One of the most important single tools in answering these questions in my own life is (drum roll) ...the bicycle. With a few calories of food energy a bicycle lets me commute, exercise, and pursue recreation (on occasion simultaneously!). I'll probably never have the money/freedom to truly shuck off participating in consumer/fossil fuel business-as-usual. I don't see alt energy investments, organic farming, gold 'n' guns survivalism or major activism in my future. I do see bicycles and am very thankful for them.

Artist David Byrne's new book Bicycle Diaries is heartening reading along these lines. There are movements everywhere toward car free streets and in favour of serious investment in cycling infrastructure. A good cycling environment does not just stem from a quirk of geography like flat land in Holland or sunny weather in Florida. It stems from serious intentions (political will) and tangible investments. I hope we see much more of both as we ride the fossil fuel draw down.

Below is an article from the Toronto Star about the opening of the first part of a rail trail. This is exactly the type of thing we need to start seeing basically everywhere: bike-centric, local infrastructure adaptation/reuse.

Hume: Trail Breathes Life Into Dead Zone

...the West Toronto Railpath Park, a 2.1-kilometre linear green space that picks up from what were once train tracks. As designed by landscape architect Scott Torrance and architects Kim Storey and James Brown, the $4 million trail/park brings new life to this part of the city and its 250,000 residents.

It will also help reconnect areas that have been isolated for decades. Indeed, the underlying irony of the project lies in the fact that an element that long divided the city will help knit it together.

"It was a dead zone," Torrance explains. "We have opened it up, made it safer and brought it back into the city.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/718429--hume-trail-breathes-life...

I'm giving some thought to your questions between trick-or-treaters

1. Lower throughput activities: I've been learning some of the old-timey skills. Some of them really do improve my life: how else will I get elderberry-summac jelly if I don't make it myself? I made a treadle wood lathe and have been making bowls. It turns out that turning green wood is very satisfying and sensual: a waterfall of warm, moist turnings pour over my arms, and they often sre fragrant as well:) It turns out that my friends love getting a stylish and useful burl bowl as a gift; we're all happy with this one.

2. Moving to the red circle of the Inglehart curve: maybe this one will be easier after the collapse of industrial corporations and the end of television: current advertising is very effective at making people dissastisfied with their current possessions and/or relative status.

3. Good trick: a friend was riding a broom as part of her witch costume. A friend lit it on fire behind her back; we about croaked trying not to laugh until she realized why it was so warm behind her:))

Errol in Miami

My answer to Question 1:

Use my bicycle as much as possible. I am lucky to live in an area with a mild climate and few hills. At home, it is less than a mile to the center of town, so most errands that don't require carrying large loads can be done by bike. Although my workplace is 50 miles away, I can get there using a combination of the bike, bus, train, and light rail. It works better than it sounds, and on a day when traffic is bad (Fridays), it doesn't take much more time. A side benefit is the increase in stamina I have after a year of using the bike as much as possible. I think that being in good physical condition will be an asset in the not too distant future.

nate, thanks for the partly light hearted post. i just finished reading all the comments from the excellent Stoneleigh interview from yesterday. Interesting times before us. Wonder how the commenters find the time. Its fall and the transition from summer to winter gardens is underway and i just can't seem to catch up.

1. Old man, retired for many years, on fixed income, with health issues. Glad it has finally started. Been afraid I wouldn't be around to see the first innings. Hasn't been hard to cut back since i was never a heavy user of petroleum. Heat with wood. cook with wood in winter, etc.. Rarely venture out into the world except to shop for a few staples. hoping for a quick hard crash, because if it is delayed humans will burn every damn blade of grass trying to survive. Worry about my grand kids though. times are going to be tough.

2. Inglehart curve. Been living below the curve for many years. just wondering when old worn out men who refuse to flash the usual fitness capitalistic consumer indicators are going to come in vogue. Don;t know how the adjustment will occur, but i sure as hell don't think it will be from the top down. grass roots are already well established in many areas. the worry is those that are just partying on.

