Fundamental lifestyle changes to soften the blow of the encroaching crisis

[baby_mouse]

Peak Oil is going to happen, and not at some distant point in the far future but probably within decades, if not sooner. ARRRG! What are we going to do?

I walk to work.

I buy organic meat whenever possible. (I'm going to start changing habits so that the lame "whenever possible" qualifier gets dropped from that phrase... this will probably consist greatly of eating a lot less meat...which will be good for me anyway...)

I buy fair trade and organic wherever I can.

I support the local farmer's markets...

Next year I'm going to start planting and growing my own potatoes in barrels (potatoes suit this technique very well, it seems. What you do is plant them shallow to start with and just keep adding 3 inch thick layers of compost as the shoots get higher, allowing more space for the potatoes to grow). I'm putting my name down for an allotment. I've space in my driveway for 3 barrels, so that's SOME low-impact food at least, and I'm thinking of growing all my own herbs (had quite a bit of success this year with just growing them in pots) but herbs are hardly a staple... and really a staple is what we need.

That's not much, is it?

Is there any other obvious thing I can do?

And, most vitally, how can I convince other people to start doing these things? Because, sooner or later, this is the kind of thing we're all going to HAVE to do. Chemicals are going to get more expensive. Fuel's going to get more expensive.

So far I've actually had a lot a fun doing these things, it's actually been a really positive, empowering thing. I went on holiday to a permaculture farm recently and I loved it, getting up when you want (This ended up being 6am!!!!), working when you want (this ended up being from 8:00 to 9:00pm! Work was fun!) making your own stuff (I designed and made a chessboard out of discarded materials and woodstain I'd cobbled together from random vegetables) was really, really good for my mood and general health and well-being....

[BlooInBloo]

1. To prepare for ENNNNDDDD DAAAAAYYYYSSS!!!! ? Just pray is all I can think of.

Nickels, nickels everywhere.

[Mythsaje]

2. Okay, this is the second such post from you I've seen

about this subject.

I'm confuzzled. And what's with the nickels?

[BlooInBloo]

3. I get a fictional nickel every time a DUer foretells The End Of All Things....

... I just wanna see how rich I'll get.

[Mythsaje]

5. LOL...okay...

Too bad they're not real nickels.

Sounds as though we're on a similar page here. The "doom and gloom" makes me nuts.

[BlooInBloo]

6. It's so easy to keep track of - just search my name for keyword "nickel"....

... and multiply the # of results by 5 to get my total earnings so far. I'm up to $.25 in like 1 day!

[baby_mouse]

10. I actually think life's going to be a lot nicer.

I think the post-oil world is going to be a way, way nicer place to live than the oil-driven world we live in now.

[Mojorabbit]

7. It is not a real helpful

answer to a sincere post.

[BlooInBloo]

14. I agree.

[Tesha]

24. BlooInBloo just likes to wind people up.

Especially people who are already doing the right
thing and trying to get others to also do the right
thing.

If you've paid attention, you'll find that a lot
of DUers are like that and are like the crabs that
pull the other crabs back down into the pot.

Tesha

[baby_mouse]

8. I'm not predicting the end of all things. I'm predicting the CHANGE of all things.

And it *will* happen.

[NMDemDist2]

4. i started a thread in Environment/Energy on "green" living

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=113821&mesg_id=113821

[baby_mouse]

9. Applause, but I think this sort of thing needs to be more visible.

It's good, but one of the problems with compartmentalising this sort of subject into the other forums is that you end up preaching to the converted. It's be nice if this thread attracted some interest also from people who haven't made any inroads into looking into the alternatives yet.

[NMDemDist2]

13. i also x-posted in DIY. I like putting stuff like that in smaller forums

because the threads don't get archived so fast

[baby_mouse]

22. Ah-ha.

I didn't know that...

[knitter4democracy]

11. Is there another spot you can turn into a garden?

It costs a bit up front (good soil and all) but then not much after that. We turned a space in the middle of our deck (odd hole there for some reason) into a garden and added another garden this year. Next year, I'm taking over more of the flower beds for green beans and more tomatoes.

Canning really doesn't cost that much, and the food's better. Granted, most of my canned tomatoes I had to buy (my plants just didn't put out enough) and weren't organic, but they taste pretty good.

I'm thinking of trying potato barrels next year, too, given how much we eat them. You can also store them there during the winter, so I've heard.

