Pledge and Reward scheme:

NEC is introducing a voluntary Pledge scheme whereby Nelson individuals, households, businesses and eventually schools can make pledges to reduce their carbon emissions in key area such as Energy, Transport, Water, Waste, Food and Biocapacity. The Pledges are at different levels - from no cost or effort to more cost or effort. The greater the effort the greater the Reward. These Rewards have to be compatible with the idea of sustainability and be goods or services provisioned locally and so support local business. The purpose of the Reward systems is to encourage and incentivize long-term behavioural change towards sustainable life-styles.

The launch of the CRRS:

The NEC and the Nelson City Council will be launching CODE:RED on 13^th  March 2009 in Nelson’s Founders Heritage Park.

From 3 pm there will be a Community launch in the Energy Centre- an interactive “how to” expo around the key themes above. It is not a trade show but rather a whole of community awareness building and, hopefully, behavior changing event. The idea is also to demonstrate to people that there is a great deal happening locally in terms of ideas, technology, experience and production in the sustainability arena. Each display will have a themed Pledge above it so that attendees can make a pledge to eg “Reduce my energy consumption by…” on the day and qualify to enter a prize draw. There will also be lots of fun, music, theatre, quizzes and prizes to be won by the whole family.

Car travel has become cheaper and cheaper in the UK over the past few decades, so no wonder road transport is keeps rising. I wonder what comparable stats for NZ are. Similar, I would imagine. Any transport gurus out there have stats on this?

“It is one thing to campaign against climate change and quite another to paint a compelling and engaging vision of a post-carbon world in such a way as to enthuse others to embark on a journey towards it. We are only just beginning to scratch the surface of the power of a positive vision of an abundant future: one which is energy-lean, time-rich, less stressful, healthier and happier. Being able to associate images and a clear vision with how a powered-down future might be essential.

I like to use the analogy of inviting a reluctant friend to join you on holiday. If you can passionately and poetically paint a mental picture of the beach, the sunset and the candle-lit taverna by the sea, they will be more likely to come. Environmentalists have often been guilty of presenting people with a mental image of the world’s least desirable holiday destination - some seedy bed and breakfast near Torquay, with nylon sheets, cold tea and soggy toast - and expecting them to get excited about the prospect of NOT going there. The logic and psychology are all wrong.”

Rob Hopkins, The Transition Handbook; From oil dependency to local resilience,  Green Books, 2008.

- Article from the latest edition of Just Living-

I first got involved in Transition Towns after we went round the neighbourhood introducing ourselves to the new neighbours right after moving into a new house in the centre of Wellington. The spunky guys down the road were really excited about this new movement that seeks creative local responses to the twin challenges of climate change and peak oil.

We’re constantly fed this litany of depressing information, overwhelming, dismal facts about how we’re all stuffed. This gets pretty disempowering because the problems just seem so huge and lots of us just figure, “I’m only one small person and really the politicians / business corporations / exuberant activists are the ones whose responsibility it is to do something about them.”

The Transition Towns initiative gives us the opportunity to say “Hey, what can we do right here in our neighbourhood to respond positively to these problems and actually do something about them?” There’s an amazingly inspiring sense that rather than being a dismally austere place, a lower-energy, more local future could actually be preferable and a much more fun place to live.

Imagine communities where people know their neighbours and feel a sense of belonging, places where resources and skills are shared, where people grow and share their own food, where people car-pool, walk and bike. Imagine reconnection with neighbours, nature, seasons, healthy food, skills that our grandparents took for granted that we have lost.

Transition Towns are local, community based movements trying to find creative, empowering responses to climate change and the end of cheap oil by creating vibrant, resilient communities. Transition initiatives are popping up like mushrooms all over Britain, Australia, Ireland, Wales and New Zealand. There are over 40 groups in New Zealand, and counting.

They are based on Rob Hopkins’ model in his inspiring and easy-to-read 2008 book “The Transition Handbook,” which outlines twelve steps that can be adapted to suit local contexts and priorities, and individual passions and areas of interest. You can buy the book online in various places, including our website, justice.net.nz. For more on Transition Towns, visit transitiontowns.org.nz.

Anne Heins likes her name to be pronounced properly (Ana) and lives in Stillwaters urban community in central Wellington.

- Article from the latest edition of Just Living-

My vision of the future involves empowered communities living in edible landscapes.

I see the transformation of the city into a vibrant, beautiful, sustainable, healthy, playful place to live. I see people redesigning their lifestyles, neighbourhoods, businesses, and cities through fun, practical means. Church groups, primary schools, residents associations, government departments and so on working together as design teams.

Rather than leaving the design and decision-making of our communities up to specialists, I see people empowered to take responsibility and make creative choices about how our neighbourhoods could look, and then being supported to put these plans into action.

I see this transformative environmental education being offered through Urban Permaculture Design Academies.

