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www.hopedance.org
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| <back | home Our Journey Home: The Power of Community by Megan Quinn [Excerpted speech in Boulder, Colorado, by Megan Quinn, Outreach Program Director, Community Solutions, Ohio. (See interview with her in HopeDance at http://www.hopedance.org/new/issues/54/article10.html) Community Solutions have been doing a great service when it comes to peak oil education; in fact they produced the excellent film The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, which we showed in numerous communities. It is now in our film library for those who wish to view it.] Where do we go from here? How do we move forward keeping this energy, this passion and commitment alive? When you step out that door, you will face a world that has consumed more than 30 million barrels of oil since you walked in this morning. You will confront ignorance, apathy, doubt, and denial. But you will know about the inevitability of world oil production peaking and beginning its irreversible decline. You will know that U.S. oil production peaked in 1970 and that in more than 60 other countries since then, oil discoveries have declined and that today we consume five barrels of oil for every barrel we discover. You will know about how unrelenting population growth, made possible largely by cheap, abundant oil brought us ever quicker to the brink of peak. You will have inspiration – options and solutions, such as developing local food and renewable energy systems, car sharing, and conserving energy. And you will have each other, a community of support. How did we lose community? In answering this, we discovered the role of oil. As recently as 150 years ago, Boulder was a small, local, more-or-less sustainable community. Boulder residents lived locally, traded locally, got nearly all of the goods and services they needed to survive locally. 150 years ago most people around the world lived in small, local communities. But during the last century, the century of oil, this all changed. Oil was the best energy source we humans had ever come across. First of all, it has the highest concentration of energy of any fossil fuel, and secondly, it is liquid, which made it easier to store and transport. Imagine carrying a load of heavy, solid coal to fuel your car, or a huge tank of disperse natural gas. Cheap, abundant oil gave us the opportunity for cheap, abundant transportation. So the apple from across the country was now cost-competitive with the apple from down the street. Cheap abundant oil gave us urban sprawl, industrial agriculture, and globalized corporations. We watched as the family farms and the mom-and-pop stores went out of business; the small towns across America died; sustainable communities around the world disappeared; local living became rare,”community” went to sleep. Our excessive and unmitigated use of oil over the last century destroyed community. Today we live globally, not locally. Our food, the essence of our survival, travels 1500 miles on average from the farm to our plate. Our clothes and manufactured products travel thousands of miles from Asia, South America, and elsewhere. This fossilized energy – which powers our jetliners, SUVS, Hummers and the 18-wheel trucks which haul our foods and other commodities – comes from all around the globe. And whereas 150 years ago you knew all the people who provided what you needed to survive, now these people are faceless. The Indonesian sweatshop seamstress, the Mexican migrant farm laborer, the oil rig operator in Kuwait – all of those people who provide our necessities are all faceless. And those whose faces we do know – our neighbors – are strangers. We have no economic relationships with them. We don’t share and conserve scarce local resources, but exploit seemingly abundant global resources. And with mass media and mass entertainment, we are losing social relationships with them. Why talk to your neighbor when you can be talked to by your TV? So, cheap and abundant oil has led to the loss of community. How then, do we reclaim it? Consider this: What if oil were no longer cheap and abundant, but scarce and expensive? Would the historical tide reverse itself? Would we experience a resurgence of community? That is exactly what we envision as global oil production peaks and begins its irreversible decline. Peak oil is an opportunity to reclaim community, to rebuild it, re- create it. So peak oil is the solution for community. But community is also the solution for peak oil. As our ability to live globally becomes more difficult due to rising fuel costs, we will need to re-develop the infrastructure to live locally. The dominant culture of individualism and disconnection, which arose from the influx of cheap, abundant oil, is an aberration. It is an eddy within the greater flow of the human story. Indeed, more than 99.5 percent of our time on this planet has been spent in small mobile groups of a few dozen to a few hundred people, living more or less in balance with the earth. If all of human existence, including some of our recent ancestors, were condensed into a 24-hour day, agriculture would have started in the last seven minutes and the age of oil and other fossil fuels, the last seven seconds. That is why all of us are fundamentally community-oriented and, indeed, indigenous, which is the basis for our genetic inheritance and our cultural memory and traditions. Stories like the Garden of Eden refer to our time as hunter-gathers, living in abundance. ************************* How can we change the cycle of resource abundance, increased consumption, population growth, resource scarcity, and collapse? After all, the earth is, in effect, one big island, or one big Petri dish, isn’t it? Well, we humans have something that other animals do not have: the gift of foresight, of planning ahead. And now we see that our way of life may lead to our extinction. I mentioned that peak oil is not the real problem: our way of life is the real problem. But what then is peak oil? Peak oil is a warning sign, a wake-up call, that we are exceeding the ability of our planet to sustain us. Peak oil is a symptom of the industrial disease. If we do not change, if we cannot quickly adapt to a low-energy way of living through community, then continued exponential growth will take us over the cliff as oil production collapses. The key word here is adapt. Adapting to changes in our environment is the success of human beings. we need is not a revolution, but an evolution. Taking Action It’s easy to say that humanity needs to devolve or to return to low energy living in community. But what actually can we do about it? The problem is so daunting – and we are just a few in a world of 6.3 billion people. And Boulder is just one small place with 100,000 people or so in a nation of 300 million, most of whom are living high energy lifestyles with little