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138 comments on Have Attitudes Changed?
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138 comments on Have Attitudes Changed?
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I'm finding people more receptive to the idea that there is such a thing as peak fossil fuels, and it's quite persuasive in combination with issues of climate change, simply because the useful responses in each case are the same: more walkable and bikable cities, more mass transit, renewable energy, more localised production of food and other goods, and so on. "Sorry, no more burgers and SUVs."
This doesn't exactly galvanise people into action, but they do at least accept the ideas. Every problem in public affairs goes through five stages
1. "There is no problem."
2. "There is a problem, but The Market! and Science! will solve it, so it's not really a problem."
3. "Holy shit, there really is a problem with no easy solutions."
4. "I guess I better do something."
5. "Hey government! Get off your arse and help us!"
Climate change issues are in Australia between #3 and #4. GreenPower customers went from about 500,000 to 750,000 in 2007 alone. Peak fossil fuel issues are between #2 and #3.
Nice list of stages, though I've seen #5 occur up with #2, and usually "I guess I'd better do something" comes last.
Most of my family/friends who thought I was a raving nutcase a year ago are now much more approachable about PO, and some have done their own research & become peakniks.
There's still some though who don't want to listen, who blame high fuel/food prices on speculators & greedy oil companies and therefore somehow convince themselves that there isn't really a problem. I find that logic really hard to follow - I mean, if the truth is there's no oil shortage & the high prices are the result of some massive conspiracy, doesn't it mean the same thing as PO for the ordinary citizen & shouldn't we take the same remedial action?
Btw aeldric, I like your garden, looks like you're doing very well :) Wish my wife & I were half as organized, though we're getting there. Good intentions alone are a poor fertilizer. Still, we don't want to be the only folks in our neighbourhood with a decent veggie plot. A critical mass of people around you need to begin making the same preparations, else your garden will end up being overrun no matter how good the fences. Hence whenever I talk to someone who's new to the PO situation I always recommend they take up gardening as a first step.
Yup. I hope that Australia never descends to the point where there is real need, but even a moderate degree of desperation can be tough on your veggie patch. The fruit trees and veggie garden are not visible from any public area, and our fences are extensive (and we are getting a backing 2.3 m high chainlink fence soon).... but ultimately the best protection is to give everybody around you seeds and cuttings.
Related to this concern over new attention, security, and being the only one on the block...
July 1st a TV crew from South Korea spent a day with me. They were from KBS, a public broadcasting network. July 2nd a TV crew from South Korea spent a day with me. They were from SBS, a private broadcasting network.
So yes, this is something new: I have never had two TV crews come to my home from South Korea in the same week.
I'd also like to add that my home is "decked out" like aeldric's. The only difference seems to be that my wife pays for all of it since I am not "employed." This was absolutely fascinating to my new Korean friends who filmed all sorts of interesting details like where I hang onions and how grains are ground and my bees and garden, etc. But then came "The BIG question," that went something like this:
Korean reporter (camera rolling): "Jason, you have done a lot of work here preparing for peak oil. So, what if, tomorrow, no more oil comes to Willits. Is your family going to be okay?"
My response (big eyes): "Oh, no. We would be in a desperate state if that happened. We are totally dependent on oil still."
Korean reporter (squinting, confused): "But Jason, I don't understand, look at all you have done?"
My response (sage like and calm): "People are social creatures. We depend on each other. My family is not alone. We live in a neighborhood. Our neighborhood is in a town. Is my family really going to be fine if my neighbors have not made similar preparations? Is my neighborhood going to be alright if the the town is not ready? Trucks deliver food every day to Willits. Does the whole town look like it can feed itself now?"
It was like a light bulb went off in their heads. "Ahhh, that was good answer!"
Jason--
I have a significant garden going (Mill Valley), and very rarely buy a vegetable these days, and still have jars of dried asian pears (from a friends land up in your neighborhood, Wilits)--
But you are right- until the whole community is on board, we are all dependent on the conditions that we live in.
