grow grapes figs, plums, and vegetables. I work in new subdivisions where nobody ever plants a fruit tree. I plan to put in a deep pond or water storage because we get huge amounts of rain in winter and hardly a drop in summer. Another neighbour is the main person in charge of an urban rain collection plan.

Anyway, thats my take. This is very different, it isn't the hippy young easygoing do nothing "hey man, the environment,cool, yeah" dopeheads anymore, it is the church going people, even business people are involved.

Brian

The effort does seems to be much more about community

Political parties are not oriented towards cooperation

any grassroots cooperative efforts can't be any worse than the normal modes

There is not a substitute for fruits & vegetable that are picked when they are actually ripe

Here's a suggestion for your dopeless church group........first try convincing the ensconced political cadre of Victoria to build a sewage treatment plant.

Individual dwelling/ establishment treatment is by far the best option. Way cheaper for everyone involved.

My business is municipal sewage and wastewater treatment, and odour control.

How's that for working your way out of business?

Stu.

Oddly enough Gaiia's response to me somehow got flushed out of this conversation. Too bad. It deserved a ga.

Stu.....here's a loaded question for you........given the option of building a treatment plant next to a pristine lake (actually a bay with little current flow) and next to the shores of a sandy beach OR building same next to a huge swampland/marsh....which would be your choice? Additionally, one of the two locations was also to be the site of a new high school.

The town that made the choice is Barrys Bay, Ontario, Canada.

Hey Garthh,

I have a question and comments. Do these transition networks put pressure on their government, fight their government, or ignore their government? It seems the first choice could produce the most results because a government has the resources to do things that take money.

I have fruit trees and I plant a garden (in my own yard, not on University land). I think it is terrible if a government won't let you plant a tree or cut one down. I don't have that problem here, but in some cities in the eastern US, you can only paint your house with "approved colors". I had a neighbor who tried to tell me what color to paint mine, so I used "international orange" for my garage door for a while.

-S

Here we try to lead by example.

There is no compulsion to join the movement.

We know that the principle will be adopted by our local government, and then the state, ( Feds? Who knows?) eventually, as we will show that the lifestyle can be better without financial burden to any tier of the Gov't.

We're fortunate that our community doesn't have water reticulation, nor sewage reticulation. We're on the power grid. For me that's temporary. I'll become autonomous just as soon as possible. Even to the recharging of the electric runabout. I bought a 20yr old, tiny 800cc Subaru to convert, just last Saturday. The others are wanting to go this way too. ( I guess this is one way to stop those grid 'transmission losses'). We're situated on top of an aquifer of potable quality. Indeed Coca Cola draws from it for their 'spring water' bottling. We have lots of water tanks. The soil will grow anything.

I personally am exited by the challenges we face in the quest to become entirely self sufficient.

I am fully aware that it'll take some time to shake the reliance on petroleum oil, but I'm determined to develop other sources of energy, as well as increasing the production of bio oils for fuel.

Gotta start somewhere. (There are only four roads into the area and I know just where to put the 'emplacements'. Eh?)

Cheers,

Stu.