Act: Inspiration

Everything you need to know, in order

by

Like my title? Never let it be said I’m not ambitious.

A student in my class asked me for a list of skills we need to get ready for peak oil, prioritized. I admit, it took me about a day after she asked to stop thinking “Holy Crap, how do I figure that all out!” But it is an interesting question. And while it isn’t all just about food preservation, I thought I’d take a shot at it. I will, of course, be relying on my fearless readership to point out gaps in my thinking.

Neighbors to help neighbors through winter of high prices

by

“The best security you have is a prepared neighbor,” said Paloma O’Riley a decade ago, when she was rallying people to prepare for an emergency of unknown proportions.

The comment still rings true, as we prepare for a hard winter in the short term and, in the medium term, what James Howard Kunstler calls the “long emergency” of declining fossil fuels and other challenges that lie ahead. Fortunately, people at all levels in Vermont are scrambling to prepare for this winter, and many of them are conscious that high food and fuel prices are more a harbinger of things to come than a one-time increase.

Colleges should plan – and teach – for an oil-scarce world

by

College leaders, with help from facilities managers, sustainability directors, faculty members, and even students, should think hard about how systems on their campus would operate in an energy-scarce world. That thinking should range beyond running part of the campus fleet on a cafeteria’s fryer oil, a seemingly-popular response at the moment.

UC advisor encourages Californians to plant Victory Gardens

by

The last great push for Victory Gardens came from the federal government during World War II. Today, Hayden-Smith said, there isn’t as strong a connection between American military involvement and the home front, but the American way of life is imperiled by more than foreign wars. The country is facing ever rising fuel and food prices, the threat of global warming, and a high rate of obesity.