Registrations for the Regional Climate Action Forum are coming in for the April 9 gathering the Quesnel Climate Action Group is hosting at the Quesnel College campus.
The day-long event includes a forum of regional citizen groups involved in creating positive changes in their communities in order to share information and ideas as well as an introduction to Transition Towns.
Tamara Sunsong who has been active in the Victoria Transition Town group will be speaking from her experience about how ordinary people in our area can get involved in a Transition Town initiative to make our communities stronger.
A Transition Town Initiative is a community-led response to the crucial question of how we can make our community more resilient and happier as we deal with the impacts of peak oil and economic contraction while at the same time urgently reducing CO2 emissions.
The process includes identifying the future we want for ourselves rather than waiting for someone else to create a future that we won’t like. The first steps involve raising awareness and connecting with existing groups. As the group becomes larger, it self-organizes in groups in key areas such as food, transport, energy, housing, education, textiles, etc. and creates practical projects such as community-supported agriculture, local currencies, urban orchards and re-skilling classes.
Finally, groups begin to look at rebuilding the local economic fabric so more of the local needs can be met in the community itself. This may include starting up local energy companies, social enterprises, complementary currency systems or other yet to be dreamed of initiatives.
The afternoon of the forum will bring together citizen-based groups from Williams Lake, Quesnel and Prince George who have been working on various projects that are making their communities better places to live. The groups will share their work and resources with forum participants.
There will be an opportunity for people to discuss the work and for participants to get involved with projects.
Anyone interested in learning more or in contributing energy to positive actions to improve our communities are welcome. Registration packages are available on the quesnelairshed.org website.
People may register at the door between 9 – 9:30 a.m., April 9.
Participants are asked to bring a bag lunch and contribute $20 to the cost of the forum.
Maureen Trotter is a member of the Quesnel Climate Action Group.