I'm laying in supplies, myself. Freezer full of locally raised bison and homegrown frozen veggies and jams and all, basement pantry full of canned peaches and tomatoes and salsa and anything I can get on sale in bulk, and enough yarn for a few years' worth of knitting. :)

[grasswire]

16. my sister does humanitarian work in Eastern Europe...

...where the poverty post Communism is extreme, and she says that in poor villages every possible crack of ground has something edible planted in it. Even cracks in cobble sidewalks. On rooftops, too.

We've been thinking of a roof garden atop the garage, but don't really know how to assess the load bearing capability. We are definitely going to do container planting in the driveway next year, as we don't keep a car now. I was even thinking of planting in plastic wading pools, but perhaps that is a drag because they are probably made in China.

Someone ought to invent black inflatable gardens, made from recycled tires or something. You blow it up, it has drains in the bottom. I think that would be cool for patio gardeners.

[knitter4democracy]

18. You can do straw bales.

I've read of using straw bales as the walls around an elevated garden. You can plant in the bales, too.

[baby_mouse]

20. Kind of.

There's a tiny strip of land directly abutting onto the long side our house that doesn't seem to be being used by anyone. It's full of weeds. It's part of a car park. It's the length of the house and about 1.5 feet wide. I don't know who it belongs to, but it's probably deep enough to do radishes or onions (I'd far rather do onions...). I may consider buying it (or just start to use it, and see what happens!) It's absolutely miniscule and there's really no question of it being wanted by anyone else, it might be ours already!

We also have a communal drying green but we're not allowed to muck about with that too much because the council deed specifies that it has to remain a drying green. Also, it's pretty small, and we'd have to negotiate with our neighbour, who is a total bitch.

There's an allotment scheme, which I'm going to put my name down for. It usually takes a couple of years, but i's worth getting onto the waiting list, of course...

[grasswire]

28. I wish I could link to a story...

...in our local paper the other day about a woman who turned the parking strip in front of her house into a community garden where anyone may come and pick anything for free. It has been going for several years now, and people help her out with seeding and soil maintenance, etc. The harvest is huge.

She planted it in order to make friends, as she is alone and far away from any family. It really worked.

I thought it was a wonderful thing to do.

[knitter4democracy]

37. There's a good idea.

In our cul de sac, there's a drainage pond. We were going to reclaim our side of it and didn't get it done this year. Maybe making it garden and working with our neighbors would be better.

[kimmerspixelated]

12. Baby Mouse,

What you are doing is great! Grow your own tomatoes as well. They can be grown indoors. Grow anything you can indoors, when the weather does not permit. I believe everyone should be prepared for the times you mention, although I don't believe in the book of Revelations, and all that kind of gloom, I believe we have some idiots in charge of sinking our dollars, and that is very real, as well as the oil shortage coming.

[baby_mouse]

15. Ta! I;ve edited the post to try and reflect the positivity taking this stuff on board has given me.

I know I started off with doom and gloom, but that's mostly because I'm a bit scared of posting "Hey everybody! IT'S GONNA BE GREAT! We won't have to feel tired and fed up all the time from eating stupid foods that are stuffed with sugar and starch, we'll get to control more of what we eat and we get to make more of our own stuff, which is about a hundred times more creatively rewarding than shunting documents about in a petroleum-ideology saturated office to get money to buy things that other people have made..." because then I'd seem like a bit of a nut-case, even though that is how I actually feel!

This may seem really bizarre, but the more I've involved myself in green ideology and practice, the happier (and, interestingly, richer) I have become, to the extent that I'm *looking forward* to peak oil so I can properly let rip with the new me in a society where these ideas are mainstream. Kinda kooky, huh? And I am SO NOT the sort of person who would have thought of themselves as a "hippy"...!

There's an essay developing in my head entitled "The Petroleum Mind", which would join all the dots together between the issues I've been considering this year. I may write and post it later this year, although I think I want to educate myself a bit better about the issues first.

[PDenton]

17. bad news on organic farming

Organic farming is just an energy intensive as regular farming, if not moreso. It's not a way to prepare for so called "peak oil" really. If 7 billion people were to try and live off organic food, billions would starve. If you really want to prepare for oil scarcity, you should give up eating meat altogether as that will get more expensive. Corn and wheat used as feed for cattle and chickens use petroleum as an input and to transport the feed.

