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So many people on Facebook, NextDoor, etc. are griping about gas prices right now! Even some politicians are whining. Usually I keep my mouth shut but sometimes lately I respond.

• Supply and demand. People are traveling more because it’s summer. Also, the prices were ultra low for awhile because of the pandemic shutdowns.

• (To people blaming whoever is in office): Forced car ownership from petroleum-reliant street design & development patterns since the post-World War II era is a burden on the working classes, and on the public health of all of us. Design that virtually forces people into car ownership is a decades-old, dysfunctional experiment, for which we cannot foist the blame on any one person or party.

• My favorite way to save on gas is not own a car. When I occasionally rent a car, it doesn’t much matter to me if the price of gas is $4 or $2 or whatever — I actually barely notice. I rent supercompact high-mileage vehicles for the occasional (every few years lately) long trip. And once a year or so, I rent a pickup truck or box truck for a day, and use it to run a bunch of heavy errands such as buying trees or other large plants.

• For a good reality check: Check out gas prices in Europe, Japan, and other places outside the USA.

• I dream of the day when gas prices get so high that people decide they don’t need leafblowers or other noisy fussbudget lawn appliances.

• Nobody owes us artificially cheap fuel, or any other artificially cheap goods (the prices of which completely fail to reflect the environmental, social, and economic damage they cause all over the planet). Wake up America, the revolution will not be petro-subsidized!

This Sunday, July 18, I will be giving a talk, by Zoom, for the First Unitarian Universalist Church of West Volusia (in Deland, FL).

Often, after my talks, I follow up by emailing the organizer a list of the people/references I have mentioned in my talk, so people can explore in greater depth the ideas I have only touched on.

This time I’m trying something different: Post my reference list before the day of the talk, and make it available even to people who are not able to listen in realtime.

My upcoming talk derives ideas and inspiration (and maybe a few direct quotes) from the following sources:

• George Monbiot’s book Heat: How we can stop the planet burning (2006; also released in 2007 under the title, Heat: How to stop the planet from burning). Monbiot’s book was one of the foundations of my effort to help launch a low-footprint-lifestyle revolution. Here is an excerpt from Monbiot’s book.

• The Riot for Austerity movement (also known as the 90% Reduction Challenge), a grassroots movement of voluntary household-level footprint-reduction inspired by Monbiot’s book, is alive and well, although its online presence does not seem to be as active these days. Here is the “Riot” Facebook group; 152 members worldwide.

• “Entering the Bardo” (Joanna Macy, in dailygood.org): “We are in a space without a map. With the likelihood of economic collapse and climate catastrophe looming, it feels like we are on shifting ground, where old habits and old scenarios no longer apply. In Tibetan Buddhism, such a space or gap between known worlds is called a bardo. It is frightening. It is also a place of potential transformation. … When we dare to face the cruel social and ecological realities we have been accustomed to, courage is born and powers within us are liberated to reimagine and even, perhaps one day, rebuild a world. Do not look away. Do not avert your gaze. Do not turn aside.“

• “Why Do We Work So Damn Much? Hunter-gatherers worked 15-hour weeks. Why don’t we?” Ezra Klein interviews James Suzman (transcript; New York Times) (includes link to audio podcast also): How much of what we think of as deeply ingrained “human nature” is actually a product of one’s culture? And cultures differ from one to the next. Contrary to what many of us steeped in the wealthy industrialized colonialist worldview might think, not all cultures value acquisition and hoarding as much as ours does. Some outright eschew such behavior, and are much more sharing-oriented. Interesting reflections based on anthropologist Suzman’s observation of a modern-day hunter-gatherer society.

• “Apocalypse & Awakening: Interview with Mary DeJong” (allcreation.org): Rewilding; indigeneity (exploring/reclaiming our ancestral roots as a path for spiritual and cultural revitalization); reframing our connection with nature — “from ‘I and it’ to ‘I and Thou’.” Putting one’s ear to the earth; listening to one’s bioregion. Extremely restorative and mind-expanding 57-minute talk by Mary DeJong, founder of Waymarkers, “a project offering an exceptional collection of curricula, retreat experiences, writings, spiritual companioning experiences, and nature-based art to help Christians and people of all backgrounds restore their relationships to the sacred in each other and the more than human world … Mary is also co-founder and chair of Cheasty Green Space, a 43-acre public park rewilding project in Seattle, and a noted theologian.”

