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Rethinking Rural Living
Living in calm, beautiful Perthshire can make it is difficult fully to face, or even believe, the encroaching, unprecedented and concurring multiple problems.
The Imperative Adaptation
There are changes advancing that interrelate and impact on each other:
• peak oil and gas coinciding with escalating world demand - supply will no longer meet demand;
• climate change, which is already impacting on millions of lives worldwide with floods, fires, crop failures, droughts and economic chaos, is creating environmental refugees. If left unchecked, it will lead to tipping points and cascading effects with catastrophic consequences.
• a runaway unethical growth-dependant global economic system which can easily collapse, is destroying our natural life support systems and not creating real wealth.
• unsustainable population growth (3 billion in 1960 to 6 billion in 2000, a doubling in 40 years).
What level do crises have to reach before we recognise we can no longer afford to continue clinging to current structures and arrangements?
How long will we let the consensus trap and our mental and emotional filters deny us a chance to recognise emergent patterns, to anticipate, to adjust and to make better choices?
So, what discontinuities do we have to prepare for?
We are at the bottom of the escalator of rising food and fuel prices with possible supply disruptions. Our way of life, based on abundant cheap energy, is over. There will be more frequent catastrophic weather events worldwide. Scotland will endure a windier and wetter climate. We can expect recessions, cuts in government spending and conceivably an economic depression. How will our jobs and pensions fare?
As individuals we may feel powerless to effect change, experience ‘green fatigue’ and find it too painful or inconvenient to deal with the changes and uncertainties that we are only now glimpsing. We may not know what to do. Alternatively, we may abdicate responsibility to our leaders and politicians.
What has happened to North Sea oil revenues? Norway has a worldwide, ethically-invested futures fund from its oil revenues to ensure the future wellbeing of its people. Where is our investment in renewable energy? Why have we not prepared for the time when oil is increasingly expensive and less plentiful?
What has happened to our fish stocks and other commons? How can we best slow down climate change? Many of us feel we want to come off oil simply because of its association with bloodshed and local environmental degradation. Soon the last wildernesses will be invaded to feed our addiction to oil. How will future generations view this period of history? How can our families, businesses and communities face, prepare and best meet the complex challenges? Moreover, how can we turn this into an opportunity?
Transition Movement
There are inevitable profound changes ahead. These times call for a renaissance of local communities. With the Transition Movement we have the opportunity to create more wholesome economic, social and cultural practices -resilient communities with transition initiatives e.g. energy-descent strategies etc. There are over 35 Transition initiatives in the UK, including towns, islands, villages, and over 500 globally at the earlier stages of launching the process (see www.transitiontowns.org, www.transitionculture.org). The Movement provides heartening, effective models of what can be done collectively, inclusively and democratically to create a more self-reliant quality existence. They generate support for all members of society.
(For information on the oil situation: www.energybulletin.net, www.oildepletionprotocol.org, www.postcarbon.org . DVDs to watch: The End of Suburbia www.endofsuburbia.com, Escape from Suburbia; Beyond the American Dream www.escapefromsuburbia.com. Online videos: Real Oil Crisis by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1515141.htm and www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20060710/default_full.htm.)
Community Resilience - Alternatives to Industrial Scale Wind Farms
Unequivocally, we need urgently to do all we can to slow down climate change. Scotland has immense wind energy relative to any other part of Europe. It is another huge asset but this time a clean one. Industrial scale wind farms with their high voltage mega-pylons are a blight on the landscape. Yet a St Andrews University survey found that the majority of people do not mind living close to wind turbines. Small scale is acceptable.
An interesting example of small scale renewable energy generation can be found on the Isle of Gigha (www.gigha.org.uk- follow the link to where we are now). continued opposite
They have three medium, unobtrusive community owned windmills (The Dancing Ladies of Gigha). Their financial model for the project is very robust and capable of widespread replication. The total capital cost was £440,000 raised through a mix of grant funding, loan finance and equity finance. The estimated income each year from the electricity they generate is £150,000. In the first five pay back years, after running costs (including maintenance and insurance etc), the creation of a capital reinvestment fund (this ensures future replacement without recourse loan finance), loan repayment and equity re-purchase, the net profit is £75,000pa (then rising).
This is available for community projects. This sort of small scale energy generation has negligible impact on tourism or the beauty of the landscape. The Scottish Government has recently announced substantial further funding for individuals, communities and businesses in the form of grants for renewable energy. Denmark, Sweden and Germany have long-established and widespread community energy generation projects. Yet Germany has much less wind than we do. Sweden has a national plan to break its oil dependency by 2020. The Australian Government has made climate change its top priority. We are lagging behind and missing opportunities.
There are many myths surrounding wind power. The energy needed to build and erect a medium sized wind turbine is offset within months; the capital recovered in 3 years (small, domestic wind turbines may take a decade or more). A robust investment.
Application Locally
So, what could Aberfeldy, Dunkeld or Pitlochry do with a community fund of £75,000pa or more? Local community grants could be made available to help reduce carbon emissions further and alleviate increasing fuel poverty eg retro-fitting solar panel water heating systems, community bulk buying of insulation materials for making old housing stock more energy efficient, or householder help to switch heating fuel types. Buying 30 solar panel water heating systems would be cheaper than families each buying an individual unit. Other much-needed community projects could also be funded. Local communities would decide how to spend the profits.
There are now in place many agencies geared to assisting communities achieve local resilience – The Development Trusts Association of Scotland, the Rural Community Programme of the Carnegie Trust, the Transition Town Movement. There are many inspiring examples of what can be repeated: The Tiree Community Wind Turbine, Dalry Community Wind Farm. (websites worth browsing: www.energy4all.co.uk, www.windprospect.com, www.communitywindpower.co.uk www.globalpublicmedia.com etc)
It is time for our minds and hearts to embrace, process and distil current complexity and discontinuity in order to make new choices. While we still have economic stability, it is time for a positive community response, for carbon energy descent and rapid transition. In the words of Buckminster Fuller: ‘only integrity is going to count’.
Liz Hodgson
(email lizhod@btopenworld.com)
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