A real pleasure in my life is acoustic music. Learn to play, it's fun and useful. I'd suggest upright bass, mandolin, fiddle, dobro and even accordion, guitar players are a dime a dozen.
I've been playing music for better than 25 years but only started playing old timey stuff about 10 years ago. The folks who took my under their wing(s) had an umbrella group of musicians (The Post Industrial String Band) of about 10, that played most of the contra dances in about a 300 mile radius. A reel low brow hoot.

1) What sort of lower throughput activities are you pursuing in order to improve your life facing general resource decline?

I'm originally from South Africa - my lifestyle there was much lower-throughput than my US lifestyle, so I almost feel like I'm re-aquainting myself with former skills. My mum taught me to knit, sew, crochet, do tapestry-work, and cook from scratch. My dad taught me how to use basic tools - hammer, saw, drill, spirit-level, paintbrush - thank goodness, my old house always needs something - and how to be an entrepreneur. My grandmother knew how to pluck chickens - I can barely recall watching that. Although, I have to say, there's nothing worse than the feel of uncooked chicken skin...

I used to be in Pharmacy, and have a pretty good grounding in both contemporary medicines and herbal remedies. I've always been an avid flower-grower, so to progress into growing food and medicinal herbs wasn't hard, and I know how to prepare creams, tinctures, syrups and lotions by the old methods.

My US detour into high-throughput living was via corporate software consulting and a computer science degree. I left all that behind, to start my own small bookkeeping business.

I figure we're a long ways away from zero taxes...and then, I know how to calculate without a machine. I still remember how to hand-wash, line-dry, ride a bike, paddle a canoe, and connect with neighbors.

I have 3 cats, a dog, a couple of fish in a tank, a worm-bin in the basement and 2 beehives. Miscellaneous other critters live in and around my house...field mice and orb-weavers, to name a couple...

2) How can society move towards the red circle in the Inglehart curve above? Top down decree or bottom up grassroots?

If you mean US society, I'd say top-down will never happen. People don't really understand the difference between real freedoms, rights, and privileges. There will be a lot of yelling about the right to drive, the right to a hamburger 24x7, the right to have the lights on anytime of the day or night.

I suspect, after long observation, circumstances will drive behaviour. Bottom-up grass roots movements will be helpful - I'm trying activism in my neighborhood, but the general level of denial is substantial. I think people will either come and ask me what to do when things get tough, or trash my yard.

I write for the local newsletter - topics include innocuous items such as getting the basement cleaned up, in case of a power outage in the summer, since it's cooler down there (code for energy descent). I'm working on a volunteer weatherization project in the neighborhood this year. Maybe that thought process will get people moving in the right direction. My articles always have a "website of the month" - usually I will include something about energy, food or environment.

3) Any good tricks?
My dog has long fur - she gets a bit matted sometimes, so a very bad trick for her is when I get the muzzle and the shears out at the same time....the treat is a raw turkey neck...

PostScript : I'm learning how to make wine from any fruits handy - not going without that !

I entertain myself for hours by teasing my pets into chasing around the laser pointer light.

hehe... fun...hehe....funny...hehe..oh look!....hehe...funny...get it, catch it....hehe

very low throughputs

#2 - Ground up;

http://viacampesina.org/main_en/

a) we have the power to 'trick' our brains into obtaining meaning and satisfaction in unconventional ways and b) we can 'treat' ourselves to fun, laughter, and joy - even in the face of painful transition.

These are two of the most powerful statements in the article. We CAN get by on much less, and we are able to be happy about it. This shift will be difficult for many who have been lulled into thinking the biggest house, car, TV, etc was the pinnacle of life.

We just came back from playing dominoes at a neighbor's house. Energy consumed; 1 CFL lightbulb.

We can learn to enjoy of the hobbies of gardening and horticulture, walks in the neighborhood, biking to work, school, and shopping (or taking mass transit). We are growing 65 fruit and nut trees (and another 30+ berry bushes) along with a sizeable garden. It is most satisfying to see one's plate brimming with the fruits of one's labor.