• “How To Enjoy the End of the World” (talk by Sid Smith (B. Sidney Smith) for Green Party of Virginia): This hour-long talk packs quite a lot in, including an excellent (if sobering) overview of Energy Return on Investment, and how it has declined since its peak in the mid-20th century. The “Energy Cliff”: We are falling off. And some tips on how we might constructively face the collapse of our civilization. Also check out BSidneySmith.com

Groups/movements:

To quote Kermit the Frog, “It’s not easy being green!” Going against the prevailing consumerist cultural norms can be very socially stressful, on top of the often-daunting logistical challenges. We who aspire to live a low footprint need moral support!

In that spirit, here is a short list of virtual communities that I have found to be reliable sources of practical tips and moral support. (Where you don’t see a link, just copy-paste the group name into Facebook search. Even if you don’t have a Facebook account, some of these are accessible to any member of the public.)

• Zero-Waste, Zero Judgement (over 35K members; worldwide)

• The Non-Consumer Advocate (over 81K members; worldwide)

• Degrowth – join the revolution (over 3K members; worldwide) (“for those willing to consider that economic growth is wrecking the biosphere”)

• Deep Adaptation (over 12K members; worldwide)

• Regenerative Consciousness Community (over 18K members; worldwide)

And, for locals in central Florida, here are some local resources I admin or co-admin:

• Daytona Beach Permaculture Guild

• Florida Permaculture Net

• Edgewater Environmental Alliance (900+ members, mainly in Volusia & Brevard counties)

If you are located in a different geographic area, try searching terms such as “permaculture”, “zero-waste”, “environmental group” together with the name of your town or region. Other terms to search: Bioregionalism; Transition Towns.

And, everyone everywhere: I invite you to explore this blog, which wanders into every tangent I can think of regarding how to live lightly on the earth and greatly enrich your life. And for a more concise, nuts-and-bolts guide, check out my book DEEP GREEN! It’s available here on this blog for all to read; and also you can get your own print copy by ordering direct from me.

Our Anglo-industrial-colonialist culture never stops conceptualizing new contraptions designed to allow people to travel farther, faster. Ultrasonic jet, higher-high-speed rail, and now … transport by giant vacuum tubes.

Imagine a human-body-sized version of those cylinders you use at the bank drive-thru to send deposits or get cash. I’ve always gotten a kick out of watching those cylinders get sucked into the pneumatic chute. Magic!

Somehow, I am less than enchanted by a scaled-up, human-transport version of this.

Fortunately only in the concept stage for now, it would supposedly travel over 4,000 mph!

A permie colleague posted the link (“Evacuated Tube Transport Could Take You Around the World in Just 6 Hours” – YouTube video), and rhapsodized about the prospect of being able to hop from LA to New York in 45 minutes.

I commented that I’m not sure it’s a good idea for humans to be able to circumnavigate the world even more, and faster, than we already do.

He replied to the effect that I am welcome to cloister myself to my heart’s content, but that he has had great travel experiences and wants more.

I wrote that I agreed with him about the enriching nature of travel — to the travelers for sure, and also to the hosts, though sometimes there is collateral damage to bioregions and cultures from too many visitors.

And, I went on to say that, although travel is enriching in ways (I have experienced it too!), I think extreme access to high-speed travel has already degraded ecosystems and social fabric all across the globe, and I fear that “even faster” access will just make it even worse.

Imagine (as just one example) what the wedding and other event-planning industries might do with drastically reduced travel times: a million weekend jaunts crisscrossing the planet from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska to Papua New Guinea.

Also: Various energy experts have taught me to be very skeptical of anything that sounds like a “free lunch” energy-wise, and that’s what this is sounding like. Even if this totally works as planned, a lot of embodied energy would go into creating the vessels and associated infrastructure. Given how the USA tends to design things, it’d also probably chew up a lot of land.

People who really want or need to travel, but want to do it with a green footprint, are probably better off just purchasing carbon offsets for the “plain” plane, train, bus, or car trip. My two cents; as always I can be wrong.

Later I screwed up my courage and added: Demean my choice as “cloistering” if you choose; I call it exercising responsible choice to reduce nonessential consumption, in light of climate emergency. Something I feel is especally important for me to model, as a permaculture educator and climate activist.

