Those of you who follow me know that I have recently ceased making posts urging large-scale reform. The reasons for that are fairly simple, but they involve a psychological hurdle to get over.

I have been communicating with James Howard Kunstler, John Michael Greer, and David Holmgren, all of whom I have interviewed, about a Wise Action Plan. The goal was for us to agree on this Plan and then publicly pronounce it in an effort to get some sensible action on peak oil and climate change. Initially, I urged a response that included a revitalization of rail, large-scale wind or solar farms, and other actions that require the federal government to take a strong leadership role.

While the others generally agreed such actions would be a good idea, especially if they have been started 20 or more years ago, two of the three thought they were a waste of time. They had two reasons for this:

1. It’s too late. We needed to be getting off oil while we still had a surplus. Now that we’ve hit peak oil, diverting any oil to build solar panels means there is less for cars or crops.
2. They ain’t gonna. What politician is going to do that, barring an emergency situation? (Emergency is here defined as rioting, fuel rationing, or other severe measures.)

To be fair to our politicians, it’s hard to get elected telling people their lifestyle is going to change drastically, including many of them giving up their cars. The problem is partly cultural; we want what we want, and we’re going to keep electing politicians who give it to us until that is no longer possible.

And to be brutally honest, most of us have bought into the idea of unending growth and improvement, that the market will find solutions to concerns like oil depletion, and that if it were really that bad, somebody would do something.

At that point, we will be well into the emergency.

It has been difficult for me to give up on the idea of leadership from above. I ran federally as a Green Party of Canada candidate last go-round, but wouldn’t do it again. Even in the fantastic unlikelihood that the Greens got a majority next election, they could not do what needs to be done. Still too many people will resist change, and this resistance will be encouraged and financed – by vested interests.

Think Globally, Act Locally

As a result, I’ve gone local. Leadership is going to have to come from the grassroots, from us, from those who understand the reality and are willing to take some action. I believe that every village, town, city, and region should create a Transition Initiative to get off oil.

This is acting locally, and it is vitally important for your survival. Local resilience is ‘in,’ and for good reason. When oil prices go up, imports of everything – including food – are going to get more expensive and harder to get. If you’re already shopping at the farmer’s market, for example, you have helped support a local farmer who will now support you as options in the supermarkets get scarcer and pricier.

This is my new Wise Action Plan:

1. Start or join a Transition Initiative in your area.
2. Reskill.
3. Develop personal self-reliance, which includes everything from starting a garden to insulating your house.

If we’re lucky and good, these local movements will take off, multiply like viruses, and infect the planet. These local movements will bond together and require their governments to do the right thing – to protect us. They will do this not by lobbying or influence-peddling, but by sheer strength of numbers.

I’m reading Joseph Stiglitz’ Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy, and he has mentioned several times that the most recent banking crisis was far from the first. In fact, it seems bankers have a history of creating financial disasters; I am old enough to remember the U.S. Savings and Loan crisis, caused by crooked bankers and enabled by crooked politicians, and Stiglitz mentions that there have been many such crises around the world.

It shouldn’t be any surprise that bankers routinely cause financial crises. While Stiglitz cites reality to back up the need for strict oversight of bankers, basic common sense should yield the same conclusion, for two reasons:

• Bankers deal with money – a lot of it. That is going to attract greedy and unethical people.
• Bankers make their money using other people’s money.

Given the immediate and enormous impact money has on our lives, large sums of money will act like a magnet for greedy people, especially those who want something for nothing. And what better way to get something for nothing than by gambling with other people’s money, where you get a huge profit if you win and there is no negative consequence if you lose? The only way to do better than that is outright theft, a la Berbie Madoff, but so far there are still consequences in that field.

The two reasons previously mentioned mean there is a great deal of moral hazard in the banking industry, and while many bankers will be responsible and trustworthy (with sufficient oversight), it only takes a few to thoroughly corrupt the whole system. Those few, of course, will make the most money and therefore will have the resources to buy politicians to remove barriers to making even more money – and more risk. As it becomes easier and easier to get rich quick in the banking industry, more and more unscrupulous people will drive out responsible bankers and sensible laws…until the result is a crisis.

By that point, of course, they have bought enough influence to ensure a bailout for themselves and no oversight that might cramp their style going forward.

This is why banking is best when boring.

The purpose of this site is to find a ‘green’ lever big enough to move the world to sustainability. I titled it Go Green or Die because, well, that is true, we must, and becauseI thought it rather catchy.

