Northern CommunitiesTransitioning to Resilience

Gayle's second question was:

Introduction 

1. How do you envision a healthy, sustainable Northern Ontario in a post-carbon era?

I personally like this question a lot. A partial answer includes a number of technology choices:

1. No import of fossil fuels (unless there is a methane capture system)
2. Heating 10% geothermal or wood based
3. District heating for all public buildings and access for all private buildings in communities above a certain size.
4. Very local control of the wood and hydro resources.
5. Wood allocation to value added industries first, surpluses available for export

as well as some education choices

1. every student gets basic technology training from grade 4
2. 30% of study materials for schools come from within 2 hours drive from where the student lives - including poetry, music, examples for biology
3. a locally developed school curriculum
   

and some political structures:

1. a regional council making public spending decisions
2. a single northern school board making curriculum decisions

i am out of time today - more later