Pender Island (PENDER COMMUNITY TRANSITION)

PENDER COMMUNITY TRANSITION (a cooperative alliance for a brighter future)

* please go to www.pendercommunitytransition.ca for our website and current info

Local Resilience can be defined as the capacity of a community (along with the natural ecosystems that support it) to handle shocks or pressures, meet core needs self-sufficiently, and keep adapting and evolving in a connected, healthy way.

PENDER COMMUNITY TRANSITION (PCT) is a cooperative alliance, helping the North and South Pender Islands to reduce oil dependency, carbon emissions, and other damage to our Earth, and to transition with resilience and self-sufficiency through peak oil (the end of easy oil), climate change, and other worldwide resource and financial challenges.

DRAWING FROM THE TRANSITION / LOCAL RESILIENCE MODEL: an inspiring, practical process for our entire community (people, families, existing groups, businesses, and local government) to build trust and come together with all our gifts. Why? To create a future where we are more resilient and self-sufficient; more connected with each other, the land, and the rest of nature; living lower-carbon, lighter on the Earth, with healthier lifestyles, and greater happiness and community spirit.

PCT SUBGROUPS: inviting all of us to connect and cooperate on key issues for reducing damage to our Earth and increasing local resilience, i.e. Energy & Emissions; Food Growing & Composting; Conservation of Biodiversity; Water & Weather; Commerce & Relocalization; Transportation; Building & Housing; Spirit, Art & Wellbeing; and Beyond Pender.

* Peak oil means that world oil extraction rates have maxed out and begun declining, which is exacerbated by continually growing demand. Easy (cheap) oil is ending, yet currently most things around us (e.g. our food, medicine, clothing, buildings) rely on it for creation and/or transport (see “The Transition Handbook” or “TH”).

* More specifically, conventional oil production likely peaked in 2005, and is now forecast to decline by 3% per year (e.g. in 20 years, 60% less available? TH p. 27). Meanwhile, unconventional oil is extraordinarily risky and/or expensive to produce (e.g. ultra deep sea drilling, or oil sands using equivalent of 1 million barrels of oil to produce 2 million barrels, with enormous emissions and environmental damage: TH pp. 23 & 50).

* CLIMATE CHANGE – Despite various well-funded or off-the-cuff campaigns creating confusion (some intentionally), the majority of qualified scientists say that the world’s current levels of greenhouse gas emissions would commit us to a dangerous global average temperature rise, climate instability, and severe threats to agriculture, water, and nature. For this and other reasons (e.g. peak oil, pollution), the wisest course is to cut carbon emissions ASAP (TH pp. 30-36; www.climate-change-emergency-medical-response.org).

* Peak oil, climate change, and GLOBAL finance need to be considered together, or we might choose peak oil solutions that worsen climate change (e.g. “liquid coal”), climate change solutions that don’t increase resilience (e.g. less emissions but no community self-sufficiency), or we might forget that derivatives/other financial abuses still threaten to take down the global economy. Relocalizing economies and reducing debt are vital protections.

* Also, there is no viable energy replacement for easy oil that can maintain a perpetual-growth economy and lifestyle based on cheap food and goods shipped around the world. Other KEy resources have current or projected worldwide shortages (e.g. water), or projected peaks (e.g. natural gas, coal, uranium, fertilizers, etc.), and how we hyper-consume resources causes astounding pollution, biodiversity loss, illness, inequity and more. This means how we live on our Earth needs to change, and we can make this a positive transition in many ways.

*Our future is brighter when we come together with the best of ourselves, building trust and cooperation, doing our part for the world, and choosing how our community responds to worldwide challenges. Email info@pendercommunitytransition.ca and check out www.pendercommunitytransition.ca  for more info. When we connect our biggest selves with community action, we can transform almost anything!