Eco-activist spotlight: Aiming for a carbon-free future

April 3, 2009
Issue 

Green Left Weekly's Simon Butler spoke to Karen Cieri, one of the founders of Top End Transition group based in Darwin.

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What was the motivation to start up Top End Transition?

I heard about the Sunshine Coast Transition town [group] who spoke at Woodford [folk festival]. I had never heard this concept before of getting the community together to create a plan for moving to a minimal energy future.

I came back to Darwin to find out if anyone else had started work on this brilliant idea. Some people had, but we just needed to get together and start because its all about collective action: you just can't do it on your own.

What impressed you about the transition town concept?

The transition town idea started in Ireland and has spread across the world. It's geographically specific. It's not about the whole world. So we were trying to think about a boundary that makes sense here.

I was interviewed on ABC local radio. The journalist was saying "Don't you think that's a bit ambitious? Shouldn't you be starting with a transition suburb or something?"

But a "Top End" approach makes sense up here because we've got Darwin and Palmerston, which is a satellite city 20 minutes drive away. Plus all of the people who know anything about growing food live in rural areas on the outskirts of Darwin.

Recently, there are people in Katherine who I've been speaking to who have asked to be part of our website. So the name Top End Transition has become even more appropriate.

What would a top end "transition" look like?

Inevitably the top end has to create a future that is independent of fossil fuels and non-renewable fuels. The idea is that we plan for a future where our grid is fuelled by renewable energy.

I'm also looking forward to a genuine quest for information about the challenges and solutions for living in this place, and then going to government with those ideas.

How did the first meeting of the Top End Transition group go?

It was more general than the transition project. We decided to have a gathering that was not specifically about the transition town but focussed overall on climate change.

Two people spoke at that meeting, one was myself. My motivation was to report back on all the things that happened [at the Climate Action Summit] in Canberra, because that was such a big turning point, and more people needed to hear that message of hope. There are further actions planned later this year.

The outcome [of the meeting] was two groups [were formed] with quite a lot of overlap. A group to talk about political action and lobbying and public awareness raising, while another group to talk about transitioning to a carbon-free future.

What's wrong with Kevin Rudd's approach to climate change?

It's not going to save us. In fact it's not going to do anything but result in a different shade of bad. His policy will mean we're going to end up with no more summer ice at the Arctic, a 70 metre sea-rise and the extinction of just about all life on Earth.

I don't think we need to bother, frankly, if that's all we're aiming to achieve.

[For more information visit http://topendtransition.collectivex.com.]

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