Post Carbon in Eugene

I've been thinking about change stress, as I'm in it right now as the traveling mcnalan becomes the sort of stationary alan who works and commutes. There has been internet connectivity problems, but they are minor. Yet I'm disrupted. So TJ so I ran out some ideas of stress during change while drinking coffee this morning.
Everything that I do is some variety of reoccurring process. From checking email first thing, making sure web work obligations are met for my clients, checking my blood, shooting insulin, dumping grey water, checking batteries, keeping the cell phone charged - all are a wheel that turns every day, minimum efforts that must be paid in to keep this level of my technology alive.

So yesterday the wireless connection broke and that caused a cascade of events that culminated with me in town without my insulin, thus unable to eat carbo, however I did, (bad dog), and thus my blood sugar numbers went high, which besides destructive to my body, cause emotional irritation too. So the smallest break of my technology and I was rendered "crisis useless." I was not in any place to think creatively and it was all I could do to get the things done on my list.

So in real change, like closed gas stations and fuel too expensive or unavailable for me to get to work, all will require big adjustments. I can hardly stand a small adjustment. Maybe we all have a tendency to judge our ability to handle the normal stresses of daily life based on how we feel when we have most things caught up and are poised for more problems and opportunities. However I don't think in any societal change that I will likely be in that mental place. More than likely I will be a mental basket case. So one of the skills I need to work on, to allow, to develop, is flexibility when everything is not working, where I can't communicate, where I can't hear and learn in my preferred way (internet), where I might not know where my friends and loved ones are, or if they are alright. And in that emotional cloud I have to make gentle, loving, sound decisions for myself. I've got a lot to work on.

Gary has been posting some tough to talk about personal observations. Check out the Pill linked on the right, perhaps there is something there that will have meaning for you too.

Here are the minutes from the last Post Carbon workshop in Eugene. I post this to give you and idea of the disparate views and concerns of people about Peak oil and our uncertain future from their minds and hearts. I'm looking forward to meeting all of them.

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AFTERNOON SESSION--PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS; everyone in the room
contributed


PROBLEMS--LONG RANGE AND IMMEDIATE


--25% of US oil directed to producing food and fiber (f&f)
--imported natural gas used for synthetic fertilizer production
--inevitable fossil fuel depletion
-- more likely- spasmodic interruptions of fuel occurring soon
--food commonly viewed as a commodity, profane not sacred
--local farmers markets not year-round, 7 days/week
--population growth/urbanization destroys farmland while increasing
need for f&f.
--climate change leading to water loss and emerging diseases
--antibiotic resistance in humans caused by overuse in livestock
production
--arable soil destruction thlrough urbanization & desertification
--public health problems from widespread pesticide and fertilizer use
--crab bucket society; less fortunate out of luck, ignored
--stigma of farm work
--junk food cheaper than good food
--apathy of population oblivious to problems and consequences
--food needs labor to produce, process
--people live in cities, removed from production & processing f&f
--popular mindsets- assumptions, framing and metaphors
--transportation energy (food miles)
--children eat poorly, especially if poor
--emergency preparedness and response lacking
--lack of f&f = biggest Homeland Security problem
--nutritional content of food poor, declining
--food & fiber production involves violent/hostile interaction with
nature
--farm housing inadequate-people kept off land by laws
--economy based on exploitation of nature
--spiritual disconnect - people and nature
--GNP concept fundamentally opposed to sustainability
--industrial model of thinking overwhelms smart advances with
bureaucracy
--no commons, no popular understanding of commons concepts
--water quality deteriorating due to f&f production, urban uses
--land use laws favor urbanization, keep ag people off ag land


SOLUTIONS
--gardens in yards, rooftops, ect.
--land ownership changes to bring people to country living
--reframe metaphors, reality-study George Lakoff
--everything doesn't have to be sold-food too important to be a
commodity
--reduce useless work in society
--growing food and fiber = meaningful work
--depaving
--food not lawns
--pedal express
--SF and Portland Peak Oil Resolutions
--economic incentives for learning f&f sustainable production
--organize ourselves on new models-cooperation rather than top-loaded
incorporation
--adopt traditonal meeting methods of Quakers for democratic answers
--increase popular awareness of historical, alternative cultural models
for f&f production
--disaster preparedness critical (Mayan calendar warns poop hits fan
soon)
--must get ready for unknown future
--avoid entrapment of traditional industrial success models (don't
create monsters)
--increase nutrition of food products
--support school gardens, community teaching
--excercise kindness, patience working with f&f production
--problems present opportunities
--involve churches, faith communities
--approach problems with love, compassion and education
--give up "dominion over earth" models
--convert wasted and misallocated land to f&f
--reestablish lost town commons
--teach people how to grow f&f
--city planning to include neighborhood markets
--make local leaders aware of Portland task force report and
reccommendations
--explore new models of group living and growing food together
--support people already moving in right direction
--embrace sudden change concepts
--understand no technological fix will maintain status quo
--understand no gradual curve of declining fossil fuels probable
--understand fuel decline will be spasmodic
--give up delusions
--moral obligation to weaken global economy model
--live outside system
--work to actualize critical mass, reframe issues and change popular
culture
--take responsibilty for personal change
--music, dance, celebration
--everyone stay positive and go within themselves to find what is
theirs to do
--dachas- European model-families live in high density in winter in
urban areas, in warm months live in country on 1-3 acres, producing own
food.
--adopt Gross National Happiness (Bhutan model) vs GNP industrial model
--understand living soil-bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes,
microarthropods, etc
--put soil protection at top of human priorities
--cultivate Biodynamically
--co-production (Japanese) models of urban groups contracting with
farmers
--adopt horticulture therapy as everyone's lifestyle
--understand amino acid content of vegetables(Kapuler and Gurusiddiah)
and grow garden crops for complementary protein balance (CPB)
--develop menus and recipes utilizing CPB
--