Transitioning to Resilience: How many participants want to make this the central issue in their part of the project?

This is a good place to start, but I think it leads to a more basic question.

Here is the question as Gayle posed it:

Introduction

1. Over the past 10 years, how have communities in Northern Ontario been transitioning to post-carbon resilience? What are the practices and/or policies which have assisted them in doing so? (i.e., what are our strengths so far in making this transition?) (participants may go beyond 10 years when a strength has a long-lasting impact)

I tend to start by asking "HAVE communities been transitioning..."?

I would love to think they have been. The examples I can think of are pretty tiny.

Linda suggested some people in some communities are working to support increased use rail. It looks to me like rail and even bus service is still declining. Objectively the transition is going in the other direction.
Peggy noted that forestry communities are looking to develop strategies based on carbon storage and perhaps bio-energy. There is some progress in this area. Provincial policy still tends in another direction.
The Food Security group is bringing in some interesting ideas but this also seems very small scale. How many tons of carbon reduction have we seen?

Furthermore aren't these all examples in which "post-carbon" is a secondary concern? Is the transition to "post carbon" an empirically observable process or wishful thinking? Linda suggested it might be a process of evolving ideas at this stage.

If we are not convinced there has been a transition, then perhaps we are talking about policies and practices that help small groups promote the idea of a post-carbon community. Or about about analyzing the many barriers to a transition. These are interesting question, but are they what we want to focus on?

How many participants want to make this the central issue in their part of the project?

Before we start voting, David, I think we need to take a step back and reflect for a moment on our Letter of Intent and what we are trying to achieve with this proposal....

In my view (and I have on rare occasions been mistaken), every one of the projects that we identified and proposed in the Letter of Intent is a part of "northern ontario communities transitioning to resilience: Policy and practice towards a post-carbon era" - some of the key words in our title are "transitioning" and "towards" - we are not there yet, but that's what's exciting about our proposal - we are moving towards it - and quite possibly we'll have 5 years of work ahead of us to move the effort forward.

yes, our efforts may appear small at the moment - but that is often how change and movements happen.

our letter of intent was crafted to illustrate that northern communities have something to offer and contribute - and that solving our problems will come from made-in-northern-ontario solutions, not from policy-makers - or experts - from afar. (Much as we would like some of their dollars perhaps to help us on our way!)

I think the partnership we have forged through this effort is part of that stepping towards the transition - so is this process of sharing ideas/experience/knowledge. Communities without resources, and institutions disconnected from communities will certainly not be able to transition to resiliency. But when communities can access institutional resources, and institutions respond to communities needs/issues/cultures, then a great step forward can be taken.

now I'm going to work on my corner of the vision.....

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Northern CommunitiesTransitioning to Resilience

Northern CommunitiesTransitioning to Resilience

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