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Slow Money Revolution: the global growth of local currencies
Cliona O Conaill, New Consumer magazine via Transition Culture
Money is so inextricably woven into the fabric of our lives that it has become fundamental to our survival in the West. It affects almost everything we do, and yet we actually know very little about it. However, understanding of the nature of money will empower us as consumers. Money is not an actual thing. It is only an agreement between businesses, banks, governments, communities and nations to treat something as though it has value. It is “like a marriage, like a political party, like a business deal”, says Bernard Lietaer, author of nine books on money and finances and an economist for over 25 years who was involved in designing the Euro.
…But there is a way to short-circuiting mainstream banking and get more oomph out of our wallets. Using local, or complementary currencies is a way of promoting local businesses, rebuilding community, and promoting relocalisation. You may already be using complementary currencies without realising it in the form of airmiles and supermarket loyalty points. But there is much more to them.
(14 Jan 2008)
Grow your own way: How to join the allotment in-crowd
Tom McTague, The Independent
Go down to an allotment and you’re bound to find the flat-cap brigade out in force – retired men chatting about carrots and gooseberries. But now you’re almost as likely to discover young urbanites, families and women tending their cabbages.
Peter Hulme-Cross of the London Assembly, who has written a report on allotments, says: “They are more popular than ever. Lots of people and all sorts of ethnicities and nationalities are getting involved.” In the London borough of Camden, there is a waiting time of 10 years for an allotment.
What’s behind their popularity? Mark Todd from Greenhelpline.com cites growing awareness of “food air miles” – the distance travelled by produce from where it was grown. “People sourcing local food is part of the answer to global warming. It’s simple really but your carbon footprint will be much lower if you grow your own blueberries rather than flying them in from Argentina.”
Other factors include the increased appetite for organic food and the possibility of cutting down on grocery bills. For instance, the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (www.nsalg.org.uk) says you can produce up to £500 worth of food a year from an average allotment.
(15 Jan 2008)
Peak oil and fears about food security, reconnection to a bit of earth are other likely factors. -AF
Toward A Post-Oil Community
Peter Goodchild, CounterCurrents.org
There are some puzzling aspects to the fact that it is hard to put together a cohesive group in terms of dealing with future issues. While politicians, business leaders, and the news media all have coherent, cohesive social groupings, the sort of people who intend to navigate the Dark Ages are scattered to the four winds. Obviously something more is needed, some concept of community, even if “doomers” can be as factional as Marxists.
Yet we should not despair about the apparent lack of control. In the fifth century it was the Romans who were disciplined and organized, but it was the barbarians who won. The Internet was purposely designed as a decentralized network that could withstand nuclear attack. Today’s highly centralized cities can be defeated by a half a dozen terrorists. Decentralization will allow future communities to survive.
(5 Jan 2008)
Rob Hopkins interviewed by Ted Trainer (part 4)
Rob Hopkins, Transition Culture
Hopkins: I think peak oil is a very powerful tool for putting a mirror up to communities to ask, “where has the resilience in this community gone?”, and for focusing the mind on how vulnerable we have become. It is my experience that there is little mileage in telling people that they will need to live more frugally, but that what is much more powerful is to take people through a thinking process where they arrive at that conclusion themselves, which is one of the key aspects of what Transition Intiatives do.
One of the mechanisms we use to support this is the Home Group. The Home Group arose from the Skilling Up for Powerdown course, where people felt they needed a mechanism for sustaining their motivation for action after the course. In essence it is like the kind of support group that emerged in the Women’s Movement or similar movements where people were experiencing rapid change in their lives and needed support to make it ‘stick’
(8 Jan 2008)
Earlier installments at Transition Culture
Peak Moment: What Can One Person Do?
Janaia Donaldson, Peak Moment
If you enjoyed Sally Lovell’s over-the-top treatise on her electric bike (episode 40), she’s back, telling us other ways one person can make a difference – from fresh water to humanure. Her focus on water includes educating herself on where it comes from, effects of pollution and climate change, and conservation — pressurized toilets, choice of washing machine, and ways to use that not-so-hot water while it’s getting hot. As for humanure, listen in and find out! Episode 90.
(10 January 2008)
