honest.knave

Some things have been weighing on me for a while. Chief among them, how out of balance my culture is, myself included, with the world around it. There are warning signs going off all around us, but I still feel like I’m going completely against the grain whenever I try to take heed.

“Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race.” — H. G. Wells

For example: In my continuing efforts to be more environmentally conscious, less oil-dependent, healthier, and a bit more frugal, I’ve taken to bicycling to nearby destinations whenever possible. In many places in the world, this is the easy and obvious solution; after all, the bicycle is the most efficient known form of transportation. But things are different in the land of sprawl. In a country that, for the last 50 years, has designed its spaces around cars, attempting to use anything else can be a harrowing experience. Not only that, but many seem to take offense at bicyclists, shouting profanities or honking as they drive by. Whether they’re completely ignorant or just living in our familiar state of cognitive dissonance, who knows.

The writing’s been on the wall for as long as anyone’s been willing to look. Oil production has probably peaked in the last year or two, and will soon begin a series of declines, each worst than the last. The environment is changing in ways that no one completely understands, but most agree is for the worse. The suburban way of life is going to fade out, an anomalous period of history fostered by the era of cheap energy and insufficient foresight.

Yet, I’m still not sure how I’ll ever manage to live in a way that is balanced with nature. Riding bikes, switching to fluorescent lights, reusing grocery bags, even changing my diet; they seem like token gestures rather than true improvements. If everyone lived like me, we’d still need the resources of multiple planets to fulfill the demand. Not only that, but what I consider modest behavior changes, many still consider extreme! Doing anything other than throwing money at a problem is practically unamerican. Almost existentially, I begin to question the point of modifying my behavior in a culture that still chugs bottled water like, well, water. How am I supposed to care when my actions are regarded with disdain by the culture I’m purporting to help?

No matter what I do, things are going to change in my lifetime in ways I can’t anticipate. With news of food rationing and droughts, and the knowledge that we use 10 calories of hydrocarbon energy for every calorie of food we produce (not including transport or cooking), energy scarcity may be the least of our worries. The next wars may be fought not over oil, but clean water and arable land. But today, we misguidedly continue to repurpose farms as fuel supplies, converting food into ethanol while billions starve.

Here’s a fantastic talk (approx 20 min) by James Howard Kunstler, “The Tragedy of Suburbia” (ironically sponsored by BMW):

Some worthwhile documentaries on the topic:

• The End of Suburbia
• What a Way to Go

There are no quick fixes, and the difficult fixes that should’ve begun years ago haven’t yet. These topics always leave me feeling uneasy, never able to come completely to grips with reality. As we continue down the irrational path of consuming the planet that gave us life, I wonder, how do you come to terms with this? Consciously or not, we know that the world isn’t going to bear the strain much longer. It probably explains the hopes pinned on a Rapture-event, an ascension to a higher plane of existence. Because what else do you do, when you’ve burned up all you have?

Comments are open on this entry, if anyone has any thoughts to share.