I don't believe Peak Oil will happen, at least not in some kind of catastrophic scenario. In fact I think oil scarcity has already begun... and it isn't too painful, is it? What is going to happen is vehicles will slowly have to become more efficeint, people are going to have to live closer to work, and cities and lifestyles will change. We may even have to rethink growth and population control. But I refuse to believe that there is going to be a cataclysmic event.

If you are willing to assume some risk, and if taking a bus isn't an option, you can also ride a small motorcycle (150-250cc) or a scooter (I have a 250cc and a 150cc scooter). It costs far less than a hybrid, usually gets better fuel economy (70-75 mpg for a 250cc, and about 85-100 for a 125-150cc) and also the maintanence is relatively easy. It is not for everybody though. Bicycles are also good as well, give you some exercise, but they don't always keep up with traffic and are not really fun in hot weather.

[knitter4democracy]

19. How is organic more energy intensive if you do your own?

I planted the seedlings, picked off the bugs, and watered them from our well when we didn't get any rain in July. That's it. No petrochemicals on them at all, not even fertilizer.

Major organic stuff, the produce from big factory farms, I could see, but small garden plots?

[baby_mouse]

21. Yes, that's my position. Do your OWN food production.

Does the dude mean transport costs?

[PDenton]

32. Unless you have a large lot

you won't be able to grow enough food to survive off. Most people also get their energy predominantly from staples such as oils, meats, or grains. I doubt you could grow those at home easily. All that walking you do to forgo the car, or using a bicycle, is going to require in excess of 2000 calories a day. You won't get that eating home grown tomatoes.

Plus it won't work for the masses of humanity who no longer have access to land. Individually, yes, it might work for some people, but it hardly makes a good policy to suggest gardening for everybody to stave off hunger. The reality is if your scenario happens (oil becomes prohibitively expensive), billions of people will die within a decade or two.

[baby_mouse]

35. Oh, I'm sure they will. It's the survival of the remaining billion or so that I'm planning for.

Of which, I plan to be one. That sounds a bit fatalistic, but really it's just true.

The only alternative is to try and keep rigging the economics and ecosystems and that will only last for so long. There's basically not enough energy. Wars will keep it going so far and then it'll fall over. Slowly, we hope, but it will fall over.

There's nothing anywhere as efficient as oil, unless we crack fusion or something. If we crack fusion we've got it made, and I think other forms of energy extraction will obviously only get more and more efficient, but it's going to take something pretty spectacular to compete with oil for efficiency.

Fewer people on the planet would help.

I have access to a permaculture farm in Europe. 10 acres can be made to feed 10 people, providing you're not fussy! I'd rather be doing that then frantically fighting the downward trends that are going to start plaguing the current industrial complex...

2000 calories? Hm. How many potatoes a week is that?

[knitter4democracy]

38. There's been a lot of work in that area in the last thirty years.

You'd be amazed at how much can be grown on an acre. If you rotate crops properly, plant at the right times and replant, and are careful on how you place things, you can get a lot out of a small patch.

Victory Gardens fed a lot of people and kept a lot of people going during WWII, and people used to survive on their gardens and community gardens. Cities do have it harder, but there used to be massive greenhouses around most American cities that used to provide produce most of the year in city markets.

We belong to a CSA that has several small family farms in it, we get our bison from a local ranch (that uses a local butcher), and we get as much as we can from local sources, including our own garden. More and more people in our area are doing this, too. It's cheaper, for one, and better for us all, for two.

[baby_mouse]

26. Wuh???

Are you sure you're not just factoring in things like transport costs and peripheral effects that aren't actually part of the food production? Because I can't see how excluding pesticides, using your own compost, seeding from local resources and using recycled materials for growing seedlings uses up petroleum energy! Or any other kind...

I don't believe in the cataclysm either, mainly because it's to no-one's advantage. I think the change is going to be relatively smooth, but pretty relentless and pretty fast.

And, actually, I'm not really bothered about 7 billion people. They can look after themselves however, they see fit. I'm going to look after my patch, but I don't have to accept responsibility for changing the whole system, all I have to do is alter my relationship to it. That's well within my power and will be good for me *and* the system.

