A New Age

[Alan Durant]

I came across this article in the Economist and thought it raised some interesting questions.

http://www.economist.com/node/18741749

The analysis of Human effects on the planet seem about right to me.

It leans heavily on engineered solutions to the problems we face, the practicallitys of which are variable. One thing that is not mentioned is that while we have an economic system based on the profit motive the chnaces of anything useful being done in time are remote.

 

Best  Alan

[Alan Durant]

What worries me is that if the wheels do fall off, as seems possible. We have lost all the old skills we would need to survive. How many people could make a wooden barrel? I've got three in the wine cellar and I don't even have the nack of maintaining them properly.

I'm just building a hand rope pump to access my water catchment cistern. Plastic pipe I couldn't make it if I hadn't managed to find a bit. Nylon cord, had to be bought. Wood, who can make board by hand? Nails, bought. Pistons make from an old car tyre and although you could probably cut them out by hand its infinitely easier with a power drill and hole saw. All this and I reckon I can do most things and certainley more than most people and I'm not sure we would make it.

Best  Alan

[Alan Durant]

Hi Wolfbird, I forgot to say thanks for the excellent video. Showed to one of Eva's students. The locals are already amazed that my dogs speak English when word gets round that English dogs can speak Japanese there will be dumbfoundment.

Best  Alan

[Maurice Spurway (Mozz)]

What worries me is that if the wheels do fall off, as seems possible. We have lost all the old skills we would need to survive.  (Alan)

Personally, I have the knowledge, in my head, or in books, to make a lot of stuff, including wooden barrels, cord, boards, nails, and a lot of tools (wolfbird)

I'm not too worried about the "losing of skills".  We will develop them again, (they are basic technologies) and it will give us something to think about, when the current obsession with possessions has disintegrated.

Once the monetised economy crashes about our ears, followed (or preceded) by a whole host of other crises that are "about to jump up and bite us on the lips", it will be such a mind-changing experience for everyone on the planet, that we might just discover that (a) money means nothing, and (b) having friends means everything.

Monetisation is such a huge destroyer of everything that is precious and sacred, then the sooner it collapses, the better.

 

Watching the riots going on at this moment in Tottenham, Enfield, Hackney, Clapham, Lewisham, Peckham, Croydon and Birmingham, it's clear that the media and politicians are failing to understand what is going on, and what is underlying all this.  It is not happening by accident!  This is not just the random commitment of criminal acts.

And what is London really worrying about?  ... The impact this will have on the olympics games next year!

At least it takes our collective focus away from the collapsing economy.   ;-)

[Maurice Spurway (Mozz)]

Sorry, wolfbird.  Yes, you are absolutely right.  I'm glad that you have gone into delicious detail to explain why it's so important to keep hold of these skills and technologies, so that they are not lost.

And that is the reason why I said "I'm not too worried...".  It's because we have the luxury (sic) of regressing back down the tech/skill tree with the ability to reverse engineer (assuming we remember to actually do it), rather than have to re-invent from scratch.

(Sadly, I am not quite as eloquent as expressing what I want to say, as I would like to be)

[Maurice Spurway (Mozz)]

Useful link, wolfbird.

I didn't know that Leeds was rioting.  (And Notting Hill ??)

Here's a useful link to the hotspots in London:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid=207192798388318292131.0004aa0...

[Maurice Spurway (Mozz)]

I think the escalating riots give us a foretaste of what is to come when the economy collapses.  For the last 30 years the gap between rich and poor has been growing in the UK and most other western countries.  (See GINI Index: - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient)

This has deteriorated even further in the last 3 years of the recession as countries reduce government spending on helping poorer people.

And, recently the UK government was considering reducing taxes for rich people.  Hopefully, now, that idea will be dropped.

 

It appears to me that the growing gap between rich and poor is now THE most important issue that needs to be addressed.  We can't stop climate change, we can't stop Peak Oil, we can't stop economic collapse.  At least we CAN create fairness along the way.

[dweebus]

Hi Alan,

 

It was a very interesting article.  The term Anthropocene is rather ominous isn't it?  Of course, that's the point.  The mere idea that human activity has reached the point of impacting earth's system and creating a new geologic epoch is just incomprehensible to most of the public.  I think this is one of the reasons deniers get such traction.

 

One has to wonder what archaeologists will make of the remains a thousand years from now.  My daughter asked what they might think of all the corpses in the graveyards with silicone bags on their chests. 

 

The link in that article on the Nepalese forest protection scheme strikes me as classic greenwash.

 

Here is a bit of good news on human activity in the ecosystem.

 

http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-8804-return-to-emi...

