Ballina may become part of Transition Town movement
A proposal to make Ballina a Transition Town will be announced at the launch of Steve Posselt’s book, Cry Me A River, at the Ballina Fair Cinema on Monday, May 4, at 6.30pm.
Mr Posselt, who wrote Cry Me A River after paddling the Murray-Darling river system from Brisbane to Adelaide, and the Ballina Climate Action Network (BCAN) are proponents of the Transition Town plan.
Background to the proposal says: “BCAN recognises that climate change is but one example of man’s current inability to live sustainably.
“Perhaps even more pressing is the issue of peak oil and how we will adapt. But overall, evidence mounts that the environment in many areas such as water, fisheries, landuse, is under severe stress and will collapse without radical change.
“The challenges presented to us today by global warming and peak oil (and gas) are perhaps the greatest that humanity has faced.
“This time brings a great opportunity for rethinking the way we live and making conscious choices about what kind of community and world we would like to live in.
“Change is coming whether we like it or not – and a planned response to the change will leave us in a much stronger position than if we wait until change is upon us.
“If we really have passed many of the key climate tipping points, then not only does that constitute the spectacular failure of capitalist economics identified by the Stern Report, of the perpetual growth model, and a failure of successive governments to actually govern when called by circumstance to do so, but it is also a failure of the protest movements and alternative culture to actually engage people in sufficient numbers in building a credible alternative.
“No one has emerged from the time running up to those tipping points as having actually done anything of any notable impact, despite all of our best intentions.”
The proposal says some areas in Australia have embraced the Tansition Towns initiative, with the Sunshine Coast being the most prominent and active as well as the first. There are seven registered Transition Towns in Australia, with many more forming.
It says a Transition Town Group looks at:
- How they can reduce their carbon emissions
- How they can reduce their reliance on fossil fuels
- How they can move away from dangerous climate change levels
- How they can wean themselves of being so reliant on fossil fuels
- How they will cope after peak oil.
The proposal says Ballina has two specific vulnerabilities:
- It is very low. Half a metre sea level rise will be dangerous
- There is no railway and public transport is almost non-existent.
Mr Posselt’s book will be launched by the Mayor of Ballina, Phillip Silver. Tickets are $15/$10.
