permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

If you've always wanted a guide for evolving a post-petroleum culture, 
here's a start.
Love,
Keith

--
Keith Johnson
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516
Bloomington, IN 47408
(812) 335-0383
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
APPLE-B (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy - Bloomington)


   Greetings
   This Action Handbook is based on excerpts from the forthcoming
   Relocalize Now!
   Getting Ready for Climate Change and the End of Cheap Oil.
   We have designed this handbook to share ideas about projects and
   initiative that
   Local Post Carbon Groups and interested community members can start
   immedi-
   ately in order to start developing a Relocalization strategy for
   their community. 
   Only by working together on Relocalization projects locally, such as
   building a
   community garden or starting a car cooperative, will we effect the
   change we
   would like to see in the world.
   Each section of this handbook includes several synopses of
   Relocalization projects
   ideas for communities. For a more in-depth look at each of these
   project ideas,
   please visit the resource section on www.relocalize.net
   <http://www.relocalize.net>.


   Start a Food Co-operative

   Help support local farmers and promote sustainable agricultural
   practices by forming a food co-operative to purchase and
   distribute organic and locally grown produce. Forming co-ops can
   make organic local food more affordable because as mem-
   bers of a co-operative your group will have more purchasing power.
   Individuals can pool their orders and receive discounts
   for large quantity orders.  
    
   Develop a Garden Gleaning Project

   Organize a Garden Gleaning Project to harvest fruit from backyards
   where the produce would otherwise go to waste. Project
   volunteers are matched up with property owners who do not have the
   time or capability to harvest the fruit on their prop-
   erties. The harvested fruit can be shared between the pickers,
   property owners, community organizations and local food
   banks. The Garden Gleaning Project can range from a few friends and
   a couple of fruit trees to a citywide organization that
   coordinates a large group of volunteers, runs workshops, hosts
   harvesting celebrations and produces preserves, juices, and
   jams. A Garden Gleaning Project can work both in urban and rural
   areas, wherever fruit trees exist but are not being used for
   their fruit by their owners.
                      
   Resources

   Co-operative Grocers' Information Network: www.cgin.coop/manual.pdf
   <http://www.cgin.coop/manual.pdf>
   Cooperative Directory Service: www.coopdirectory.org
   <http://www.coopdirectory.org>
   Start or Join a Car Sharing Co-operative

   Start a car co-operative in order to offer car sharing as a viable
   transportation alternative in your town or area.  Instead of
   each owning a personal vehicle, members of a car coop own a number
   of cars collectively for use when using alternative
   mode of transportation, such as cycling and walking, is not
   possible.  Car sharing greatly reduces personal automobile use,
   cuts the number of cars on the road and shrinks the financial and
   air quality costs of our society's over reliance on private
   transportation.   At the same time cooperatives provide the
   reliability and convenience of owning a private vehicle.   Car co-
   ops can vary in size from a few friends sharing a car to 30,000
   members sharing a large fleet of vehicles.

   Start a Walking School Bus

   Organize a Walking School Bus so that elementary school children can
   get to school in a safe, healthy and fossil-fuel-
   free manner.  Walking School Buses are programs that allow children
   to walk to school in a supervised group along a
   predetermined route and pick up additional students at assigned
   stops.  The program can provide an alternative to the
   conventional and congested vehicle drop off and encourage both
   supervising parents and children to get out of their car and
   back into community space.  The school bus program ensures that
   parents feel confident that their children are safe, while
   it providing the opportunity for kids to socialize, stay fit, and
   learn the importance of people-powered transportation at an
   early age. 

   Resources

   Definition and history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_sharing
   CarSharing Network: http://www.carsharing.net
   Cooperative Auto Network: http://www.cooperativeauto.net
   Autoshare Toronto: http://www.autoshare.com
   Boulder CarShare: http://www.carshare.org

   Produce a Documentary Film Meta-Project

   Produce a documentary film about the work your local post carbon
   group is doing, with a particular focus on the processes
   behind each project. The film can centre on one project your group
   has completed and can outline the various steps it took
   to achieve your goals. Alternately, your group may wish to outline
   several ongoing projects that you have been working on
   and show how the initiatives were started. Your film will serve as a
   tool to inspire other groups to begin their own projects,
   a means of encouraging greater understanding of the challenges of
   peak oil and relocalization, and a call to action for those
   new to the issues. It is best to start documentary films during the
   initial stage of a project so that you have footage of each
   step along the way.

