Stories tagged with "gardening"

Peak Oil Planning: What Should We Do Now?

I wrote this post back in August 2007. Back when I wrote the post, we were pre-peak oil. Now, it seems to me that we are most likely post-peak oil. Much of the advice from back then would still hold, however. One thing I didn't get right was which direction gasoline prices would go. Also, while I touched on financial issues, I didn't try to emphasize them. I can see now that financial issues are likely to be as big a problem as I feared.

We know that peak oil will be here soon, and we feel like we should be doing something. But what? It is frustrating to know where to start. In this post, I will discuss a few ideas about what we as individuals can do.

A Resilient Suburbia? 3: Weighing the Potential for Self-Sufficiency





A backyard garden in Oregon

Over the past two weeks, I have examined the challenges facing suburbia in a post-peak world. I’ve argued (in Part 1) that financial reality will prevent us from building an alternative to suburbia, and (in Part 2) that the superficial transportation issues facing suburbia are better viewed as a much broader economic threat posed by peak oil that equally threatens urban and suburban living. In this post, I’ll look at some of the unique advantages of our present suburban arrangement—is it possible that suburbia not only won’t be abandoned post-peak, but that peak oil will act as a catalyst for the adaptation of suburbia into a flourishing, vibrant built environment? I think it’s possible, but that it will be challenging. In this post I’ll explore this possibility—both the potential, and the challenges—of creating A Resilient Suburbia.