With the twin challenges of climate change and peak oil looming, it seems logical that homes, neighbourhoods, communities and whole regions are going to need a bit of a re-shuffle to cope with an energy-restricted future.  Think about it - our food, water, energy, waste, and transport networks are all large (anything, anywhere, anytime), because they've all been built on an abundance of cheap fossil fuels. What if that were to change?  What if the price of road transport that delivers supermarket goods suddenly increased tenfold due to the peak oil effect? Would we want to pay 10x as much for those foods?  What if the trucking companies simply couldn't afford to keep these trucks on the road?

The Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre (SEAC) has recently launched it's first course 'Time for an Oil Change' - a ten week course that looks at the big picture in all these areas, the implications for the Coast, and practical solutions that can help families and communities cope with future uncertainties.  Outcomes from this course will form the first Energy Descent Action Plan that will be put to our local government, and hopefully feed into it's future climate change and peak oil planning responses.

SEAC has recently been accepted into the Transition Town Network (a first for Australia) based on the inspiring Kinsale model in Cork, Ireland.  Download Kinsale's plan (1.2Mb pdf doc)

For more information or to find out how to get involved, email SEAC Coordinator, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it