 

As far as the loss of traditional skills, yes this is a huge concern.  I have felt for a long time that the migrant, indigenous, and working class groups may be far better prepared for a de-industrial life than the suit and tie crowd.  Just the other day, I was training a new hire at work.  Part of our duties is to check the ground equipment (motor oil, lights, hydraulic fluid, etc.)  The poor kid was nineteen and he didn't even know where the dipstick was.  Another co-worker of mine (she is an educated woman) needed me to change the bulb in her headlight because she didn't know how.  All the high tech skills in the world won't be worth a hill of beans when decline begins.

 

The thing that concerns me most with the young people is not a lack of skills though, it is a lack of a work ethic.  Working in an air conditioned office is one thing, double digging a large vegetable garden in a heat index, well that's quite another.

 

A good resource is the Foxfire series (books 1-12).  I think the most exciting part of that series was that Elliot Wigginton involved his highschool students in the entire magazine and book project, re-established family relationships with their Appalachian grandparents, and re-connected them with the skills and culture of the mountain folk, who were entirely self-sufficient well into the 20th century.  Surely projects like this could be duplicated.

 

I found an interesting essay on the subject, and I think the scenario he suggests is certainly plausible.  I just think he downplays the level of strife we are in for as well as the ecological impacts and the possibility of catastrophic tipping points (e.g.- methane hydrates). 

 

 

http://www.oilcrisis.com/whattodo/decline.htm

 

Regards,

 

Dweebus

 

 

[dweebus]

On a lighter note:

 

Laboratory scientists are considering replacing little white rats with laywers and bankers.  Studies show that the scientists don't get quite as attached to the laywers and bankers, and there are some things even little white rats won't do. :)

[Alan Durant]

Hi Dweebua, I think lots of young people in the developed west are not really aware of the work that goes into making something, growing something. You might even say most people. Not only this but a lot of young people that pass through here, by definition adventurous being travellers, have very little curiosity about anything. They have a tendency to spout phrases about say organic growing with no idea what they mean if anything. My favourite lately "the spacial awareness of organic prodution" goes with the UK Pms, "zero tolerance of street crime". Preumably this means he was OK with some street crime before.

 

Best  Alan
dweebus said:

Hi Alan,

 

It was a very interesting article.  The term Anthropocene is rather ominous isn't it?  Of course, that's the point.  The mere idea that human activity has reached the point of impacting earth's system and creating a new geologic epoch is just incomprehensible to most of the public.  I think this is one of the reasons deniers get such traction.

 

One has to wonder what archaeologists will make of the remains a thousand years from now.  My daughter asked what they might think of all the corpses in the graveyards with silicone bags on their chests. 

 

The link in that article on the Nepalese forest protection scheme strikes me as classic greenwash.

 

Here is a bit of good news on human activity in the ecosystem.

 

http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-8804-return-to-emi...

 

As far as the loss of traditional skills, yes this is a huge concern.  I have felt for a long time that the migrant, indigenous, and working class groups may be far better prepared for a de-industrial life than the suit and tie crowd.  Just the other day, I was training a new hire at work.  Part of our duties is to check the ground equipment (motor oil, lights, hydraulic fluid, etc.)  The poor kid was nineteen and he didn't even know where the dipstick was.  Another co-worker of mine (she is an educated woman) needed me to change the bulb in her headlight because she didn't know how.  All the high tech skills in the world won't be worth a hill of beans when decline begins.

 

The thing that concerns me most with the young people is not a lack of skills though, it is a lack of a work ethic.  Working in an air conditioned office is one thing, double digging a large vegetable garden in a heat index, well that's quite another.

 

A good resource is the Foxfire series (books 1-12).  I think the most exciting part of that series was that Elliot Wigginton involved his highschool students in the entire magazine and book project, re-established family relationships with their Appalachian grandparents, and re-connected them with the skills and culture of the mountain folk, who were entirely self-sufficient well into the 20th century.  Surely projects like this could be duplicated.

 

I found an interesting essay on the subject, and I think the scenario he suggests is certainly plausible.  I just think he downplays the level of strife we are in for as well as the ecological impacts and the possibility of catastrophic tipping points (e.g.- methane hydrates). 

 

 

http://www.oilcrisis.com/whattodo/decline.htm

 

Regards,

 

Dweebus

 

 

[Alan Durant]

Not so much the bankers or even the banks but the inevitable results of the capitalist system.

Best  Alan
wolfbird said:

 

A dramatic and ominous presentation

 

[Stranger]

there is no capitalist system without the banks and bankers,  but perhaps I see what you mena, neither is there a capitalist system without the irrational frustrated greed of billions of people , used to make them slaves who pay for their own slavery for life... in principle they could stop it, but they cannot agree to do so in sufficient numbers to do it

 

http://www.monetary.org/greening-the-dollar-green-party-monetary-re...

[Alan Durant]

Hi Stranger, its not so much a question of greed, although greed undoubtedly exists. Its the system its self which is based on profit. Profit is a portion of somebody's labour for which they do not get the value. Put another way its work someone does that they are not paid for. Because of this the system can not be other than exploitative.

 

Best  Alan