Archive for the 'Civilization' Category

The Long Emergency

Published
by
Brian
on October 3, 2007
in Books, Civilization, Culture and Sustainability
. 1 Comment

So, I just (finally) finished The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler. Let me start this off by saying that I have a big interest in reading about civilization and ecology and politics and industrialization and sustainability (and other related, converging topics). Much of the non-fiction that I read falls into a category focusing on the rise (and future fall?) of our now-globalized, industrialized civilization. Authors like Daniel Quinn, Thom Hartmann, and Derrick Jensen all fall into this genre of writing.

So. Onto the book. The Long Emergency deals with the issue of peak oil and the global energy crisis, especially the not-too-distant energy problems the US will soon encounter. As you may or may not know (or may or may not fully accept), the US (and the rest of industrialized civilization) is totally dependent on cheap energy, especially in the form of oil (and its byproducts). Again, as you may or may not know, oil is a finite, nonrenewable resource. That means the end to supplies is coming at some point. As Kunstler (and many other authors, scientists, etc.) claims, the end of cheap oil is near.

There’s this little theory called peak oil that claims that oil production increases until it reaches a maximum plateau (or peak), after which production will terminally decline, never to increase again. Now, this oil peak poses many problems. Once production decreases, supplies decrease, and prices skyrocket. Can you imagine paying $5, $10, or $15 per gallon of gas? We may not be so far off.

Many scientists claim that we are at that peak, or are very quickly approaching it. (The global oil peak, that is; the US surpassed its peak back in 1972, for example). This poses serious problems for the world at large.

Everything we do depends on oil. Everything. It’s not just transportation, it’s manufacturing, food production, each and every facet of everyday modern life. Without oil, we cannot drive to the food store to pick up our groceries. Without oil, there would be no groceries shipped from across the globe to our store shelves. Without oil, industrial agriculture, with its dependence on petroleum-derived fertilizers and petro-powered farm machinery would cease to exist.

What about alternatives to oil? Unfortunately, there is no alternative source of energy that can replace the sheer power of oil. Many of the “alternatives” frequently touted in the media would never make it themselves without oil. Many alternatives require huge inputs of energy to produce, like ethanol, and even solar and wind power. (Just think: solar panel manufacturing requires the energy of oil.)

Without getting too far into this peak oil stuff (there’s plenty out there on the subject), I will just say that The Long Emergency does a fine job painting a very realistic picture of the US, post-oil. And Kunstler does a good job detailing how the US will deal with sudden energy starvation, and in particular, his in-depth look at how each region of the US will fare without cheap energy is especially enlightening. (The US southwest could never be inhabited without the energy of huge inputs of oil, for example.)

We are facing a bumpy future, and this book does a commendable job of detailing all of the different factors involved in how we came to be so dependent on oil, and how we might (or might not) make it without cheap energy in the days of peak oil and beyond.

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11th Hour

Published
by
Brian
on August 21, 2007
in Civilization, Culture, Environment, Film and Sustainability
. 0 Comments

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Peak ahead

Published
by
Brian
on July 13, 2007
in Civilization, Culture, Environment, Film and Sustainability
. 0 Comments

Escape from Suburbua: Beyond the American Dream is out now. Here’s a synopsis of the film:

…In ESCAPE From SUBURBIA director Greg Greene once again takes us “through the looking glass” on a journey of discovery – a sobering yet vital and ultimately positive exploration of what the second half of the Oil Age has in store for us.

Through personal stories and interviews we examine how declining world oil production has already begun to affect modern life in North America. Expert scientific opinion is balanced with “on the street” portraits from an emerging global movement of citizen’s groups who are confronting the challenges of Peak Oil in extraordinary ways….

What a way to go…

Published
by
Brian
on June 23, 2007
in Civilization, Culture, Current Events, Environment, Film and Sustainability
. 1 Comment

This looks like the film I have been thinking about for a couple of years. I’ve been either wanting to somehow make it myself, or see it made, or whatever. Nevertheless, the documentary, What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire, features a theme and issues that are very important to me and I’ve always wanted to see these topics addressed in the form of a feature film.

