December 2004 — Energy is Power

Publisher's Message

Power of energy As you look at how to make your community more sustainable, you quickly encounter many roadblocks. You'd think that if you were trying to do the right thing somehow it would be easy. This issue examines some of the big lies that have long prevented the transition to sustainable natural living.

The picture has grown much worse in the last twenty years. It is hard to believe, sitting in our comfortable living rooms, eating food that seems to have no end in the grocery stores. Things seem to keep ticking along as well as they ever have despite everything. This, along with the many myths we've grown up with, has made it very hard to come to terms with the current situation.

The United States is bankrupt. The most economically and militarily powerful nation in the world is waging wars on many fronts with an army that is the legacy of the economic imperialism that has been built on the power of oil. That power base is going to decline over the next several decades. How can a world system built on this oil economy survive? Can it?

These are questions that depend very much on what you and I do every day. If we think that the deceptive appearance of normalcy is some kind of proof that we need not act urgently, we will surely find ourselves in deep trouble in the very near future. Knowing this now, as we have for the past twenty or more years, we must act with more diligence despite everything that might make us question. Dig into the answers to your questions. You too will begin to see the perilous nature of our circumstances.

We need to remind ourselves of the values that will get us through these crises:

1. Truth 2. Freedom 3. Democracy 4. Solidarity (we are all one global family) 5. Love 6. Peace 7. Partnership 8. Cooperation 9. Consensus 10. Compassion 11. Equality 12. Responsibility 13. Justice 14. Creativity 15. Balance 16. GAIA (the earth is a living system) Think about these values, these truths. They are what will make survival not only possible, but life affirming. We are in for a period of many challenges, incredible change, and potential disasters from which we will need to work together in order to recover. We've got to act sooner rather than later to addressing the priority problems.

Keep reading the books and news that uncover the hidden truths. Work with us to build the Solar Villages that must be the communities of our future. Create your own natural sustainable lifestyle.

John Wilson, Founder of the Natural Life Network E-Mail: john.wilson@naturallifenetwork.com

Natural Living Journal John D. Wilson - Editor and Publisher Natural Living Journal Published by World Peace Communications Copyright ã 2004 John D. Wilson Our Web Site: www.NaturalLivingNetwork.comE-Mail: john.wilson@naturallifenetwork.comPhone: (519) 942-3266 ADVERTISING SALES: Leigh Geraghty, Advertising Representative, (519) 942-3266, leigh.geraghty@sympatico.caCONTRIBUTE: We are always looking for new, interesting and inspiring stories, pictures, and poetry, about people who are achieving a natural lifestyle. If you would like to contribute an article or story then please send us a note with your idea. Contact John Wilson by email at john.wilson@naturallifenetwork.comAll contents of this issue of Natural Living Journal are copyrighted by John Wilson, World Peace Communications, 2004. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada.

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Energy is Power

The potential value of natural living systems is hard to imagine. Even the limited, once in a lifetime, fossil fuel reserves are a part of the incredible value provided by nature. The shared resources provided by nature are all limited. Now that we've exceeded the ecological footprint of the entire planet, we are in a deficit condition. As long as we remain in this condition, our chances of survival will remain uncertain. At some point we must return our current growing natural deficit to balance. The larger the deficit gets, as time passes under the current oil supported economic "miracle", the harder it will be for our children.

For much of earth history the balance of natural systems has evolved over millions of year. In some instances change is very rapid as in the case of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, weather, and impacting objects from outer space. Sometimes, as in the case of ice ages, changes to naturally balanced systems may be comparatively slow. Or it may be that the magnetic orientation of the earth itself may change as it has done in the past. All these examples are naturally occurring and may happen again, and there's little that we humans can do to avoid them. However, the most significant disasters that we are well aware of are global warming, pollution, population growth and the loss of natural capital (animal and plant species). How have we managed to create so much havoc in such a short period of time? That is one of the powers of energy.

