Peak Oil and Localism
Think about the things in your life. Your clothing. Your food. Your furniture. Think about it all, everything tangible that surrounds you in daily life. How much of that stuff was created within 100 miles of where you live, or where you bought it? The distances traveled by the products we buy are truly staggering. I read an article once that noted a study in Germany of strawberry yogurt; it found that the inputs to a container of yogurt traveled a total of something like 3000 miles before landing on the table, even though the strawberries and all the other food ingredients were produced inside the country. All of this travel led to a container of yogurt that was metaphorically drenched in oil. As another example, Emily and I recently went to the local unfinished wood furniture store downtown, to look for a new dresser (we’re still using some pretty sad furniture from our broke college days). As it turned out, the one we liked best was built by a company out of North Carolina that recently went out of ...
Posted on February 14, 2008 11:18:47 AM EST
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Some Thoughts About Localism
I’ve been reading about the potential for future environmental catastrophe for awhile now, branching out as I went into books that studied collapsed cultures of the past and on to other topics even farther afield. You could call it my second great education, because although I always knew there was the potential for danger in the phrase ‘global warming’, I only recently awoke to a fuller understanding of its implications. From environmental studies and a sort of anthro-ecological history if you like, I found myself taking a sidetrack that would lead me to staring at another perilous danger of our time: peak oil. Along the way, while studying both of these topics through books, documentaries, podcasts, blogs, and plain-old web research, I kept coming back to the idea of getting back to local communities of people you trust. Whether it’s escaping the addiction to a petroleum supply that’s running out, or finding the most effective way to curtail my contribution to climate change, ...
Posted on February 13, 2008 10:43:43 AM EST
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Whew! No Kale
Coming back from the farmer’s market today, I peeked into our grocery sack, and…NO KALE!!! It’s a lot like winning the lottery. I guess you’re probably wondering why. Last fall, we signed up for a half-plowshare of vegetables at a local farm, under a typical community-supported agriculture (CSA) system. Basically, for about $275 we get a largish grocery sack full of veggies each week for around 32 weeks. This is actually a pretty good deal, because organic produce is actually one of the most expensive things (leaving out things like beef roasts and such) on our grocery list in most weeks. Our half plowshare works out to about $8.50 a week. It’s been a very interesting experience, in a lot of ways. First, I had thought that we ate a lot of vegetables in a week. Wrong. A lot of vegetables is what we get each week now, and let me tell you, more often than not, we have what we’re beginning to call Veggie Saturday. This is the day where we eat something like salad and wilted ...
Posted on February 9, 2008 12:57:52 PM EST
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Well, that didn't work.
You may have noticed that the title for this blog has changed...again. In case you're wondering why, it's a result of me trying some new things. In this case, it didn't really work. I had this idea that there was a lot of important information out there that can help people who want to limit their negative impact on the world, but that this information was pretty hard to find. At least for me, it's required reading a lot of books that, let's face it, most of my family members wouldn't think of reading in their scarce leisure time. I thought that if I could act as a concentrator for this information, maybe I could make it a little easier for the next person to pick up these lessons and general knowledge, and make immediate use of it. Unfortunately, I have a day job. Not only that, but staring down antropogenic environmental disasters isn't a great way to spend 100% of your leisure time...that is, if you want to avoid being very depressed. I don't actually have that much time to write all these things down, ...
Posted on February 7, 2008 10:35:23 AM EST
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