And the guest blogger is....PP!!! Ok, not really so much a guest (more like badgered until he agreed to write something). I'm pretty psyched to have him write something though, he is far more eloquent about the issues that we face in the coming years:
Garden Carp has mentioned a few times that we’re both concerned about peak oil, climate change and other systemic environmental crises that our society will be facing in the coming decades (barring some sort of miracle, which I’m not holding my breath for). We’re both very committed to facing the challenges mentioned, and an important part of that is trying build up our resilience. By resilience, I mean that we are trying to increase our capacity to adapt to and mitigate (if not overcome) the challenges that are facing our society. This means reducing our environmental footprint and reliance on diminishing energy sources (before we are forced to by circumstance) and trying to support individuals, communities and companies that share the same goals. By doing so, we aim to build not only our own resilience but also that of our communities, cities and countries.
On an individual level, our largest goal is that we want to buy a house (and get it paid off as quickly as possible). With home ownership comes a degree of security that you just can’t get by renting, especially in Australia. Moreover, many things we want to pursue require long term investments. Often it feels like there is no point in spending huge amounts of time, effort (and let’s face it, quite a bit of money) building soil fertility in the garden, trying to make your home more energy efficient and loading up with all sorts so gear for those home projects (whether it’s home brewing kit or a honey extractor) if you have to keep moving around to suit the whims of your landlords.
As a consequence, we are saving as hard as we can to be able to afford a house, but it’s still a while away. In the meantime, I have to resist the tendency to just write the above things off as too hard, or not worth doing until we buy. It’s easy to think about all the things we’d love to do in the future once we do own a house and dream about how perfect our lives will be once that has been accomplished. But if we don’t start trying to build these skills and knowledge now, while we have the money and opportunity to do so then the dream could remain just that. If we put everything off until we own a place we would be falling into the trap that is hardwired into most people of our generation – that life will be perfect once we’ve purchased just one more thing.
It’s not hard to spot this sort of ‘doomer’ consumerism popping up all over sites relating to peak oil and climate change. ‘Everything will be ok once you’ve got your hybrid car/solar passive house/stock of dehrydrated food’. Frankly, it’s an easy attitude to fall into. Let’s face it, most of the people who are concerned about these issues are not (yet) living on the poverty line. We’re middle class, educated, and at least reasonably affluent. It is hard to break the habit of a lifetime of consumerism. But more important than simple consumerism is the overarching assumption of our culture – that we can remedy any failures and inadequacies we may have as humans with the acquisition of material goods. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past, how much your own actions and choices have impacted on the planet or on others, or how you’ve allowed your own physical and mental potential to atrophy for the sake of convenience, as long as you buy our products (whatever they happen to be) now. It’s the 21st century equivalent of buying indulgences.
Ultimately, this is the temptation we have to resist. You can’t purchase resiliency. Money certainly helps, but without the skills and physical and psychological preparedness, it’s not much use. There’s no better way to prepare for possibly being unemployed than learning to be frugal now. If the price of oil spikes, it’s a lot easier to take up cycling if you’re already in good shape. In short, use the time you have to practice and develop these skills before you have to rely on them.
So, as Garden Carp said, we’re left with just trying as hard as we can. Trying to save money for the future, and make the most of time and opportunities that we have in the present.
The Garden look great
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