That said, I have come to realise that people will not see climate change and peak oil as the crises they are unless and until a social tipping point is reached, where likely we will go from denial to near-panic. Various things can push us toward this tipping point; this site is my own small attempt, as are my The Way Home presentations, but we are not there yet and we are already late getting started on addressing these crises.

And that brings me to the main point. We cannot count upon governments or corporations – large organizations led by people with a strong vested interest in business-as-usual – to wake up and take action on climate change and peak oil in time.

I have come to accept this, and I won’t say I found it easy. I ran as as Green Party of Canada candidate in the last federal election, and as a Green Party of British Columbia candidate in the last provincial election. Clearly I recently thought that action at the national or provincial level was possible; I no longer think so.

It would be a long story to explain all my reasons why, but perhaps a small, real example will help illustrate. In the last provincial election, Lana Popham was one of my opponents as the NDP candidate. She seemed as ‘green’ as me; in talking with her, she clearly understood the threat posed by climate change. Her family runs an organic vineyard. She cycles everywhere.

I nearly withdrew to give her a clear run, but was persuaded otherwise. She won anyway. What has been the result? Her party formed the Opposition, and made her Agriculture Critic. The leaders of the NDP have her spending her time and energy and goodwill campaigning to get bicycles exempted from a new tax.

And that is just a tiny example of why change is unlikely to come from above. It rarely does, really; those entrenched naturally oppose change.

I came to realise that it is up to us. “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” as the song says. We must at least work to save local areas as best we can, to make them sustainable and self-reliant. Done alone, that will not ultimately stop or save anyone from climate change. It will only buffer against the coming oil shock and allow life to continue in a somewhat civilised manner.

The best route I’ve found so far is Transition Initiative, which every town and city and region should be doing. It’s a grassroots movement to make the local region more self-reliant, less dependent upon oil. There is no head office, no Executive Director. There are only guiding principles and local examples.

This is all a long way of saying that I’ve joined my local Transition Initiative. That is where the action is going to come from. The movement has caught on and has spread like wildfire, which gives me hope for wider action. It would be wonderful if ultimately there were thousands and thousands of Transition Towns, and these millions upon millions of people joined forces to end dependence on fossil fuels.

This journey has allowed me to create The Way Home presentation that ends on a positive, optimistic note. I was trained by Al Gore to deliver the An Inconvenient Truth presentation, which I did 40-or-so times to a few thousand people in total. One thing that always bothered me was the lack of realistic solutions offered. I don’t mean just the “Change your lightbulbs” ’solution,’ but even writing to your elected representative is largely a waste of time at this point.

Transition Initiatives do offer hope. I am going to re-do this site in the next few weeks to reflect the path we must take. Yes, we must ‘go green or die.’ But that message is not inspiring change. In an attempt to communicate the extent of the threat, it inspires fear.

What we need is the truth, which is that things are bad. We have not responded appropriately to warnings from experts, and we are going to pay a price for that. Ok, so what do we do? Reality must be faced, and realistic action must be taken. That is the focus of the Transition Initiative, and also of the new look of this site, which will become The Way Home.

According to a recent poll and just about everyone I’ve spoken with, none of the major Canadian political parties is inspiring or trustworthy. No wonder voter turnout is so low. This is no surprise to me; I speculated this was the case months ago. More importantly, I suggested that this is not simply an indictment of the Liberals or the Conservatives, but also very much of the NDP and Greens.

Given how little faith Canadians have in the two big parties, the NDP and Greens should be rising in the polls. That they are not shows that Canadians put even less trust in the small parties. The Greens and NDP are squandering an opportunity to shine that they may not get again any time soon. If they were communicating any sort of inspiring vision or leadership, they would be gaining a steady stream of supporters, but they are not.

The problem could, and probably does, lie with the leaders and their cronies.

If I were Jack Layton…

I would offer the following to the Canadian people:

“Dear supporters and candidates of all parties, and of course independents, the NDP would like to suggest a practical way to make Parliament work, to stabilize our economy, and to do our part in fighting climate change. We must have the integrity, the wisdom, and the courage to face our problems squarely and honestly.

“Our way is not made easier by a diminishing world oil supply, which we are so dependent upon, and a steadily degrading life support system, the “environment.” Top scientists have been warning us for some time, and we now have little time to prepare. In fact, climate change is already happening and it is already bad, from Arctic sea ice melting and polar bears doomed to extinction – except in zoos – to millions and millions of trees killed by pine beetles.

