[GJM] Fw: [globalnetnews-summary] Cutting out fossil fuels by building community

[mary rose]

With love and gratitude to the Editor of Global Net News.

mary rose
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "GlobalCirclenet" <webmaster at globalcircle.net>
To: <globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 8:48 PM
Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Cutting out fossil fuels by building 
community


 Cutting out fossil fuels by building community
http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=65&Itemid=33
Written by Jan Lundberg
Culture Change Letter # 137

Ecovillages and isotherms
CUTTING OUT FOSSIL FUELS BY BUILDING COMMUNITY

The urgent need to slash today's extreme consumption of fossil fuels is not 
a numbers game, nor is it a matter of degree. Rather, it is a matter of 
reduction in kind.

We cannot break our hyper-addiction to our fossil-fueled economy of 
hyper-consumption incrementally, or gradually, or by means of some pain-free 
twelve-step program. We have to go cold turkey wherever we can. Right now. 
We have to begin by taking a good hard look at every single thing we do - at 
every single thing we have, at every single thing we want. Then we have to 
start the hard job of cutting out every single thing we can do without.

This approach is in direct contrast to seeking energy efficiency, which 
often represents only a small reduction of waste while continuing to live 
altogether unsustainably. Efficiency is an illusion: short-term reductions 
in per capita energy can stall. And if the population and economy grow, then 
any reductions are cancelled out. Efficiency is the false promise that we 
can continue our unsustainable ways if we're only just a bit nicer about 
raping the planet.

The pro-industry, Me Consumer First ethic tells us, "We must keep burning 
fossil fuels, although perhaps more efficiently for as long as we have the 
current crisis." This disregards the science of global warming and the 
reality of rapidly dwindling fossil fuels.

True, we are caught in our own trap of depending on cars, electric 
appliances, petrochemicals for food and medicine, and other conversion of 
crude oil and natural gas to products that either go into the air, water, 
our bodies, and the landfill. The entropic, toxic effects of this conversion 
results in the vicious circle of heat waves and forest fires that raise 
global temperatures. In turn, these extreme weather events cause greater 
heat waves and fires.

Today, with a record hot year shaping up again, and heat waves causing power 
outages that can kill many thousands of vulnerable consumers, peak 
consumption has met peak extraction of petroleum. So the supply crisis is an 
ongoing one; it will only get much worse. Anyone can see that there is no 
planning going on for petrocollapse, and the substitute fuels don't make the 
grade on the scale necessary. The government and the corporations know this, 
so now we are witnessing the last of major profit taking before the great 
unraveling and crash.

While individual responsibility to slash fossil fuel use is workable, a more 
efficient and socially enforcing way is to band together to cut energy waste 
and share resources and skills. There already exist bands, affinity groups 
and other organizations and institutions of all sizes to take on the fossil 
fuel challenge, but many of these are compromised, corrupted, and out of 
touch with reality if they subscribe to mainstream corporate values. In any 
case, a new or established group can try the following changes through 
decisions:

    - In the event of a crisis in supply or heat wave, have a work holiday: 
don't commute. Follow this for the entire duration of heat waves or cold 
snaps, so that people can take a break to think, communicate and plan.

    - Neighbors and local people can walk or bicycle to pre-selected town 
hall locations to form Citizen Petroleum Councils and explore other 
projects.

    - Keep cool without air conditioning by using solar-powered electric 
fans, and hope that the dwelling you are in is protected by shade trees. 
Take a cold shower which cools the body and saves fossil fuels.

    - Except for the fan in extremely hot circumstances, don't plug in or 
use machines and appliances. One can get used to not having air 
conditioning.

    - Eliminate electronic entertainment by picking up a book, an acoustic 
instrument, or just talk to someone. The internet, however, can prove to be 
critical for communications and obtaining information for sustainability.

    - To start meeting future needs, save seeds and plant a garden. Thus, 
long-distance food production is sharply minimized. Meanwhile, buy local 
produce and refrain from buying foods out of season. Cut down on packaging; 
buy in bulk. When the weather is cool enough, dig up the lawn and depave the 
driveway to create space for gardening, a la Victory Gardens of World War 
II.

There is much more to do, starting with education, but sharing information 
and skills will accelerate the learning process especially if what is 
learned becomes action. People need to come together to plan and take steps 
that they will hold each other to. Helpful information is not likely to come 
from the government or the corporate news media.

