ammachi3's channel

This is a channel dedicated to Transition Initiatives which embody the core principles of Permaculture. Permaculture is anything that helps us to live in a balanced, harmonious and positive way with the Earth and each other, one that is sustainable indefinitely. It can include all areas of life, from energy generation for food and transport to the ethics and principles of living within a community. Transition Initiatives are the means, or actions we can take, to create better harmony in the world, by aiming to try to create localised and resilient communities, ones that are alive with solidarity and less venerable to the increasing risks of a global economy.

Localisation stands, at best, at the limits of practical possibility. But has the decisive argument, in its favour, that there will be no alternative. - David Fleming, Economist, 1940 to 2010.

Q: So what are the challenges we face?

A: We face three massive converging challenges: 1) the Peak in Global Oil Production (along with peaks in many other resources), which results in, 2) a Irreversible Contraction of the Global Economy - or the End of Economic Growth (we do not have the supplies to meet our massively growing wants) - and 3) Catastrophic Climate Change.

Q: Okay, but how have these come about?

A: Our modern, technologically industrialised society has increasingly decimated the very life supporting systems on which its very existence depends. This is happening because of the unscrupulous and unrestrained burning of fossil fuels, and consumption of other resources. Fossil fuels are the base of our society as it supplies the energy for all we do and create. However, these are in decline, with the world having already passed its peak in production, and our demand for them is rapidly rising. With a quickly widening gap between our supplies of resources and our greatly increasing demand for them, we are now seeing a flat-lining in growth for many nations of the globalised economy. This will eventually result in an irreversible economic contraction, as we cannot pump further oil from the ground and thus fuel our current economic infinite growth model on our finite planet. This will happen even if we manage to find an impossible miracle cure for our toxic levels of debt, which will otherwise greatly facilitate the inevitable contraction and disintegration of globalisation.

Q: What about Climate change?

A: Yes, most serious of all is our unrestrained burning of fossil fuels, which has led to extremely high levels of CO2 and other harmful amounts of greenhouse gases being released into our atmosphere - levels which have not been seen for hundreds of thousands of years. This has resulted in the unfoldment of catastrophic climate change which could, if we do not curtail our emissions, threaten the very existence of all life on Earth.

Q: Wow...okay, but what can I, just one person, do in the face of such great challenges?

A: As the old saying goes, 'Think globally, act locally.' We all need to think seriously about how every single one of our individual actions adds up collectively to produce great negative global problems. So, to change our Earth destroying ways, we need the power of aware communities, so that we can get the momentum needed for the masses to change. We need communities which are localised so that we can be more resilient to the disruptions that are happening in our globalised economy. With peak oil/peak resources/peak debt causing our economies to flat-line and contract and the huge additional pressures that climate change will place on us, we can only mitigate these by building resilient and localised communities. Communities that source their needs from wihtin tens of miles not thousands of miles. Communities that own their own food production and power generation facilities. But, most of all, we need solidarity and cohesion within the community so that people do not feel isolated, scared and alone. We need the community ties to be strong so that we can stand strong together and meet the great challenges we will face in the coming years.

Please visit:

www.transitionnetwork.org

for more information on how you can step up and take real practical action against the challenges we face, along with other members of your community.

Lastly, I hope that the videos gathered here can help people to understand the severity of our current situation and help us to live in a harmonious way with Mother Earth - one which is life-sustaining rather than life-destroying.

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