I am continuing my discussion of skills that I think we will need in the future and today I will talk about two that we need to develop now if we don’t already possess them. They are situational and social awareness. Basically they are skills that let you be aware of what is happening around you and in your community.
If you are aware to what is happening in your immediate area then you are situational aware, if you spend time at any public place where people gather in reasonably large numbers like a mall, discount super store, college campus, you will notice that the majority of people are lost in their own world and are only vaguely aware of what is happening around them.
People are listening to their IPods, talking on their cell phones, texting on their blackberries or just wandering around like a zombie. You see this behavior on our roadways all of the time, drivers sitting at green lights, stops signs or in turning lanes completely oblivious that they can proceed until the people behind them start honking their horns. How many accidents (or accidents narrowly avoided) caused by inattentive drivers?
What is scary is that most people pay more attention to their surroundings when they are driving than when they are walking. I am not talking about being hyper-vigilant, but just being aware of what is happening around you. Noticing things that are out of the ordinary or seem peculiar, is someone paying particular attention to you, or is there a large number of police around inspecting the area are cues that you should pick up on. Muggers tend to avoid people who notice them and pick easier and more unaware targets, not that I am saying that there are muggers everywhere, but noticing insect eggs in your garden can help you protect your plants before the eggs hatch.
Practicing situational awareness in your daily life will have nothing but good results unless you become paranoid. I am not saying to only look for bad things, but also good things, like money lying on the ground, or edible wild plants etc… The point is that most people are lost in their own little world and not paying attention to the bigger (and more important) world that surrounds them. This oblivion can cause us to miss opportunities and perils in our environment. If we pay attention to what is going on around us we stand a better chance of taking the opportunities and avoiding the perils and we can make this a habit very easily.
The next point I want to make is not just paying attention to your immediate surroundings but to the happenings and attitudes in your community as a whole. I am meaning your local community but this can be expanded to larger communities as well.
This social awareness can let you see trends in your community, whether your neighborhood is going downhill or upscale. If you are socially aware then you can pick up on racial, ethnic and social tension that might be in your community. You begin to notice inequity and social injustice that can cause strife during tough times.
If you are socially attentive then will be able to realize that the nicer sit down restaurants are disappearing and only fast food places remain, or that the number of cash advance and pawn shops swell in your community. Try to tell how many rental versus owned homes that you have in your area, and what condition are they in.
Is your local community cutting down on services, for instance is your local library cutting hours or the civic infrastructure not being repaired. This could be that the city is no longer decorating for holidays or not as quick (or not at all) picking up roadside trash. You might be able to help organize a local citizens group to start providing the services that your local government can no longer afford to do. This could be decorating for a holiday parade, or forming a community watch.
You might realize that you need to move because of you religion, race, sexual persuasion, political outlook or any number of reasons. You might realize that things will be fine for you but will put your children or grand children at a huge disadvantage in the future. This could be a failing school system, degrading local economy, inadequate transportation infrastructure etc… You might realize that while you are fine the only future job prospects for your children are sharecropper or day laborer.
By using both of these skills you can in the short term be able to predict the future and have an increased influence on your environment. You can avoid trouble or at least be able to be better prepared for potential events (good or bad).
So pay attention to what’s around you, read the local newspaper, notice if buildings are no longer being maintained and talk to your neighbors. Listen to idle talk while in the checkout line at your grocery store, or what people are gossiping about at the farmers market. You will be able pickup on subtle signs of what is going on in your neighborhood and environment and hopefully this will help you adapt to the changes to come.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Compost Bin
This is a compost bin that my lovely and talented wife made.
materials for our compost bin: only the chicken wire was bought expressly for this project. Most of the wood is from a taken-apart boxspring, and the rest is scrap wood we had and taken-apart bean poles
 |
with chicken wire around 3 sides. The fourth side, facing front, is the opening/door
I decided to keep the temporary cross-pieces. Here I'm adding the side cross-pieces on the outside of the chicken wire.
as you can see, this "temporary" cross-piece is not square. I was going to keep it but the crookedness of it was annoying me so much that I scrapped it.
I put cross-pieces on the top and bottom, which I hadn't originally intended to do.
the door. A bit different than my original design, but well...
I had to install the door "inside out" since that is the way it fit best. Unfortunately, that means that the chicken wire ends (prickly) are on the outside of the door. I tried to fold them in. Here are the hinges (I had planned on 3 originally).
latches and eyeholes, and also an additional piece of wood on top of the prickly chicken wire at least on the side where you open the latches.
ta-da! finished. My original design had diagonal reinforcement pieces on the 3 sides and door, but it is quite sturdy and doesn't need them. (I was also kind of tired/hot by this point)
A clean compost bin would be an ideal "time-out" box!
in its final location.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Regarding Meat
[aka: Kristina's first post,
with some apologies to my husband for changing the layout of his blog without his knowledge]
The debate over whether vegetarianism/veganism is better for people and/or the world will probably rage on forever. I can see compelling arguments for both sides and I don’t believe one could say that either side is “right” or “wrong.” Just different. (oh why is it so hard for us to sometimes just accept difference and Let. It. Be. ?)
So, I’m not going to even broach that whole issue. Rather, I’m going to talk about MEAT. If you have decided to remain/become a carnivore, then there are two ways to approach it, that I can see:
1. The CAFO way
CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, and it generally means you’ll get the most meat for your buck. Animals are: corralled into unnaturally cramped confines with their peers, made to stand/sit in concentrated fecal matter, fed diets that their systems were not designed to be fed (e.g. corn-fed beef), given antibiotics and hormones liberally to ward off disease (induced by aforementioned conditions) and increase weight, and slaughtered in a manner ranging from acceptable (“humane”) to brutal.