Although it is possible to keep using "EnergyStar" machines and burn 
compact-fluorescent lights and be off the grid - apparently absolving 
ourselves from global warming - it may be up to everyone to simply curtail 
almost all energy use radically. In this way, we also interrupt our 
dependency on the comparatively low amount of imbedded energy in 
manufactured gadgets that are transported and packaged with petroleum. In 
solidarity with low-income people and those uneducated in sustainable, 
low-energy living, those who enjoy renewable energy technology should, 
during a crisis, publicly eschew conveniences that the mass of people are 
suddenly doing without. One must decide what practices are really necessary 
and not merely convenient or habitual. This "sacrifice" is necessary because 
a class division of those with energy and those without is unsustainable.

If the above steps and principles sound inconvenient or unlikely from a 
voluntary standpoint, think of the inevitability of petrocollapse: The 
global peak of oil extraction is probably hitting the world and economy now. 
If Culture Change and its 18-year track record, and its publisher's 
petroleum industry background, are not convincing enough, another source of 
information and insight on peak oil is Matthew Simmons, the energy 
investment banker who has advised George W. Bush: Simmons now says "Grow 
food at home." (See Culture Change Letter #134, June 24th, 2006).

The strong measures we can take are more than energy-saving measures that we 
start doing as a strong community: They amount to going on strike, to demand 
and pursue a better way of living. We can demonstrate that the global 
corporate economy is too costly to maintain. Why wait for it to fail us 
utterly and catch everyone off guard? To reinforce this and kick where it 
hurts, we never buy a new motor vehicle when a used one will do. To say this 
more constructively, we maximize local economics and make sure those closest 
to us are being helped and are following the new measures taken by the 
community for the common good.

Find your sources of information and inspiration for sustainable living, and 
make common cause with friends and family. Together, we are more likely to 
get through periods of wrenching change - and come out stronger and more 
secure.

Ecovillages and changing climate

Many energy-saving measures have been developed and pursued at ecovillages. 
At The Farm, in Summertown, Tennessee, the Ecovillage Training Center offers 
courses on Permaculture and alternative building techniques, practicing the 
art of living more harmoniously with nature since 1994. Over 50,000 students 
have come through and experienced energy-saving, renewable energy, 
cool-building construction, organic gardening, low-energy transport, and 
cooperative living.

The Farm was founded in 1971 when a bus caravan of hundreds of Haight 
Ashbury migrants found remote refuge in the countryside, in a location where 
they could quietly escape attention long enough to mature their vision. The 
Farm has a rich history of collective decision-making and pragmatic 
development. Nonprofit activism at The Farm has made history and is part of 
what The Farm offers society: not a perfect model for everywhere, but a rich 
example of a successful effort towards self-reliance and sustainability.

No ecovillage is an island, as Albert Bates is quick to point out. At The 
Farm they are trying to protect more than 5 square miles of oak and hickory 
forest through land trusts and management for biodiversity. Lately they have 
been confronted with problems of a far greater scale than any they've 
encountered in the previous three decades. According to NOAA research 
scientist, James Hansen,

"During the past thirty years the lines marking the regions in which a given 
average temperature prevails ("isotherms") have been moving poleward at a 
rate of about thirty-five miles per decade. That is the size of a county in 
Iowa. Each decade the range of a given species is moving one row of counties 
northward."

To The Farm, this means that the climate they are experiencing in the summer 
of 2006 was what prevailed in Nashoba County, Mississippi in the summer of 
1971. When the bus caravan arrived in Lewis County, Tennessee in 1971, it 
had a climate that can be found today 100 miles north, in Kentucky. Trees 
don't migrate that quickly. They are accustomed to shifts of 3 to 4 miles 
per decade. When you accelerate the rate of change, whole ecosystems 
disperse. This is more than enough reason to slash energy use now and come 
together as if we are tribes. Bring on the future and keep pace, if 
possible, with climate and cultural change.

* * * * *

Citizen Petroleum Councils: Culture Change Letter #11 
http://culturechange.org/e-letter-11cont.html

The Farm, Albert Bates, and the Ecovillage Training Center: 
http://www.thefarm.org

Earthaven ecovillage and Communities Magazine: http://earthaven.org/

Source on isotherms: NASA scientist Jim Hansen writes in his review of Al 
Gore's book for the JUNE 6 New York Times