Now, that said, I do love travel and I totally get why people feel wanderlust (or the natural wish to visit their faraway loved ones). I know I might come across as anti-travel sometimes, but I’m really not. Since I myself have gotten to travel and live overseas, I have no room to deny that pleasure to people, especially young people, and people who have never traveled.

But what can I say. The world is changing fast. Huge swathes of continents are literally burning up. If the “traveling me” of yesteryear were faced with today’s climate crisis (including the ongoing pandemic and other wakeup calls from Mother Nature), and if we had had virtual conferences and virtual courses as an option back then, I would very likely have opted to curb a large percentage of that travel.

“I talked to someone about climate change, and they told me: ‘Sooner or later we’ll invent a machine that can capture carbon from the atmosphere in an efficient way.’

“I told them it already exists, and it’s called a tree.”

This meme (with appropriately green leafy visual) has been circulating in eco groups for awhile now. I really like it.

That said: Trees, amazing as they are, cannot do the job alone. We also have to rehydrate landscapes; restore the soil-food web (which, when healthy, sequesters even more carbon than trees do); and maintain wild open spaces where animals can roam (as indigenous cultures have done for millennia).

We must feed people in a sustainable way, save wildlife from extinction, restore normal rainfall, replenish groundwater, bring back insect populations. Human technology may be able to help, but Mother Nature does it best, and even better when we humans work with her — or at least get out of her way.

The above “musts” were derived from this post on the Ecological Consciousness page on Facebook, accompanying the tree meme. The following list of resources, I copied directly from the post:

• Supporting the Soil Carbon Sponge – Walter Jehne (EcoFarming Daily)

• Wildfires are Getting Worse – Time to Rehydrate Our Landscapes (commondreams)

• The Rights of Indigenous People are Key to Saving Global Ecosystems

• Kiss the Ground – Regenerative Farming & Soil Carbon Capture Solutions (Netflix film)

• Regenerating the Earth and her people

• Regenerative agriculture: effective responses to climate change (medium.com)

• Put Carbon Back Where it Belongs – in the Soil

• Want to double world food production? Return the land to small farmers! (theecologist.org)

Someone in the Socially Conscious FIRE group posted that they stopped pursuing “Financial Independence” because it doesn’t make sense given that the world might not exist as we know it in 30 years.

“Does anyone else feel this way?” they asked.

Me: Yes!

Until my mid-30s (25ish years ago), I was being at least sort of middle-class, attempting to “save for retirement.”

Then a couple of things happened. I realized it was very likely I would not be able to save anywhere near “enough,” and, I started to feel strongly that the world would collapse long before I hit retirement age. Now 6 or 11 years from “typical retirement age,” I still feel that way.

Climate change has accelerated. So has socioeconomic catastrophe, for the vast majority of people on the planet.

Around 2005 I started to study and practice permaculture design. And to study/practice some other skills for resilience (mostly inner resilience).

In my heart, meanwhile, I felt there was something “off,” for me, about accumulating a stockpile of money and hoarding it for decades. It felt morally wrong to me.

I started to think instead about how to minimize what I needed to live on. Not just to save for retirement — but as a forever lifestyle.

If Social Security is still solvent by the time I hit the age when I feel ready to start collecting it (not something Im counting on), I will pretty easily be able to live on it.

If it’s not solvent, then millions of other people will be in the same boat as me. And I will use whatever resilience skills I have learned to help people; ease suffering; build community.

Also: For most of my life I have had a strong feeling that I would live to see times when money would stop being useful for much of anything. Now I keep some cash but most of my assets are “stored” in the form of my house, trees & plants, rainbarrels, education, and community.

It’s impossible to predict the future But, whether thinking 30 years or even 10 years from now, I trust durable assets, social ties, practical skills, and community to keep their value more than I trust money, stocks, etc. to keep their value.

I think one of the big dilemmas that a lot of people are facing (at least people who have the luxury of not living pure hand-to-mouth) is that on the one hand, some kind of collapse seems imminent. (Not only that; it is actually happening.) While on the other hand, we don’t know for sure that financial assets will ever lose their value. So inevitably people who have the luxury of doing so are hedging their bets.

The problem is that some of the “bet-hedging” is most probably fueling the climate disaster and social collapse that we are so wanting to avert.

