How Cuba survived peak oil

Exciting developments tonight in our local discussions of peak oil because a showing of the film How Cuba Survived Peak Oil by Redbridge Green Fair has brought together a significant number of local people and organisations interested in the issue, including the Redbridge Faith Forum, Barkingside Agenda 21, other churches and community groups. This opens up the possibility of working together with others locally on the issue and, most importantly, getting experience, advice and ideas from those such as the Forest Farm Peace Garden who have been working on responses locally for several years.

How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is an interesting short film produced by Community Solutions which is all about how Cuba coped when its oil supply ran out and all the benefits this brought on a community level. Following the film there was a short facilitated conversation afterwards looking at any lessons we can learn for Redbridge, how we can become less oil dependent and bring the power of communities working together in the face of climate change.

One of the areas about which there was common agreement was that the issue has considerable implications for urban planning and reveals the folly of proposals made by Redbridge Council to build on allotments. One of the urgent implications is to get peak oil issues onto the agenda of urban planners and this is something that I will seek to do locally by raising the issue initially with TASK and hopefully through them with the Planning & Regeneration Department in the borough. Interestingly and importantly, Sam Norton spoke on the issue of peak oil at the recent SRNet Conference held in the Diocese meaning that the issue was raised with Regeneration Advisers for Dioceses across the UK.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John Coltrane - My Favorite Things.