An invitation to participate in planning for a positive future for the Lakes Region

[Shedwannabe]

“When I think of what the transition initiative is doing, I feel so full
of hope I could cry” (Participant in a Transition Initiative workshop)

When was the last time you thought about the long-term future of our
society, our ecosystem, our planet, and felt full of hope? So often we are
confronted with messages of doom - climate change, over-population, fossil
fuel depletion induced economic meltdown, etc. - and we feel the problems
are so big that we can’t begin to address them personally. And we do
despair, thinking of the world or grandchildren and great-grandchildren
will live in, when oil will be a severely rationed product.

But what if there were a way we could have a positive vision of the
future, that our input made more likely, that acknowledges the challenges
of moving to a post-fossil fuel economy but is a vision that we want to
embrace? That is the focus of the Transitions Initiative, and is the theme
of this month’s LARELLA meeting, Sunday March 15th from 6:30pm to 8:00pm
(at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Laconia, 172 Pleasant Street - -
just a block northwest of the Train Depot. As always, there will be a
community potluck before the meeting, starting at 5:30pm - all are
welcome.

The transition initiatives are based on four key assumptions:

That life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable, and
that it’s better to plan for it than be taken by surprise
That our settlements and communities presently lack the resilience to
enable them to weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak
oil
That we have to act collectively, and we have to act now
That by unleashing the collective genius of those around us to creatively
and proactively design our energy descent, we can build ways of living
that are more connected, more enriching and that recognize the biological
limits of our planet.

We will review the concepts of peak oil, overshoot, resilience and energy
descent as we strive to understand the implications of reduced per capita
energy and increased energy prices for our community, then spend some time
envisioning how reorienting our patterns of energy use can lead to a
thriving post peak oil economy based on local sustainability. Much of the
meeting will be interactive, asking for your suggestions and ideas as we
try to understand what a transition to a low-fossil fuels environment
would look like, and how we might want out society to look like when those
days come.

For more information on the Transitions Initiative, please see:
http://transitionculture.org/ or
http://transitiontowns.org/Transitio...nsitionNetwork. The
Transition Handbook is currently available at Sustain Ability, 50 Canal
Street, Laconia for $24.95

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For our April meeting, we plan to show the film “The End of Suburbia” with
a discussion tying into the Transitions Initiative. In May we hope to
welcome Tyler Durham from D Acres to an evening sharing with us his
insights on permaculture in New Hampshire. However, we do have flexibility
in our schedule should you have a top-notch suggestion for a timely
presentation or guest speaker.

In other business, we will discuss the feasibility of a plan to approach
City of Laconia about installing solar power on some city buildings - see
this website for more info:
http://www.solar-nation.org/2009/01/...-to-your-town/

We are also looking forward to first energy raiser of the spring, once the
snow melts enough to remember we have a roof up there under all that white
stuff! IF you are interested in participating in a solar hot water
installation, please reply so I can make a list of whom to inform when the
date is scheduled. For more info on Energy Raisers in the Lakes Region,
see: www.larella.org/WinterNL2.pdf

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LARELLA - LAkes REgion Living Lightly Association
www.larella.org

Networking to support sustainable lifestyles and share information and
support with one another