I work with many social justice organizations, and it is hard for even these people to face reality and get beyond denial.
Picked several quarts of huckleberries yesterday in West Marin, and the flavor is intense.
Thank you for all the good work you are doing.
Let me give a plug for a book I just finished, Plain Secrets - An Outsider among the Amish by Joe Mackall, ISBN 978-0-8070-1065-5. It is about a real Amish family in Ashland Ohio. The family is Swartzentruber Amish, perhaps, the most conservative sect. One of the points made is the individual must subsume himself/herself for the good of the community.
This is something we seldom see today. And, I have to admit, I'm as guilty as everyone else lots of times.
Todd
Hightrekker,
I'm of the same mind and have a large garden/orchard in southern Marin. Have become a de-facto teacher for lots of people who want knowledge Right Now! It's odd, from quirky hobbyist to being pleasantly pestered by people who suddenly are very interested in all this and are asking the oddest questions, want plant i.d, "give me advice where to plant" etc.
Maybe we can do a plant exchange?
Send me an e-mail.
Chris
permanent_agriculture at initials for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle"
Thanks hightrekker. Sounds like you are doing a lot of good work yourself. Marin County is such a pleasant place to grow things too.
Reports from local nurserymen/women are that they had the biggest year ever for vegetable starts, and many gardening neophytes are asking questions. Some people saying they can't afford to buy as much fresh food as they'd like so feel the "need" to garden. I have overheard conversations in coffee shops to the effect that life is going to get hard, better plant a garden, etc.
Still so much to learn I feel barely ready to be a teacher.
hightrekker - I'm also in Mill Valley, would love to connect some time and check out your garden, and learn where to pick huckleberries! I canned 12 quarts of jam two weeks ago from my native/wild cherry plum tree. Drop me a line, email in my profile.
My husband and I bought 13 acres of "black dirt," i.e. really great soil, 65 miles from NYC and are growing vegetables organically. We were going to have a CSA and a friend of mine was going to run the CSA. Because of a serious illness in our immediate family, my "friend" took over the CSA and then decided to buy vegetables from a conventional grower whose prices were much cheaper than what I and other organic growers were charging. And so, we have tons of vegetables coming in with no outlet. Of course, we could sell them ourselves but have decided instead to donate the produce to homeless shelters and food banks (there is a "gleaners" program run by Cornell Cooperative Extension who will pick up the vegetables and distribute).
A local reporter heard about what we are doing and I reluctantly agreed to being interviewed with the hope of getting a core group of volunteers to help plant, weed, spray and harvest the vegetables (the volunteers will also be able to take vegetables for themselves). Right now, it's just me and my husband and I'm exhausted trying to keep up with the zucchini coming in! But as crops are being harvested, with a little help we could be planting so much more. I'm hoping that with some community involvement, we will be able to grow this farm organically and organically it will grow us.
Having been raised in this society to be "independent" and "self-sufficient" and "private" it is really difficult to change, to work cooperatively with other people and allow any sort of attention via the press being drawn to us. Also, I find that people are not very trusting and suspicious of our "generosity" even though I tell them we're not being altruistic, we just want to make sure we have a good supply of really healthy food!
Hi,
This is what I'm looking to do. I found some good land in Oswego, but too much of it. I'm having a hard time getting any of my family or friends on board. Frustrating. If you are still considering making a go of this, please contact me. A land trust and a real CSA is exactly what I'd like to do.
As for your friend, what is she/he gonna do as food prices keep rising? Also, if your friend is buying elsewhere and reselling, it's not a CSA, it's retail. People will buy from you if it's set up right and once they realize that what they are eating is not healthy and will disappear when the economics of fertilizer, etc., get worse.