Whether you consciously think about it when you buy meat or not, you have probably been made aware of CAFOs and the conditions under which their animals are raised, so I will not belabour the descriptions too much. A plethora of books has been written on the subject and I’m sure a YouTube search will yield more videos of grueling intensity than you could possibly have imagined. I do encourage you to further educate yourself on this topic, though, if it’s a new one for you, and to at least watch a few videos of CAFOs at work if you haven’t already.
In any case, there are reasons people may opt to follow the CAFO way:
- limited income but desire to eat meat
- ignorance of the origins of what they are consuming
- apathy, when aware of the conditions of CAFO livestock
- the view that animals as meat are commodities rather than living beings
2. The OTHER way
The OTHER way is a conscientious decision to do things “better”: better for your family’s health, better for the planet, better for the animals involved. These three, though intimately connected, are not mutually inclusive. Let’s explore that issue:
The impetus behind my writing this little piece was a whole chicken that we recently bought at Earth Fare (“the healthy supermaket”), part of which my family greatly enjoyed eating last night for supper. (You can see a photo of said chicken attached).
When one goes into a supermarket such as Earth Fare and reads its stated philosophies, which include “NO inhumane treatment of the animals providing us with dairy, meat and eggs,” one tends to get a warm, fuzzy feeling (or at least I do). Indeed, it really is nice to be able to shop in a store where there is a higher regard for the origin of food and its constituent ingredients. The problem is when the warm, fuzzy feeling makes us so comfortable that we cease to question some of the assumptions we may automatically make in a store called such as “Earth Fare.”
I know it is one of my failings, but I suspect that it holds true for others as well, that when I tend to think of “personal health” in conjunction with food, I automatically associate with it “health of planet,” and “health of animals” (in the case of meat). And so I buy a whole chicken from Earth Fare and happily oven-roast it for my family, along with a selection of locally-grown and organic produce. Except, not quite happily.
You see, I have come to the point where I can no longer delude myself entirely, much as I might like to. The chicken I bought was raised on organic feed without animal by-products—check! No antibiotics or hormones administered—check! No seasonings or salt water added—check! Probably slaughtered in a relatively humane way (we’ll never know for sure, but I can hope)—check! Free-range—check!
Uh oh. And here is where my trinity of “healths” starts to unravel each from the other. I believe strongly that it is in an animal’s best interest (for mental and physical health) to live in a way whereby it can exhibit its natural behaviours. For chickens, this means being given: adequate clean space, a place to forage/scratch and dustbathe, a clean and dry place to perch and roost/nest, and access to nutritious food and clean water. Having these requirements met is what one generally conjures up when one comes across the term “free-range”: we picture an idyllic setting where chickens are free to roam through the vegetation, scratching at the ground and pecking at insects to supplement the high-quality grain they are fed, returning at night to a daily-cleaned dry coop to roost and rest.
But even as I happily picked the whole chicken out of Earth Fare’s refrigerated section (“happily” because we hadn’t eaten chicken for some time), I knew that the term “free-range” was not quite used here in the same way as in my ideal imaginings above. Because, a chicken with this quantity of breast meat would scarcely be able to walk well, if at all. So, even if given access to the outdoors (“free-range”--and that can mean a piddly little enclosed run that is devoid of grass, all vegetation having been scratched from the area), this bird may not have been able to make much use of it during the later weeks of its short life of about 8 weeks’ length.
This is but one example of how one must be truly aware of what one is buying. If your purpose in buying non-CAFO meat is primarily for the personal health of your family (ie. decreasing your family’s direct exposure to potentially harmful chemicals), then this organic chicken from Earth Fare would fulfill that purpose admirably. If your purpose in buying non-CAFO meat is generally geared towards lightening your environmental footprint on the Earth, then this chicken probably adequately fulfills that criterion (as its feed was organic and thus did not require pesticide use. Here I would still question what exactly is done with the poultry waste products, though). If your purpose in buying non-CAFO meat is to support the TRULY humane raising and slaughter of the animals you are planning to eat, then it would be my opinion that the Earth Fare chicken does not satisfactorily measure up, as it was bred to maximize quantity of muscle tissue at the expense of allowing the chicken to locomote in a normal fashion.
- - - -
Whether you decide to eat meat raised humanely, inhumanely, organically, locally, etc., my point is simply that you ought to be aware of what you are buying (and buying into). Try to make the best choices that you are able to, with the information and resources you have.
- - - -
Just FYI:
The cost of cheap chicken:
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken.html
with some apologies to my husband for changing the layout of his blog without his knowledge]
The debate over whether vegetarianism/veganism is better for people and/or the world will probably rage on forever. I can see compelling arguments for both sides and I don’t believe one could say that either side is “right” or “wrong.” Just different. (oh why is it so hard for us to sometimes just accept difference and Let. It. Be. ?)
So, I’m not going to even broach that whole issue. Rather, I’m going to talk about MEAT. If you have decided to remain/become a carnivore, then there are two ways to approach it, that I can see:
1. The CAFO way
CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, and it generally means you’ll get the most meat for your buck. Animals are: corralled into unnaturally cramped confines with their peers, made to stand/sit in concentrated fecal matter, fed diets that their systems were not designed to be fed (e.g. corn-fed beef), given antibiotics and hormones liberally to ward off disease (induced by aforementioned conditions) and increase weight, and slaughtered in a manner ranging from acceptable (“humane”) to brutal.
Whether you consciously think about it when you buy meat or not, you have probably been made aware of CAFOs and the conditions under which their animals are raised, so I will not belabour the descriptions too much. A plethora of books has been written on the subject and I’m sure a YouTube search will yield more videos of grueling intensity than you could possibly have imagined. I do encourage you to further educate yourself on this topic, though, if it’s a new one for you, and to at least watch a few videos of CAFOs at work if you haven’t already.
