Transitioning back from global to local

During a time when the global concern is that the earth's oil supply is going to run out, small groups of people dedicated to localising environmental campaigns are starting to spring up across the UK and Ireland and very own Mullingar's Transition Town Project is already under way.The term Transition Town refers to a method of micro-managing everything from food water supplies right through to introducing local currency which is exchanged for goods and services within a specific town.Don't laugh: because the Brixton and Stroud pounds already exist in England, so the idea of a Mullingar note bearing Joe Dolan's face may not be that far away.The idea behind local currencies is that money stays within the town that it is from, something which traders here could greatly benefit from and the essence of transition is that towns and villages would be less susceptible to global factors such as oil price hikes if they were able to become more self sufficient.The Transition Town (as with all good things) actually started in Ireland, in Kinsale Co Cork, and Trim is currently well on the way to organising its own transition network.And the message can be spread to people of all ages and across Mullingar and every other town and village in Westmeath says Bridie Costello, who is part of a group which wants to use the Transition Town model to transform our attitudes to our environment as a whole.Local resourcesTransition Town model is that local resources are used to their best advantage something which Mullingar ("the left-hand mill") was founded upon."What we are saying is that we have a lot of highly educated people here in Mullingar and from across Westmeath who are not working at the moment," said Bridie."The core group of people that I am working with, the company will be called Le Cheile Education Research and Consultancy and some of the group took a Rural Development degree from NUI Maynooth and we did post graduate studies, and that is where our interest in developing this project came from initially."We don't want people to be scared off by the idea of looking at environmental change or issues; what we are saying is that lots of different issues effect the environment that we live in and that we can produce big changes by keeping ideas local and by each and every one of us doing our bit."Children are learning lots about saving energy and water at school and are coming home and telling their parents who are sometimes left in the dark about environmental issues."Small changes might have big effects, for example switching of appliances instead of leaving them on stand by. Children are being taught these simple things - but are adults?"We are very good at recycling in Westmeath and the county council has already produced some great initiatives but what we don't have at the minute is the joined up thinking about how best to use our resources."We want to pull together political representatives, youth teams, people with expertise on the environment but really what we are saying is that every single person is able to contribute to positive change in the environment that we live in."Remember that Mullingar sprung up because of the river and the milling came from the river and if we could get back to that idea of using what we already have instead of bemoaning what we don't or can't have, we will be getting somewhere."And the beauty of this idea is that it doesn't have to be focused on a town, it won't be centred around Mullingar because every village, every street really can take part in the idea of Transition towns."Trim is already well into its transition project and the idea originated in Ireland; in Kinsale. This is not an "out there" idea because it is already working for people across the UK. What we are trying to do at the moment is to just get started and we want to make sure that people know that this project is for everyone and everyone can contribute something."Councillor Ruth Illingworth is already on board as is the Reverend Lockington, so the word is definitely spreading. Anyone who wants to contact us with ideas can call 0876889963."