* the BSTI Café last night on re-skilling (thanks for * great evening!!), * the end of the night Dominic brought forward the question of * we planning to go ‘back’ to * simpler life from the past, or * we going ‘forward’ into something new. I want to frame this question in terms of two key ideas from Transition Towns literature: ‘re-localisation’ * ‘energy descent’. The main * of the Transition Initiative is to develop * community-based energy descent * plan, * re-localisation is considered * necessary * practical part of energy decent.
I suggest * great deal of the interest in ‘old’ skills can be usefully thought of * part of * re-localisation process in which the community becomes more self-reliant than we * * present. * the same time old skills can be part of energy descent if those skills produce things using less energy.
But there’s * the reality that we rely * great deal on 'modern' stuff like the internet * computers for * sorts of things, including for communication * ourselves in the community. Things like car-pooling, local trading systems, * skills databases can be immensely efficient * very easy to * if we use internet interactions via computer.
Now there’s just no way we can ‘localise’ the materials * skills needed to make, repair * run internet systems. By their nature internet systems rely on immense capital-intensive industries with global reach. But * the same time internet systems enable us to do * great number of things using much less energy – so internet systems could be key parts of * energy descent * plan.
So here’s the crux: SOME things can be re-localised – * should be. But some very useful things CAN’T be re-localised – but we may still want to rely on them because they * so useful. Obviously, though, we can’t really fully rely on them because their global nature means they * vulnerable to * sorts of disruptions beyond our local control.
What can we do with this? Can we develop * * of relying on those 'global' systems only when they * there? I take this * with mains power * home: our place often has black-outs, so many crucial systems – water, sewer, heating, cooking, internet * phone – don’t depend on constant mains. * community-wide * could be something like the regular floods in Bello. Most of the year * our roads * bridges * passable, but sometimes they *’t. When * flood’s happening, well-established residents go into * different ‘mode’ of living, * we * prepared for this mode * the time with food stores, gumboots, battery-driven radio, safe patterns of travel etc.
* key to safety in the floods is being prepared to * one’s plans rather than ‘keep soldiering on’. To me this is one of the most delightful * beneficial * of the floods: the whole town kind of pauses – shops * schools * closed, people walk * great deal, stay * home * lot, etc. Everything becomes much more ‘local’ – for * short time. Then things return to 'normal.
Perhaps, then, we could learn from this example of floods, that it's possible to 'change mode' (* enjoy it!) when some systems or resources *'t *? So that 'local' systems * seen * crucial while non-local systems * seen * '* on * good day', or something? So we still can rely on non-local systems in * general way but not moment-to-moment, like for food or water or pooh. I'm not convinced * this - it's just * suggestion...
In summary, I’m wanting to explore how re-skilling * re-localisation is part of the overall energy descent goal, what * the limitations to the * of re-localisation, * can we fit re-localisation * * continued use of global systems to encourage energy descent.
Sorry * the long post - didn't know how to say it shorter... David B.
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