Five Of The Best Reasons Why We Need To Localize
Re-localization is the process through which a community reverts from ever increasing dependence upon the global economic system back to local networks of economic interdependency. Localization brings production closer to consumption obviating the need to rely on long supply chains and distant markets so that communities can largely provision themselves. Local production strengthens the local economy, creates worthwhile jobs, and increases local self reliance. Refocusing the economy locally will necessarily revitalize the community, increasing camaraderie, cooperation, and support for local culture and a sense of place.
The top five reasons we need to localize:
- Make our cities more resilient
- Reduce C02 emissions
- Reduce energy consumption
- Prepare for an energy scarce future
- Create a publicly-owned safety net
In the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, regional officials have become increasingly concerned about how the San Francisco Bay Area would fare if another 1906-style earthquake were to occur. The San Francisco city government and CORE - Citizens of Oakland Responding to Emergencies (as well as the national emergency preparedness sector in general) are strongly recommending that people get prepared to live for 3 days without major infrastructural support (i.e., electricity, running water, supermarkets, etc).
Considering the potentially long term disruptions of an earthquake, failure of the levee system in the Sacramento Delta , or other catastrophic event and the inadequacy of the government response to Hurricane Katrina, clearly the next step for preparedness is to be able to function without major infrastructural support for a longer time period. While preparing families to provision themselves for several days assumes some sort of stockpiling, pushing that timeframe out several weeks or months implies among other things, local food production and decentralized renewable power sources.
Local production for local consumption also obviates the need to ship materials and products large distances. Reducing transport lowers CO2 and other pollutant emissions and reduces dependence on burning fossil fuels. This is particularly important considering that the transportation sector is the largest emitter of CO2 and a near consensus of scientists believe that global CO2 emissions need to be reduced 60-80% to have a possibility of stabilizing the climate. This will not occur without reconfiguring our economies and cities for much less transport and energy consumption.
In light of widely predicted oil shortfalls in the years and decades to come, relocalization appears to be inevitable. Oil fuels 90% of global transportation. Like any other non-renewable resource, it exists in finite quantity, and at some point will reach a peak annual extraction rate; this phenomenon is called “Peak Oil”. A growing number of industry experts predict that the rate of global oil extraction will peak within two to five years. According to the U.S. Department of Energy-funded “Hirsch Report,” it would take two decades for an orderly transition off our oil-centered transportation system. And this report did not address all the other things for which we use oil such as plastics, synthetic fabrics, artificial rubbers, fertilizers, and pesticides. As oil peaks and becomes increasingly less available and prices rise, there will be an unyielding economic push towards relocalization as well as regentrification.
Ever-rising gasoline prices will force many long-distance commuters to relocate closer to their jobs, increasing demand for urban housing. This will accelerate the regentrification of urban areas and the corresponding displacement of low-income urban residents to slums and older and outer suburbs. While the suburbs may initially seem attractive for some former urban residents, they will lose their luster as gasoline prices continue rising and wealthier residents abandon suburbia for the city. Further, as energy and fuel prices continue to rise, urban and suburban families living from paycheck to paycheck (or on the margins) and transport-intensive businesses will be increasingly stressed, if not destitute. Without swift response and action, the middle class will be next to feel the pain of utter dependence on a dwindling resource and inadequate preparation for the transition to an intensely local, post-petroleum future.
Choosing to progress now to a more localized economy will be the wise move, and less painful if it is planned for and managed well in advance of world peak oil production. The obvious starting point is an assessment of what each community already possesses both in natural and human resources and their abilities to produce and store food, energy, water, essential goods, and community currencies with the aim to integrate these efforts into a parallel public infrastructure that can serve as a safety net for when times get hard, and as a launch pad to scale up local operations. The process will require experimentation since each community has different circumstances including natural systems, built infrastructure, community resources, and culture.
this is great… simple and to the point way to promote “living local”.