A World Without...

A World Without Oil

My partner and I actually watched this documentary on the History Channel and couldn't take our eyes off the screen.
It's amazing to see the consequences of our "high tech" lifestyle come crashing in.
Cities tumbling, people panicking, too many dieing and even more left in the dark to suffer alone.

Human's are social creatures. There is no denying it. We have always gathered together to share the work and the rewards of the group efforts. Our groups kept getting bigger and bigger and then suddenly the mentality that brought us together left us isolated while surrounded by others.
We live in cities because of the conveniences. Grocery stores, entertainment, hospitals, and other services. It costs more to live in a city due to those conveniences.
When you live in a smaller town, with less conveniences, or on a farm or acreage a far distance away from cities or moderate sizes towns, then you pay less in the way of property but generally more for food that is shipped in. You have to plan your trips into the city to make sure you got everything in one shot. If there is an injury or a vehicle breaks down, you have to travel to the nearest hospital or service station, which could be anywhere from 20min to 2hrs away, if not further.

But generally if you're living in a more isolated area you have "more time" to create a sustainable lifestyle. Where this magical "more time" comes from I'm not sure, but that's generally the attitude.
It's easier for the farmer to garden, bake his own bread, raise his own meat, take care of chickens, etc because that's their lifestyle and their "job".

So, because the farmer chooses to farm and provide the city folk with flour, meat and eggs, he has more time to do all these things for himself as well??
Many farmers don't.
Quite frankly, unless he's an industrial farmer, you're not seeing his labour of love on your grocery store shelves. Your farmer's market, more than likely. But those free range chickens and organic beef don't come cheap, do they.
In order for the price of bread, milk, eggs, canola oil, beef, poultry, etc to stay "affordable" it has to be massed produced as quickly as possible. This means genetically altered birds to grow faster, high calorie feed to put on weight faster, cramped barns to fit more animals in. Jamie Oliver did a special called "Fowl Dinners". Here's a video. It's worth seeing... Yes, it's based in the UK, but if you don't think it happens in North American, you live in quite the ignorant paradise.

Does that sound healthy for any of the animals involved?
How about the farmers who are forced to choose between making enough money to support his farm and family and raising cattle or chickens in a manner in which is natural and healthiest?

I've become distracted.

Back to A World Without Oil.

In this not-so-imaginary world it takes 40yrs for societies and cultures all over the world to recover to a point where people had food, bio-diesel vehicles, electricity, etc.
40yrs of heartache, poverty, death, starvation.
Sounds like a 3rd world country... it was every major city around the globe.

People flocked out of the cities to country homes, relatives who lived on farms, etc. In the beginning that is.

By the end of the show people were still living in cities. Commuting to work on bicycles, now the norm instead of the backup plan. Yards were used as gardens instead of just patches of green grass living on pesticides and filtered water. Every yard had a windmill to generate power. There were no microwaves, cell phones, internet, etc because it either cost too much to make (no more plastics!) OR there was NO way to get satellites into orbit to provide signals for wireless communications.

But why wait until there's a globe meltdown?
Why not start doing small things now to stop it from happening?
Eat local, support farmers, live an active life, don't let your electronics and your vehicles control your lifestyle.

It's not about Saving the Planet.

The Earth will always be here (unless we happen to make it explode).

It's about saving the human race. Even though most days I think the Earth would be better off without us...