thought of other ways to live. Well I hope to answer some of those questions. And I’ll start with a simple quote, my favorite: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Anthropologist Margaret Mead. The peak oil solutions movement is very small, very thoughtful, and, as I’ve observed here today, exceptionally committed. I have no doubt that we in the peak oil solutions movement can have a major impact on the future of the world, nor do I have any doubt that you in the Boulder Re-localization movement can have a major impact on the future of Boulder. What do we do first? I would argue that we first need to educate our communities, to give people the knowledge to realize the impact of their way of life – the impact of their decisions – on themselves, other people, the environment, and future generations. Many people are already aware of these impacts, and they are our natural allies. They include those in the renewable energy movement, the global climate change awareness movement, the simplicity movement, the communities movement, and the environmental movement. But the majority of people aren’t aware of the impacts of their lifestyle, and they are not going to change their lifestyle if they don’t see its harmful effects. I have an important suggestion to make here. It is not our role to convince people or convert people, but to help people discover it for themselves. Peak oil is in some ways intuitive, isn’t it? And, after all, it is ultimately their choice whether or not to plunge into the river. So help them discover that their conveniences, their luxuries, are not without a huge price. Help them discover that the future will not be a Jetson’s paradise. Help them discover that they are dependent on energy and therefore vulnerable. Most importantly, help them discover the essence of community and compassion that is within them, that has been dormant, and help them realize how to re-incorporate it into their lives. Peak oil despair is the sense of powerlessness. Everyone else seemed to be sleepwalking into the future while I was wide awake and keenly aware of the cliff ahead. I felt my message was falling on deaf ears, and as every moment went by we were getting closer and closer to the end. I felt like a fish out of water. I had this whole understanding of another reality – a reality of an energy-constrained world – and everyone else I would talk to, those fish who had never broken the surface of the water and seen another reality, would laugh at me, saying it didn’t exist. They would come up with all sorts of reasons why it could not be possible that there would be a world outside of the water, because water was all they had ever known. So I was very discouraged because I felt alone and powerless. Then I had a realization, and this saying brings it home: “It is not possible to know what’s possible,” and that really is the ultimate message of hope. We are not doomed to one fate or another, nor are we powerless. My sense of powerlessness was an illusion perpetuated by those to whom we give our power. But just as we give it, we can take it back. Despair leads to inaction, whereas hope gives us the strength to act. Hope lies in disconnecting ourselves from the system. Now, this is certainly not easy or quick. It takes time and effort, and most importantly, it takes the development of another system into which we can connect. The answer is not in fighting or trying to change the existing system, but in creating an alternative which people can join. When the old system loses its people, its power, it will dissolve. That is why this alternative system is so important. We are not all going live in the wilderness. A few hundred years from now, that is a possibility. But now we have to take small steps toward our community future. Forming new institutions adapted to the reality of declining energy is how we will get there, and how we can avoid outright collapse. What do these institutions look like? Well, as you all know by now, a key word is local. Oil allowed us to expand far beyond our local resources by providing cheap transportation, but without that we need to re-develop local institutions. And everywhere in the world these local institutions will look different, as they are all adapted to their specific resources. All we have to do is create a few models, examples of what is possible, evidence there is an option to the dominant system, another way of living. And we have to show that this model is preferable to the current system, and better adapted to an energy-constrained world. In other words, we have to create a place for the fish who jump out of the water to live and survive. And we are the leaders who must create that place. If we don’t, people won’t disconnect from the system because they have nothing into which they can connect. Models instruct and inspire. They help others to proceed by sharing strategies and suggestions about what works and doesn’t work, so we don’t have to repeat mistakes. They show what is possible, and bring hope. ******************************** So what do we do? I recently heard some practical advise: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Let’s start with the last one: where you are. Start by looking at where you are, how you’re using energy. What and how much energy and material inputs sustain your lifestyle? Where are they from? What pollution and waste do you generate? Where does it go? What are the results? The key is to account for, and take responsibility for, all that flows into us and out of us. In many ways, this is a radical idea and, if adopted by more people, could have dramatic effects. Now let’s take the part “with what you have.” Look at what you have that will help you transition to a lower energy lifestyle. What skills do you have? What skills can you learn? What are your assets, financial and otherwise? Your relationships, your connections? What about your personality can be beneficial in making the necessary changes? Finally, “Do what you can.” Start slowly. Take small steps. Not everybody is going to be able to build a brand new energy efficient house, or move to a self-sufficient community in the mountains. Just do what you can. Set achievable goals, such as “I’m going to reduce my energy use by 10 percent this year, and here’s how.” While 10 percent is clearly not enough, we will find it renews us and motivates us to do more. So after you’ve achieved that, set another goal. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Set a personal example and share it with others. Share with them your successes and your challenges. Involve them in what you’re doing. Show your joy and passion. This, along with a commitment to support those around you, will inspire lifestyle changes in them as well. Go to http://www.communitysolution.org/ for more info about this excellent organization. Also go to http://www.communitysolution.org/saps.html for more speeches and power point presentations. <back | top^ |