[cliss]

23. Baby Mouse gets a big kiss from Cliss.

Thanks for being part of the solution. Isn't it better to be AHEAD of the holocaust that's headed our way? To already, be looking at ways to be more self sufficient.
I think just the idea of even having 1 plant, is a great start. I know of some people who live in apartments, they have no access to a garden. Usually, they can STILL grow a tomato, and even a single plant will give off lots of tomatoes. Like a patio pot.

The idea is to move toward self sufficiency, even though it might be in small increments.

Cuz baby we're heading over the cliff.

[baby_mouse]

30. It's so much easier than people think it is.

And I don't think it'll be hard to change at all. The current bizarre petroleum driven lifestyle is really a very new way if living. My grandparents grew an enormous amount of their own fruit and vegetables, so did my Dad! This is only 30 years ago! The ideology and skills necessary to live like this haven't died out, they're just dormant.

[Canuckistanian]

25. Rural living is going to be a problem

Unless support systems are set up soon, transportation for essential goods are going to dry up. Correction - AFFORDABLE transportation.

We'll be back to the 19th century, waiting weeks or months for shipments of needed mechanical parts, building materials or medicines. Food shouldn't be too much of a problem, unless some dictatorial system is instituted taking away food for the ravenous cities.

One thing's for sure. There will be a major urban/rural struggle for resources as people leave the crumbling cities for a chance to prosper in the exurbs, close to the food production areas.

[baby_mouse]

27. I think it's going to be a lot harder for you folks over in the US, I'm afraid.

Here in the UK we have thousands of years worth of building and planning and soft infrastructure that I think will simply bloom back into being. You guys are probably going to have it a lot harder simply because there's a good deal more distance between where you live and where you grow your food...

[Canuckistanian]

33. Psst! I'm Canadian!

But you're correct. Great Britain can be made self-sufficient with a lot less effort than North America.

The future of N.A. is going to be radically different than today, for geographical reasons.

[baby_mouse]

34. Arg, sorry! NT

[starroute]

41. Cities are a lot more energy efficient than exurbs

Living close together is more efficient than being spread out. Apartment buildings are more energy-efficient than single-family homes. Having housing, jobs, and food sources closely clustered is far more efficient than having them spread out all over the map.

Until the farms got turned into suburbs after World War II, major cities were all pretty closely surrounded by areas of "truck gardens," with produce that could be brought into the city every day. (As I recall, that's how New Jersey got the nickname "Garden State.")

Short hauls are necessary for produce, if you're going to get it to market without refrigeration. But longer hauls are possible for grains and the like -- and that's where a fully-functional rail system comes in. (Solar powered dirigibles would also be nice, but that's a bit more futuristic.)

I would say the primary answer is to wipe out the suburbs and exurbs -- along with the oil-dependent lifestyle they foster -- and return to a system of cities, small towns, and agricultural areas. Then tie the whole thing together with efficient transportation and broadband communication. (Trolleys might even make a comeback, if we could just get the cars out of the way.)

Small towns could be a particularly important piece of the puzzle. Even if agriculture becomes somewhat more labor-intensive again, we're never going back to the days when the majority of people could be employed on the land. But you don't want third world-style cities with 10 million people overloading their carrying capacity, so you need to decentralize the residential aspect as well.

However, for people to want to live in them, small towns would need to become dynamic parts of the global economy -- not just backwater collections of a few doctors, lawyers, merchants, and artisans serving the local farmers, but places where essential innovations are invented, developed, and manufactured. There were hints of this sort of setup in 1940's science fiction -- before the Saudi oil came online and began the rush to the suburbs -- and we need to get back to that sort of thinking.

[warren pease]

29. I think it's past time that lawns go the way of buggy whips...

...and that various home owners' associations stop mandating that appearances trump utility.

I don't have a lawn because I'm on an ivy-covered hillside (about 70 degree slope at the most precarious points), but the neighbors on the low side of the street obsess about their lawns, spend hours pulling weeds and burn incredible amounts of gas in lawn mowers, leaf blowers and string trimmers (not to mention the air and noise pollution these things create, particularly the two-strokers). Daily watering is mandatory during the summer, so there's another absolutely useless waste of an increasingly valuable resource.

And then there's the fertilizers and pesticides and all the rest of the stuff that either dumps into the Willamette via storm drains and kills fish or leaches into the aquifers and kills wildlife for decades.