“Climate change is costing us in every way. Economically and socially, the pine beetles alone have destroyed billions of dollars of timber and countless jobs, leaving devastated towns in BC – and it looks like they’ve crossed the Rockies to decimate the rest of our Boreal pine forests. Worldwide fish stocks are in rapid decline, expected to collapse by 2050 – if not sooner. That means skyrocketing fish prices followed by very expensive, grain-fed, farmed fish if you want it. We are about duplicate the East Coast cod fishery collapse on a global scale. Fish is a major and important part of our diet and our world. As we harm the environment, we wound ourselves.

“We know all these things are going on, but we just don’t know what to do about it. It all seems so overwhelming and out of our control, whether it’s a force of nature or corporate-dominated governments that have forgotten who they represent. And many people are afraid to vote for the “socialist” NDP. Well, we’re actually more like the Social Democrats in some highly successful countries in Europe, like Denmark or Germany. Six weeks of vacation per year doesn’t seem to have slowed their economies down much, and greening their economies is working out pretty well for them.

“But we are putting all that aside. We’re only proposing action on areas where we are sure we have significant agreement with the majority of Canadians. We won’t try to impose six week vacations on you – unless we get a majority government. But we are suggesting cooperation on areas of agreement so that Canada responds appropriately to the various crises we are facing.

“We all know that the climate is changing, and this is going to be a problem for us. Same with the fisheries collapsing, and ocean “dead zones,” and the spreading of deserts, and pollution and overpopulation. We have known for a long time that these would someday become emergencies if not stopped. “Someday” is now.

“And unfortunately, we’re not as economically well-off as we once were for dealing with problems.

“Last year saw an oil price spike that contributed to our current serious recession, and which was triggered by a crooked banking system in the United States. Millions upon millions of Americans have been foreclosed upon. Millions more have gone bankrupt, and the most common cause of bankruptcies in the US has for years been health costs for insured people. There are great and wonderful things about the United States that we admire, but American-style capitalism has some serious flaws. Our banking regulations aren’t perfect, but they protected us from the worst of the excesses on Wall Street. Our health care system isn’t perfect, but it works.

“’If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ And if it does need fixing, or even just an update, learn from examples that work well. Use proven techniques. Learn from success.

“With that in mind, Canada is lagging Europe badly, and we are not preparing for the new green economy. China and India are well ahead of us when it comes to green technology. We are not falling behind. We are behind. This is not acceptable. We cannot sell raw resources and expect to have a developed-world standard of living forever. That is doubly true if the resource is non-renewable, because it’s a one-time-only bonanza.

“The reason we’re lagging the coming economy is because we are not taking climate change and the end of cheap oil seriously, and these other nations are. Other countries see the danger and they are taking appropriate action to protect themselves and to minimize the damage. We are not. As a result, they are building a greener economy, which turns out to be more robust in the face of recession, and we are clinging to the American Way.

“Let’s be proud of the Canadian Way. America is not perfect and there are some things we do better here, from a better and cheaper health care system to better regulated and therefore more robust banks. More than that, we have been leaders in the fight for truth and justice.

“I have great faith in Canadians to do what needs to be done in times of trouble, because of that shining example set by an earlier generation in the Great Wars. They sacrificed to defeat fascism, the horror that a Nazi-dominated world would have been. We face threats of our own, and we must rise. We must have the courage of our forebears to defend ourselves from the problems we face.

“I offer this to all citizens of Canada:

“Let it be known that the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) agrees to strategic candidacies in every riding in Canada, with the purpose of forming a government that will commit to accomplish the following and no more:

• Open government: No more secret meetings or buried reports. All minutes, budgets, and expenditures down to the lowest level to be published on the Internet in real time. All civil service reports and statistics published immediately upon completion, with data, and untouched by political influence.

• Ban lobbying: Forbid anyone employed by the people of Canada, directly or indirectly as subcontractors or other means, to engage in lobbying for a period of 5 years following the end of public service. Similarly, lobbyists may not work in government for 5 years from the end of their lobbying job.

• Re-direct existing subsidies and all economic stimulus money to the measures below, accepting the current deficit level until unemployment drops below 5%. Convert the GST to a greenhouse gas tax and redirect to building green economic stability. Build to a surplus, pay off the debt, and leave a surplus should bad economic times come again.

• Rebuild our manufacturing by mandating that necessities must be produced here, especially food, energy, and the ability to get around the country. We should not be dependent upon other nations for our needs; it diminishes us. It weakens us. Luxuries we can import. Our food and energy we must not.

• Move oil-producing provinces to energy-producing provinces: The prairies have plenty of sun and wind, for example. Alberta and Saskatchewan can sell electricity instead of oil, and keep the high-paying jobs and good economic times. Imagine if former Prime Minister Chretien had, after committing Canada to Kyoto, redirected tar sands subsidies to green energy; the prairie provinces would be energy superpowers in clean, renewable energy now. Any government since could have done it. All have failed us by not even considering it.

