When I think about the web of opportunities for the localization movement today, I think of the opportunities not new, but rather a return to the experiences of our forefathers who generally relied on their local communities for survival as recently as 40 years ago. The impacts of global climate change have made us more aware of our existence in this world; localization and community comradeship is again becoming a response to our human survival. A tremendous opportunity that has been emerging is localized energy production, storage, and consumption. Localized energy is an integral part of the entire localization portfolio. Communities around the world want to take back their local resources; to be able to own and manage them among their cohorts. There are numerous benefits of localization, but for the purposes of this I will focus on one that I feel is of primary importance, which is emergency preparedness.

We have all witnessed the tragic events of the Chilean and Haitian earthquakes, Hurricane Katrina and countless other natural disasters. We have seen that in the days and months following these events there is typically a call out for massive amounts of relief and aid, typically due to poor planning as well as a lack of a centralized distribution network. Often the communities are left waiting days and in some cases longer for the help to arrive, if ever. I feel that this is due to the fact that many of us do not want to think about those “what if” scenarios. We want to go with what we know. “What I see today is how it is going to be” and I do not what to think about the possibility of change let alone natural or manmade disaster. These events have a low probability of occurring but a high impact when they do occur. Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes these events as “Black Swans” in his book by the same title. These “Black Swans” are entirely unpredictable but also have a strong potential of occurring.

The opportunity that comes from “Black Swans” for local communities is the opportunity to develop a level of greater preparedness for when these events occur. Localization allows for the community to come together as a whole and develop an assessment plan to map out the processes and procedures for these potential events. These processes will have a huge impact on their community by providing a greater level of preparedness for these events. Ideally the communities will want to be looking for events that have a low probability of occurring with a high impact on the community. Once those events are uncovered, then the planning can begin to help mitigate those situations and build greater resilience as a community.

While emergency preparedness is an important piece to localization, there are many other opportunities to have communities come together to exist and thrive. However, if a community were to be prepared for “Black Swans” they will have an improved chance of overcoming whatever crosses their path purely because they were able to depend on each other rather than outside forces. In this time of rapid change within social, political, economic and environmental spheres, I feel that it is important to strategize on many of the “what if” scenarios so that we have a better handle on them if and when they do occur. There is nothing worse than learning how to face the challenge when you are confronted with it head on.

"Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient." ~Aldo Leopold