In any case, there are reasons people may opt to follow the CAFO way:
- limited income but desire to eat meat
- ignorance of the origins of what they are consuming
- apathy, when aware of the conditions of CAFO livestock
- the view that animals as meat are commodities rather than living beings
2. The OTHER way
The OTHER way is a conscientious decision to do things “better”: better for your family’s health, better for the planet, better for the animals involved. These three, though intimately connected, are not mutually inclusive. Let’s explore that issue:
The impetus behind my writing this little piece was a whole chicken that we recently bought at Earth Fare (“the healthy supermaket”), part of which my family greatly enjoyed eating last night for supper. (You can see a photo of said chicken attached).
When one goes into a supermarket such as Earth Fare and reads its stated philosophies, which include “NO inhumane treatment of the animals providing us with dairy, meat and eggs,” one tends to get a warm, fuzzy feeling (or at least I do). Indeed, it really is nice to be able to shop in a store where there is a higher regard for the origin of food and its constituent ingredients. The problem is when the warm, fuzzy feeling makes us so comfortable that we cease to question some of the assumptions we may automatically make in a store called such as “Earth Fare.”
I know it is one of my failings, but I suspect that it holds true for others as well, that when I tend to think of “personal health” in conjunction with food, I automatically associate with it “health of planet,” and “health of animals” (in the case of meat). And so I buy a whole chicken from Earth Fare and happily oven-roast it for my family, along with a selection of locally-grown and organic produce. Except, not quite happily.
You see, I have come to the point where I can no longer delude myself entirely, much as I might like to. The chicken I bought was raised on organic feed without animal by-products—check! No antibiotics or hormones administered—check! No seasonings or salt water added—check! Probably slaughtered in a relatively humane way (we’ll never know for sure, but I can hope)—check! Free-range—check!
Uh oh. And here is where my trinity of “healths” starts to unravel each from the other. I believe strongly that it is in an animal’s best interest (for mental and physical health) to live in a way whereby it can exhibit its natural behaviours. For chickens, this means being given: adequate clean space, a place to forage/scratch and dustbathe, a clean and dry place to perch and roost/nest, and access to nutritious food and clean water. Having these requirements met is what one generally conjures up when one comes across the term “free-range”: we picture an idyllic setting where chickens are free to roam through the vegetation, scratching at the ground and pecking at insects to supplement the high-quality grain they are fed, returning at night to a daily-cleaned dry coop to roost and rest.
But even as I happily picked the whole chicken out of Earth Fare’s refrigerated section (“happily” because we hadn’t eaten chicken for some time), I knew that the term “free-range” was not quite used here in the same way as in my ideal imaginings above. Because, a chicken with this quantity of breast meat would scarcely be able to walk well, if at all. So, even if given access to the outdoors (“free-range”--and that can mean a piddly little enclosed run that is devoid of grass, all vegetation having been scratched from the area), this bird may not have been able to make much use of it during the later weeks of its short life of about 8 weeks’ length.
This is but one example of how one must be truly aware of what one is buying. If your purpose in buying non-CAFO meat is primarily for the personal health of your family (ie. decreasing your family’s direct exposure to potentially harmful chemicals), then this organic chicken from Earth Fare would fulfill that purpose admirably. If your purpose in buying non-CAFO meat is generally geared towards lightening your environmental footprint on the Earth, then this chicken probably adequately fulfills that criterion (as its feed was organic and thus did not require pesticide use. Here I would still question what exactly is done with the poultry waste products, though). If your purpose in buying non-CAFO meat is to support the TRULY humane raising and slaughter of the animals you are planning to eat, then it would be my opinion that the Earth Fare chicken does not satisfactorily measure up, as it was bred to maximize quantity of muscle tissue at the expense of allowing the chicken to locomote in a normal fashion.
- - - -
Whether you decide to eat meat raised humanely, inhumanely, organically, locally, etc., my point is simply that you ought to be aware of what you are buying (and buying into). Try to make the best choices that you are able to, with the information and resources you have.
- - - -
Just FYI:
The cost of cheap chicken:
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken.html
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Sorry for the hiatus, between vacation and a cold this blog has fallen to the wayside.
I have been contemplating what to write for this post and have vacillated between warning of worker /social manipulation and the reemergence of popular movements from our own social past. So I will try both.
Not too long ago the vast majority of blue collar workers in the country worked under what would be best described as “sweatshop” conditions. My own Great Grandmother and Great-Great Uncle where sold to a textile mill at 8-10 years of age. They lived worked and ate at the mill, my Great Grandmother worked there until my Great Grandfather bought her contract when she was 15. My Grandfather worked for a sawmill, that provided you with a home, store, utilities and any other service that they chose to provide you, but they did not pay you enough that you could leave.
It was really only after World War II that conditions which most Americans worked in greatly improved. As the economy continues its downward journey, and U.S. companies face ever increasing competition from other countries that do not have to be concerned with workplace safety, the pressure will increase to decrease the regulations that have so greatly improved our work lives.
The people most vulnerable to this type of exploitation will be those with no marketable skills. Unfortunately most of us do not have marketable skills in what amounts to a 1930-50’s economy. We are not machinists, carpenters, architects, mechanics, woodworkers, or any other of the myriad of jobs our parents and grandparents had. I really don’t think that there will be a high demand for Laboratory Information Management Systems Administrators 20 years from now.
If your job is reliant on complex technology or have expensive infrastructure that is necessary for your workplace function, then you might want to start thinking about a hobby that will be useful in the future. You can also take steps to make you home more energy efficient, find a local food supply and prepare for rolling brown and blackouts that may come as energy demand outstrips energy supply.
I do fear my sons and grandchildren having to work under similar conditions that my great grandmother worked under. This is the main reason that I am endeavoring to have a farm for my sons to inherit. One of the reasons that my great grandfather was able to buy my great grandmother was the fact that he had 160 acres of productive farmland. He might have been cash poor but his farm was able to supply most of his wants and needs including providing him with a wife.
