Surviving Peak Everything: The Guardian on Community-led vs Individual Responses
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 05. 4.08
We’ve already noted that survivalism is the new black, and with climate change, peak oil, and rising food prices all vying for our attention, it’s little wonder that folks all over are thinking more and more about what they would do if our comfortable consumer societies went belly up. Now the UK’s Guardian newspaper is picking up the story, with Harriet Green, former editor of ‘a glossy magazine’, discussing how she has begun to take heed of her husband’s dark mumblings about an imminent environmental, social and economic crisis. But what’s a good consumer to do when faced with such predictions?
Green begins by outlining the growth in discussion around survivalism, noting that responses range from stock-piling tinned food to starting your own garden (sales of vegetable seeds are apparently up 60% on last Spring!), with the more extreme elements entering into internet discussion about how to circumnavigate the UK’s relatively strict weapon laws. Delving into this world has obviously left our author more than a little concerned:
“ I've started to worry. Is my family prepared for the worst? I'm reasonably nimble at the computer keyboard, and a whiz with the hairdryer, but otherwise pretty useless. I've barely made or mended anything in my life. Thankfully my husband is three years ahead of me, and - with help from the many self-sufficiency manuals he's collected - has evolved (or regressed) into a creature from the past: he's got an allotment, has turned our garden into some kind of nursery for innumerable apple trees grown from pips (farewell, ornamental rose) and recently started knitting. He even has plans for a composting loo, in the event that water supplies fail.”
But having discussed the historical precedents for such survivalist culture, namely the oil shocks of the 70s and fear of nuclear annihilation, and met a few well-known prophets of doom, we’re pleased to see Green coming around to the approach favored by us TreeHuggers – namely a healthy dose of self-sufficiency and ‘skilling up’, combined with a concerted community effort to build resilience in the systems we live in through supporting local food and local economies, micro-energy generation and energy efficiency, and by simply getting to know your neighbors. And who better to talk to than TreeHugger favorite Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Towns movement [see our own interview here]:
“If we didn't do anything, ” he agrees, “there are all sorts of grim scenarios. But I like to think of those as like Dickens' Ghost of Christmas Future - just one possible scenario. ” Thus, when the price of oil rises, Hopkins cheers. “It's like a racehorse owner cheering his horse. The things I want to see happen only happen in times of high oil prices. In the 70s, there was the most incredible flowering of creativity. Solar power, permaculture - they all started in the 70s. Then cheap oil came back, and everything went out of the window. High oil prices will stimulate creativity all over again: the knock-on of rising food prices will make it more cost-effective to grow food here; the higher cost of petrol in your car will make you ask if it's worth making the journey. ” The bonus is that, as we burn fewer fossil fuels, emissions will be reduced and climate change might be slowed.
For more on Transition Towns, take a look at our posts here, here and here. To see some permacultural approaches to food security, check out our posts here and here, and certainly don’t forget to check out our guide on How to Green Your Community.
::The Guardian::via Transition Culture::
I share in the author's sentiments in at least one way: I currently feel like I have no practical skills suited for reality and I feel relatively useless. Like her husband (at least from what I can perceive), my interest in survivalism isn't so much fear of the worst, but to make myself better, more prepared. (Though, admittedly, my survivalism is a bit more grown-up–Boy Scout.)
Personally, I feel like I have a better chance at weathering the storm as a young person, because I have the opportunity to start learning and adapting right now—before things are completely intolerable. I feel like I have a leg up on my parents and their middle-aged peers because they've become so accustomed to an unsustainable life that it will be a complete shock to their system; I, on the other hand, started to realize something was wrong years ago and I've tried to never adopt the insane lifestyle to begin with.
Great to see survivalism type approaches going mainstream instead of being disregarded as crackpot stuff. I heard it best summarized very simply the other day.
"Work for the best while preparing for the worst".
I do not anticipate a sudden meltdown but rather a long series of increasingly serious, interconnected crises. I agree that high oil prices will continue to put pressure on the creativity engine which ultimately will have a positive result.
www.ecounit.com
Until the day before yesterday, I had no time for the end of
civilization. I was too busy. I had things to do, miles to go before I
sleep. But then it happened. Two days ago. I woke up from my stupor.
You see, before all this, I had been busy climbing the corporate
ladder at my firm. Attending meetings. Lunching with my boss. Looking
to the future. Investments and retirement funds and safe things like
that. Taking care of family.
And then, out of the blue, the day before yesterday, it hit me. There
wasn't going to be a future. We were doomed, not only as a
civilization, but as a species as well. I woke up from my sleepwalking
stupor and understood something I had never understood before. We are
doomed as a species. I am shaking as a I write these words. Doomed.
There is no way out. I see that now.
There is no way out anymore. There is no more wiggle room.
So what to do? What is to be done? Plenty. Let's prepare for the
future as we've never prepared before. Let's get ready for what's
coming down the highway, and it's not going to be a pretty picture.
Are you with me still, or did I lose you in the first paragraph?
Don't leave me now. I need you as much as you need me. Reader and
writer, writer and reader. We are one and the same now. Fame and
wealth no longer matter. What we are headed for will take care of
that. But let's start preparing, shall we?
--
POLAR CITIES BLUEPRINTS:
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com
Until the day before yesterday, I had no time for the end of
civilization. I was too busy. I had things to do, miles to go before I
sleep. But then it happened. Two days ago. I woke up from my stupor.
You see, before all this, I had been busy climbing the corporate
ladder at my firm. Attending meetings. Lunching with my boss. Looking
to the future. Investments and retirement funds and safe things like
that. Taking care of family.
And then, out of the blue, the day before yesterday, it hit me. There
wasn't going to be a future. We were doomed, not only as a
civilization, but as a species as well. I woke up from my sleepwalking
stupor and understood something I had never understood before. We are
doomed as a species. I am shaking as a I write these words. Doomed.
There is no way out. I see that now.
There is no way out anymore. There is no more wiggle room.
So what to do? What is to be done? Plenty. Let's prepare for the
future as we've never prepared before. Let's get ready for what's
coming down the highway, and it's not going to be a pretty picture.
Are you with me still, or did I lose you in the first paragraph?
Don't leave me now. I need you as much as you need me. Reader and
writer, writer and reader. We are one and the same now. Fame and
wealth no longer matter. What we are headed for will take care of
that. But let's start preparing, shall we?
--
POLAR CITIES BLUEPRINTS:
http://pcillu101.blogspot.com