Our ancestors led meaningful lives on a fraction of the energy and 'goods' that we consume; are we too cushy and spoiled?

A common admission I'm hearing more frequently now from those who work in this area, is that the amount of time spent reading, writing, thinking, analyzing, conferencing, posting, talking, and synthesizing has taken a toll on the body. It would appear that weight gain, not weight loss, is a risk for those who intend to leverage up their knowledge base and increase their work product. Writers traditionally have expended a ton of mental energy, while sitting. The natural impulse is to replenish with comfort foods. When I go through my next reorganization, I might try to place my office outside my home, about a mile away. Of course, I could always walk in a circle each day for one mile, before and after my office time, somewhat in the manner of marathon man here who walked 26 miles in 75 laps around his Brooklyn block.

Gregor

I walk out of my house, walk through Muir Woods, and then on to Stinson Beach. The coho salmon will hopefully show up soon in Redwood Creek, and the mushrooms are already out.
I can take the Stagecoach back home for 2 dollars, or continue walking if I have time.

It was a life changing event attending the ASPO conference with Gail the Actuary, Engineer-Poet, and Jules Bern. Thanks to each of you for your wonderful companionship and inspiration.

Sorry I didn't get to spend any time with you Nate. Thanks for your wonderful posts. There are so many good souls on this site.

Bicycles are in, Baby! My work requires to get over two Rocky Mountain passes almost every week, through sun and snow. We just had a great snowstorm.....3-4 feet on dome areas. My back yard got 14" in 24 hours. When this happened for a few days in a row a while back, I got to the grocery store to find all the shelves empty. No food was scary. I have a small 2-week supply of food in the basement after that experience.

CAMPFIRE QUESTIONS

1) What sort of lower throughput activities are you pursuing in order to improve your life facing general resource decline?

I'm insulating the garage so my neighborhood friends have a nice and comfortable poker setup through the winter. With 250 employees around the state, I'm using Skype technology to reduce travel. There's a baike just waiting for me on Craiglist.

2) How can society move towards the red circle in the Inglehart curve above? Top down decree or bottom up grassroots?

It's a more interesting question after a little deliberation. It may have to be top down, i.e., rationing, tax incentives, punitive measures for over consumption, Big Brother, etc. Although an optimist by birth, I just don't see much signs of hope at street level.

3) Any good tricks?

Love and compassion are the best tricks. Music, dance, drawing and other creative arts.....adaptibility, attitude and appreciation are alliterative favorites.

Well, I spent the majority of Saturday working at Cross-purposes. Determined to build an Electric Cart to be a Tiny Float for my Daughter and I in the neighborhoods Halloween Parade, I was also refining my ideas for a small carryall wagon that might serve as a Pedal/Electric Vehicle (or S.U.B., Sport-Utility Bicycle) to assist me in my local Handiwork Business and other errands.

In a nod to TOTONIELA's Strategic Wheelbarrow Reserve, the recycled parts that go into my 'Lego-Erector Set Format' Carts include a Wheelbarrow wheel up front, and two Kid's bike wheels at the back. All are built into Plywood Housings with 3/8" mounting holes that can be easily attached to simple frames, and these wheels have been used this way for some 3 years now. They smoothly carry hefty loads around town, and in all sorts of weather. When carrying bulky video gear to gigs, these carts can roll right inside to a location, into elevators, etc.. so multiple bags, stands and etc's need only be loaded and handled once at each end of the process.

Since the project was thoroughly last-minute anyway, the Electric Motor and Wheel I got from a Razor Scooter proved too floppy for steering the Trike with the framing I had allowed, and I reworked the whole concept in the last 15 minutes with the unpowered wheel and I propelled the cart Fred-Flintstone Style and later as a plain Wagon when my Quads were used up.. Still, with the two girls who joined my little Chipmunk (The costume plan moved through several mammals..) these quality Wheels make for a very clean ride, and one is quickly reminded of just how much a work advantage is gained simply from Ball-bearings, Spokes and Inflatable tires.