My father counts some of the happiest days of his childhood were the ones when he lived on his grandfather’s farm. And I would like to provide those same kinds of memories to my grandchildren as well as giving my family a means to support themselves that is independent of others (as much as that is possible).
The other factor is increased social/racial violence as the American concept of Manifest Destiny is defeated. We are already seeing this in those who do not believe that our first black President is a natural born citizen, and tougher laws against illegal immigrants and for legal immigration. As the American Southwest stops being dominated by White Anglo Saxons Protestants and whites across the nation loses their once dominate status, we will see more racial strife.
These social upheavals will become more pronounced as our economy and standard of living decreases. The best defense against this is to have a resilient community where neighbors know each other and work together. This will become ever more essential as local communities can no longer to pay for the maintenance of local infrastructure, like sewage and garbage pickup. It is only by working together can communities prevent the type of disease outbreaks (cholera, typhus etc...) that where once common.
We really need to pay attention to the social cues that are around us and that we ourselves give off. It is only by being socially aware that we can prevent much of the violence and oppression that haunted my great grandparents lives.
Not too long ago the vast majority of blue collar workers in the country worked under what would be best described as “sweatshop” conditions. My own Great Grandmother and Great-Great Uncle where sold to a textile mill at 8-10 years of age. They lived worked and ate at the mill, my Great Grandmother worked there until my Great Grandfather bought her contract when she was 15. My Grandfather worked for a sawmill, that provided you with a home, store, utilities and any other service that they chose to provide you, but they did not pay you enough that you could leave.
It was really only after World War II that conditions which most Americans worked in greatly improved. As the economy continues its downward journey, and U.S. companies face ever increasing competition from other countries that do not have to be concerned with workplace safety, the pressure will increase to decrease the regulations that have so greatly improved our work lives.
The people most vulnerable to this type of exploitation will be those with no marketable skills. Unfortunately most of us do not have marketable skills in what amounts to a 1930-50’s economy. We are not machinists, carpenters, architects, mechanics, woodworkers, or any other of the myriad of jobs our parents and grandparents had. I really don’t think that there will be a high demand for Laboratory Information Management Systems Administrators 20 years from now.
If your job is reliant on complex technology or have expensive infrastructure that is necessary for your workplace function, then you might want to start thinking about a hobby that will be useful in the future. You can also take steps to make you home more energy efficient, find a local food supply and prepare for rolling brown and blackouts that may come as energy demand outstrips energy supply.
I do fear my sons and grandchildren having to work under similar conditions that my great grandmother worked under. This is the main reason that I am endeavoring to have a farm for my sons to inherit. One of the reasons that my great grandfather was able to buy my great grandmother was the fact that he had 160 acres of productive farmland. He might have been cash poor but his farm was able to supply most of his wants and needs including providing him with a wife.
My father counts some of the happiest days of his childhood were the ones when he lived on his grandfather’s farm. And I would like to provide those same kinds of memories to my grandchildren as well as giving my family a means to support themselves that is independent of others (as much as that is possible).
The other factor is increased social/racial violence as the American concept of Manifest Destiny is defeated. We are already seeing this in those who do not believe that our first black President is a natural born citizen, and tougher laws against illegal immigrants and for legal immigration. As the American Southwest stops being dominated by White Anglo Saxons Protestants and whites across the nation loses their once dominate status, we will see more racial strife.
These social upheavals will become more pronounced as our economy and standard of living decreases. The best defense against this is to have a resilient community where neighbors know each other and work together. This will become ever more essential as local communities can no longer to pay for the maintenance of local infrastructure, like sewage and garbage pickup. It is only by working together can communities prevent the type of disease outbreaks (cholera, typhus etc...) that where once common.
We really need to pay attention to the social cues that are around us and that we ourselves give off. It is only by being socially aware that we can prevent much of the violence and oppression that haunted my great grandparents lives.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Giving up on the Future to save the Past
This week I gave up space travel, not just for me personally but for the entire human race for the foreseeable future. I realized that in the next twenty to forty years no country on Earth will be able to afford to waste their precious resources on manned space flight and that I might die being the last person living who can remember man walking on the moon. I was just a month shy of being 2 years old when my Mother took me and my brothers out to wave at the man on the moon. I remember her saying that this was very important and that I should remember it, I also remember not connecting that act with the actual fact that a man was on the moon.
You see for me space flight was the ultimate destination of Man; all of history was pointing to the time when the human race would leave the planet and colonize the stars. This came from growing up close enough to Marshall Space Flight center that we could hear the rocket engines being tested and watching Skylab missions on television (back in the days of 4 TV channels). I devoured science fiction books and fantasized about leading my on space crew on an interstellar flight to colonize some strange new world. But alas, I have to contend with the limitations of this one and not live in the dreams of exploring other planets.
Ironically the reason why I gave up on manned space flight was that I realized another one of my childhood dreams/fantasies had come true. You see I can also remember complaining to my Mother that I wanted to live in another time that was more exciting than my own, like the Roman Empire at its height. Well I don’t live in the Roman Empire but the American one and not at just the American Empire’s height but also at the peak of the Industrial Age. The problem with being at the peak of something is that once you are there you can only go down. Centuries from now historians probably will define the actual peak of the Industrial Age as the 1960’s and 70’s but when it actually reaches its peak doesn’t matter. All that matter’s is that we are within sight of it, and we will soon (if we aren’t already) travel down the downward slope of a collasping civilization.
I am not talking about a Mad Max type apocalypse, but something much worse a long, slow decline. You see if there was a sudden collapse then 20 to 40 years latter there would still operational modern technology and a few people left who knew how to operate it. Not only that most libraries would still contain readable books and most of our culture would be preserved. The problem with a slow decline is that no one realizes that something should be preserved until it is already lost.
