Episode One: Wake up and Smell the Coffee (Fair Trade, Organic)

5/21/08
(Written using solar electricity.)


Food and energy, expressed as a percentage of household income, have traditionally be lower in America that in any other highly developed country. This has freed up more money for consumer goods. This, along with massive personal debt made possible by credit card companies, has driven the US economy into a very dangerous position. We don’t make very much stuff, we just buy and sell Chinese stuff to each other while driving very large vehicles full of Saudi Arabian liquid stuff.

As long as oil was cheap and abundant, and others were willing to loan us money, this system thrived. I’ve never taken an economics course in my life, and even I recognized decades ago this was a flawed economic system. Maybe it’s because I never took an economics course! Which raises some very disturbing questions: If economics classes were being taught using principles that were fundamentally flawed, what other faulty information has our educational system thrust upon us? What other lies have we been told? How have we been manipulated and how long will it continue before someone has the courage to stand up and yell, “He’s naked!” I call this the Emperor’s New SUV. (I coined that phrase in 1999 when oil was less than $30 per barrel.)

The American economy is a house of cards because it is built on a table of cheap, abundant oil. Now that food and energy prices are rising people have less “disposable income” (talk about throwing your money away!) to spend at Wal-Mart. When Americans shop less stores make less money and lay people off. These people shop even less at other stores that lay other people off. And so on, and so on, and so on. In the language of Systems Theory this is called positive feedback. We know it more as a “downward spiral.”

Americans live in the Matrix where we think the world of cheap, abundant oil and endless debt are normal. This pathology is so strong that many Americans still believe it as oil passes $130 per barrel on it’s way to $200 and beyond. He’s naked! He’s naked! He’s naked!

Need more convincing? Lets take a broader look.

When you are lost in the forest but have a map and compass, what can you do to pinpoint your location? Climb up to a ridge and triangulate. That is pick out three distinctive features in the landscape and find them on the map. Use your compass to take a bearing on each feature and then draw those lines on your map. Where those three lines cross is where you’re at. Wherever you go, there you are.

So let’s try triangulation with oil. First point of reference is Global Warming. Go ask Al Gore. Second point is a war that may last 100 years. Go ask John McCain. And the third is Peak Oil. Go ask… That’s the thing; hardly anyone is talking about Peak Oil. I have yet to hear those two words uttered in the mainstream media. How do they explain record oil prices day after day?

1) China and India are using more oil as their economies expand rapidly. Excuse me, who pushed for globalization? Look in the mirror.

2) The weak dollar. As if it were an independent entity. Bad dollar, you have not been working out. You are so weak and flabby like…most of the U.S. population. Look in the mirror.

3) Which country has 5% of world population but uses 25% of its fossil fuels? Look in the mirror.

He’s naked! He’s naked! He’s naked!

And so what did McCain and Clinton propose to ease the burden on the poor American driver? A federal gas tax holiday. He’s naked and she’s also naked!

This just in on NPR Morning Edition: Toyota has just sold its one millionth Prius. Go figure. At least someone is wearing clothes…but they are Japanese. Is this their secret second Pearl Harbor?

Everything we do is about our relationship to energy. Let me repeat that. Everything we do is about our relationship to energy. Yet Americans know practically nothing about energy. Here’s a quiz. Recite for me the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Can’t do it? You’re not alone. In my ongoing informal survey of American adults I have yet to find one who gets it perfectly right and less than 5% even take a stab at it. Yow!

This also just in from NPR business news: Sales of locking gas caps are up, up, up! Why? Gas theft is up, up, up. Surprised?

How will Americans continue to respond to the Peak Oil crisis? Denial? Disbelief? Theft? Invade Iran?

If America is to weather this storm with any grace at all it will require three important steps:

1) Serious and meaningful energy education.
2) Humility.
3) Creative problem solving.

I have lived a post-petroleum lifestyle for two decades. My dependence on foreign oil is negligible. My carbon footprint is less than 5% that of the average American. I have designed and built an energy-independent homestead: Pedal Power Farm.

I have embraced creative low-tech solutions in the areas of:

1) Food
2) Transportation
3) Heating and Cooling
4) Lighting
5) Electricity use

I know my shit because I live this shit. By the way, I don’t have a flush toilet. Why do we consider it perfectly normal to defecate in water that is cleaner than half the world drinks? He’s naked…at least his bum is. I live in association with an outhouse. I call it a “short-drop.” I use wood chips to occlude air contact and thus smell. The wood chips also add carbon to balance the nitrogen in the poop. (See The Humanure Handbook.) This makes awesome compost that I put on my perennial beds. They are among the finest in the state of New Hampshire. Come by and see them. And my outhouse, according to recent Appalachian Trail through-hiker John Wright, is the “Nicest outhouse I’ve ever seen. This includes the entire A.T.” Come by and see it. And make a deposit.

I am available for consulting, speaking engagements, weddings, funerals, Bar Mitzvahs, and Washington lobbying. I work only for courageous leaders. Cowards need not apply.

Barrack Obama – Looking for an energy secretary?
John Stewart – I’ve got 4 unfinished manuscripts. Will that get me on the Daily Show?
Steven Colbert - I am your most formidable opponent.
Jack Johnson – Do I have song lyrics for you!
Glenn Beck – Bring it on!

Peace and Post Petroleum

Ride on, Ned Lebo, RfD
Poet, Farmer, Two-Wheeled Cowboy