If these people put the same time and energy into growing food instead of grass, they could get nearly all their fruits and vegetables for free (minus costs for seeds, water and, inevitably, more fertilizer).

But no. The association just won't have it, at least thus far. I wonder if a serious food shortage and/or skyrocketing produce prices will result in the lawn people telling the association to fuck off, start removing sod and end up with thriving suburban gardens.

I hope it happens soon, for a variety of personal and environmental reasons. And if nothing else, I'm tired of wearing dead phones around the house to mute the obnoxious roar of the leaf blowers.

wp

[baby_mouse]

31. Extraordinary, isn't it?

Some of them would probably quite happily starve or shoot their neighbours and eat the corpses rather than admit they were wrong.

[NuttyFluffers]

36. plant the '3 sisters,' corn, beans, and squash

you plant them together, as in drop the seeds in the very same hole, and they grow in a symbiotic relationship. beans fix nitrogen into the soil for themselves, but end up providing nitrogen for corn and squash. corn grows tall and provides a support for beans to grow up and an anchor shelter for squash. squash grows broad leaves which shade the soil and keeps it moist. also all three attract creatures that antagonize common parasites the others might suffer. this is ancient, but incredibly advanced, polysystem agriculture. no worries about rotating crops, excessive fussing and maintenance. oh, and together they form a complete complex protein combination as well as excellent sources of fiber, energy, and nutrients.

oh, and mulch. it's really easy, grab your food scraps and dump it out in an area. i used a black plastic box with plenty of holes that was given by my garbage company. just keep it watered regularly and the lid on and you don't really have to worry much about the smell at all. it ends up smelling like fresh soil if you did it right. great stuff, mulching is.

oh, and for lazy gardening use hay. cover the surrounding soil of a plant with piles of hay. when a weed shows up, smother it in hay (give it no sunlight). eventually the hay breaks down, along with smothered weeds, and becomes fertilizer. it also retains moisture by preventing the soil from being exposed and the water evaporating excessively.

if you want to know of a dangerously kick-ass way to change the world i'd recommend usin KIVA or another microloan website. this way you can spur economies of destitute areas and bring a ray of hope to their lives -- and have a high chance of getting paid back and make a profit. i would finance this by utilizing your local library and internet as your primary entertainment source: check out videos, music, and books for free legally and use the savings as a small "investment fund." even something as small as $1-2k saved in a year should be more than enough to do your part to starve out the consumer culture, save you money, bring you a profit, and drastically change a life -- if not an entire community.

have fun!

ps: i envy you that you can walk to work. i wish i lived closer to the mass transit lines.

[NMDemDist2]

40. great suggestion

pinto beans? green beans? does it matter?

[NuttyFluffers]

42. green beans are legumes. :) look for legumes.

think pinto, soy, black, lima, kidney, garbanzo, favash, lupino, *peanuts*, etc. your choices are outrageously high. you also have huge choices in squash as well; butternut, pumpkin, yellow, etc.

mix and match, see what's best for you! :D

plant popcorn corn (great for drying and using later) with pumpkin and sweet red bean! dry the pumpkin seeds, some for planting, another for shelling for breakfast cereal, and another for holiday snacks. use the pumpkin meat for pies, candy a few for the holidays (just boil in a simple flavored syrup), and make a nice buttery faux mashed potatos. maybe even save one for halloween (this'll be done likely *next* halloween, too soon now). use the red beans for a healthy sweet jam paste for filling pastries and covering light desserts. use the popcorn corn for decoration and snacks on the holidays as well.

or go festive outdoors BBQ cookout. butternut squash, hearty extra large yellow corn, and black beans. cut the butternut squash into french fries, season with salt and light brush of oil and then wrap in foil and roast on grill, should come out like low calorie sweet potato-like steak fries. butter and roast the large yellow corn to a delicious gold. use the black beans in a healthy salsa for chips or a 3 bean salad.

or go hearty cold weather with favash, corn, and squash in a country style soup or stew. there's so much to do, it's wonderful! enjoy!

edit whoops! had a brain fart. didn't edit properly. there was a not left there by accident. lentils and green beans are legumes. your choices are high :D

[BigBearJohn]

43. I love this idea.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

39. Google "cooking without gas" or "cooking without carbon"

There are many ideas for indoor, outdoor and solar cooking methods that don't rely on gas or electricity. Some enterprising types have developed products, while other sites tell you how to make homemade solutions.