Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Discussions of community in peak oil circles, as elsewhere, tend to focus exclusively on the benefits to be gained from participation in community, and rarely discuss the costs — a point that may have more than a little to do with the very limited success of communitarian projects so far. Given that community organization is one of the few tools able to cope with significant features of our present predicament, it’s high time to grapple with both sides of the equation.
Our leaders have failed us. Our leaders are failing us. Our leaders will continue to fail us. It is time – past time – to ask ourselves the necessary questions: Who will step forward to restore sanity to our lives? Who will provide us the real leadership necessary to extricate ourselves from the delusional madhouse our culture has become? If our leaders will not lead us to a livable future, then who will?
If oil supply peaks and begins to decline times will be hard. Standard of living will decline and people may go hungry but they will be able to adapt by powering down and making do with less. If water supply- for domestic use but also for irrigation- peaks and declines people have no option but to migrate.
The economic troubles and energy concerns of the present invite comparison with the 1970s, the last time industrial civilization had to deal with the limits to growth. The abandonment of the initiatives of those years offers a troubling cautionary tale for the present, in this second part of a three-part series.
As a peak-oil/climate-aware high school teacher, I try to tell the kids the truth about what’s coming. I don’t see the point in lying to them about our possible futures. And I think maybe it’s time for everybody to just start telling the truth. …And then we need to get down to work. …But first the truth.
I made myself swear that I would not argue with any of my fellow Science bloggers for one full week after my arrival here, no matter what. Fortunately, my first week wound up yesterday, and with the arrival of Greg Laden’s essay on the political and intellectual dangers of relocalization, I’ve got good fodder for my first donnybrook ;-).
So, if the question is why can’t we seem to get our shit together when it comes to climate change? then most of the answers I hear seem to fall into one of three categories. It’s because we (or our leaders) are: stuck in distraction and/or denial, greedy, unprincipled and maybe even psychotic or evil or just too stupid to go on living.
As an unstable economy and reduced resources persist and worsen, more and more people will experience the exigencies of decline. In terms of health care, much can be done to mitigate the effects through evolved expectations and planning for the change. This article reviews adaptations in transportation, facilities, and models of care needed to meet coming challenges.
Industrial civilization is rapidly running out of net fossil-fuel energy — and alternative energy sources won’t be able to make up the difference. Obama knows this, but is unable to say it publicly. But if we don’t start making some basic preparations for our non-optional, lower-energy future right now, we’ll likely end up with a much lower standard of living than if we did prepare…– Heck, even an intelligent child could do a better job planning for energy descent than we’re doing now! Sasha in 2012!
I talk often with elderly relatives and neighbours from Missouri, Germany and Ireland. They all grew up in different worlds; a farm, an urban tenement, or the ruins of a bombed city. Ask them what has changed, though, and the answer is always the same: the ubiquitous presence of family and community.
You may remember recently Ted Trainer’s first draft of his paper “The Transition Towns Movement: its huge significance, and a friendly criticism”, and my subsequent response. Ted subsequently sent some more detailed thoughts, and has since rewritten his piece, which you can download here. Brian Davey of Transition Nottingham responded to Ted’s piece in a beautiful, heartfelt and fiery response, which he has kindly allowed me to share with you, as many of you might find that his key points resonate quite deeply. My thanks to both.
It is logical to speak of peak ego, since cheap oil gave rise to affluence which in turn gave rise to more separation, separation in the meaning that affluence has offered us NOT to need each other the way tribal communities in the past did. Instead we have a lifestyle that separates us from the inherent wisdom of interdependence. When we have reached the ultimate separation perhaps we have reached peak ego. How much more ego can we have before the level of ‘happiness’ runs out?
