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<th nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT" valign="BASELINE">Subject: </th>
<td>[California Greening] Transition for my town</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:09:59 -0800 (PST)</td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>Wes <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:wrolley@charter.net"><wrolley@charter.net></a></td>
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<th nowrap="nowrap" align="RIGHT" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:wrolley@charter.net">wrolley@charter.net</a></td>
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<br>
This is scheduled for the 12/31 issue of the<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.morganhilltimes.com/">
Morgan Hill Times</a>.<br>
<br>
The history of the Santa Clara Valley is one of constant transition.
Long gone are the days when the Union Pacific RR advertised it as
the Valley of the Heart's Delight. Some of the agricultural economy
has remained but the structure has radically changed. No longer do
we have packing sheds next to the railway. Morgan Hill is not even
just a bedroom community for Silicon Valley, as it was when I moved
here over 30 years ago. Rather we are transitioning to something new
and don't really know just what that will be.<br>
<br>
One of the most important drivers for the past transitions has been
the value of our land. How do we use it? How do we tax it? Is it
more valuable for agriculture or for industrial development. You
have only to examine the office parks along Cochrane Rd. to
appreciate how we have answered those questions.<br>
<br>
It seems obvious that we may not always answer those questions in
the same manner, or that we will start asking new question. As our
economic life changes, there will be new drivers for local
decisions.<br>
<br>
In a recent NY Times column, Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman
discusses the new economic normal. “Oil is back above $90 a barrel.
Copper and cotton have hit record highs. Wheat and corn prices are
way up. Over all, world commodity prices have risen by a quarter in
the past six months.” With changes like this, perhaps it will become
more valuable to maintain agricultural land in close proximity to
where we live.<br>
<br>
Krugman gets right to the point. “What the commodity markets are
telling us is that we’re living in a finite world, in which the
rapid growth of emerging economies is placing pressure on limited
supplies of raw materials, pushing up their prices. And America is,
for the most part, just a bystander in this story.”<br>
<br>
That is a big change from that past vision of America. How do we
adapt to the reality of a finite world, one in which resources are
limited, access to them is increasingly expensive when
transportation costs are added, and America no longer has an
inexhaustible supply. Politicians talk about meeting out energy
needs through the exploitation of oil shale, but they never mention
the costs, direct and indirect, that oil shale operations have.
There is probably no single process that would destroy more
watershed than a massive exploitation of the shale deposits in
Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. This is water that would go to the
Colorado River and make that water supply unusable.<br>
<br>
There are other drivers that we have to consider; a changing climate
is just one. The frequency of extreme weather events that we are
currently experiencing around the world is on of the predicted
results of increased greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere.
New York has been hard hit by a blizzard while Greenland continues
to warm. In the Southern Hemisphere, South Australia has experienced
their worst drought while Queensland had record rainfall and flood
this week. It may rival the flood from Pakistan but affect fewer
people. Remember: a warmer atmosphere will hold more water and that
will fall somewhere.<br>
<br>
We can no longer count on our state and federal governments to
prevent future catastrophic events, or even to adapt to them after
it happens. There is neither the fiscal capacity in either
Washington or Sacramento nor the political will act if it costs
money. We can only raise taxes so much and I doubt that the incoming
Republican House of Representatives, filled as it is with new Tea
Party members, is gong to do much of anything productive about
energy or climate change.<br>
<br>
Morgan Hill has to recognize that the future of this community
depends on what we do, collectively, here and now. There is a good
model for this cooperative community action in the Morgan Hill
Community Emergency Response Team. (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.mhcert.com/">http://www.mhcert.com/</a>) This is
how we take local action to deal with a sudden emergency because we
know that immediate help will not be coming form State or Federal
agencies. This is not because those agencies don't want to help, it
is because the can't.<br>
<br>
How will we deal with events that are not sudden, but rather assert
themselves over time. There is a model for this as well. Morgan Hill
is uniquely positioned to be a Transition Town, developing a local
resilience that will see us through, transitioning to a newer
reality. You can find more information about Transition Towns by
following Hopedance, an online journal published by Bob Banner of
Santa Barbara. (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://bit.ly/huvptZ">http://bit.ly/huvptZ</a>)<br>
<br>
The key objective of a Transition Town is to provide that local
resilience. They begin by asking different questions: What is the
true cost of consumerism? How willing are we to push down other
people in order to maintain our idea of American Exceptionalism? How
do we best adapt to this new world we have created? These are moral
questions as well as economic ones.<br>
<br>
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--<br>
Posted By Wes to <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2010/12/transition-for-my-town.html">California
Greening</a> at 12/28/2010 02:09:00 PM
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