|
|
|
Time for Transition |
|
|
|
Posted by Mike Grenville
|
|
The impact of burning fossil fuels on our climate is now obvious to all except a few die-hard sceptics. Our streets are choked with cars. We are fed, clothed and warmed not by the produce of the land around us but by food, goods and fuel transported hundreds and thousands of miles.
There is also a growing awareness that the days of cheap oil are coming to an end - soon. However, hardly any political leaders are talking about peak oil and its ramifications, acting and planning as though cheap oil will last forever, never mind the effects on the environment.
Whether this is simple naïve ignorance or an unwillingness to address an almost impossible to imagine future it is hard to decide. While optimists talk about 20 years, a growing number of experts say the days of unlimited cheap oil could be over within just two or three years.
With oil so deeply embedded in our way of life from transportation and food production to consumer products, the end of cheap oil will have a severe impact on our way of life.
It is clear that a major change in the ways that we consume energy and resources is necessary, whether because of their impact on the climate or because of the cost.
Oil As Food
The transition from our current wasteful, polluting and energy intensive way of life, to one that uses energy and resources in ways that will enable our children and grandchildren to enjoy a good standard of living, is essential. It requires a whole new way of thinking, with new skills and new ways of living with each other: not only living and working more locally, for example, but also in the food choices that we make and the way that it is grown.
According to a recent White Paper by our MEP Caroline Lucas, ‘Fuelling a Food Crisis – the impact of peak oil on food security’, food supply now accounts for 21% of total UK energy use. She points out that we currently rely on imports to provide almost one third of the food consumed in the UK, and have one of the lowest self-sufficiency ratios in the EU. Half of all vegetables and 95% of all fruit consumed in the UK now come from overseas.
Cars OR Food
Viable alternatives to reducing consumption of oil are hard to find. Figures from the OECD show that Europe would need to convert more than 70 per cent of arable land from food production in order to raise the proportion of biofuel used in road transport to 10 per cent.
Unilever, the world's second largest food company, warned last year that Britain faced soaring food prices, a shortage of staple foods and declining public health if the Government pushes ahead with plans to promote the use of biofuels.
Time for Action
While we are fortunate in Forest Row to have a community farm, for it to be able provide a year round primary food supply for the whole of our community will require much thought and planning.
Transition Village Forest Row is a new project that seeks to engage the community, including existing groups and initiatives, to address and prepare for the challenges that we face.
The Transition Village project makes no claim to have all the answers, but by building on the wisdom of the past and accessing the pool of ingenuity, skills and determination in our community, we believe the solutions will arise.
Starting last year in Totnes, the Transition Towns idea is spreading fast around the country to places including Bristol, Stroud and Lewes.
The project intends to help us help each other to start making the transition to a less polluting, sustainable way of life, that will have the added benefit of a more connected and enlivened community.
Phase Transition
The first phase of the project is raising awareness of the issues with a series of films planned in May and June. The next step will be to form planning groups to create a vision for Forest Row and an action plan. If you are interested in getting involved or leading a planning group, please get in contact.
Now is the time for us to take stock. To start to re-create our future in ways that are not based on cheap, plentiful and polluting oil but with localised food, a sustainable environment and an enlivened sense of community well being.
The need for change is urgent and these changes can't and won't happen overnight. We still have some time, - if we start planning and acting now. By thinking and acting together, the transition to a way of living that can be sustained will become much more achievable. Together we must re-imagine and re-create our future.
Find out more at: http://transitiontowns.org/Forest-Row/
Mike Grenville
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
01342 825169
|
|