I will give you an example, how many of you own a slide ruler much less knows how to do calculus with it? We are so dependent on our technology now that most of us do not remember how to get by without it. Vacuum tubes can be made with hand tools, and with vacuum tubes you can make radios, and large simple calculators, but does anyone know how to make a vacuum tube much less be able to pass own that knowledge in a meaningful way so that our great-great grandchildren can make them?
Our whole industrial society depends on cheap energy which comes in the form of fossil fuels. Petroleum which contains the most energy of all of the fossil fuels is already half used and the part that remains is harder to extract and refine. Soon both coal and natural gas will be past their peaks also, and with nothing to fuel our economies they will starve and the Industrial Age will die. Not in some big bang and flash of glory but in a slow whimper. You see we have nothing that can replace the energy that we get from fossil fuels, not nuclear, solar, hydro etc… nothing can keep our lifestyle going as it is now. As Richard Heinberg so aptly put it “The Party’s Over”.
I know what you are saying, that there is no way we can lose the accumulated knowledge that we have now, someone will think of something. Well 1800 years ago a Saxon king was buried in Britain with pottery that would have been considered poor quality even for a slave in Roman Briton just 200 years before and now it graced the table of a king. You see the Romanized Britons where so concerned about day to day survival that they did not think about learning or passing down their knowledge of ceramics and the same fate could await us.
But since history is linear and some Irish monks preserved much of what we know of the ancient world we can take precautions to preserve and pass down knowledge. First and foremost we can acquire a library of anything that we think is worth passing on to future generations. This can be do-it yourself books, philosophy, science fiction, the speeches of Winston Churchill…what ever you think is worth preserving. If you can get it on acid free paper so much the better, but get it anyway. Future generations will pass down what they think is useful or entertaining. You can also learn to play a musical instrument and pass on the ability to play tunes that you enjoy.
The knowledge that most needs to be passed to future generations is the same knowledge that our own grand and great grandparents had. How to knit, sew, spin wool, make shoes, butcher animals, tan leather they are skills that were common just 70 years ago but are quite uncommon now. We are lucky in that organic gardening is very advanced now, plus that it is common knowledge that germs cause disease, you get your water upstream from where you go potty and that personal hygiene can prevent illness. These will serve us well as the public health, food distribution and industrial agricultural systems breakdown.
One of the things that will be most helpful is the scientific method as it pertains to ecology. Understanding how to observe and model an ecosystem will be extremely helpful with food production when we do not have fossil fuels to rely on.
I will continue with technologies that need to be preserved and ways in which we can preserve them in the next post.
You see for me space flight was the ultimate destination of Man; all of history was pointing to the time when the human race would leave the planet and colonize the stars. This came from growing up close enough to Marshall Space Flight center that we could hear the rocket engines being tested and watching Skylab missions on television (back in the days of 4 TV channels). I devoured science fiction books and fantasized about leading my on space crew on an interstellar flight to colonize some strange new world. But alas, I have to contend with the limitations of this one and not live in the dreams of exploring other planets.
Ironically the reason why I gave up on manned space flight was that I realized another one of my childhood dreams/fantasies had come true. You see I can also remember complaining to my Mother that I wanted to live in another time that was more exciting than my own, like the Roman Empire at its height. Well I don’t live in the Roman Empire but the American one and not at just the American Empire’s height but also at the peak of the Industrial Age. The problem with being at the peak of something is that once you are there you can only go down. Centuries from now historians probably will define the actual peak of the Industrial Age as the 1960’s and 70’s but when it actually reaches its peak doesn’t matter. All that matter’s is that we are within sight of it, and we will soon (if we aren’t already) travel down the downward slope of a collasping civilization.
I am not talking about a Mad Max type apocalypse, but something much worse a long, slow decline. You see if there was a sudden collapse then 20 to 40 years latter there would still operational modern technology and a few people left who knew how to operate it. Not only that most libraries would still contain readable books and most of our culture would be preserved. The problem with a slow decline is that no one realizes that something should be preserved until it is already lost.
I will give you an example, how many of you own a slide ruler much less knows how to do calculus with it? We are so dependent on our technology now that most of us do not remember how to get by without it. Vacuum tubes can be made with hand tools, and with vacuum tubes you can make radios, and large simple calculators, but does anyone know how to make a vacuum tube much less be able to pass own that knowledge in a meaningful way so that our great-great grandchildren can make them?
Our whole industrial society depends on cheap energy which comes in the form of fossil fuels. Petroleum which contains the most energy of all of the fossil fuels is already half used and the part that remains is harder to extract and refine. Soon both coal and natural gas will be past their peaks also, and with nothing to fuel our economies they will starve and the Industrial Age will die. Not in some big bang and flash of glory but in a slow whimper. You see we have nothing that can replace the energy that we get from fossil fuels, not nuclear, solar, hydro etc… nothing can keep our lifestyle going as it is now. As Richard Heinberg so aptly put it “The Party’s Over”.
I know what you are saying, that there is no way we can lose the accumulated knowledge that we have now, someone will think of something. Well 1800 years ago a Saxon king was buried in Britain with pottery that would have been considered poor quality even for a slave in Roman Briton just 200 years before and now it graced the table of a king. You see the Romanized Britons where so concerned about day to day survival that they did not think about learning or passing down their knowledge of ceramics and the same fate could await us.
But since history is linear and some Irish monks preserved much of what we know of the ancient world we can take precautions to preserve and pass down knowledge. First and foremost we can acquire a library of anything that we think is worth passing on to future generations. This can be do-it yourself books, philosophy, science fiction, the speeches of Winston Churchill…what ever you think is worth preserving. If you can get it on acid free paper so much the better, but get it anyway. Future generations will pass down what they think is useful or entertaining. You can also learn to play a musical instrument and pass on the ability to play tunes that you enjoy.