• Rebuild the Canadian National Railway. Not the company; the once-great service from sea-to-sea – that was a condition for acceptance of Confederation for some provinces. The Edmonton-Calgary and golden horseshoe-to-Montreal legs should start immediately and all parts should be built in Canada. We need the expertise and the jobs – and we should be experts in getting around a large, sparsely-populated country.

• Change the building code to mandate net-zero homes – within one year. We have to get moving, and we can learn from the examples of Great Britain and France, which already have such codes mandated. How would you like to pay nothing for heat and hot water? It can be done and is being done.

• Have each city and region perform a “Self-reliance Audit” and create and begin implementing a “Self-reliance Plan”; the purpose is to insulate us from oil price spikes, food or other shortages, or any disruptions to our security.

• Waste Not, Want Not: When a biodegradable, reusable, or recyclable product exists and is within 10% of the cost of the current solution, then all products of that type must be biodegradable, reusable, or recyclable. This drives us to a much less wasteful society, which in the long run will also be less costly. Costs of alternatives will drop rapidly once mainstreamed. And we have the savings from less energy used, pollution-free industries, lower health care costs, and so on.

• Reduce crime and repeat offenders by instituting rehabilitative justice for non-violent offenders. Bring back work farms so the taxpayer is not paying for the offender’s food, but they are providing for themselves. And have them grow the food for the Parliamentary dining room, too.

“To our knowledge all of the above would fit with the Green, Bloc, Liberal, or Progressive Conservative approaches – and more importantly, are what Canadians want. It makes Canada and Canadians more secure and more prosperous. It stabilizes the economy. It is the wise course and it is what we need to start doing yesterday.

“Let’s not waste another moment on business as usual. Canadians should be leaders, not followers – or worse, ignored. That is where the big parties have led us. It is time for a change, to ensure government protects the people first. It is time to do our part on the world stage, and at home.

“We offer this to the other parties, to individual candidates, and to all Canadians. We face threats, crises, and we must rise to the occasion. We are sincere about putting Canada before party. We will work with any citizen, candidate, or party that is willing to do the same.”

****************************************************

They’ll never do it, of course. And so they will deservedly continue to sit in nowhere land in the polls with the Greens.

I can’t say precisely when, so by “soon” I mean within two years at most. My reasoning is below; I’d be curious to hear feedback.

Given that the:

1. Price of oil spiked to $147 per barrel in 2008
2. Current oil price is $80, even though we’re in the worst recession since the Great Depression

I reason that:

1. The price of oil remains ~$80 per barrel because demand is keeping it there.
2. The U.S. is in recession with oil at that price, no recovery is coming. We are in a permanent recession.
3. With oil at those prices during a recession – four times that of just a few years ago – indicates we have hit the limits of supply at this price. That is, oil producers cannot pump more to get the price down, even if they wanted to (which most don’t).

However, demand in China continues to grow, and we continue to burn far more oil than we’re finding, so this means another oil price spike is almost certain within two years. The U.S. economy may find a way to recover somewhat, too; perhaps another bubble can be found. And the Americans are starting to drive more, again. That will push demand up.

Demand is going to push on supply, and price is going to go up fast, followed by a crash to a lower level than we are now. We have to reach a level of recession where we are consuming considerably less oil, or are considerably less dependent upon oil.

As we’re not doing anything serious about consuming or being less dependent upon oil, there will be another spike and crash.

Don’t wait for your federal government or even state/provincial government to provide leadership. They will at best respond too late, once we’re mid-crisis or beyond. Make your town a transition town.

Radical right wingers, or perhaps whingers is more appropriate, always cry that their right to free speech is being impinged when they are shouted down. However, I say shout down, shut up, and drive out people who actively seek to promote hatred and divide us against each other. We have seen the results when we allow such people to speak freely.

Ann Coulter’s speech at the University of Ottawa was cancelled last after protesters shouted her down. Here are comments from a redditor who was there. And now she’s going to file a human rights complaint.

For those who don’t know, Ann Coulter is not a decent person. She’s part-shock jock and part-racist, frequently attempting to divide the United States into hard right and left, and then to set the two against each other. She has stated that Canadians should consider themselves lucky not to have been invaded for refusing to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

I say good riddance to a dangerous fool.

