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OPOA Action!

 

“We’re on a treadmill to tragedy.  We’re headed for disaster but we’re not there yet.  We don’t have time to lament about it, or to panic about it, we just need to act.”

 

 

The first thing we have to realize is that we cannot rely on governments, politicians, corporations, the elite, the marketplace, or technology to solve the converging threats of the 21st century. We must solve these problems ourselves--with our neighbors and our friends, in small groups and in community.

As the declining energy supply begins to take hold, there will be a profound process of decentralization and relocalization. Despite many people's faith in national governments, the most effective level to take action on will be the local level. Local governance, local leadership, local economics, local food production, local manufacturing of goods, and essential services will prove to be the most important activities.

 

"Though the effects of peak oil are likely to be difficult, it will also create opportunity to create the better world that we know is possible."

 

Thankfully, the local level is also the most practical and effective level at which individuals and small groups of people can affect change. Here at OPOA, we are working on multiple fronts to increase awareness and begin the process of relocalization across the Ohio area in order to mitigate the threat of peak oil and the other converging trends of the 21st century.

We believe that we can transform crisis into opportunity. Though the effects of peak oil and the other converging threats of the 21st century are likely to be difficult and to involve much suffering for many people, they will also create an opportunity that may allow us to build the better world that we know is possible--a world based on freedom, social justice, and sustainability.

 

OPOA's ACTION PLAN

 

OPOA's Action Plan is a set of strategic goals, challenges, and opportunities that will be essential to the relocalization movement in the Ohio area. If you have feedback on how to improve the Action Plan, or ideas on how to impliment these ideas please contact us.

 

• BIOREGIONAL COLLEGE- By 2010, we hope to establish the first accredited "Bioregional College" that teaches both traditional subjects such as mathematics, literature, and philosophy along with the necessary skills such as permaculture design, blacksmithing, and survival skills.

 

• A GUIDE TO PREPARING YOUR FAMILY- We are currently working on a short guidebook to preparing your family and community for peak oil and the converging challenges of the 21st century that will be available, free of charge, with a membership or donation.

 

• OHIO SUSTAINABLE FARM INITIATIVE - We need to immediately switch to more sustainable forms of agriculture than the high-energy, low-labor industrial methods that are used presently. We are promoting five things in order to meet the need of sustainable agriculture in the Ohio area:
• 1) Help farmers switch from conventional methods to organic by giving them a small subsidy during the 3 to 5 year transition period.
• 2) Have a fund set aside specifically to help and encourage young people to become growers and farmers.
• 3) Start a program to provide all sustainably and locally grown food to schools and hospitals.
• 4) Create neighborhood and community gardens in every village, town, and city.
• 5) Have apprenticeship and internship positions available for anyone interested in sustainable agriculture.

 

• LOCAL LEADERSHIP TRAINING- In the near future, we would like to begin hosting workshops on "Relocalization Leadership." In the meantime, we have put together a list of ideas on things leaders can do now in their own time to prepare for the role of leadership in a post-peak oil world.

 

• COMMUNITY CURRENCY INITIATIVES- The quickest way to encourage economic relocalization is by promoting community currencies. Teaming up with local businesses, organizations, and government, we hope to help communities promote the use of community currencies.

 

• LOCAL RENEWABLE ENERGY- To solve the peak oil and the climate change problem we need to immediately replace the fossil fuel industry with renewable energy sources. Yet, it may be difficult to impossible to do this at a national or even a state level, so we are encouraging communities, neighborhoods, and families to work together to generate and use clean, renewable energy.

 

• COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE- As prices for oil skyrocket, the national and state levels of government may become overburdened and stressed. They may no longer be able to deliver healthcare needs like they have in the past. Developing healthcare for everybody on the local level is a sure way to unite the community and to create important social bonds, along with giving important medical treatment to those in need.

 

• BIRD FLU PREPARATION- OPOA is actively promoting the need to prepare for a possible bird flu pandemic in tandem with peak oil at the individual, family, and community level.

 

• FREE TREE PROGRAM- How can we help solve both the problems of food production and global climate change? By planting trees!

 

• APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY- Here at OPOA we actively promote the idea and use of appropriate technology. Currently, we are compiling a database of links to better serve communities searching for low-energy, small-scale alternatives to industrial mechanization.

 

• REWILDING OHIO- (Page Coming Soon) As we say, "crisis can be turned into an opportunity," and we believe that one opportunity in the coming times will be to rewild Ohio's landscape.

 

 

WE NEED YOU!

Here at OPOA we are trying to transform crisis into opportunity. If you think that the mission and material that OPOA provides is useful and much needed during this coming time of crisis, we ask that you give what you can to support a truly grassroots movement to protect and defend the Earth and humanity during the coming times.  With two full-time staff members, practically all funds are used exclusively to further our mission to help prepare the Ohio area for the coming times and to distribute free information about how individuals and communities can prepare for the coming times.  Without your kind donations we wouldn’t be able to survive!  To donate or find out more about how you can get involved please follow this link. Voice your opinions, solutions, inventions, suggestions, insights, strategies, and analyses at www.RelocalizationWiki.org.