Peak Oil/Global Change

I'm a believer in Peak Oil and Global change. I think most people at least know the terms now but many people do not believe that anything will come of them. One of these people is my brother J. J and his wife, S, live in the jungles of Peru as Field Coordinators for Missionary Ventures. In simple terms they find things that need to be done and host volunteer teams that come to do the work. They've been in Peru for something like 7 years now. Maybe more, actually. They don't get back to the States very often but they are here now for about 3 months.

They live a pretty primitive life due to where they live, at least compared to the average American way of life. He's built several schools and homes with composting toilets, dug wells by hand, and has very little electricity. He is currently living what many people would say is a post-peak lifestyle.

He's been in Peru for several years without a visit home and now that's he is back he is amazed at the average American lifestyle. I like to think that I'm working on reducing my usage of things. I'm good at turning off lights (CF lights), I recycle, I compost, we keep the house much cooler than years before and so on. He is amazed at how much light we use. He sat in my kitchen and said "look at all the lights you have one" counted them and said "six lights. In Peru only 1 light would be on." They are on one light switch and spaced thru the kitchen. "In Peru they would have unscrewed all the bulbs but one." Hmmm.

Flush toilets are another point for him. His composting toilets work great for the school with many users and at his personal home with only a few users. We flush, although not after every usage. Now, I've been meaning to switch to peeing in buckets and using that pee water (1 part pee 10 parts water) to water plants but hadn't done so as the house was for sale and I didn't think pee buckets would look good. Now that the house is off the market I need to do that. I have the buckets, I just need to set them up. I've also done a lot of reading on composting humanure but haven't put it into action yet.

Coming from Peru they were freezing in our winter cold and, really, due to our location it's not that cold out there. They piled on the layers though, which is more than most of us were doing. My other brother's house is so hot they have to open doors to cool the house (woodstove). J marveled over the variety of foods available. He's used to getting whatever the market has that day and vegetables are always poor quality there. I'm working on eating more local and in season but for their visit I have been buying things I wouldn't normally buy. I was very unhappy to see Safeway (a large local chain) had spinach from Mexico. The store I usually shop at has been having spinach from the next state. We Americans take such abundance and good quality for granted. He marvels over the huge cars most people drive. In Peru he has a motor cart and walks a good deal.

Now, I can remember when they first moved to the jungle, changing locations from the high desert area of Peru. He moaned at how primitive life was in this fairly good sized city in the jungle. He adjusted quickly though and having embraced that way of life is now appalled at how we live. All the things that Peak Oilers talk about that need changing, he's already doing. He lives comfortably and mostly likes how he lives. He does admit that his climate is much better for primitive living than ours.

I tried talking with him about Peak Oil but he doesn't believe in it at all. He remembers how 'they' predicted no oil in the '70s, how Y2K didn't occur. And I wondered how I could talk to him about why this time is different. I'm not good at remembering all the arguments, the reasons and explanations.

There is a blog that I read daily called Casaubon's Book. The writer covers Peak Oil, global change, reducing etc. She firmly believes that our lifestyles must change, change a lot, and change now. She had a post today that recaps reasons for Peak Oil now that I thought was right on. This is a link to today's blog: http://casaubonsbook.blogspot.com/2008/01/why-is-this-apocalypse-different-than.html