Cheers
Hi there,
My husband and I (and our 2-year-old) are looking for just that kind of work. We decided that instead of taking a vacation and flying somewhere and paying for a hotel room, we would rather help out on a farm nearby. So we signed up for the WWOOFing thing (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, you can google it). It's a great way to get volunteers, if you still need them.
And we actually haven't been able to find a local place that will take us yet. Most places don't want to deal with a young kid, no matter how much I assure them that he's well-behaved. Need any help? We could do a week or two in August...
"ultimately the best protection is to give everybody around you seeds and cuttings"
I like how you think. :-)
He needs better friends as much or more than better fences.
Sure decent fences are a fine thing... but they can't compare with being surrounded by neighbors who are looking out for you, and you for them.
These are the five stages of reaction to catastrophe, not necessarily experienced in the same order, and subject to intermittent recurrence, but given time, experienced by all sufferers, and usually beginning with:
denial
anger
negotiation
depression
acceptance.
Most people need to go through all of these stages in order to be able to respond efficiently to a catastrophe. We need to go through the whole emotional roller-coaster ride to grasp the full extent of the problem, before we can see ways to mitigate its effects.
We are creatures whose motivation is largely emotional, but look at the list and look at how remarkably efficiently this series of emotions is organized for the fastest bestest possible resolution :
if the problem is no biggie, denial is the most efficient response
If the problem persists, anger can chase the danger away, while making you aware of the size of the problem.
Trying to negotiate, trying to deal with it, is smart, and can be successful.
Depression comes when you know your problem is too big to handle, the only thing that can save you now is to hide in a dark corner and stay out of harm's way.
Acceptance is when you finally understand what happened. You now know what you have to do to alleviate the nastiness your problem caused.
You may not be able to eliminate the problem, but as long as you can live, you can live with it.
We'll be going through hard times, and whoever survives this mess will have to live with whatever is left of our great global industrial culture.
I appreciate your comments, lukitas.
My concern is that our culture is biased to stop at anger and find scapegoats and then to develop narratives that justify resource war.
Some variation of "we are the good guys and are justified in ridding the world of those evil-doers and taking all of their good stuff ... oil, for example..." always seems to come up.
A bit of an aside for an example of how truth often fares in our culture....
Scott Nearing was an American academic who was marginalized for speaking the truth on these and other matters. He noted the role of resource acquisition in two world wars as well as others.
He also spoke out against child labor at a time when some of the big supporters of Penn State relied upon child labor to make themselves rich. He was fired without due cause -- an injustice that Penn State acknowledged only when Scott Nearing was much older and the damage had been done. Meanwhile, he was blackballed by academics who would not tolerate his critique of militaristic capitalism.
Not to be discouraged, Scott and Helen Nearing lived and wrote and spoke about "The Good Life" which involved radical ideas about tending to one's garden, treating the earth and others well, and living simply.
Back to my point: the cultural institutions and processes we have set up are still very much designed to marginalize and even to do violence to reasonable and reasoned critique. People may not need to be killed physically in order to exclude them. In more and more cases, they are simply excluded from public discourse, or used and co-opted by political or corporate players.
I do find positive change at the grass roots, but find even more people looking for scapegoats to blame and then kill ... so we can have "our" oil ... and anything else "we" might need ... or want ...
Those are the stages of grief. For reaction to a catastrophe, you forgot panic, scapegoating, suspension of ethics, hoarding, and a panoply of generally dangerous, antisocial behavior. I'm not worried about people being really bummed out. I'm worried about a secure food supply, and keeping hungry neighbors away from my tomatoes.
Thank you Ben, I'm very tired of the five stages of grief, which so far don't even adequately sum up my own reactions and emotions and actions into a neat little package.
Because I have a business that sells manual garden and digging tools, I hear from people almost daily that want to create or expand food gardens at their homes. More and more say they are doing it out of concern - primarily about the economy, but occasionally about energy. I think many people still mentally blend economy issues and energy issues together, and that is justifiable.
So yes, I am seeing more awareness and concern here, along with a desire to "do something" about it.