This is cross posted to my blog, http://northwoodprogressives.typepad.com/
In the wake of the London bombings and the predictable response of the administration, and the failure to set goals at the G8 summit re: global warming, my mind has been doing strange things as I move around my day. What is happening is that when I turn on a faucet I think, “I wonder how I will cope when there is no reliable electricity to pump my water?” When I grocery shop, I think “I wonder how much food I could actually provide for myself if I had to?” When I drive my car, I wonder when fuel will become too expensive or rare for me to go where I need to, never mind where I want to. When I look at the oil tank to see if it needs to be filled, I wonder how I will keep warm in the New England winter. Not panicking, but just thinking and trying to figure out how the future will look. I am convinced it will not look much like today.
I wonder if this means I am giving up hope of making any changes that will prevent the future I see. Not that I will stop working for the changes, politically, because Howard Dean has taught me how to keep moving no matter what. And other experiences in my life have also taught me that I must do the footwork as if it mattered, even when I don’t really believe that it does. Put one foot in front of the other and do the next right thing. So far that has worked.
So I do not despair, but I consider that the world of my old age, should I live to see that, will be a much harsher world, and that keeping my wits about me will be essential. So will learning to live cooperatively. As I work for my town, encouraging people to get involved, to get to know one another, and to work together, and to take responsibility, I am planning for a future that will be more difficult, but perhaps also, in ways we do not imagine, more rewarding as well.
I have been thinking along these same lines for some time. I have also been severely chastised for thinking such horrible, negative, pessimistic, things. I look at the price of oil and I think come winter what happens? Not only will many not be able to afford heat in the house it goes right on down the chain to the cost of food because of the price to deliver it. Food costs are already way up they can only go higher. Who will feed the poor, the old, the sick? I don’t know what is going to actually happen but I do see trends that are getting worse. I have to say the majority of Americans are ill prepared to face any type of hardship. I suppose it is the same type of thinking that allowed us to get into this mess in the first place. It is called not thinking and not ever looking down the road to see what the ramifications might be.
You are right that people are going to need to work together. I suspect that come this winter many will have to face things they didn’t ever want to. I am finding the world a very scary place to live and it has nothing to do with the terrorists who blow up things. I hope I am very wrong in my assumptions but I will continue planning for hard times until shown otherwise.
I try not to think that I am some sort of doom and gloomer, but neither do I want to play ostrich. I am perhaps less concerned about this year and more concerned about down the line. I am 62, no longer as able to get out there and do the physical work of growing food, cutting wood (although we do use wood for the coldest months, having a real wood furnace, not just a stove, as well as an oil burner, but the wood has to come from somewhere, and our 4 acres will not supply for very long), etc. What scares me the most, really, is the prospect of the loss of power and Internet access. I wonder if we should look at solar panels. We are on the wrong side of our little mountain for wind power, except in nor-easters. (Those are storms that blow in off the Atlantic, in case you don’t know – we are about 25 miles from the coast.)
I feel better for having talked about this, and knowing there is at least one other person who is concerned about the loss of the style of life we have led for the past 20-25 years. The end of the first world, as we know it.
I am hardly a spring chicken but doing OK so far. BUT like so many others we are always just one pay check or one disaster from falling off the cliff. Have had family check into wind power and found the cost so prohibitive only the rich can use it and save money they already have. In fact several of the wealthest families in the neighborhood have one or two wind generators. I get the feeling they don’t want to share either. I understand your worry about wood for the furnace. I think what if the electricity stops and everyone everywhere decides to chop down a tree and burn it. How fast before not a tree is left to burn. There are so many variables to what could, or might happen one isn’t sure exactly what to prepare for. You just try to be aware and do the best you can.
My first thought when the London bombings happened was “Well, Bush got off from having to do anything at all about global warming.” I’m sure this sounds harsh to some, and would probably get me banished at dKos, but if you look at the world with a longer perspective, the thing people 200 years from now will curse us for is our inaction on environmental issues.
I work in the environmental field, and often feel like I’m screaming in a city of the deaf. Even my wife thinks I worry too much about climate change, peak oil, etc. But then she used to think I worried too much about Bush! 😉 I have found some solace in this quote from Aldo Leopold; our mutual problem is nothing new:
“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”
I can only hope that as time goes on those of us living “alone in a world of wounds” will continue to find each other and band together to bring about change; the internet has been a real blessing in that regard, even as it allows me to track more readily on a daily basis the damage we are inflicting on nature.
I would recommend using Google to look into home solar power; of course, it may not yet be affordable for you but the prices continue to fall as new technologies are developed. Also feel free to email me (address below).
I am a Selectman in my town (executive board is what it is) and we are working on our Master Plan, trying to rough out where we want to go with the town, and how to stop being overwhelmed by sprawl, which is rapidly moving into our part of NH (between Concord and Portsmouth). We have water problems already, MtBE and a bottling company in the next town that wants to withdraw lots of water from a bedrock aquifer and send it to Italy! Trying to get people to start planning, even at this level, is hard. I think everyone is scared on some level and one way to deal with it is denial.
I guess I can understand, after you have been told for years that we are the richest country in the world, it is hard to imagine environmental and economic collapse. But I work in financial services and I see a lot of info there and on the blogs that makes me worry. I think we are in for a rough ride.
That was a wonderful quote and so very very true. I am very glad that via the Internet we do find each other and perhaps can help one another. I don’t want to watch the US end with a whimper.
Great thoughts to think of. I do intend to do something around my neighborhood to creat such a manner to grow food for ourselves.
I have been thinking of this for sometime, lately. What I fear will come to pass will not be nice.
Thanks for your thoughts. And welcome to this site once again.
These are uncertain times aren’t they? Almost frightening really. On top of the daily worries we all have about our jobs, our homes, and all the unpleasant what ifs, the thing that creates the biggest sense of foreboding for me is how my kids are ever going to make it in the future, and worse than that, I feel a panic, not quite, but almost, that I won’t be around to help them. I realize that much of that is what all parents go through when coming to grips with truly letting go of them, but it’s more than that. I see what’s happening and the outcome doesn’t look real good to me either. What kind of world will my kids be struggling in? Terrorism of the nuclear kind? Un-ending wars? Unaffordable energy and housing. Low paying jobs. High food prices. Dwindling or non-existant health care. Global warming. Man…..the list goes on and on. And how should I prepare them for this when I’m not even sure how to prepare myself?
Another thing that’s disturbing is the complete lack of awareness of these possibilities by the vast majority of people, not counting those in denial. I fear, like you, that we are in for a rough time of it. No wonder I don’t sleep well that much anymore.
Yes, I have two grandsons, 15 and 11, for whom I fear. Not only the wars that may come, but the difficult world they will face. They are being brought up by intelligent and caring parents, but I do not think my daughter and son-in-law have yet wanted to realize the hard world their sons may face. We have not discussed it. Maybe the time is coming.
I have a son in college and one in high school and I know exactly what you mean. I’ve had several talks to them along the lines of “Be ready, you may even have to emigrate at some time in your life to get by.”
We have lived at a very unique time in history. There are many obvious ways things can get worse. There are some ways they might get better, but they depend in part on discoveries (e.g. alternative energy sources) that may not have been made yet, and so cannot be predicted. So I do not give up hope, as long as in some corner of the world there are good schools, and scientists and engineers at work on the problems we face.