Oil ; The True Alterantive Fuel

I consider myself blessed because we are fortunate enough to have a neat little farm, healthy livestock, wood to heat our home, good soils to garden and grow forage, a reliable and tasty well, a nice pond and brook running through the place. We have willing animals to help us, good neighbors, a quiet peacful existence in a beautiful spot on earth and strong healthy bodies to enjoy it all with. Some would call our “lifestyle” ( I dislike that word but use it anyway) alternate but it’s not really an alternate for everyone and likely could not be any more as we have too many people, too many lost skills and maybe even not enough land for everyone to do the same. (I think anyway.) In my opinion it’s more of a privledge than an alternate.

It seems to me that working in and relearning the old ways on the land has values for society as a whole a few of which include keeping the body of knowledge on living sustainably and close to the land with minimum impact alive and up to date and to demonstrate how it can work out for some people. And in the process aren’t we are the ones who benifit the most?

@Rod 237 wrote:

it’s not really an alternate for everyone and likely could not be any more as we have too many people, too many lost skills and maybe even not enough land for everyone to do the same. (I think anyway.) In my opinion it’s more of a privledge than an alternate.

This is the elephant in the room that it’s difficult to talk about, isn’t it? Animal power does seem to mean less power, less material and travel and scope to our lives. That’s maybe not such crazy talk for some here in my area, where the old ways are still somewhat apparent in our physical and cultural landscape. For us, recovering some sort of balance might entail doing without some elements of modernity that are essentially luxuries given to us by virtue of “ancient sunlight,” if you will.

But what of the millions, billions of people who live in places where human habitation would be barely tenable at all without this same ancient sunlight running from a tap?

I don’t propose to know what’s best for such people. I haven’t any idea what will become of our burgeoning urban centers, much less about how the world, barely able to feed itself with the full arsenal of biotech and petroleum at its disposal, will do so in a future with less and less of these means available.

So back to the original thread. For me, from where I’m standing, I think it’s correct to try to readjust our lens in order to see truly renewable energy (with animal power being perhaps the major component) as the main option and all else as “alternative.” I can see this future for myself and those around me. But looking to the far horizon, I’m troubled with the sheer magnitude of our predicament–for so very many the only alternative to an oil-based life is likely to be mass migration, starvation, death.

I choose not to dwell on such visions or to obsess about worst-case scenarios. But likewise I am hesitant to pronounce with confidence that my ways of striving for balance will work for me and my farm, let alone anyone else, let alone people in lands distant. I have problems participating in organizations that propose to have the all answers. Not that I’m saying we’re trying to create that.

Human energy must be an enormous untapped resource. Walking more is but one example. Imagine if you took everyone off their treadmills and rowing machines and put shovels or pitchforks in them instead, how many gas-burning machines could be put to rest? But this source of energy will be if anything more difficult to access than animal power… the power of the couch being so strong…

I think you are on to something with the treadmill Idea. Who will be first to hook up a small generator to the tredmills in the fitness centers and sell “green” excersize? Save oil while you tread.

Carl, I’ve long held the same values with regard to manual work. It’s mighty hard to find reinforcement.

Most of my background is in carpentry. I’ve read these two books on timber framing, for instance, written by the same author. The first was written in the late 70s, full of do-it-yourself gumption, all about hand tools and the dignity of good work, basic, time-tested structures that can fulfill basic human needs with elegant simplicity. The second written just a few years ago, the revised edition, is about all the wonderful things your professional timberframe contractor can do for you. Many of the building examples in the book, by the way, are also grandiose and not in any way harmonious to their surroundings. Buying and reading the second edition really depressed me. A genuine revival of interest in hand skills and community effort morphed into an autocad-designed, german-engineered, high-overhead professional clique within a few decades. I could give other examples too.

Personally, I think the rediscovery and revalorization of work is the greatest challenge facing our culture today.

I read my toddler some old Peter Rabbit books. One of them has in it a hedgehog washerwoman, who in the course of her work, chatters on about all these snippets of washing wisdom, such as how to remove certain kinds of stains out using chalk or whatever else. It struck me that just a few generations ago, washing could be a job, a trade with more stored-up lore than you could ever fit on the back of a tide bottle, that gave some people dignity and value and place.

Granted, for some people that kind of work was drudgery, but others would have looked you right in the eye in a public place and said that they washed clothes for a living. Nowadays that’s unimaginable, not just because of the economics, but because of the shame associated with manual work (and perhaps what was historically women’s manual work bears an even greater burden of this?) But why does it have to be?

Good points. One of my pet peeves is the computers which have replaced the library card file which IMHO worked much better for the using public but I suspect the computer is easier for the Library staff. That’s the case often with computers that they make the staff work easier but are not that great for the using public.
The vast amounts of money and time being spent on computerizing the voting process is another example of mass stupidity IMHO. If some people cannot mark a card correctly or punch out a punch card how will they be on a computer. I think it would make more sense to require voters to pass a test on putting a black mark on a voting card ( like we do in Vt.) or punching out a card than to go the the vast undertaking of revising the whole voting system and replacing it with a hackable, power dependent, and vulnerable computer system.
Anyway I agree with you.

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