The knowledge that most needs to be passed to future generations is the same knowledge that our own grand and great grandparents had. How to knit, sew, spin wool, make shoes, butcher animals, tan leather they are skills that were common just 70 years ago but are quite uncommon now. We are lucky in that organic gardening is very advanced now, plus that it is common knowledge that germs cause disease, you get your water upstream from where you go potty and that personal hygiene can prevent illness. These will serve us well as the public health, food distribution and industrial agricultural systems breakdown.
One of the things that will be most helpful is the scientific method as it pertains to ecology. Understanding how to observe and model an ecosystem will be extremely helpful with food production when we do not have fossil fuels to rely on.
I will continue with technologies that need to be preserved and ways in which we can preserve them in the next post.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
A To Do List for a Future of Austerity
My previous posts have stressed learning skills and the low energy future we face. This post we concentrate on what can do to prepare for a future of “Hard Times” and if I am wrong and the times aren’t so hard they will help you anyway so why not give them a try. I do know that oil is going to start to get expensive, I don’t know how fast the price will run up but I know of no other source that can replace our reliance of petroleum.
You can prepare yourself mentality and physically, you can become involved in your local government. You can start using alternative modes of transportation, buying local produce and products. Increase the energy efficiency of your house, have an alternative way to heat it. I hope you get the idea now, think about how $8.00 a gallon gasoline will affect you and think about everything that now uses oil will cost when oil hits $200 a barrel. I am going to expand on some of these ideas in the coming paragraphs.
If your sense of self-worth comes from material goods then you need to find something else to give your life meaning. Now most of you will say that material things are immaterial to me. Well if you talk about your TV, car, cell phone, look at the sales flyers in the paper, live in the Untied States or Canada then they probably do mean more to you then you realize. My generation (Generation X) has been bombarded by advertising since birth, and the geniuses of marketing have been very good at brain washing us. We have come to think that we need a new car every 3-4 years and if we do not have the extensive, extended, expanded, cable package then we will seem less in the eyes of our co-workers. We have been sold that the more gadgets and services that we buy the better that our life will be and the easier our children will have it.
To borrow from John Michael Greer, “There is no Brighter Future Ahead.” If we measure success on material goods then we are bound for disappointment. If we believe that our kids will have the jet packs (that we where promised) or that they will be able to jet set around the world, then we will experience a future full of frustration and stress. Prices are going to increase and material goods, especially the frivolous consumer goods that so many of us buy will become unaffordable luxuries.
Turn off the TV and stop the brainwashing rays from the advertising gurus for corrupting your children’s minds. Eat dinner together at a table without the TV on, and then do not turn the TV on but play a game, go for a bike ride, draw or color picture together, play with some toy that requires no batteries with your children. Try to do this at least once a week; it would be better if you did it all of the time but start with just Saturday. Start to reduce your consumption, don’t buy the new salad shooter, try to go for a week without buying anything but gas and unprocessed raw food (you know vegetables that you have to peel) play a game and see who can go without buying something the longest(no matter how big the “SALE” is or how much you will save).
Prepare yourself for a time when you can no longer buy new things, and get use to the idea of doing without. This is going to be a major cultural shift that we have to make, that no matter how hard we work there will be something that we just cannot afford to buy and that our children will have less access to material possessions than we had. I fear that for most of the population this will be the hardest thing to comprehend, because it goes against what we have been told by society for the last 50 years.
Next, get in shape. Exercise regularly, in the 1940’s the average American walked 5-7 miles a day, now we walk less than a mile a day. We are going to have to walk and bike more in the future so start now when you can do it for fun, rather than when you have too. Start a new diet, and not the Atkins diet or any other Hollywood fad diet either. Read Michael Pollan and eat “real food, not too much and mostly plants.” Cut your meat consumption back to one or two meals a week, eat non processed foods (you know vegetables that you have to clean, peel and cook), stop buying anything with corn syrup in it (no sodas) and make your own bread once a week.
With a natural diet and exercise you will find that you have more money because in a matter of months your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar will return to healthy levels. You will lose weight and feel better than you have in years. You might even be able to convince your Doctor to take you off of all those medications that you are on (and save lots of money). Changing your diet back to a more traditional diet (if your grandmother couldn’t buy it in 1940 then you don’t buy it either) and increasing your physical activity will probably have the most beneficial effects on your life.
Get Local, become involved in your local politics, go to your city council meetings, and become informed on the local issues. Join local civic groups (the Rotary Club, Junior League, Boy Scouts, Elks Lodge) these groups will start to have more importance in your community has the civil authorities start having to cut their budgets.
Join a CSA and shop at your local farmers market, as fuel prices start to increase our current industrial agricultural system will start to break down. By supporting and encouraging your local farmers you will lessen the impact that you and your community will feel.
Know your neighborhood and neighbors, as you walk and bike ride for pleasure stop and talk to the people who live on your street. You will learn the best routes to get you places and form a valuable resource that can be used when police budgets force fewer officers to be hired and increase response times. Try to form a tool sharing bank so you can borrow each other tools, find out who is elderly and check in on them regularly. This will go a long way to increase both your security and your sense of self worth.
Encourage your city to become a walk-able and bike-able city. As we will not be able to drive everywhere encourage your city to have sidewalks and bike paths. Join any local organizations that promote these activities.
Start a garden, it doesn’t have to be big just a few potted tomato plants if that is all you have room for or plant fruit and nut trees instead of pine trees. You can still have a decorative landscape that can also produce food.
As you can see there is a plethora of things that you can do now to prepare yourself for a more difficult future. Most of these things are good for you and save you money even if I am wrong and someone invents a table top fusion reactor that anyone can have in their home that will meet all of our power needs cheaply and cleanly. I truly hope that I am wrong but I don’t think that I am wrong and perparing to have a more fulfilling life with less material goods.
You can prepare yourself mentality and physically, you can become involved in your local government. You can start using alternative modes of transportation, buying local produce and products. Increase the energy efficiency of your house, have an alternative way to heat it. I hope you get the idea now, think about how $8.00 a gallon gasoline will affect you and think about everything that now uses oil will cost when oil hits $200 a barrel. I am going to expand on some of these ideas in the coming paragraphs.
