It was a projected look at how people, in particular in the USA, would survive from Day 1 - 12 months at the time oil ran out. It was obviously quite dramatized and I have not checked all the data but it did make me think.
The major impact of the first few months without oil was around transporting food and air travel. They anticpiated food riots over much of the country and severe rationing in urban centres as food just could not get in to the cities from farms.
Also as air travel would be stopped, people would have to start looking for local foods and learning to make do with what can be grown within their country or state.
So there I sit (knitting needles poised halfway through a stitch) and I am thinking : "What are you waiting for?"
Is it human nature to wait for the crisis before responding? Do we have to get to the stage of being starving and rioting for food before we actually re-educate ourselves on how to grow our own food? Do we need to wait until our families are shivering from cold before we teach ourselves to sew, knit or just learn the basic survival skills for simple living? Do we need to ship food across the country or world just to satisfy tastebuds when we could wait 3 months until that fruit/veg comes into season again?
Towards the end of the program they showed 1 year after oil...and guess what they foresee people doing? Moving to the country, hunting, fishing, foraging and growing their own food and raising small meat animals. Even in the cities people have pulled up lawns and made place for vegetables. They are growing lots in season and canning for winter...
Realistically I do not believe that our little 900sq meters of land (3/4 covered with house) would ever sustain our family of 6, but I am not too concerned with that as I do believe in a Father God who cares for us and prepares us to face all sorts of challenges before we need to so that we are equipped. But I am still thinking - why wait?
Why wait before you grow a veggie patch, buy in bulk in season and can for later, learn to make do with what you have or to start using leg power instead of car power?
To all who made it to the end of this post, thanks for reading, and I will now step off my soapbox! Have a great week, and remember - don't wait!
7 comments:
Great sentiment. I too similarly blogged this week with "Eat 100-Local Eating for Global Change" http://suburbanjubilee.blogspot.com/2010/06/eating-100.html
If we wait it will be too late
Hi Wendy
Just want to say: Amen!!!!
Please stay on top of your soapbox.
Have a blessed week!
I generally don't make political comments on blogs, but this one begs to be answered from this side of the pond. The BBC is terribly left leaning and dramatizes to the point of the ridiculous. I'm sorry to put a damper on what you saw, but in addition to more than 30 years as Certified Public Accountant to hundreds of small businesses and being Adjunct Professor of Accounting to thousands of students thus seeing business from real life and academics. I have traveled extensively all my life and for the past 12 years I have traveled the world 6 months of every year. I am a student of politics, both in the USA and abroad. I watch BBC and CNN overseas and see their slant.
Please don't judge the USA through the eyes of the BBC. We need changes in the USA, but the first have to be to replace the current politicians who are working on changing us into a dependent socialistic state against the will of the people from the capitalist system that has given us freedom and prosperity. Given freedom and capitalism, we can solve our problems, including moving beyond oil. Just watch the November elections and you will see us replace the hard left who are running for re-election in the House of Representatives and Senate. In 2012, we will have the opportunity to replace the person in the White House. He leans even further Left than Carter and it is forecast he will also be a one-term president
This is all written with great respect. We need to have a good discussion on these issues without heated arguments.
I do agree that to the extent we possibly can, we should grow our own food and be as self sufficient as possible. That is exactly the way the USA pioneers built this country. We need to get back to basics of the founders, but not through government regulation and control. Freedom is not free and now is the time we have to fight for it once again - this time within our own borders.
Very best,
Lois
Lois, I am sorry if I have touched a nerve with my post. Perhaps I was not clear enough in saying: "Why do we have to wait for something like..." fill in the blank with "oil crisis" "deforestation" "cancer from pesticides and additives" etc before we start making a change to the way we live?
I would never judge any people group by what I see on CNN or BBC, it was just the tool that happened to procoke thought.
I know too many woman in the USA
that are also pursuing a simple green lifestyle and making a difference in the sphere of influence to accept any blanket statements from a dramatized TV program.
I do hope this makes my "challenge" clearer.
Thank you, Wendy. I appreciate your response and I also really enjoy your blog so very much. I admire you for home schooling and all that you do to live a self-sustaining life style.
Warm hugs,
Lois
Lois...WOW! I have never seen anyone trot out their pedigree to make a comment on a simple living blog. Who are you trying to validate your comments to? Us or yourself? You completely misconstrued and misused the post. In the very first paragraph of the post Wendy had all the appropriate disclaimers in place about what had got her thought process rolling. By paragraph four you have started going on about government regulations and true freedoms??? This was a simple post for people at grass roots level to make their own decisions about returning to a simpler life.
I won't trot out my pedigree but suffice it enough to say "I am a student of politics" and if you think your government in any form is running your country you are kidding yourself. The giant pharmaceutical and petrochemical companies have had America by the short and curlies for more years than you've been alive. If my government boldly moved to ensure adequate medical care for all then I think I would welcome that left leaning....oh wait, my government already does!
Wendy,
I just want you to know I took your post just the way I think you intended for us to. I too take an active lifestyle in making change in any part of the world easier for my family. We have our own small homestead. We strive continually to become more self sufficient. Good luck with this one.
Melissa
www.kidsandcanningjars.blogspot.com
www.thesavingsqueen.blogspot.com
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