Energy and related industries represent the largest part of the world's economy. Economy, the control of profits from the earth's resources, is what drives the largest part of human affairs in our so-called capitalist world order. Looking back through recent history, it is clear that this predominance has driven many decisions (or lack of them) in world affairs. Where control of energy profits was at stake the interest of those in power has been high. Even the guise of political philosophy has not hidden the real desire of elites for the profits and control latent in world energy reserves. Perhaps more than the desire for profits, control over these profits - and the power that results - more than anything else explains our terrifying position. It has proven a simple matter to represent ideological reasons for intervention in other countries while actually being driven by a desire for lucrative energy reserves primarily through control mechanisms. Simple access to these reserves is not enough to ensure "security".

Control over the worlds energy systems more than any other factor in current human systems, is a control over everything that lives. The scale of human existence makes this so. Control of energy is now control of life. Without massive energy inputs, food and water systems that sustain life would grind to a halt. For the powerful elites it is control of life that they desire. Control in order to alleviate fears of the "other", of competition, of a different way of thinking, of freedom for the masses, of real democracy. Control over energy is control over the power of military forces that would grind to a halt without oil. Oil and energy are the most important factors in controlling the outcome of war. Despite the technical superiority of the US military, if the Middle East oil were cut off, this military superiority would be all but grounded.

Profits from the energy sector produce the largest, most powerful corporations that provide the largest contributions to the political process. Is it any surprise that this industry then receives the largest levels of subsidies? Energy is control over power.

Global warming will devastate the earth unless we change our ways. Fossil fuel reserves are expected to peak some time between 2006 and 2015. Once all the major oil reserves peak the price of this precious resource will rise dramatically. It may be that the recent dramatic increases are a foreshadowing or speculation that we have already, or are about to reach this point. That China has publicly expressed interest in developing the Canadian oil industry, in particular the tar sands of Alberta, is an indication that this emerging economic powerhouse is preparing to extract this critical resource. That they would invest in the tar sands makes clear that they foresee a future where oil is very expensive. Tar sands, although known to be perhaps second only to Saudi Arabia in terms of reserves, are much more expensive to extract. Clearly this resource that is so critical to current society for development that China has determined it must be secured even if at a high cost, and even in a foreign land with limitations on control.

Natural Living

Life on our planet is much more complex than short-term profits. Energy is power only while it is centrally controlled. We have always had choices. One of the great lies, repeated so often that people believe it, is that renewable energy is not competitive. It is not "economically viable". The lie goes unquestioned because it is not common knowledge that oil and nuclear receive massive subsidies that if removed would put solar, wind and other renewable alternatives into competitive territory with oil and nuclear. Despite the inequity in subsidies, the long-term economics do work today. With even a simple, low level of incentive, people are making the effort to use renewable energy. Germany has exceeded goals to implement solar and wind power through a credit system available to all levels of society. We know how, but we need to constantly remind ourselves of the critical need for change. The equitable and distributed nature of renewable energy, although a great strength, poses a threat to the currently centralized system controlled by elites. Equitable distribution of this largest sector of the world economy does not fit with the control requirements of elites. The only obstacles to the large-scale deployment of renewable energy systems are the inequities in subsidies controlled by the elites.

True sustainability goes beyond just energy. Understanding ecological footprints helps us see where we are in terms of sustainability. It represents a holistic view of the systems required to sustain the current expanding human population. It can be applied at the local community and the entire earth. When viewed from the standpoint of the entire planet, we can clearly see that we've overshot our sustainable zone. With the emerging economy of China that appears intent, perhaps reasonably on a purely economic basis, to be challenging the United States for world economic dominance, the stakes are very high. With only a quarter of the population of China, the United States consumes about 25% of the world's resources, making it, along with Canada, the most resource intensive large country in the world. As China rapidly races to match the United States resource model we can imagine that there will be massive resource competition problems approaching. Primary among these will be the soon to be dwindling reserves of oil.