   Develop a Community Walking Tour

   Organize a walking tour of your community. Highlight the region's
   pre-globalization history, discuss areas of concern,
   and demonstrate to the participants the possibilities and working
   examples of relocalization and positive alternatives. A
   knowledgeable guide will engage participants by introducing points
   of interest, explaining their significance, and share ideas
   about how the situation could be improved. The purpose of the tour
   is to educate community members about the localized
   networks that used to exist in their community, to create awareness
   about the current positive and negative attributes of
   your region and to illustrate the potential your community has for
   building a strong post-carbon, relocalized future.

   Resources

   Maps of communities by walking distance - A Very Beautiful Place:
   http://www.authenticbusiness.co.uk/archive/AVBP
   Common Ground: http://www.commonground.org.uk

   Natural Resources

   Understanding your community and bioregion and its resources is a
   great starting point for deciding which projects and ex-
   periments to undertake as a Local Post Carbon Group. An assessment
   of your local natural resources requires researchers to
   gather information and coordinators to compile the information in an
   accessible and useable form.  Map the natural features
   of your community and bioregion and include the location of arable
   land, weather, flora and fauna.

   Society and Business

   Along with taking an inventory of your community's physical
   features, it is valuable to conduct a community asset inventory.
   Do this by making a list of the community groups, public projects,
   non-profit organizations and businesses in your community
   that are working towards one or more aspects of Relocalization. This
   type of assessment is a valuable first step in identify-
   ing local capability and skills and will provide your region with a
   list of resources that might be incorporated into a process
   of neighborhood visioning or regeneration. The very process of
   creating an asset inventory encourages community members
   to start forming valuable connections and relationships with one
   another. Find a way to share this information with your
   neighborhood; your group could compile the information in a
   Community Guidebook (see Engage in Local Governance &
   Your Community).

   Municipal and Regional Political Structure

   Get to know the local municipal and regional political structure.
   Doing research into the arrangement of local politics will
   help your group understand who makes the decisions, who holds sway
   in which areas and who to approach with different
   ideas and problems.  Compile a synopsis and contact information on
   all advisory committees, commissions and working
   groups. Find out what laws stand in the way of relocalization and
   through what processes they can be changed.

   Local Skills Database

   Compile a database of who has what practical skills in your
   community.  Local skills can be as simple as an expert knot-tier
   or as complex as how to build, install and maintain solar panels.
   Community members may develop these abilities in their
   paid employment, or practice these skills in the form of hobbies.
   Organize the information in an electronic database, which
   will allow you to make adjustments as community members learn new
   skills and people move in and out of the area. The
   database will allow you to quickly locate skilled people in the area
   who can help your group conduct research projects and
   undertake action-oriented projects. A skills database can also be
   helpful when establishing local money or bartering systems.
   Developing this type of database and presenting the information in
   an effective way will help your community value and
   appreciate local skills and talents.

   Local Needs Assessment

   Collect current information on the amount of locally produced food,
   energy and water being produced in your region. Deter-
   mine how much produce is transported into the region in order to
   meet local demand. Identify local sources of food, energy
   and water and calculate how much additional food, energy and water
   is required to create a self-reliant region.

   Conduct a Personal Energy Audit

   Conducting a personal energy audit is a valuable way to understand
   how deeply complex and interconnected our society's
   relationship is with distant, unknown and non- renewable sources of
   energy. The exercise will help you become more con-
   scious of how much energy you use in a typical day.

   Set Goals for Reduction

   Once you and your group members have completed personal energy
   audits, create goals to reduce the amount of energy
   used by each member of the group, say by a factor of ten. By working
   together, the group will be able to support each
   other. The single, most effective way to reduce general energy
   consumption is by sharing energy use. A large portion of
   individual energy use is through private personal mobility, namely
   cars, followed by electricity and heating. Taking action
   to substantially reduce the amount of electricity or heating used in
   an average home is a formidable, medium- to long-term
   task. Do research into local and federal grants and investment
   options to finance the retrofitting of homes for energy use.

   Resources
   Willits Economic Localization Project:
   http://www.willitseconomiclocalization.org/Papers/Papers.htm
   Resources
   Home Energy Saver Web site: http://hes.lbl.gov
   AC Power Measurement device:
   http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm?dv=3&dp=302&ts=1025344&kw=measure
   <http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm?dv=3&dp=302&ts=1025344&kw=measure>
   US DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy "Energy
   Savers" Web site:
   http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/

   Community Post Carbon Guidebook

   Upon completing a Community Assessment Inventory (see the Take
   Inventory of Your Community fact sheet), create a guide-
   book that outlines the various businesses, services, manufacturers,
   organizations, media outlets and programs that are work-
   ing towards relocalization in your community. This informative
   pamphlet, booklet or online resource will serve as a resource
   for individuals and organizations that want to know where to put
   their money, how to get involved and what is still needed
   in the area to create a self-reliant post-carbon community network. 

