- The Age of Stupid was enacted in an ‘Ark’ a building standing on a pillar alone in a sea of water archiving seeds and animals and artifacts and knowledge with a lone curator telling the story of the end of humanity through the medium of a computer referring to news items from events in our time.
- 2012 a movie about an imaginary future where catastrophe strikes through the medium of volcanic eruption magnetic movement in the earth’s crust and sunspot activity is also about the rich and powerful elites of the earth building 8 ‘Ark’s’ in China – huge metal boats that can ride out the tidal waves that engulf the whole planet right up to the tops of the Himalayan Mountains. (While it is true that Yellowstone National Park is currently very active magnetic movement in the earth’s crust and sunsport activity are not as shown in the movie)
- In most stories of ‘End Times’ there is usually a hope of being the elite survivors that escape the destruction or are saved in some preferential manner. How realistic this is can be estimated by looking at the survival records of elite minorities in the many extinct civilizations of the past.
- Our survival may hang by a thread but it is unlikely that wealthy powerful elites will be making our survival their priority. If we want to be part of the future we must be part of creating a way forward for ourselves and our community.
- “Self-sufficiency” is a myth. We are all massively interdependent. One challenge communities can face is lack of ciritical mass and skills (not something we think much about in our crowded cities). Depending on how prepared the wider population and our governments are we may or may not find ourselves relatively alone.
- Certainly as oil resources plummet the distances we are able to move about will become very restricted and we will have to depend on each other very locally.
- In this sense Transition The Grove is an ‘Ark’ for this small local region and a model for others. Hopefully many many local regions will also be ‘building local Arks’.
- The concept of an ‘Ark’ encompasses the idea of preserving species. Preservation to carry forward into the future.
- What is really valuable to preserve for the future?
- What can we leave behind and stop wasting time and precious scarce resources on right away?