Last Wednesday we finally made the move to the new house in the Hunter region of NSW.
As I detest moving house, I’m feeling elated that the heavy lifting part is over and done with. To celebrate, I took my son out for the morning and together we bought some more fishing gear, updating my humble kit for bream, flathead, tailor, whiting, luderick, snapper and tarwhine. All of which are found in Lake Macquarie, a two-minute walk from the front door.
The motivation for the move as most of you know, is peak oil. In the coming decades, regardless of when and how peak oil unfolds in our practical day-to-day lives, one thing is certain. The abundant, cheap energy paradigm we currently enjoy will change. That means less energy for more people, which translates to relocalisation.
As energy decline due to fossil fuel paucity begins to become apparent, the globalisation experiment will crumble. Many believe this process has already begun. When this occurs, we will witness a long, drawn out ‘shrinking’ of society. The huge international shopping centres will be replaced by local producers so if the mass produced electric car concept fails, those who live far from such producers will find themselves in a less than ideal situation.
The way we work and earn our living will change as well. It’s my belief those who work from home or live close enough to public transport should hold an advantage in the initiate stages of transition. Those who live far away from train stations, for example will have a major problem in the future. If you can’t get to work then you have no income. It’s simple to understand the consequences.
I want to keep this post uncomplicated and practical, concentrating on the key issues. Here’s my current situation, now that I’ve moved. Home is just under two kilometres from the train station. I can walk to the lake and catch fish if the trucks temporarily or permanently stop supplying the supermarkets. Within five kilometres of home, we have a choice of fresh organic fruit and veg produce grown locally on site at a number of farmlets.
In the very near future, we will experience another fuel spike. It’s my guess the price will break through any past resistance and reach levels we would probably think impossible at the moment. Unfortunately, this scenario is imminent due to the complete lack of attention we, as a society have applied to the peak oil problem.
When prices reach $200 or $300 a barrel or even more, the effects will be nothing short of catastrophic. The main area affected by such high fuel prices is transport. In this alone, our ability to get to work as well as obtain our food could be limited severely, thus these crucial areas should be the first one’s to be dealt with in any transition preparation:
*Make sure you’re resilient in earning your income by ensuring you can still get to work.
*Make sure you’re resilient in providing your family with food by ensuring you stockpile at least three months supply and further more, live close to local producers.
If you can manoeuvre your transition preparation in a direction that fulfils the above two points then you’re well on your way to practical resilience in the event of an energy crisis. It’s by no means the complete answer, if that indeed exists in this arena but it’s simple and practical, which translates in the real world to increased adaptivity. You know the old adage about survival of the fittest. Adaptation to the changing environment is key.
Given that something is better than nothing, the above is a great start in beginning your journey of transition. At this point I’d like to add that I’m just a common, ordinary Aussie bloke with a young family. I work a normal job, earn an average wage and am by no means some kind of survivalist Rambo or farmer Joe. To be honest, I have limited camping experience, have been fishing all of about ten times, lived in the suburbs all my life and have only just started learning about permaculture principles.
I’m no Colin Campbell, Richard Heinberg or Rob Hopkins. What I am, though is a person who understands the implications of fossil fuel depletion and is committed to making transition and resilience a way of life for myself and my family.
I often get asked, “What if it doesn’t happen? Isn’t it all just a waste of time?” To which I answer, “What if it does happen? You’ll wish you had wasted your time.” It’s better to be prepared for a probable situation than risk such horrendous consequences if such a probability materialises. Besides, even if it doesn’t materialise, my family will have learnt excellent new skills and in the process enjoyed quality time together camping, growing food, fishing, forming long lasting relationships in our community and developing an overall sustainable outlook on life, getting closer to nature.
Staying on the topic of transport, you can checkout ASPO-Australia and ASPO Sydney’s submissions to the Senate Inquiry into Public Transport at www.aspo-australia.org.au. It’s well worth reading both submissions for a more profound insight into the issue.
On my next post, I’ll share with you the supplies and equipment my family has stockpiled thus far. I’ll include some pics so you can see for yourself what a three month supply looks like.
The AlienWorld website is coming along well and should be ready sometime in June for launch. I will be adding the 10TQ page to the site (10 year Transition Quest), where you will be able to download a quarterly ebook style newsletter complete with pics and videos on our transition preparation for that specific quarter. It will be specific to my family so you can get first hand valuable information and tips on transition and resilience in an entertaining format.
Thanks for stopping by!
Michael
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