The pedals and electric are coming.. but this Human Powered Vehicle was a great success! (The sparkly, battery-powered LED string and the Skull up on the prow did a lot to win acceptance by my fellow travellers.)

(PS - Other very helpful RECYCLED materials for such Adult- Erector Set fun includes a bunch of Iron Pipe and Fittings for framing and axles, etc.. these were all removed from my homes old Gas-lines. Quality stuff.. they don't use as much of the good pipe nowadays. ALSO, try to get a good collection of RAILING fittings, like Kee-Klamp or SpeedRail, NuRail fittings.. you can structure ANYTHING with these!!)

The realization that we have borrowed so much from the future

Where on earth does all this 'borrowing from the future' nonsense come from? We borrow from each other - anyone who doubts that should try not repaying their creditors and instead claim it's the future they owe their debts to. Sure, our ability to repay will depend on our future earnings which may prove insufficient but it will be existing creditors that suffer not 'the future'.

Excess debt is really another expression of excess imbalance and this is addressed by default of one type or another. I'm sure it will be excacerbated by resource depletion but it has also happened plenty of times in the past for other reasons and should not be confused with the overall threat posed by peak oil.

The consequences of declining cheap energy is hard enough to get ones head around without imagining the need to pay back some mysterious 'future' as well!

TW

Hi, this will be my first comment after reading for 12 months. Thanks everyone for the great education!

1. I am helping to revive the local C.W.A.(Country Womens Association) that my grandmother helped found. We are starting a local market in three weeks to help locals sell to each other and tourists, and bring in some extra money. Of course we are subtly promoting transition town type things and gardening etc!

I also started to plant fruit and nut trees 20 years ago and am practicing with raised bed gardens for the veges. Also I have a chook run and vege gardens attached with the beginnings of a food forest started beside that. I would rather be working on this than leisure seeking in the town. There is so much satisfaction in growing your own. I encourage anyone to try it whenever I get a chance!

2. I think that grass roots is the way to go because I cant see any govt making the hard rules until it is too late. Grass roots in your local community is the tried and true way it has always been done throughout history. Doing favours for neighbours now will build the relationships needed in hard times of any sort.

3. I dont come over strongly or pick an arguement with friends about the so called fall of civilisation (although it has always worried me as a possibility) but I find other ways to make it happen anyway such as using the C.W.A. to achieve the same results ie. a market in my town. We have to go gently with people who have known us since birth as relationships are very important.

I hate trick or treat. We organised a 'ghost hunt' for ours kids and a neighbour's kids through a local wood. Walking back from the wood, every front door we passed opened and the kids were bombarded with sweets (candy). It took three hours longer than usual to get my six year old daughter to stop climbing the walls and go to sleep.

http://graphoilogy.blogspot.com/2009/03/we-had-everything-but-money-sugg...

This is my summary of "We had everything but money," a series of first person accounts of the Thirties in the US. The book is available again from the Country Store website. I think that it would serve as a pretty good handbook for the Greater Depression.

It's interesting to see how Peak Oilers versus "normal people" view the book. Jim Kunster and Bart, of the Energy Bulletin, both thought that the book was optimistic, while my daughter didn't want to read it because she thought it too depressing (although I think she had a different point of view after attending ASPO this year).

We went trick-or-treating through the neighborhood last night, with several home-made costumes (part of the fun was gluing rubber snakes to a hairband for my daughter's Medusa outfit) with my kids and some of their friends. It was the highlight of my week, better than anything store-bought. It was also nice to uphold the tradition of going through neighborhoods instead of going to a mall or megachurch halloween (those alternatives seem to appeal to people who are paranoid about their kids).

I also like the comment upthread about music making at home. Listening to old recordings of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and Doc Watson, I realize how music wasn't a commodity in their community - it was part of the culture, and a way to enrich life.

