Articles in "The Road to Resilience"

This issue, I’d like to talk about an element of personal resilience that, happily, we can all put in place. You will probably recall a few times in the last two winters when the roads were covered by a sheet of ice. If you didn’t have a fire-breathing, snow-eating four wheeler, you may have been a bit wary about venturing out into what could end up being an all day harrowing experience or worse. Your vehicle could end up joining the lost souls in the roadside snowdrifts at the bottom of one of our hills. We would have stayed home if there were nothing we needed to get. It may have been batteries or candles if the power was out, but, most likely, it had to do with food and water.

As a harbinger of hard times to come, writing a hopeful message of  “good tidings” as is appropriate to the season is a real challenge for me.  In fact, I already wrote a first draft and am back to square one because it was too preachy.  So, giving the Grinch a vacation, I’m going to try to talk about what is hopeful for me and what I try to do to be the change that I think will help us survive in the future.

The predictions for climate change in the Pacific Northwest are relatively benign compared to most of the rest of the world.  According to Cliff Mass, climate scientist at the UW and weekly commentator on KUOW, the increase in water vapor in the atmosphere due to higher average temperature, will mean a predominance of offshore marine air for us here in the Northwest.  That means cooler and wetter weather.  The only change for the worse might be that the increased rainfall we are expected to get will fall more in shorter, harder rains.  That means that it will not be able to percolate into the soil as readily as our lighter rains do now.  Another possibility is that we may not be able to maintain adequate snow pack during the summer leading to summer shortfalls.  We on Vashon, having a sole source aquifer, supposedly do not access water from snow pack, so that doesn’t affect us. 

As the election circus revs up once again, it is clear that we are way too busy fighting with each other to even begin to deal with some very serious problems.  At a time when our very lives depend on quick and decisive action, we are instead completely absorbed in finger pointing and name-calling.  As the rest of the world looks on and shakes their collective head, the question is:  will the people of the United States be able to shake off this insanity and begin to act rationally or will they drag the world down in flames?  In terms of priorities, the very real and serious problems we face must defer to the problem of our inability to act. 

I went to talk to T Yamamoto about her sustainable sheep breeding program, but came away with a larger perspective.  The ideas in this article do not represent a consensus of the Transition group, but I feel that we need to have a conversation about this.  T is a founding partner of Wolftown, a non-profit wildlife rehab center here on Vashon, now in its fifteenth year.  She has also been working to breed a tough and resilient sheep that is adapted to our mild and moist environment.  

In some discussions I’ve had recently, it has become apparent that it is time to restate the reasons I started writing this column in the first place. We humans have put ourselves and much of the world in grave danger by refusing to live according to the rules that billions of years of evolution have established. We counter our problems with solutions based on our own version of reality. I, and many others, see that the source of our problems is our version of reality itself. So, as we speed toward the precipice, the only thing we can think to do is to step on the gas pedal!  

As you now read this, the fate of our monetary economy will be known, but as I write this on Monday morning, I am still in suspense. As important as that is, I’d like to remind you that there is much more than money that keeps our society healthy and functioning. In previous articles, we’ve touched on aspects of the non-monetary economy

In addition to our personal and local work, we need to keep pushing for the creation of a sustainable, low energy economy. I’ve been wanting to write about why we, as a species, fail to plan ahead, in the light of the very probable disastrous consequences of climate change.  A little story might help you see it the way I do.

The bicycle is the simplest, most efficient, and elegant machine ever invented to move people over land at the local level.  Biking is the predominant mode to transport people in the world. 

In  last week’s column on Local Currency and  in previous ones, I’ve called for the relocalization of our Vashon economy as a hedge against the economic disturbances to come as a result of diminishing resources.  I’d like to continue that discussion.