The Byron Shire Resilience and Regeneration Roadshow, hosted by Renew Fest and Resilient Byron, is kicking off on February 13 with a series of neighbourhood events, tackling the question: How do we create more resilient communities in 2021?
Catherine Ingram is one of the special guest speakers on the Roadshow and a board member of Resilient Byron, and this is her response to that question:
‘What if the back-to-back crises of the bushfires and the pandemic are seen at some point as the good old days?’
‘Anyone paying attention to climate collapse, growing economic uncertainty, social unrest, overpopulation, and the poisoning of land, air, and sea by human industry is likely worried.
‘Anyone who understands the scale of extinctions within the living world, the exponentially rising heat, and the spectre of millions of climate refugees whose home regions will no longer grow food – is probably living with a sense of foreboding. You feel it, right? I feel it, too.
‘Anxiety and depression are on the rise throughout the world, the recent spike owing to the pandemic.
‘Not only has the arrival of a novel virus been alarming – we had no endemic immunity – it has also shown how ill prepared were many governments and how slow (and misguided) their responses.
‘Luckily for us, Australia has done a damn good job of keeping us safe, a standout along with only a few other countries.
‘Whatever the responses of the governments, humans adapted to the pandemic in human ways. For the most part, people complied with movement restrictions, masks, and travel permission documents.
More people learned to make do, fix things, grow things, and get used to less moving about.
‘The government paid out billions for those out of work, we move about and frolic freely, and trucks continue to bring food, petrol, and all manner of resource-intensive stuff to our stores – stuff that has to be extracted, mined, smelted, or cut, and then produced and transported.
‘The party, though somewhat abated, goes on.
‘But it is not hard to imagine a time when the party will be over.
‘Our Resilient Byron and RenewFest teams think about these matters with both a sense of urgency and plans for longer-term survival.
‘We need to be prepared with emergency systems to quickly respond to fires, drought, floods, food and water shortages, economic collapse, homelessness, and community security.
‘Simultaneously we need to set up regenerative systems, independent of central governments, to sustain us.
‘And we need our entire community to join us in this endeavour, in case the trucks stop coming’.
For more info about the Roadshow and to RSVP your free ticket, go to Renew Fest Roadshow.
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