Residents Organizing to Protect Local Environment

Special to Green Valley News - another By Mike Touzeau – Wednesday June 3, 2009

Bob Dylan declared in a song almost a half- century ago: Your old road is rapidly aging, so get out of the new one if you cant lend a hand, for the times they are achanging. Today, a small grass-roots effort centered in Tubac is trying to grow itself to give even the smallest voice a chance to help open that new road again this time into a lower energy-use life that will retain the Santa Cruz Valleys richness for future generations. Its inspiration comes from the Transition Town movement created a few years ago that seeks to put new systems in place to make a given community more self-sufficient as climate change intensifies, Jon Mooallem wrote in an April 19, 2009, New York Times article. A handful of area residents have already held a couple of meetings to brainstorm potential projects and begin to define themselves. They are inviting everyone who loves the Santa Cruz Valley to join them in trying to establish some clear goals. The next meeting is June 11 at the Tubac Community Center, 50 Bridge Street, at 5:30 p.m. Its clear we can’t wait for the government, said Linda Ellinor, who is spearheading the preliminary organizing effort, along with Cliff Marsom, John Wade, Pete delaRosa and Jack Maddox, who also leads a Change is Happening group in Green Valley. Building objectives After first discovering a group called Sustainable Tucson, Ellinor eventually gave the first Transition training in the state on April 4. She hopes this local group will get off the ground toward building their objectives during the summer. Mooallem outlined Sandpoint, Idahos (one of the first U.S. Transition Towns) efforts for much of his article, pointing out that even the most cynical citizens were finding common ground and seeing potential for cooperation and coalitions with government bodies rather than always helplessly enduring their edicts. We need to relocalize, explained Ellinor, author of Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation. She left the big-time corporate treadmill to become a major consultant in training facilitators and business leaders how to move beyond discussion and debate to become more communicative, collaborative and team-building. Relocalize is a catch-word used to help define a focus on environmental issues affecting local areas, and Ellinor outlined a few that have been brought up, including a shift away from international buying habits that help support local enterprise, thus reducing shipping costs and fuel use. Just a 10 percent shift has a huge effect on a local economy, she said. Conserving water, local farming and other energy-conservation ideas are also included in discussions. Right now, we are just trying to raise awareness, Ellinor said. People/Planet/Prosperity The group showed a movie about organic farming at its May 30 meeting and will keep adding speakers and more information from other successes around the country for those who attend. Patagonias Carolyn Shafer spoke at an earlier meeting about her eastern Santa Cruz County groups ongoing feasibility study exploring ways to become more energy independent. The triple bottom line, as Ellinor called it, is People/Planet/Prosperity, an attempt to remind Americans everywhere that we have always measured our success in terms of growth and profit without concern for replenishing, regenerating and keeping some balance. But with this growing movement spurring citizens along, she feels local communities now have an opportunity to restore, regenerate and protect the valley for future generations while learning to build some economic equality for all citizens to have a shot at prosperity. I can’t imagine how my sons children will live on this planet with the same standard of living I’ve enjoyed, she said. If we could have understood this as a culture a long time ago, we could have done so much more. But now, like so many other ordinary Americans, she is starting to feel a sense of urgency and community that she hopes will help bring about change much faster. A true democracy gives everyone a voice, and we no longer have to be passive, just accepting what the government does. We can be active, empowered. Green Valley resident Mike Touzeau is a freelance writer for the Green Valley News and Sun.