"The Ecological Footprint measures people's natural resource consumption. The footprint can be compared with nature's ability to renew these resources. A country's footprint is the total area required to produce the food and fibre that it consumes, absorb the waste from its energy consumption, and provide space for its infrastructure. People consume resources and ecological services from all over the world, so their footprint is the sum of these areas, wherever they are on the planet." - Living Planet Report 2004, WWF.

(Source: Published in October 2004 by WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund), Gland,

Switzerland. See www.panda.org for the complete text of the report called Living Planet Report 2004. )

The graph (Fig. 1 on the previous page) represents a careful scientific analysis of the declining level of biological life on the planet as measured, analyzed and reported by the WWF. Life on planet earth is being destroyed at a faster rate than it can recover. This can occur with little direct impact because of the massive input of technology and energy being applied to compensate for these losses. Life on planet earth, although renewable, can only sustain a restricted level of extraction. The use of oil has made it possible for us to exceed this level by vast amounts. Oil is an incredibly powerful substance. The stored energy in oil has given us a once in a lifetime gift of fuel, plastic, fertilizer, and other chemicals. Once it is gone so will be the power of this non-renewable substance making all of the infrastructure and ideas built upon it potentially useless. Given the level of human population this once in a lifetime source of energy has allowed, we have put ourselves in grave danger as this source of energy is exhausted. Renewable systems may be sufficient to sustain billions of people. It is unclear how many billions of people. We can assume that the limit is lower than that which the oil has provided. Another factor as critical as a move to renewable energy will be the social changes necessary to reduce human populations to levels that may be supported by renewable energy.

So what are the alternatives? Renewable sources of energy are typically free and more or less democratic. By this I mean that solar and wind are constantly provided by nature at very little cost. By democratic I mean that these free resources are more or less evenly distributed. We need to realign our society around the beautiful principles expressed everywhere in nature.

The reason corporations that control the energy of life do such a poor job of looking after society is that they are precisely the opposite of free and democratic. Underlying the corporation is an economic model that does not include the idea of natural limits. Modern corporations are the most recent imperial power in the world. They are the latest incarnation of the emperor dictators warring with other corporations, or making illegal alliances, and then breaking them, all in the name of filling the coffers of a small number of corporate executives dictators. Filling the treasury of these dictatorships is what drives modern life. For all the so called "management" that we spend so much time indoctrinating an elite group into, the reality is that this group is about creating systems that oppress the majority of workers with "process" that favors the compliant, while discouraging thought, innovation or risk taking. Management is about managing resources, human and all others, so that the bottom line is profit for the powerful elites. Sadly, all too often, this has been at the great cost to the majority of humanity, while at the same time devastating the natural world that supports all life.

So we must do the exact opposite. We must create free and democratic organizations that align with the purposes of life. We can do this. Solar power gives us the free and democratic energy required to wrestle control from the emperors running corporations and governments. The only power greater than the corporation, the one that has the only chance, is massive popular action by the majority of people around the world. Like a world-wide strike, we must all, together, light up the light of solar energy. With one fell swoop we can simply turn off the oil tap. If we don't do it now, nature will do it soon. Of course this will take plenty of planning and organization, but we have the knowledge, technology and organizing principles to do this. We can prepare our homes, industries, transportation system, government buildings, and offices to make this change. Then, like a wave flowing around the globe we can close up the last polluting oil pipeline.

If the current globalannual $59 billion in subsidies to the oil industry were applied to renewable alternatives such as solar and wind, the result would be an instant equalizing effect. Wind is already competitive with oil…so the result will be a massive effort to reap the profits of this incredible clean and renewable energy resource. Solar hot water heating systems, with millions of installed and proven systems used all over the world, will be the least expensive way to avoid using oil that suddenly is on a fair playing field. Solar photovoltaic systems may suddenly go from decades long payback to five or ten years especially as the massive increase in volume brings down the already steadily declining price. A combination conservation, efficiency, technological innovation, renewable biomass energy systems, and cost-effective storage system such as fuel cells will result in a sustainable future. At a social level we will need to deal with population levels. The only thing holding back the sustainable revolution is a small group of elites with a large stake in the current oil and nuclear industries.

