Oil no longer the dressing for the '3,000 mile Caesar salad'

When Tim Winton addressed a seminar on peak oil at the Byron Bay Community Centre this year, so many turned up that people had to sit on the floor and spilled out of the doors. This level of interest surprised Tim and indicates that, in this part of the world at least, peak oil is something that is starting to capture the public imagination. The audience had come to hear about the potential impact on the region and what they could do about it. Tim proposed that localism might offer some solutions.

“The economy will not grow if the energy supply does not,” Tim told the audience. “Yet, this can be seen as an opportunity. The Northern Rivers could become a world leader in what to do in a situation of scarcity and there are things we can do both personally and as a region. On the personal level, avoid debt. On the community level, invest in the regional economy. Reduce car-dependence and adopt pedestrian-friendly urban planning. Develop local sources of energy such as biofuels, solar and wind. Adopt energy conservation. We need to educate and make people more aware of the situation. Importantly, we need to work out how to do more through good design.”

A challenge like peak oil could be expected to generate a climate of doom and gloom, however this is not what is happening. There is optimism that the Northern Rivers region could become a leader in a peak oil future.

“Byron Bay has the climate for doing things sustainably and for leading Australia”, claims Sarah West, a Lennox Head environmental scientist who works with local town planner, Geolink, and who previously worked with Sydney Water. “Prices will go up as supply declines - and that includes water, goods, fuel and food. You might know that much of our food is transported great distances - this is the scenario of the ‘3,000 mile Caesar salad’. We can do much by deciding to buy local foods and locally-produced goods. We need to decentralise.”

Popular Green’s Mayor, Jan Barham, agrees and encourages residents to feel motivated rather than discouraged. “We live here because we are a bit smarter than the rest”, she says with an air of mock smugness, “and we stand up for what is right. There’s enough of us here to make a difference. You’re only going to show the world what’s possible when you have a bold community. Let’s stay positive.” Barham disagrees with avoiding conventional politics in the search for solutions: “Politics - it’s the only way I know to get things done in a reasonable time.”

Supporting and investing in regional economies by buying local is not a new proposal - it has been encouraged by business people in areas of failing local economies and by advocates promoting the partial-decoupling from the global economy to preserve local jobs and the viability of towns. What is new is proposing localism as a means of reducing oil consumption. Localism as an economic and cultural solution has been explored by commentators such as Michael Shuman, attorney and director of the US Institute for Policy Studies who wrote Going Local - creating self-reliant communities in a global age (1998; Simon & Shuster, NY).

The Northern Rivers is a growth area that attracts sea-changers and down-shifters, people who are part of a well-educated and affluent demographic. Despite the innovation possible with such human resources, however, localism can do only so much to reduce reliance on high-priced oil. There might be potential for the region’s farmers to grow crops for the manufacture of biofuels such as biodiesel, however the economics of processing within the region - and whether sufficient raw material could be produced there - has never been assessed.

The North Coast cannot avoid negative impacts that might come with peak oil, however a new localism might reduce them to some extent. To what degree that is possible will depend upon the availability of local finance and initiative. Any peak oil coping strategy will have to motivate the region’s innovative citizens and its social and economic entrepreneurs. Motivated by rising transport, goods, food and petrol prices, even the region’s environmentalists might look beyond trees and forests at the very infrastructure that supports the way they live.