   Form a Community Coalition

   Form a coalition for groups and organizations in your community that
   are working on relocalizing the local economy. The
   goal is to have a wide range of informed organizations who are
   interested in how their work fits into the bigger issues of the
   global energy crisis and relocalization. Create the space for these
   organizations to get involved in effecting solutions. Your
   Local Post Carbon Group can assist coalition members create new
   programs to deal with the coming crisis, add new thrust to
   the organizations' existing advocacy programs and help them connect
   with a network of organizations with similar aims. The
   coalition will bring together people from different backgrounds and
   allow members to see how their work fits into the peak
   oil context and why what they are doing is important in a energy
   constrained world.

   Run for Municipal Office with a Relocalization Platform

   Understanding your municipal government and how it works is
   essential for working towards relocalization. Running as
   a candidate in a municipal election on the issues of low energy
   living will give these issues a higher public profile in your
   community, especially if you win. If you are successful you will be
   able to bring the issues of peak oil and the positive options
   of relocalization to council chambers. By asking the right
   questions, even during election time, you will be able to force other
   leaders to address the issues of peak oil. Running for office is an
   effective vehicle to share information about relocalization
   with your community. We encourage anyone who is interested in
   politics to consider running for municipal office. Regardless
   of the outcome of the election, your voice, opinions and questions
   will be heard and reported on in the local media.

   Post Carbon Institute
   action handbook engage in local governance & community
   Resources
   The book How to Run for Local Office: a complete guide for winning a
   local election: http://www.winelect.com

   Reclaim Public Space

   Work with other members of your community to revitalize an existing
   public space or to create a new site for neighborhood
   interaction. Each community will have a different vision of how to
   develop such a project and how the finished product will
   look, function and be managed. Project ideas include reclaiming an
   underused parking lot, converting an intersection into
   public space, or redirecting an existing park back towards public use.

   Barn Raising Project

   Use Barn Raising as a means of getting work done on a community
   project.  Members of a community actively decide to
   come to the same place at the same time to achieve a specific goal.
   The activity can be something that benefits a small sub-
   set of the population, such as installing a solar water heater for a
   community member, or it can be a larger goal of the entire
   community, such as creating a new community garden. The key features
   of Barn Raising event are doing work and finding
   time to socialize.

   Resources
   The City Repair Project: http://www.cityrepair.org
   Project for Public Spaces: http://www.pps.org
   Resources
   Definition and history:
   http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?BarnRaising ;
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising
   
<http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?BarnRaising%20;%20http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising>

   Hold a Film Screening or Film Festival

   Film screenings and film festivals are a valuable tool to raise
   awareness about the energy and ecological predicaments of
   our society's dependence on fossil fuels. Film screening and
   festivals are especially effective if participants are given the
   opportunity to discuss the film after the showing. These types of
   events are a great opportunity to increase community
   knowledge and advocacy, to raise funds for sponsoring groups. It is
   a good idea to provide a sign-up sheet for participants
   to get involved in the local Post Carbon Group events and meetings.
   .
   Coordinate Letters to the Editor

   The letters to the editor section of your local paper represents is
   a valuable forum for getting your message about peak oil,
   low-energy living and global relocalization to the community, which
   includes both local citizens and politicians. The editorial
   section is one of the most read sections of any newspaper. Letters
   to the editor help editors decide which topics to cover in
   future news stories and editorials.  Additionally, elected officials
   often carefully monitor this section and the editorial page to
   gauge local opinion.  Coordinate your efforts: gather together
   several local organizations and plan to write editorials to the
   same newspaper within the same week. The more letters an editor
   gets, the more weight your letter will have.

   Raise Awareness with Press Releases

   Writing press releases can be an effective means of sharing your
   message with your community. Focus your story on specific
   issues, perhaps something that is happening in your community, and
   outline the positive actions that your group is taking
   to deal with these challenges. A well-written press release can
   raise community awareness about the ramifications of our
   society's over-reliance on cheap energy and will encourage others to
   speak out about these issues. Press releases can inspire
   people to action and will give your group and its activities legitimacy.

   Resources
   Visit the Resource section of the Relocalization Network website at
   http://www.relocalize.net/resources/
   outreach/screenings
   Resources
   Press Release Newswire: http://www.prweb.com
   Press Release Free: http://www.prfree.com

   Form a Relocalization Committee

   Form a Relocalization Committee in order to develop greater public
   awareness about peak oil, the local and regional
   ramifications of energy shortages and the looming environmental
   crisis, and preparations at the municipal/regional level for
   an energy-depleted future. The committee can work to identify local
   laws and ordinances that inhibit relocalization and to
   develop laws that would encourage local self-reliance.
   www.relocalize.net <http://www.relocalize.net>

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