I see communities in the future that reflect, celebrate and embody the diverse dreams and cultures of their people - that really tap their potential as visionaries and agents of change (no matter how big or small). A key to this is listening and ‘appreciative inquiry’. By focusing on what’s working and what’s possible, rather than what is not, we can acknowledge and appreciate the precious people, stories and resources that make up our communities.

I see regular ‘community conversations’ in which residents talk about what they really like about where they live and how this value could be increased. A group I’m involved in called Four Million Dreams is all about this - having ‘transformative conversations’ about possibility. I see this way of sharing being popularized. Nationwide there would be video submissions about of people’s visions and people in conversations everywhere which tap everyone’s rich stories and connections to culture, place and future hope.

“The rising tide raises all boats” – I see cross sector collaboration in the form of leadership incubator courses, in which motivated people from different sectors take part – arts, environment, social sector and so on. People from community, business and government would come together to work on projects that have multiple benefits.

As a member of Transition Towns Aro Valley Wellington, and owner of Living in the Landscape – Permaculture Design and Training Business, I am actively involved in making this vision a reality.

Transition Towns involve people in learning how they can creatively respond to the challenges of peak oil and climate change and renew and redesign their environment to care for people, and to care for the earth. It’s all about relationships: understanding how natural ecological systems of people, plants, animals, soils, water, air, and sun interact, and actively involving ourselves in that.

The possibilities are enormous if we work together. If we ask “what’s your vision?” and “how can I help?”

Andrew Morrison is a permaculture educator working with others to pioneer tools that enable people to be active citizens, living together with commitment and insight.

“A year ago no one was talking about $200 oil, and now everyone in the markets is, for scary reasons. Oil prices climbed from $10 in 1999 to $95 last year without slowing the surging world economy, in large part because the markets believed the spike was at core driven by rising demand, particularly from India and China, which feeds growth. There was concern over supply, too, but nothing like the tumult prompted by the stranglehold OPEC imposed on the world in the 1970s, at least not until recent months. As the per-barrel price climbed over the last few months, with futures reaching $135 last week, the consensus began shifting to a new more gloomy view: that not only would long-term demand, led by China and India, continue to grow, but that the supply threats, including increasing conflict, falling investment, industry bottlenecks and downward estimates of big field reserves in major oil states—aren’t going away any time soon. Now many (though not all) serious people take $200 oil—and the prospect of another ’70s-style oil shock—seriously. Goldman Sachs warned that the $200 barrier could be hit within the next six to 24 months.”

More here: www.newsweek.com/id/139395

Looking for solutions? Rob Hopkins on Transition Towns http://youtube.com/watch?v=kGHrWPtCvg0

Plus, when doing their cost-benefit calculations, Land Transport New Zealand values the time of car drivers far more highly than the time of people taking public transport. Lovely to think that if we take the train our time wasted in outdated infrastructure is suddenly worth less to the government than the dude driving his SUV to work. Pretty discriminatory against those of us whose financial situation means we can’t afford to own or drive a car too.

Read the article here www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0807/S00272.htm

So what does stuff like peak oil have to do with social justice? With poverty? With well-being? Rising oil prices will have an unavoidable impact on our society. They already are. Heaps of us are struggling to pay the prices at the pump, and are having to do without in other areas of our lives. Rising oil prices will directly affect the price of food, of transport, and in fact of practically everything that we consume. Our consumer society is completely dependent on cheap oil. Rising oil prices are also likely to spark severe increases in unemployment as rising oil prices cause global economic downturn. The parallel problem of climate change will make us more prone to devastating extreme weather events, cyclones, floods, droughts, desertification. And all of these will have enormous impacts on human wellbeing. And, as usual, all these things will hit the poor and vulnerable the hardest.

Furthermore, the end of cheap oil and other resources that we’ve been digging out of the ground like there’s no tomorrow will spark armed conflict. In fact, it already has, with Iraq as a case in point. Water scarcity too is a huge issue and competition over access to scarce fresh water resources is expected to be an increasing factor armed conflict in many regions of the world, like Africa, Asia and Central Asia in the coming decades. The conflict in Darfur is another current example of how environmental factors drive or contribute to conflict, with British Home Secretary John Reid pointing to global warming as a key factor behind the conflict in Darfur. “The blunt truth is that the lack of water and agricultural land is a significant contributory factor to the tragic conflict we see unfolding in Darfur,” he said. “We should see this as a warning sign.”

That’s why many environmental concerns are inextricable from issues of social justice. We need to get past the thinking of some that environment and social justice are two distinct concerns. We need to look at the bigger picture and see the linkages. Environmental justice is a key part of social justice, although one among many other concerns like poverty, income distribution, criminal justice, violence, discrimination etc. But the integrity of our natural world, of the biosphere, of our environment are absolutely essential to our ability to produce the food, water and basic resources we need to stay alive. We live in a really integrated system, and we can’t destroy the planet without ultimately destroying ourselves, and especially the most vulnerable of us who are already struggling.