Westerly, RI - A Resilient Futures Discussion October 22, 7:00 p.m.
From the Westerly Sun: October 18, 2008
“With the election around the corner, local can didates and members of the public are invited to a forum on how the community can best adapt to a changing world.
The Westerly Land Trust is hosting a presentation and dis cussion on “resilience thinking” on Wednesday, Oct. 22. This line of thinking is described as an alternative to “business as usual” and looks ahead to see how the town can position itself to deal with emerging conditions.
Westerly resident Frederick Presley, a certified planner through the American Institute of Certified Planners with over 14 years’ experience in the public and private sector, will lead the discussion. He said he hopes political candidates and members of the public attend and partake in the conversation.
As the community and country face interconnected challenges ranging from financial con straints to fluctuating energy prices, mounting job losses and the threat of global warming, Presley proposes taking a different approach.
He described resilience thinking as “whole systems thinking” — or a 360-degree view — that involves looking at whether the town, state and nation are able to ade quately confront the com plexity arising around these things.
Other questions include whether the town has consid ered the impact on major infrastructure and planning, and whether it is “prepared to accept the risks we are taking by continuing to treat these issues in isolation, rather than as parts of a whole system,” Presley said.
Presley said he presents “this way of thinking as an alternative to what’s being done now.” The approach is one of anticipating problems and adapting, rather than reacting to them, he said.
Presley has employed some of this thinking as a member of the town’s Blue Ribbon Economic Development Committee and Peak Oil Task Force. He formerly worked as the planning and economic development direc tor for Smithfield.
The workshop is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Westerly Land Trust headquarters in the Industrial Trust building at 14 High St.
For more information, visit www.resilientfutures.org.”
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