Color me fascinated by the human mind. My own case as example:

Humble beginnings. No material wealth to speak of. Much GRATITUDE.
Then I took on debt and a comfortable job and increased 'ownership' of things. Decline in GRATITUDE.
Learned of PO. Quit job, divested of things (SCARY), went to work on small organic farms. Introduced to my attachment to things and self/ego. Increase in GRATITUDE.
BAM! Serious auto accident. Nearly bought the farm. Psychological reset button pushed. PEAK GRATITUDE.

Received settlement, not materially wealthy by today's standards but had money in the bank for the first time. Then a strange thing happened: I wanted more. STEEP DECLINE in GRATITUDE

Today. Gaining insight into my own psyche (with continued practice) and its many 'tricks'. Learning that "One who has enough is truly rich." Increasing GRATITUDE.

Well, my Campfire essay, A Trip to Todd's, pretty much says what I've been doing for years and years. But, what motivates me is the serenity of my life.

Take this morning; the fog is in the valleys below our mountaintop and it is perfectly silent outside. After breakfast I'll, too, bake bread (although I make whole wheat/oatmeal bread). Then I'll pump the water storage tank for our tenant. After that I'll work some more on next year's firewood. After lunch I'll go down to the garden and pick raspberries and strawberries.

Then I'll take a break and decide what to do next. Maybe rake the leaves off the patio or wash my wife's car. But, during all of this it will be serene with no intrusions from society at large. This keeps me going.

When I was first out of college and starting my career I spent a lot of time in or around major cities such as Cleveland, NYC, Philadelphia, SF and did all the usual city stuff but found it mostly to be a way to kill time. In the boondocks my time is spent on meaningful things that make my life here possible.

Todd

1) What sort of lower throughput activities are you pursuing in order to improve your life facing general resource decline?

I have done much the same that others have. Got myself out of debt. Moved to a smaller city (118k pop as opposed to 9 million). Grow my own fruit and veg in two gardens. Keep chickens. Go foraging (swapped chestnuts with my neighbour the otherday who went foraging for walnuts). Bought a bakfiets (boxbike) This is already proving handy transporting the kids around and for shopping trips. Make bread and mead.

2) How can society move towards the red circle in the Inglehart curve above? Top down decree or bottom up grassroots?

Transitions towns initiatives and similar ideas will help. Copenhagen might help. We're not going to make it to the red circle though.

3) Any good tricks?

Laugh at everything. I Laugh at the obsurdity of our situation. If I didnt I would probably be in the nut house by now.

1) What sort of lower throughput activities are you pursuing in order to improve your life facing general resource decline?

Reducing links/dependency on the money economy; removing the middleman and collapsing the supply chain; investing in social capital and partnerships; using good-enough tech; simplifying, economising and reducing; monopolising where possible.

2) How can society move towards the red circle in the Inglehart curve above? Top down decree or bottom up grassroots?

Do the same as I'm doing. It has to be grassroots, the Top will not decree their own demise.

It's curious how we leave gaps in modeling the problem, as (quoting from the plost):

"The main problems are not technology or BTUs but a misguided faith in a financial/economic system that will require at least 20 years for a viable lower energy quality/quantity transition and that must continually grow to keep society stable en masse."

The out of place phrase that to me suggests a "lack of imagination" as the problem rather than "misguided faith" is "must continually grow to keep society stable". I think people would have surely acted end our economic system's ever multiplying contradictions long ago, had it been evident how to do that. So, in that way, I see the problem as what we assume to be "fixed" that prevents us from discovering a better way to approach limits than by collapsing our environment...

Then there's the following sentence:

"Despite [the] micro-economic mantra that human agents are rational actors, the body of research is growing suggesting we are adaptation executors, in effect interacting with our cultural cues to perform activities that give us the cocktail of neurotransmitters that caused our ancestors to successfully be our ancestors. Ergo, we don't run around trying to increase the survival of our genes- but we respond to available cultural stimuli that pull us in the direction of matching historically parallel behaviors."