No easy answers here. But I would say build community; build your inner resilience. Practice kindness; learn to grow things or make things or repair things or all of the above.

Also: Read about the 8 forms of capital (thanks Appleseedpermaculture). Much food for thought. It is liberating to realize there are so many forms of capital beyond just financial capital.

And read Laura Oldanie’s post on “Sustainable Stores of Value.”

Or listen: “You Are More Than Your Financial Capital” (ChooseFI Episode 248; August 30, 2020).

A lot of activists are still stuck in the dream that we will change things just by voting out whatever “current crop of bad people” we consider to be “the problem.” Nope, it doesn’t work that way. First, the different parties are too much alike in terms of not really wanting to rock the boat.

Second, and even more importantly, what we are needing is a cultural shift. Elected leaders can set a tone, and can help facilitate cultural shift to a degree, but it’s really the masses (with our wallets and our word-of-mouth) who hold the real power to change things.

You decide how and where you want to serve. Not everyone wants to run for office and not everyone is cut out for it. The petition-gathering table in front of the public library, or the eco education booth at the farmer’s market, can be as powerful a channel for change as the voting booth.

The good news is that regardless of who is in office, we everyday people have the potential to continue to have a stronger and stronger voice, as:

1) We become stronger in our convictions; deepen our degree of knowingness that we are pushing for good and necessary change;

2) The physical environment continues to supply horrific evidence backing up our claims in realtime. From dead manatees to toxic waterways here, to heat-domes and wildfires way over there …. Mother Nature is building her case against industrial-colonial culture’s default settings; and

3) We become more ORGANIZED. We are less and less Lone Rangers these days, and more and more networked and teamed up! From the hyperlocal to the regional, continental, and even global level, grassroots connections are strengthening and overlapping. We are networks; and networks of networks.

At one point a few years back it occurred to me that many of us eco activists went around protesting “big bad corporations,” and lamenting the damage they do to the planet — while at the same time many of us were ourselves relying on Wall Street-tied funds to provide us a secure retirement. This to me felt like standing on a rug and trying to pull the rug out from under ourselves. Or like a snake trying to eat its own tail. Or something.

I had a mutual fund for a few years back in the early 2000s but liquidated it to invest in continuing education and starting a business.

Today I ran across the most detailed article I’ve seen this far on this topic.

“First and foremost, the fees being skimmed off the top of workers’ savings are going into a financial industry that has become an elaborate tax haven helping billionaires evade the levies that the rest of us pay.”

And then there is the damaging impact, on people and the planet, of the investments themselves:

“Pension money has flooded into alternative investment funds profiting off looting hospitals and media companies.

“Pension money has also backed private equity funds that bought up the hospital staffing companies delivering massive, out-of-network medical bills to patients that insurers have refused to pay. Congress passed legislation last year to end surprise medical bills at hospitals, but the law doesn’t cover ground ambulance companies, which have also been snatched up by pension-backed private equity firms.

“Through alternative investments, pension money has continued to provide capital to the fossil fuel industry that is creating the climate crisis threatening all life on the planet.
Pension money was not only investment capital behind the mortgage-backed securities that blew up the global economy, it has been invested in the private equity firms that have bought up more and more of the nation’s housing stock, from suburban single-family homes to mobile home parks. Pension-backed private equity and real estate firms have jacked up rents, neglected tenants, and used investment funds to bankroll the campaign against rent control. And now the private equity industry is relying on pension money to boost its plans to buy up even more suburban homes.

“Pension money has even continued to flow to the private equity firm that controls major fast food chains paying low wages, and whose umbrella company recently claimed credit for killing a national $15 minimum wage.”

Go read the full article: “Workers Are Funding the War On Themselves — How workers’ retirement savings are enriching billionaires and, in every way imaginable, financing the apocalypse.” (David Sirota, dailyposter.com; July 7, 2021).

There are at least a couple of reasonable responses to this horrific situation:

– As a society, we can devise more ways to hold fund managers accountable; close tax loopholes for fund managers and corporations.

– As individuals, we can choose to keep most or all of our wealth in local businesses or other investments that aren’t Wall Street. I’ve written a fair amount on this topic here on this blog, with lots of links to articles by Laura Oldanie and some of my other favorite thinkers in the realm of regenerative investing.