In the midst of dark and serious issues it’s important to step back into the light and celebrate some of the benefits of this descent that we will eventually all have to follow:
We can reclaim the roads for people – there will be no need for the dual carriageways that currently divide so many communities. [...]
Archive for August, 2008
30 Aug
Benefits of Descent: Celebrate the future
30 Aug
Resilience: Coping with the energy crisis at home
Resilience is one of the main themes in the Transition movement, focusing on how to ensure that your community is resilient and will be able to survive in a post-peak-oil world. In this post I’m going to take it to a more personal level though – looking at immediate solutions to ensure that we are [...]
28 Aug
Background: The Peak Oil Media Guide
The learned folks over at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas have published a really clear, well thought-out Guide to Peak Oil by Chris Nelder. This differs from a lot of Peak-Oil stuff I’ve seen, in that it doesn’t immediately suggest arming yourself and heading for the hills. It takes a powerful message [...]
28 Aug
Motivation: Lists of aims and achievements
I’ve just seen a great idea over at Eco ‘Burban: List of changes they’ve already made, and things that they’re aiming to do – nice, simple, and right in front of you!
It’s an interesting blog too – looking at how to live an affluent, green, family life. Her other blog – Affluent People Living Sustainably – is [...]
28 Aug
Inspiration: Buying nothing for a whole year
Well . . nothing but food and basic toiletries. And used items are OK, as they don’t directly contribute to new production.
What a fantastic challenge to set yourself – and a good preparation for a post-peak-oil world. I’m not sure I’d be up for it at this stage, but that’s the challenge that Amber has set [...]
27 Aug
Benefits of Descent: Increased fuel prices save lives
Great reports in The Guardian and Independent recently talking about how rising fuel prices are driving cars off the road, and forcing people to drive more slowly and carefully.
In the UK this has resulted in the first recorded drop in congestion, and an actual increase in average speeds as people sit in less fuel-sapping traffic jams. The really [...]
26 Aug
Preparation: Waste disposal post-peak-oil
An interesting post on The Oil Drum has got me thinking that, in addition to needing to be warm and fed, we need to work out how we’re going to avoid drowning in our own waste. Seems to me that weekly rubbish collections will be a service that will rapidly become uneconomic for councils to provide, and [...]
26 Aug
Preparation: Peak-oil kitchen gadgets (2)
Of course it won’t all be soup-soup-soup in my peak oil future – when I’m having a baking day it’d be great to throw a Vegetable Gratin into the wood-fired oven – but how to make the breadcrumbs? It might be that the mouli is up to this, but if not then one of these [...]
25 Aug
Preparation: Peak-oil kitchen gadgets
OK, so I’ve accepted that we’ll be eating a lot of soup in my peak-oil future. Thats fine, I love a good vegetable soup. But it occurs to me that I do use an electric blender to make it. Here’s a blast of nostalgia though – a Mouli – the original 1940s-designed classic food processor. [...]
23 Aug
Preparation: Insulation is the key post-peak-oil
Not very glamorous I know: not as sexy as a roaring fire or gently glowing Rayburn, not as high-tech as solar hotwater or a heat-pump, but it strikes me that insulation really is the key to keeping warm post-peak-oil.
Lets face it, as oil prices get out of reach, gas and electric will follow. People are [...]
