HopeDance special on localization

September 18, 2008

Our Mission

Our Mission

The purpose of HopeDance is simply to report on the outrageous, pioneering and inspiring activities of outstanding individuals and organizations who are creating a new world–regardless of their spiritual tradition or political agenda.

We publish material and engage in activities (forums, workshops, film festivals…) that are necessary in building ecologically sustainable, practical, down-to-earth solutions, holistic, healthy and awakened community.

Inspiring genuine hope, our intention is to also help connect people to specific projects, individuals, and organizations so that dialogue, wisdom, and vital action will be the fruitful outcome for the people, plants, animals and land in San Luis Obispo County, Ventura County and Santa Barbara County… and beyond.


Introduction by Bob Banner:

HopeDance is moving to be more web-based, more social networking, more online articles, more films , more listservs (if neccessary), more connections, more collaborations, more links to the online calendar and more involved in the Transition Towns movement throughout the central coast and southern California.

Basically, when I moved and had to recycle so many files, back issues and piles of magazines I noticed around me a high level of ambition and frenetic energy. I don’t want that anymore. If people want to step forward and engage in these activities, you are totally welcomed. I want more love, fun and joy in my life.


How peak oil and climate change affect us: “Post-petroleum stress disorder” by Rob Hopkins

It is worth pausing to reflect on how all of this thinking about peak oil and the changes ahead is affecting us. Having been around the subject of peak oil for a while, I have observed many people go through the process of becoming aware of peak oil, having what I sometimes call their ‘End of Suburbia moment’, and have seen how that awareness affects them. For some it is a traumatic shock, for others an affirmation of what they have always suspected. For many though, it is not so clear-cut either way. I have noticed, over the years, certain symptoms of what I have come to call ‘post-petroleum stress disorder’. Perhaps you might recognise some of them:


Transition Town Initiatives – A White Paper by Jim Cole

The purpose of this white paper is to provide you with sufficient information about Transition Initiatives so you determine whether you are potentially interested in participating in future exploratory discussions about launching a Transition Initiative for one or more specific communities in San Luis Obispo County.


The Beginnings of the Transition Town Movement on the Central Coast by Larry Saltzman

…The Transition Town concept is a brilliant outgrowth of Permaculture design principles at work and lays out a coherent design for allowing communities around the world to prepare for the post carbon future we face, compounded by the problems of global climate disruption.

… Several years ago Linda Buzzell and I participated with as fellows of For The Future [http://www.forthefuture.org ], a local think tank, and HopeDance in bringing the first conference to Santa Barbara on the subject of peak oil. The conference keynote speaker was Richard Heinberg (thanks to Bob Banner and HopeDance). It was staged at Pacifica Graduate Institute and was a huge success. At the time we were searching for a grass roots, non-establishment way of mobilizing the community to follow up. We were both flabbergasted when we read The Transition Handbook, and saw that Rob Hopkins had successfully acted upon a similar vision, and had used Permaculture design principles to develop an entire methodology for how to organize a community so that community could lead itself to sustainability.


Peak VMT: Are Americans Kissing Their Gas Goodbye? by Julian Darley

Here’s an interesting question: if you gaze for a moment at this fine piece of Delphic art, which plots U.S. VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) with gasoline price for this decade: Would your first thought be, “Hmm, I wonder how we are going to pay for building new highways since our gas tax revenues must be falling, because we are driving less,” or would it be: “Goodness me! It looks like my fellow Americans are driving less, which as it turns out is exactly what I am doing, because gasoline prices have shot up so much! Maybe we don’t need to build any new roads.”

If you happen to be Mary E. Peters, US Secretary of Transportation, then you fall into the first camp. If you happen to be just about anyone else, you may already have joined the second camp.


Letter to HopeDance: Thanks

… I am an avid reader and have subscriptions to Adbusters, ODE, the Economist, and Buddhadharma. So why am I such a nut for HopeDance? Well, to put it simply…You cut through the bull shit. HopeDance is never irritatingly optimistic at the expense of subverting reality (Ode I love you but we cannot pacify our fears with the idea that buying eco shaped water bottles can be our contribution to healing our planet and providing a livable global temperature for our grandchildren), nor are your pages filled with heavy apocalyptic doom and condescending skepticism as Adbusters is often guilty of. (FYI: I love Adbusters and owe them much gratitude for their role in my realization of how saturated I was-and often still am- in materialism and the ridiculous, robotic, rat race for stainless steel appliances and ride on lawn mowers). I respect and enjoy the publications I mentioned above, however, HopeDance seems more real, grounded, and tangible all the while honoring the sacred and including the spiritual component in the quest for creating new paradigms that will shift us towards evolution and away from despair.


Tags: Building Community