Community Interests

The antithesis of Corporate Interests might be Community Interests. Although we don’t necessarily need to make such a distinction. What examples of Community Interests exist in Annapolis County? Last weekend, the Nova Scotia Extinction Rebellion hosted a gathering on Natural Climate Solutions at the Bridgetown Library. Topics, as part of their Forestry Self-education Series, included tax incentives for private woodlots owners, land buying clubs, land trusts, and community gardens. What mechanisms exist at the municipal level to support these community interests? What mechanisms exist at the provincial level?

In response to my previous blog post, I did receive feedback on transportation solutions. This included other parts of Nova Scotia; e.g. Community Wheels in Chester or the Trans County Transportation Society in the Valley. Or from England, the link to Connected Places Catapult.

Other feedback was the reference to Doughnut Economics by Katie Raworth (see the Guardian Review by Richard Toye, June 8, 2017)

“What if we started economics not with its long-established theories, but with humanity’s long-term goals, and then sought out the economic thinking that would enable us to achieve them ?”

One approach could be for the ‘community’ college to solicit from the community a suite of topics for a public education series. This might cover many domains: forestry, transportation, agriculture, climate change, doughnut economics, citizen science, mapping.

Could COGS work with the Municipality to research different rural transportation solutions?

Could COGS provide online maps of the Valley showing recent changes in land use (e.g. through forest harvesting, agricultural planting)?

Acknowledgements

Nina Newington for hosting the gathering in Bridgetown, Rick Ketcheson for his thoughts on doughnut economics, Andrew Ronay for the England link, Brian Arnott for the view from Lunenburg.Edward Wedler for the added graphics and links.

References
Connected Places Catapult
Katie Rowarth. 2017.Doughnut Economics. Chelsea Green Publishing.