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NEWSLETTER JUNE 2013
EVENT COMING UP: Members Get-together Film Night Monday 15th July 2012 7:00pm in the Resource Centre Ferny Grove State High School. A list of short films for you to choose from and discuss together over supper. If you’ve got suggestions for great YouTube links email them to administrator@transitionthegrove.org.au to add to the list.
What do Transition Town members value and do?
Some of us have been trying to answer this question clearly. Have a look at the statements we’re developing. Do they resonate with you?
There is a short overview on the Home page then more detailed ones under the Community Directory menu down the left. Have a look at Food and Health. Does it make sense to you as a way we can contribute and work together to going forward?
QLD Plan – Questions for our long-term future
Some of our members have been asked to have input into The Queensland Plan.
Yes we do have a future focus! Our members are well-informed about the issues that face us in planning for the future and they also know a lot about this local community. Great combination!
The first step was to develop 6 questions to bring back to the QLD people to get the broadest possible input into answering. Some of the questions are close to the sorts of questions we ask in Transition The Grove all the time.
What will help people who live around here feel and act more like a community united around common concerns? The QLD Plan question is: In the context of living in the community how do we move our focus from me to we?
Through our focus on local health Anne Tennock who has a keen interest in local health came up with the questions: What can we do locally to keep vibrantly healthy relying only on local resources? What will cause people to move away from relying on health professionals to fix up their disease towards taking responsibility for preventing themselves getting sick aiming instead to lead vibrantly healthy lifestyles?
The QLD Plan raises a similar question: How do we empower and educate individuals communities and institutions to embrace responsibiility for an active and healthy lifestyle?
Does your family care about the answers to these questions? Do you have ideas to contribute? Maybe you want to frame other related questions?
You can have input by replying to this email. Alternatively you can enter your views directly onto The Queensland Plan website. A Steering Committee is meeting locally to encourage local discussion of the questions up until October. There is good input from Transition The Grove members so we do encourage you to be involved.
Hillbrook Sustainability Day
A great day was had by all at Hillbrook Anglican College early this month when they held their two-yearly Sustainability Day. Transition Towns and like-minded groups in North West Brisbane were a lively presence. We had a double marquee and our display boards up. Groups represented were Transition The Grove Transition The Gap Transition Enoggera Samford Futures and St John’s Wood Sustainability. Members Anne Tennock and Wally Wight were among the program of speakers for the day. Anne spoke on “Sustainable Communities” and Wally was on the panel providing a peak oil perspective.
Sustainable Communities Survey
A successful activity of the day was a Sustainable Communities Survey. We set up small tables with chairs for people to sit at to fill it in and it was great to see the thoughtful responses of groups writing answers to the questions at each table.
What are the questions? Would you like to have a go at answering them too? Have a go and email your answers in. Here they are:
What do you think are the valuable strengths and resources of the locality where you live (community environment social/cultural infrastructure…) that you want to have preserved into the future?
Our local communities aren’t perfect! What do you think needs addressing to improve your locality and whose responsibility should it be to do something about it?
How do you see global megatrends affecting your local community and what do you think we should be starting to do now to address them?
What ideas or vision do you have for your locality or community for the future?
What skills and networks do you have that could assist in getting broad community participation in thinking about your community’s long-term future?
North West Brisbane Sustainable Communities Network
Well the name isn’t quite that official but actively involved local leaders have been meeting to share ideas and provide encouragement and support for working on local initiatives. We see this as an evolution in the process of building resilient local communities in this region. One great sign of success is seeing the ideas we’ve worked so hard at putting out there through our website get picked up and other groups in the community following them.
Global Megatrends
It’s been a big month for the sorts of trends Transition Towns watch. We’re on about building local resilience as an adaptive response to the big global changes that are happening. Sometimes they sure happen fast!
Today we’ve had the US President Obama announcing sweeping initiatives to combat climate change and he introduces it by saying there’s not enough time for “flat Earth society meetings”.
This week we had the Climate Commission report telling Australia that we need to leave 80% of our coal and fossil fuels reserves in the ground.
Early in the month we had the Australia’s Oil Vulnerability Symposium pointing to startlingly low transport fuel reserves in Australia while we are heading for dependence on refineries in Singapore at a time when oil has peaked globally and competition for transport fuels is intensifying with big players like China and India ahead of us in the queue. Our food supply is directly linked to fuel prices too.
Those of you who follow the global financial circus will know that it is also in chaos. We get daily briefings and they are starting to read like bizarre postings from the front line of a war zone. Global credit looks tenuous.
Then there is some exciting stuff about the potential of the cyber warfare to reduce civilisation within weeks by crashing all our financial power water and supply systems.
At that is just a taste of what is hitting our desk regularly! If there was ever a time when we needed to prepare to adapt and be resilient it is now. The questions are: Can we do it in time and how do we mobilize our whole community to respond constructively to the urgency? Maybe we should each start by asking ourselves: What can I do to become more resilient starting now? In Transition Towns we always believe the answer will include ‘belonging to a resilient local community’.
A Voice of Exuberant Optimism – “Abundance: the future is better than you think.”
This book by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler is a showpiece for hope via the brilliance of advanced technology. Definitely worth a read. Bill Gates is reported to love it. A fascinating read and hope is an essential commodity.
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