Wow! Posting two days in a row! My plan was to watch a documentary and then take pictures of my jewelry and beads. I'll get back on track, but first I feel it is my duty to share the documentary with you.
A Crude Awakening: the Oil Crash (click the link to watch for free; watch carefully and thoughtfully, over a period of days if that's what you need, but watch and listen and THINK.) "Through expert interviews, this documentary examnes the world's dependency on oil and the chaos that's sure to follow when the resource runs dry." (2006.)
A topic like this is often overwhelming because it is immediately apparent that the problem is global, and immediately daunting and inconceivable that as individuals we can make a difference. I know we can; I know we must believe we can make a difference. The key is to understand that we must make a choice now, and we must make a difference in our own life; local scale and time WILL make a difference globally.
The only natural resource that produces the amount of energy
that we now receive is solar energy. It is also the only natural resource that
can meet the demands projected for the future based on current growth of
population and industry. However, the technology on the global scale is not
advanced enough to put it effectively in place ON TIME. That is the key; time.
We are not out of oil, but we are using more oil than we have reserves for. The
wars are about oil; do you want to live in a world that insists on taking
energy by force? That is one of two choices we can make. The other choice is to
understand the other key; scale.
If we try to address the issues of energy
demand-versus-supply on a global scale, we start at a losing position; the
second choice we have is to address the situation on a personal scale. Look at
personal use of oil; then look at how personal use of oil can be replaced.
No,
I do not pay directly for the oil used to deliver groceries to my dinner table,
but when I understand that I certainly contribute, I can see that if I grow my
own vegetables, my contribution to the use of oil energy is greatly reduced. I
can also see that if everyone in my town did the same, the impact on my
community would be huge, huge, huge.
It is exciting to think I might convince
everyone in
my town to grow a vegetable garden, to raise their own beef and
poultry, to fish from the rivers, and hunt the land. That last one poses many
problems on its own, but if we would just start with gardens.
We also need to
start with our children. Teach them to think not of their personal gain in the
future, but rather their personal contribution. We do that already, sorta’. We teach
the kids to do a community project in order to graduate high school and in
order to have a better application for college, but it is all to their own
personal gain in the end.
We say our kids are our future, but we teach them to
fend only for themselves and to aim for a personal goal that will give them
financial stability and excess, to compete against each other, and to fear
having no money. It is not too late to give that effort a tweak.
I will talk to
my son about this. We recently had a conversation about politics and Monsanto and
independence in crisis. My son’s question was, “How can we make a difference?
What should we do?” At the time I said, “Stay local; buy local; grow local;
vote local.” Now I will expand that answer;
Make a difference by providing a way to use energy locally in a
different way.
I’m going to ask my son to focus not on becoming wealthy but to
focus on energy, ingenuity, and teaching locally how to be independent and
harness local sources. I’m going to look at how to harness solar energy on my
own; I’m going to look at the Tesla Coil; I’m going to look at the efficiency
of producing energy and reducing oil dependence. Just look at all the things I CAN do!!
And I’m going to vote for politicians who
tell the truth. How will I know it’s the truth? I’ll know it is the truth when
they tell me the bad news rather than the good; when they tell me it will be
hard rather than to be hopeful; when they tell me what it will take to change
rather than simply a desire to make a change. I CAN handle the truth.
