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January 14 - Public Meeting - Re-skilling Berea
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November 10, 2008 - One drop at a time
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November 14, 2008 - 50 by 25
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November 25, 2008 - Going Green
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Increasing the ability of our community to deal with economic uncertainty, peak oil and climate change.

A project of the Interdisciplinary Programs Collaboration* at Berea College and Sustainable Berea.

Peak oil, climate change, ecosystem degradation, and the fragility of the national economy are threats to the well-being of Berea. Students and other residents of Berea are working together to develop a Transition Plan to strengthen Berea’s ability to withstand these stresses.

Totnes in Great Britain was the first transition town and now there are 100 official transition towns, regions, peninsulas, and islands. All transition initiatives involve a group of citizens taking charge of the future of their community, and all are based on four main assumptions:

• Life with dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable; best to plan for it
• Our communities lack the resilience to weather severe energy and economic shocks
• We have to act collectively, and act now
• If we fully apply our collective knowledge and skills, we can design a future that is preferable to the present.

The Transition Plan for Berea focuses on increasing the city’s Resilience, which is the ability of a community to withstand and adapt to external stresses. Communities that are tied to shaky electricity grids, distant food sources dependent on large inputs of fossil fuels, consumer goods shipped from China, and Wall Street investments have low resilience in the face of peak oil, climate change, and an erratic national and global economy. Home gardens, farmers markets, well-insulated houses, roof-top solar energy systems and local businesses add to resilience.

For more general information on Transition Towns and the transition process, we recommend The Transition Handbook: From oil dependency to local resilience by Rob Hopkins. On-line, TransitionCulture.org

For more information on the Transition Town Berea project or to join in developing a Transition Plan for Berea, info@SustainableBerea.org or call 985-1689

*The Interdisciplinary Programs Collaboration consists of five academic programs: African and African-American Studies, Appalachian Studies, Peace and Social Justice Studies, Sustainability and Environmental Studies, and Women’s Studies.