I think there's a much simpler word for that. That human agents are not "rational actors" simply means they don't seem to follow the preset rules like scientific equations represent us as doing, but evidently make up our own rules as we go. What we're discovering, oddly at long last, seems to be that human beings, and lots of other things in a self-animating world, are not controlled by mechanistic rules as science has always assumed. The simpler word for it than: "in effect interacting with our cultural cues to perform activities that give us [our] cocktail of neurotransmitters" and "respond to available cultural stimuli that pull us in the direction of matching historically parallel behaviors", is "learning".

There's no living thing you can find that isn't spending most of its energy exploring and responding to its environment, after all, foraging and dodging in the animal world, opening and closing pores and things in the plant world. The growth of living things is also clearly a physical "learning" process in being where the structures of organisms comes from, a kind of active local environmental learning itself. Who would guess that actively learning what to do with their environments might be part of what causes humans to do the very odd things we do, the accumulative development of our societies, businesses and economies, as well as our dashing around in strangely unpredictable ways in living our personal lives.

I think the idea that all of this, all of nature, follows abstract rules from afar is the rule that is completely falling apart these days. When you closely watch how individual events develop, continuity of development rules, but the path follows new rules each time. The idea that things are controlled by the rules we make that may later satisfy us for them in our stories, seems more like a fantasy we are attached to.

Because all complex systems have to develop locally, rules from the past is not what is ever actually happening. So it would seem it's "reality" in nature is as another one of mankind's notable constructs of "magical thinking".

One almost has to ask, then, are fantasy attachments, to the unreal delights of human mannerisms, theatrics, and manias, the bane of our existence or the purpose of our existence?? Our whole cultural world, a private universe, is made of them it seems. The cultural realities we use to organize our experience nature and each other appear rather detached from the physical realities in so many ways, it appears to be for our convenience.

Not learning about those detachments, though, also seems to result in some inconvenience too... Perhaps we need to be constantly learning about both.

2) How can society move towards the red circle in the Inglehart curve above? Top down decree or bottom up grassroots?

The best way to answer that question is: What are we doing that the societies in that red circle are not? (Or conversely, what are they doing that we are not?)

The first and most obvious thing: We have a lot more automobiles and drive them a lot more. A society operating within that red circle simply doesn't have so many cars, and those that exist are not driven around nearly so much. What happens instead is that people walk, or ride bikes, or catch mass transport (which is just a likely to be a bus or a boat as it is a train), or just stay near home and don't go hither and yon so much. Make that one big change and you are already most of the way there.

The second obvious thing: Less stuff, and smaller housing space per person to put the stuff in.

The third obvious thing: Less government and military overhead. None of the societies that are presently in or close to that red circle are faced with "imperial overstretch". The only way a nation can get to that red circle and stay there is if they have a government that just keeps its focus on the most important things, and keeps itself smallish and frugal.

The fourth obvious thing: Less waste. This is partly a consequence of less stuff, but goes beyond that. I am not just talking about trash, but of not wasting resources of all types. An example of what I mean: in a society where people are poorer, whatever they do buy had better be built to last. This thing of buying shoddy, unrepairable junk that has to be replaced every few years just doesn't fit inside the red circle.

Workers and friends -

I have discovered, during my recent resuscitation, the plant known as marijuana. Had I only known of its medicinal benefits during my times with Big Bill and the rest of the gangs. My Lord, how much easier my life would have been. How much less stressful. And so, it is through smoking copious amounts of pot that I've reduced my overall impact greatly. No longer do I find it necessary to leave the house, consuming fuel in the process. I consume less of everything, save for a slight increase in products laden with carbohydrates, and find my personal happiness to be very 'red circle'.

Strength to your swords arms,

E.D.

Nothing I'm doing yet, but the various wack-job radio (aka podcasts) claim that http://www.psych-k.com/ is beneficial.

So I'll shlep down to the library and see if I can get access to these books.

