Peace Day Wall

GTW
by MEarth

Transition Vashon

There is a body of thought that is gaining popularity around the world – most prominently in the UK and Australia – called Transition Culture. Dedicated to the realization that it is time to face the fact that we have passed the time of Peak Oil, Peak Water, Peak Food and are well into the cycle of accelerating climate change, the authors of the concept put forth the thought that we must all figure out what we are going to do as the future all of that engenders unfolds.

As I encounter more and more writings on Transition Culture, it is obvious that Vashon is a perfect place to consider and implement solutions and strategies to deal with these issues. Many people and organizations are already engaged in that conversation. Individuals, families, communities – we must all make choices about whether we will ignore such issues and hope for the best or face them head-on and strive for the best.

We are a very defined community – unlike, say, West Seattle, which blends into surrounding communities almost unnoticed – we have an active and educated population and we stand to be isolated swiftly and completely if the flow of oil, food or money is significantly curtailed or if some other nation-wide or world-wide emergency arrises.
We are dependent upon a very complex system of food and fuel production, processing and transportation and, should said system be interrupted, even minimally, it will effect us sooner and for longer than other, more accessible communities. As I have written often in this space, our capacity to deal with the direst of emergencies depends largely upon the prior preparations we make.

Most of us at least acknowledge that we must phase out fossil fuels and systems that depend completely upon them. Our means of transportation, energy production, and food production and transportation must be revised – or, at least, supplemented – and the sooner the better. We have to think about the fact that, while me have sufficient food, water and fuel on our rock at any given moment, we must have a plan to get these things to the people who need them most. Need is a significant instigator and mitigator.

 From our veriest beginnings, human beings have needed the same essential things – water, shelter, food, fuel, and waste disposal. That has not changes since the last stone age and will not change even if there is another stone age in our future.

I have also written here often about food self-sufficieny for our little island castle with the salt-water moat. We have the land and, if it were put to use with the use of SPIN (Small Plot intensive – more about that next time) and bio-intensive methods, we could not only feed ourselves but our immediate neighbors as well. There would, of course, be certain deficiencies – cooking oil would be a serious problem. I, for one, am not a big fan of fish oil, the natural oil of the Salish Sea indigenees.

Peak Water is a consideration we have dealt with here on Vashon for some time, Our growth and population is limited by water availability, though not so much as places in severe drought where there is literally NO water – at least we have enough here that no one goes to bed thirsty except by choice. How do we make preparations to access that water in cases of wide-spread power outages. I enjoy a share in Westside Water and, when the power goes out, I can only hope it comes back on before the big tank at the top of the hill empties.

The vision I have is of an entire island dedicated to permaculture in its broadest sense, with an ultimately sustainable way of life the guiding principle – gardens, orchards, nut trees, corn and buckwheat fields, bio-diesel hemp-fields, earthworm-outhouses – but that is just my vision. The question is, what is your vision, what is OUR vision. Things have to change in the next few decades but how? How do you see Vashon in 20 years? 30 years? 50 years?

As Rob Hopkins, the originator of the phrase ‘Transition Culture,’ has said, “...how (do) we apply these principles to whole towns, whole settlements, and in particular, to how we design this transition in such a way that people will embrace it as a common journey, as a collective adventure, as something positive(?) So much peak oil and other environmental literature is doom-laden and information heavy, and most peoples' reaction is to switch off. How can we design descent pathways which make people feel alive, positive and included in this process of societal transformation?”

We have choices to make, pathways to choose, visions to manifest. If we do not work together, we will be in our weakest possible circumstance. Like it or not, human beings are at their best in packs or tribes and leaving everyone on their own is the worst we can do. In times of trouble, we must strive for the best. That is how communities of human beings have survived dark times for millennia – we work together and help each other through. One man cannot grow enough corn to feed his family but four men can grow enough corn to feed all their families. I can’t grow a lot of corn at my place – not enough sun. My neighbor has a great spot for corn and I could grow lettuce all year – thus we could work it out.

We hang together or we will hang separately. We have the choice. Let us strive for the best for ourselves, our children, our neighbors. Continue to think about how that might look over the next decades. If you have some thoughts, let me know and we will share them. Keep heart and journey well, ME.