There are plenty of books, essays, etc. on topics of civilization, climate crisis, peak oil, population overshoot, etc., and how all of these problems are connected and related to bigger issues. However, there are few films or movies that attempt to draw an overarching picture of this web of social issues that we are faced with as a globalized civilization. But What a Way to Go seems to do just that:

“If film and television have a role to play in our society, if they are capable of helping important social change, if they have a part in the transformation of human society, then T.S. Bennett and Sally Erickson have fulfilled that purpose. What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire is the culmination of the “big social issue documentary” genre of Michael Moore’s films, or An Inconvenient Truth, and particularly of the “using ironic 50’s footage” sub-genre, such as The End of Suburbia. It deals with the same issues, but follows them deeper, all the way to the root of the problem in the Agricultural Revolution. Along the way, it hits all the important points: peak oil, mass extinction, climate change, overshoot, and the stories that keep us on the path to self-destruction.”

Sounds great. It’s a very low budget and independent affair, but I hope it gains some attention. Here’s one of two trailers for the film:

Read a book

Published
by
Brian
on June 3, 2007
in Books, Civilization, Culture, Life and Sustainability
. 1 Comment

Yesterday, I finally finished Volume 2 of Endgame. This book certainly helped to strengthen all of my convictions, if anything. Not only that, but it has helped me to question what I am doing, especially regarding the actions I want to take to make change that I see as important. But instead of getting into that, I’d like to share a list of other books that I have found particularly enlightening, inspirational, motivating, informational, and even life-altering (and yes, depressing, at times, too). I hold many of these books quite dear to me, and they have helped to shape my perspective on the world, civilization, politics, religion, sustainability, and all of that other big stuff:

…Etc.

Where we went wrong

Published
by
Brian
on May 28, 2007
in Civilization, Culture, Uncategorized and Video
. 0 Comments

A short interview snippet with Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael, which was the first most personally inspiring book I have read. Not sure when this was conducted, but there are some good chunks of knowledge in there.

What’s wrong here?

Published
by
Brian
on May 26, 2007
in Civilization, Culture and Photography
. 0 Comments

There will be no flying cars

Published
by
Brian
on May 19, 2007
in Civilization, Culture, Environment and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

I oftentimes wonder what the future will look like. Now that I am older, I know it won’t be filled with flying cars or people living in space, or any of those childish fantasies. In fact, I now wonder when cars will cease to be, never mind when will they take off from the ground.

I like to consider myself a logical-realist-humanist-person (or something like that), and I know that the future will look nothing like it does now. That is to say, I am not very hopeful about where we are headed as a global community. It’s difficult to summon hope and foresee peace and harmony, although I do try to maintain a positive outlook and hope that change will come.

During the past century (in particular), the global population has been increasing at a nearly exponential rate. We’re sitting at six billion with our sights set on nine billion in another forty years. More and more environmental catastrophes have cropped up with the potential to completely alter the natural landscape, and even make the planet unlivable. (Global warming, what?) All of these worldly problems have been the result of civilization, especially industrial civilization, and the destruction and exploitation on which it is built. Humans have been living as part of civilizations since 10,000 years ago, but the overwhelming majority of human life has existed in harmony with the earth before that timespan. Can you visualize this current way of life, civilization, continuing another 500, even 100 years? What will the cities look like then?

I try to avoid being negative, but it’s difficult watching an entire planet support itself on unsustainable practices and technologies, and especially witnessing civilization’s incredible use of finite resources that fuel our entire way of being. (Oil, anyone?) We treat the planet as if it were something to be used and abused, and this is detrimental to our own well-being. You can’t destroy the land on which you expect to live, right? So how can we possibly expect the planet to support us for another millennia if we keep treating the planet the way we do, tearing down forests, scraping the bottoms of the ocean, spraying the land (and the stuff we eat) with toxic chemicals, and pumping the air full of carcinogens? And for what? What’s the point of all of this destruction, really?

As Derrick Jensen says, this culture is “insane”. And I think it’s hard to deny. And I don’t want to take part in the destruction and exploitation that makes this insane civilization-machine run. But it’s damn near impossible to avoid, and it will take a huge cultural shift in our perception and worldview to move beyond civilization, to a more healthy, peaceful, sane, and sustainable social order. Of course it first demands that we change our attitudes about how we view (and use) the planet, and then, change our actions.

When I am older, I at least hope that I can say that I did my part in avoiding a contribution to the toxification and degradation of the planet. That is why I want to live simply, and I want to be self-sufficient, and I want to take part in a culture that values sustainability and cooperation and harmonious living. I want to know that the planet will still be livable in another 500 years. That’s what I am thinking.

Endgame

Published
by
Brian
on May 16, 2007
in Books, Civilization and Environment
. 0 Comments

I finished all 450 pages of Volume 1 of Derrick Jensen’s Endgame a few days ago, and now it’s time to start reading the next 300 pages of Volume 2. I don’t think that the book has necessarily opened my eyes to any new-new ideas (after all, like this Wikipedia entry correctly states: “the books are addressed not to ‘fence-sitters’…”), since I have read similar ideas and concerns in other books by other authors. But it has strengthened these ideas greatly, and it has introduced some new food for thought about subjects I don’t always think about. Jensen is powerful with words.