If your sense of self-worth comes from material goods then you need to find something else to give your life meaning. Now most of you will say that material things are immaterial to me. Well if you talk about your TV, car, cell phone, look at the sales flyers in the paper, live in the Untied States or Canada then they probably do mean more to you then you realize. My generation (Generation X) has been bombarded by advertising since birth, and the geniuses of marketing have been very good at brain washing us. We have come to think that we need a new car every 3-4 years and if we do not have the extensive, extended, expanded, cable package then we will seem less in the eyes of our co-workers. We have been sold that the more gadgets and services that we buy the better that our life will be and the easier our children will have it.
To borrow from John Michael Greer, “There is no Brighter Future Ahead.” If we measure success on material goods then we are bound for disappointment. If we believe that our kids will have the jet packs (that we where promised) or that they will be able to jet set around the world, then we will experience a future full of frustration and stress. Prices are going to increase and material goods, especially the frivolous consumer goods that so many of us buy will become unaffordable luxuries.
Turn off the TV and stop the brainwashing rays from the advertising gurus for corrupting your children’s minds. Eat dinner together at a table without the TV on, and then do not turn the TV on but play a game, go for a bike ride, draw or color picture together, play with some toy that requires no batteries with your children. Try to do this at least once a week; it would be better if you did it all of the time but start with just Saturday. Start to reduce your consumption, don’t buy the new salad shooter, try to go for a week without buying anything but gas and unprocessed raw food (you know vegetables that you have to peel) play a game and see who can go without buying something the longest(no matter how big the “SALE” is or how much you will save).
Prepare yourself for a time when you can no longer buy new things, and get use to the idea of doing without. This is going to be a major cultural shift that we have to make, that no matter how hard we work there will be something that we just cannot afford to buy and that our children will have less access to material possessions than we had. I fear that for most of the population this will be the hardest thing to comprehend, because it goes against what we have been told by society for the last 50 years.
Next, get in shape. Exercise regularly, in the 1940’s the average American walked 5-7 miles a day, now we walk less than a mile a day. We are going to have to walk and bike more in the future so start now when you can do it for fun, rather than when you have too. Start a new diet, and not the Atkins diet or any other Hollywood fad diet either. Read Michael Pollan and eat “real food, not too much and mostly plants.” Cut your meat consumption back to one or two meals a week, eat non processed foods (you know vegetables that you have to clean, peel and cook), stop buying anything with corn syrup in it (no sodas) and make your own bread once a week.
With a natural diet and exercise you will find that you have more money because in a matter of months your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar will return to healthy levels. You will lose weight and feel better than you have in years. You might even be able to convince your Doctor to take you off of all those medications that you are on (and save lots of money). Changing your diet back to a more traditional diet (if your grandmother couldn’t buy it in 1940 then you don’t buy it either) and increasing your physical activity will probably have the most beneficial effects on your life.
Get Local, become involved in your local politics, go to your city council meetings, and become informed on the local issues. Join local civic groups (the Rotary Club, Junior League, Boy Scouts, Elks Lodge) these groups will start to have more importance in your community has the civil authorities start having to cut their budgets.
Join a CSA and shop at your local farmers market, as fuel prices start to increase our current industrial agricultural system will start to break down. By supporting and encouraging your local farmers you will lessen the impact that you and your community will feel.
Know your neighborhood and neighbors, as you walk and bike ride for pleasure stop and talk to the people who live on your street. You will learn the best routes to get you places and form a valuable resource that can be used when police budgets force fewer officers to be hired and increase response times. Try to form a tool sharing bank so you can borrow each other tools, find out who is elderly and check in on them regularly. This will go a long way to increase both your security and your sense of self worth.
Encourage your city to become a walk-able and bike-able city. As we will not be able to drive everywhere encourage your city to have sidewalks and bike paths. Join any local organizations that promote these activities.
Start a garden, it doesn’t have to be big just a few potted tomato plants if that is all you have room for or plant fruit and nut trees instead of pine trees. You can still have a decorative landscape that can also produce food.
As you can see there is a plethora of things that you can do now to prepare yourself for a more difficult future. Most of these things are good for you and save you money even if I am wrong and someone invents a table top fusion reactor that anyone can have in their home that will meet all of our power needs cheaply and cleanly. I truly hope that I am wrong but I don’t think that I am wrong and perparing to have a more fulfilling life with less material goods.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Skills for the Future
When I talk to most people about Peak Oil they tend to get the impression that I am talking about oil running out overnight or in a few years at the longest. Oil will not just disappear but as we use the oil that is easy to get we have to search longer and harder to find what is left. The oil that we get from Texas or Saudi Arabia takes about 1 barrel’s worth of oil in energy to extract 100 barrels of oil or a 1:100 Energy Input: Energy Returned ratio (EIER). Deep Water Horizon only promised a 1:4 to a 1:8 EIER! They are drilling there because we are running out of places to drill. Even if we open up ANWAR it will only be a tiny drop on the price of oil in 10-15 years (the amount of time to get an average oil field into production). The point is that the oil we have left is going to steadily increase in price as the decade’s progress.
This means that our disposable society that depends on cheap petroleum based energy will have to transition to something else entirely. I will restate this: Our way of life is going to dramatically change in the coming decades. Yes this will take decades and it will be painful for most of the population who have been living in denial for most of their lives. To minimize the social upheaval that you feel it would be advisable to acquire some skills that our grandparents had and to rethink all of our purchases.
When we buy something we should try to buy the most durable, reliant, and energy efficient thing that you can. If you are buying a bathroom scale buy one that does not require batteries. If you buy a set of kitchen knives buy ones that you can sharpen. If you are buying frying pans buy a cast iron one over a Teflon coated frying pan, the cast iron one can be used by your grandchildren and the Teflon will become scarp in a decade when the Teflon starts to peel off. Buy quality now because quantity is not going to be cheap once it starts costing a lot of money to sail container ships from China. Things are going to start getting more expensive so if you can buy a high quality durable product now, do it now.