Really enjoyed the trick or treat piece. 1/2 way through reading The Sustainability Mirage by John Foster which takes trick or treat even further. See http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=26731 for more info.

1)Thinking Thinking Thinking for alternatives atm. It uses roughly 400 calories a day(my brains) what would be the eroei of that? The eroei of our world was always slightly positive, the big differance now is that it became slightly negative. The only real problem is: our monetary system isn't designed for that.

2) By pointing out a positive route.
Telling people that the rest of their lives will be miserable isn't the best way to get their attention. They act by sticking their heads in the sand. Because the sytem we have in place, pushes them to work more and harder to keep their present day live going. Stopping for them means loosing it all. So they ignore it.
A savety net that prevents that toshed out people will loose it all, can keep these people available for a positive relaunch.

Transforming/remoddeling our monetary system worldwide (because it is worldwide) is in my opinion the only way to break the downward spiral we have entered. This is the base on which we should focus. The monetary system's homebase is in america so the change in our behavior must start in the western world. The rest can make up their own mind.

Our indoctrinations machines can be used for this.

The savety net and the "new system" could be based on the same.

Some sort of digital system that acts like money (duh) but has it's base from a one person view. Everybody is entitled to food/shelter/clothing. The new economy can be based on labor/goods/craftmanship/clever thinking on the local scale. This gives people the opportunity to get more than the basics the new system provides. A yearly reset can prevent that to much ends up in one place. Encouragement to be as energy conserving as possible must be build in the new system.

The biggest machine ever(our present day world) must be kept alive by al means necessary, and slowly winding it down can free up enough energy to make the necessary changes. The new economy can gradually take over from the old one.

In short: The system dictates us what to do => We take control and use it for the best possible outcome.

3)Sticking our heads in the sand and wait it out. (when things go wrong and millions and millions of people start scavaging (hunter/gatherer thing) the lottery will have few winners)

4) Positive thinking can get us their because our species needs a positive view to survive. That's when we thrive.

1) Personally, so far as energy is concerned, I turned off the gas boiler and switched to a 'green' electricity supplier late last winter and installed a woodburning stove for heating and hot water this summer, so in theory my home consumes no fossil fuels. (This is resilience, and I think it's where Nate is coming from when he talks about action for self rather than to "save the planet") All I wish for now is find a local landowner who will accept my labour in helping to manage/develop woodland in exchange for firewood to complete the carbon cycle. (note for those outside the UK: we still use the feudal system over here, you know: peasants & landowners). Chickens & veg in the garden. Some rainwater collection. Lots & lots of stuff heading in the general direction of folk like oldfarmermac but I don't have access to much land & can't seem to go fast enough.

2) Topdown? I think the chance to move the market in the right direction (via TEQs or something like them) may finally be lost at Copenhagen in December, so it is left to grassroots. The required cultural shift that I sense is underway ("Muddling toward Frugality" to use Warren Johnson's phrase) may be slow-spreading. I think what many of us fear is the impact on those who have not anticipated the descent when TSHTF, and the resulting social problems which I guess will be worse the steeper the decline. Other phrases like "Voluntary Simplicity" come to mind as I manoeuvre my own life to somewhere near the red circle. All we can do is help spread the message I guess, have faith in the better side of human nature, and hope for the best.

3) Mutual credit systems for local economies?

It has been a little more relaxed in our household since I stopped explaining my actions in terms of powering down and preparing for major societal and economic changes, and began using as my reason, "because this is so cool and so fun."

So, the bicycle (which I have been slow to use much, so far), is fun, playing the autoharp is fun, drying clothes on the line outside is fun, as is learning how to grow and preserve food, making more compost piles, foraging for herbs and food, learning how to spin and crochet, and getting to know more people in town.

I am currently building "little Fort Knox" so that I may, Lord willing, get some runner ducks in the spring, because they are so cool and so fun (oh, and by the way, they eat slugs, make eggs and fertilizer).

Good post, Nate!