I think that if you have a particular interest in a certain subject or have a certain vision or worldview (my interest being the somewhat broad subject of civilization and moving beyond this destructive social structure to a more sustainable and peaceful form of social life), it helps to continue reading about these ideas, no matter how ingrained the beliefs may be in your mind.

Anyway, here’s a small (very small) highlight of some of Jensen’s own beliefs and ideas that he presents in Endgame. He starts the book with twenty premises that guide the rest of the book’s claims and ideas. Here are two of them. Food for thought.

“Premise Twelve: There are no rich people in the world, and there are no poor people. There are just people. The rich may have lots of pieces of green paper that many pretend are worth something—or their presumed riches may be even more abstract: numbers on hard drives at banks—and the poor may not. These “rich” claim they own land, and the “poor” are often denied the right to make that same claim. A primary purpose of the police is to enforce the delusions of those with lots of pieces of green paper. Those without the green papers generally buy into these delusions almost as quickly and completely as those with. These delusions carry with them extreme consequences in the real world.”

“Premise Sixteen: The material world is primary. This does not mean that the spirit does not exist, nor that the material world is all there is. It means that spirit mixes with flesh. It means also that real world actions have real world consequences. It means we cannot rely on Jesus, Santa Claus, the Great Mother, or even the Easter Bunny to get us out of this mess. It means this mess really is a mess, and not just the movement of God’s eyebrows. It means we have to face this mess ourselves. It means that for the time we are here on Earth—whether or not we end up somewhere else after we die, and whether we are condemned or privileged to live here—the Earth is the point. It is primary. It is our home. It is everything. It is silly to think or act or be as though this world is not real and primary. It is silly and pathetic to not live our lives as though our lives are real.”

If anything, too, Jensen’s writing is inspiring in that it makes me want to write more. Sometimes I think that everything “has been said already”, but that doesn’t really mean much… That is, I think Jensen’s ideas (and those ideas of like-minded authors, thinkers, activists, etc.) are extremely vital for all of us living in this civilized, globalized society that is causing so many (environmental, social, economic, even physical) aches and pains.

Sustainability

Published
by
Brian
on May 10, 2007
in Civilization, Culture, Environment and Sustainability
. 0 Comments

I want to quote this statement that I read today. It was quoted in Endgame, which I am currently reading.

Here it is. Some food for thought:

“The whole individualist what-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth guilt trip is a myth. We, as individuals, are not creating the crises, and we can’t solve them. Take our crazy energy consumption. For the past 15 years the story has been the same every year: individual consumption – residential, by private car, and so on – is never more than about a quarter of all consumption; the vast majority is commercial, industrial, corporate, by agribusiness and government. So, even if we all took up cycling and wood stoves it would have a negligible impact on energy use, global warming and atmospheric pollution. I mean, sure, go ahead and live a responsible environmental life; recycle, compost, ride a push-bike; but do it because it is the right, moral thing to do – not because it’s going to save the planet.

If we really want to understand why this happened we have to ask ourselves another question: ‘Why is it that we seem willing to live with the threat of apocalypse rather than trying to seriously alter a world where consumption, of anything, is seen as unrelieved virtue, production, of anything, is regarded as a social and economic necessity, and more, of anything (like children or cars or chemicals or PhDs or golf courses or recycling centres), is unquestioningly accepted?’”

(by Kirkpatrick Sale)

Read this in full.

Escape from Suburbia

Published
by
Brian
on March 9, 2007
in Civilization, Current Events, Environment, Film, Sustainability and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Escape from Suburbia: Beyond the American Dream (official site)

New trailer here for the follow-up to End of Suburbia.

Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The END of SUBURBIA explored the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet enters the age of Peak Oil.

Doomsday food vault

Published
by
Brian
on February 9, 2007
in Civilization, Current Events, Environment, Sustainability and Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

“An Arctic “doomsday vault” aimed at providing mankind with food in case of a global catastrophe will be designed to sustain the effects of climate change… The top-security repository, carved into the permafrost of a mountain in the remote Svalbard archipelago near the North Pole, will preserve some three million batches of seeds from all known varieties of the planet’s crops…. Construction on the seed bank, also dubbed the “Noah’s Ark of food”, will begin in March.”

This is insane, frightening, and… well, frightening, yes.