Learn to sharpen your own knives and tools, only a half century ago people made a living sharpening knives. Learn to sew and repair your clothes or even make some of your own cloths, towels etc… There will come a time when we will no longer be able to afford to go out and just buy a new shirt just because you lost a button on yours. We have out sourced most of our textile mills and it will be costly to move them back, they will move back but only when the cost of transportation is more expensive than what they have to pay Americans to make clothes again.
Learn small engine repair, gardening, electronic repair, plumbing, carpentry, learn to play a musical instrument or any countless things that your grandparents could do. A lot of our jobs that depend on federal spending (which is most of us) will start to disappear once our nation has to finally rein in its spending. Get out of debt and try to find a job close to you, because commuting will start costing more. Find alternative ways to heat and cool your home, start using clotheslines and most importantly learn to cook.
We spend less energy/time now to procure food then anytime in human history. Only 10% of our income is devoted to obtaining food for ourselves. As food prices increase the processed, precooked, heat and serve food so many Americans consume will become prohibitory expensive. It is amazing that most Americans do not know how to cook, they know how to warm things up but not cook from scratch. Learn to use and buy raw in season produce in your food preparation, because you will not be able to obtain asparagus from Argentina in January unless you are rich.
As we proceed down the petroleum curve the divide between the rich and the poor will increase and the number of people who are middle class will decrease. If you can start taking steps now you will help ease the burden on your children who are the ones that will feel the true brunt of the decline of the oil age. If you can switch to renewable energy sources even if it is only a solar hot water heater. Try to demand net metering from your utility company, or the creation of microgrids in your area.
Our world is going to change whether we like it or not. We can start to prepare now or we can be caught unprepared in the years to come. Our economy based on infinite growth is meeting the brick wall of a finite planet. No matter how much we shout “Drill Baby Drill” we cannot increase the amount of oil on this planet. We have to realize that just because we drill a hole does not mean that we will find oil in it. Some people will grow angry and blame everyone but themselves as our current concept of “the American Dream”, which is measured by the possession of material goods, becomes unobtainable. They will blame the government, foreigners and anyone who is different. They will not realize that it is their own overconsumption and reckless waste that has created the problem.
You have a chance to ease the pain that your children will feel in the future as they can no longer obtain the same lifestyle that they’re grandparents lived. Please take that chance and use it wisely, not for me, not for the planet but for your children and mine.
This means that our disposable society that depends on cheap petroleum based energy will have to transition to something else entirely. I will restate this: Our way of life is going to dramatically change in the coming decades. Yes this will take decades and it will be painful for most of the population who have been living in denial for most of their lives. To minimize the social upheaval that you feel it would be advisable to acquire some skills that our grandparents had and to rethink all of our purchases.
When we buy something we should try to buy the most durable, reliant, and energy efficient thing that you can. If you are buying a bathroom scale buy one that does not require batteries. If you buy a set of kitchen knives buy ones that you can sharpen. If you are buying frying pans buy a cast iron one over a Teflon coated frying pan, the cast iron one can be used by your grandchildren and the Teflon will become scarp in a decade when the Teflon starts to peel off. Buy quality now because quantity is not going to be cheap once it starts costing a lot of money to sail container ships from China. Things are going to start getting more expensive so if you can buy a high quality durable product now, do it now.
Learn to sharpen your own knives and tools, only a half century ago people made a living sharpening knives. Learn to sew and repair your clothes or even make some of your own cloths, towels etc… There will come a time when we will no longer be able to afford to go out and just buy a new shirt just because you lost a button on yours. We have out sourced most of our textile mills and it will be costly to move them back, they will move back but only when the cost of transportation is more expensive than what they have to pay Americans to make clothes again.
Learn small engine repair, gardening, electronic repair, plumbing, carpentry, learn to play a musical instrument or any countless things that your grandparents could do. A lot of our jobs that depend on federal spending (which is most of us) will start to disappear once our nation has to finally rein in its spending. Get out of debt and try to find a job close to you, because commuting will start costing more. Find alternative ways to heat and cool your home, start using clotheslines and most importantly learn to cook.
We spend less energy/time now to procure food then anytime in human history. Only 10% of our income is devoted to obtaining food for ourselves. As food prices increase the processed, precooked, heat and serve food so many Americans consume will become prohibitory expensive. It is amazing that most Americans do not know how to cook, they know how to warm things up but not cook from scratch. Learn to use and buy raw in season produce in your food preparation, because you will not be able to obtain asparagus from Argentina in January unless you are rich.
As we proceed down the petroleum curve the divide between the rich and the poor will increase and the number of people who are middle class will decrease. If you can start taking steps now you will help ease the burden on your children who are the ones that will feel the true brunt of the decline of the oil age. If you can switch to renewable energy sources even if it is only a solar hot water heater. Try to demand net metering from your utility company, or the creation of microgrids in your area.
Our world is going to change whether we like it or not. We can start to prepare now or we can be caught unprepared in the years to come. Our economy based on infinite growth is meeting the brick wall of a finite planet. No matter how much we shout “Drill Baby Drill” we cannot increase the amount of oil on this planet. We have to realize that just because we drill a hole does not mean that we will find oil in it. Some people will grow angry and blame everyone but themselves as our current concept of “the American Dream”, which is measured by the possession of material goods, becomes unobtainable. They will blame the government, foreigners and anyone who is different. They will not realize that it is their own overconsumption and reckless waste that has created the problem.
You have a chance to ease the pain that your children will feel in the future as they can no longer obtain the same lifestyle that they’re grandparents lived. Please take that chance and use it wisely, not for me, not for the planet but for your children and mine.
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