Despite the clear evidence that it is killing their children, these elites have rationalized this great theft of the commons.

A sustainable future is well within our grasp today. The only real impediment is the political and economic imperialists' stake in the current system. The oil company executives, politicians elected on the backs of oil money, and vast entrenched bureaucracies that support these systems will, and have been, fighting the necessary changes. Short-term greed, shortsightedness, selfishness and plain old corruption have delayed this inevitable future for too long already. As the ecological footprint index and living planet index shows, we have been digging a bigger and bigger grave for decades now. Our footprint has exceeded the long-term sustainable carrying capacity of earth for almost twenty years, and this debt is getting larger at an increasing rate. Even more perilous, current population and economic growth have only been possible on the back of oil's limited, one-time offer. Nobody has been able to determine how an ever-larger population, used to oil for growing food, will survive once it is gone. Our best and brightest scientists, economists, politicians, and philosophers have been shouting that we must change. They have warned us of these problems. Sadly, a small number of greedy imperialistic corporate executives, along with the politicians they control, have established every possible barrier in their war for world domination of oil's limited gold rush opportunity. Their power is so broad that the media they control has actually managed, against all imaginable common sense, to convince a vast number of people that there isn't much to worry about at all. -

Books About Power

Two books that I've read recently have brought home to me how important dealing with our sustainable energy problems will continue to be. In fact, the more I think about it the more that I see how much ideas like population controls, conservation, efficiency, organic farming, permaculture, urban transit systems, and solar power, are so critical to evolving our society. As the oil runs out, and as these books so ably demonstrate, it may be sooner that we expect. It will be to these ideas of sustainability, of Natural Living, that we will be forced to survive. As our ecological footprint shows oil has allowed us to exceed the sustainable capabilities of natural systems. With growing population levels we have already exceed what may be sustainable without oil. If we have any chance of surviving the next fifty to one hundred years it will be because we address these issues. Coming to terms with their reality is critical. So read these books and start taking action today.

War. Big Oil, and the Fight for the Planet: It's the Crude, Dude by Linda McQuaig

Who stands to gain or lose the most from climate change? The oil companies, the largest industry on the planet. When you add up all the subsidies provided ANNUALLY to oil and nuclear energy, you can clearly see how big a lie it is to say that renewable energy systems aren't economical. Subsidies to oil and nuclear including the car and airline industry, amounts to significantly more than $200 billion per year…and growing especially if you include the wars fought to protect these resources.

Let us say then that the subsidies to these industries reaches about $1 trillion over the last ten years during, contributing massively, if not exclusively to climate change. Now, take away this $1 trillion in subsidies from the oil, nuclear, and transportation industries. Give the $1 trillion in subsidies to the conservation, efficiency, and sustainable renewable energy sector over the next ten years. Suddenly oil and nuclear look uneconomic, and the alternatives make perfect sense.

Quotable

"we've used up the earth's oil so rapidly and recklessly that we have not only jeopardized the viability of the planet (part one of the energy dilemma), but we have at the same time squandered much of this incredibly valuable on-time inheritance. This may sound like a contradiction. If oil is so bad for the earth's ecosystem, maybe we shouldn't care that it's running out. The problem is that we've built the modern world around it, relying on oil for transportation, industry, agriculture and just about every other thing we do, eat, wear, type, watch and move around in." - pg. 29, War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet: It's the Crude, Dude.

"…annual subsidies to the industry amounted to $14 billion in the U.S., $5.9 billion in Canada and a total of $59 billion in all the industrialized nations that make up the OECD." "nuclear industry, received $12 billion in annual subsidies in OECD countries." "The fossil fuel industry is also aided greatly by massive subsidies to the car and airline sectors …plus $135 billion a year in the U.S. -on the construction and maintenance of roads." - pg 299, War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet: It's the Crude, Dude.

Power Down: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World by Richard Heinberg

Rather than retaining any level of false optimism this book and the author take deadly aim at the priority issues we face and their terrible consequences.

Powerdown provides a visionary response to the coming energy famine, a clarion call to cooperative solutions based on the conviction that realism must trump self-delusion in matters of cultural survival. Ultimately there is hope if we are willing to look truth in the eye. If we have the strength to admit our problems we will find the solutions Quotable

"Most of the wars of the twentieth were fought over resources - in many cases, oil." Pg 21.

"The elites - corporate owners and managers, government officials, and military commanders - are people who have been selected for certain qualities: loyalty to the system, competitiveness, and hunger for power. Often they are literally bred for their roles. Like George W. Bush, they are people born to wealth and power, and raised to assume that privilege is their birthright. These are who identify with the system and the status quo; they are constitutionally incapable of questioning assumptions.

Moreover, the elites are guided day-to-day by a set of incentives that are built into the system itself. Managers who pursue immediate gain get ahead, while those who make short-term sacrifices in order to preserve long-term stability are often at a disadvantage. Likewise, managers are rewarded who keep up appearances, who generate good news, and who exude confidence. Confessing errors accrues no benefit; instead, managers are encouraged to deny short-comings and to blame competitors and subordinates." Pg. 168.-

Reading

Home Power

For anyone who wants to get into the details of living with renewable energy this is the magazine for you. Each month this hands-on journal has off-the-grid and on-the-grid home owners tell their story in an easy to understand format. If you are interested in the technical details and comparing systems then this is the ultimate source of information. You can download a free copy off their web site each month in PDF format.

Web Site: www.homepower.com

Natural Life

This simple magazine covers a wide range of sustainable living topics. For ideas that we can all start using today this is the place to start. Each issue reaches far and wide for interesting stories with lots of ideas for living a more natural life style.

Web Site: http://www.naturallifemagazine.com/

Natural Home

Each month this magazine features new and renovated homes that are seriously sustainable. Like other popular home and design magazines, you also get coverage of life issues, food, travel and other related topics, all with a "green" twist of course. Other departments include Good to Know, Green Events, New & Noteworthy, Try This, Nuts and Bolts, and Earth Mover Awards. If you want to be inspired by high-end homes with tons of creativity, and features like solar panels, this is a great magazine.

Web Site: www.naturalhomemagazine.com

A Comprehensive Urban Regenerative Process

Sustainable programs require a comprehensive and integrated understanding of a community's unique human-environmental resources. They integrate natural systems with human patterns and celebrate continuity, uniqueness and placemaking (Early, 1993).

This proposal is based upon a working definition of sustainability and modeling techniques that provide a method to carefully balance the community's on-site ecological interchanges between human and environmental systems. An integrated set of regenerative design and planning strategies are proposed for this community to place these systems in balance.

Web Site: www.arch.wsu.edu/sustain/home.html

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Join Us

Become a part of a community of people around the world dedicated to living in harmony with nature. We've created this network so that we can all share our ideas, experiences and knowledge. The changes we envision are revolutionary; however our goals are to make them the norm. The organization is about the practical, inspiring and real application of living gently on the earth so that our children may enjoy a clean, healthy and productive environment.

The simple point is that we all can "do" much more - and that means all of us or it won't work. For example:

§ Choose or create a home/community that is powered by the sun; § Grow and eat organic food; § If you must travel select the most efficient means, walk, bicycle, tele-commute, travel by train, bus, ultra-efficient car, or fly; § If and when possible, work in nature - grow your own

Next Issue

Ecovillages and the future of communities. For weekly updates, special offers, and additional products and services visit our web site: www.NaturalLifeNetwork.comHave a question? Ask us and we'll try and include a response in our next issue of the Natural Living Journal. Have an interesting story to tell that relates to natural living? Contact us any time with your questions, concerns or ideas at: john.wilson@naturallifenetwork.com-Order the Journal now! www.NaturalLifeNetwork.com