Apologies for recent infrequent posting. I’ve been working mainly on two things:

1. That “Get a free house idea” mentioned in a previous post. I may have an opportunity to be a developer/builder, which would get me that mortgage-free solar house.
2. The Way Home book and presentation. The presentation is in the works for April at the University of Victoria, and New Society Publishers (many of which books should be on your reading list) wants to see the manuscript for the book.

These two things have been consuming much of my time! I will be back soon; first article up will likely be on why what was previously considered a middle class lifestyle is now not possible for most people.

Brian

Peak oil is that point in time at which we have burned half or all the available oil. After this time, there is progressively less oil, it is harder to get, and the price trends up – likely with nasty, recession-causing price spikes. However, the realization that the oil supply is running down is even more important, because with this awareness will come some significant changes in behaviour.

Oil exporters (Dealers)

Oil exporting nations waking up to the fact that the world oil supply is diminishing, and acknowledging the reality that their own country’s supply has peaked, are almost certain to reduce exports. To do otherwise would be suicidal in most cases. Let’s take Saudi Arabia as an example:

• Population: 28 million
• Oil: 90% of exports and 75% of government revenue
• Country: mostly desert; only 2% arable

This is not a recipe for domestic tranquillity when the oil revenues stop, or even drop. Less revenue means less services, like roads and hospitals and pensions, and that will make the masses restive. It also means fewer imports, and for a country that has far too many people living in the desert, a shortage of food imports will quickly make the masses violent.

Saudi Arabia is an oil exporter. As acceptance of the idea of peak oil sets in, whether that date is now or simply soon, exporters know that:

• They must get off oil themselves or their economy will collapse, people will starve and/or riot, imports will stop, and they will go back to being nomads in the desert. If they survive the riots.
• Oil is only going to go up in price. Repeat that, and think about what it means: Oil is only going to go up in price. That means that every barrel you sell now could have been sold for more – maybe a lot more – within a few years. So what’s the rush to pump it and ship it?

I should point out that this is a predicament, not a problem for Saudi Arabia and many other countries; there is not necessarily a solution. They may have overpopulated their country to the point that they are reliant upon imports for necessities like food and even water. Once they have no more oil to export, the following are likely outcomes but hardly “solutions”:

1. Mass starvation down to a level that the land can support (a die-back)
2. Mass exodus into neighbouring countries, destabilising them
3. Wars for access to water and arable land
4. All of the above

Responses to the Peak Oil Predicament for Exporters

Leaders, as intentionally obtuse as they have been about peak oil, once they ‘get it’ they will work to ensure that they are protected. It is important to think about it from this point of view, as it is the closest to the actual motivation felt by leaders. Their primary motivation will not be you or your lifestyle. They will want to protect (and continue enhancing) their position, power, and money, and that of their cronies. If you are fortunate, your Dear Leader will choose a way that also helps the masses. They have some options:

• Massive force and a police state to keep the masses in check, as the Soviet Union, North Korea, and any number of other dictatorships have done or currently do.
• “Ethnic cleansing,” or any other excuse to reduce the population and provide a target for people’s anger.
• Continue subsidising an unsustainable lifestyle until it all comes crashing down – people are starving and/or rioting, parts of the country are seceding, the centre has lost all credibility. This happened to the U.S.S.R. and has happened to many empires. It is predicted for the United States on its current course.
• Use remaining oil to build a non-oil-dependent, regionally sustainable economy. So far, only the Scandinavian countries are serious about this, although Germany and some of the other European countries, and Brazil are heading in that direction.

The first three options make oil supply unstable. The final option means there will simply be less oil available for export.

Oil importers (Junkies)

Oil importing nations waking up to the reality of oil shortages and price increases are going to be in a world of hurt. The current recession is very likely permanent, and another oil spike will only deepen it. Let’s take the United States as an example:

• Consumes 25% of the global oil supply; possesses only 3% of world oil reserves
• Imports 60% of its oil needs
• Every economic recession in the past 40 years has been preceded by a significant increase in oil prices
• More than 40% of total U.S. energy demands and almost 100% of transportation fuels are oil-based

Any crimp in the oil supply, or any significant increase in prices, and the U.S. is in recession. Industrial-scale farming is also wholly dependent upon oil, so oil price increases mean food price increases. I have previously suggested that the current recession is permanent because the price of oil does not appear to be returning to levels of recent years; it is now ~$80 per barrel versus the $20 per barrel it had been for many years before, even though we are in the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The United States is an oil importer, and as the idea of peak oil becomes accepted, importers know that:

• They must reduce their dependence upon oil very rapidly or their economies will suffer severe setbacks
• Food and transportation prices will increase, leading to poorer and unhappier people
• Oil is going to go up in price from this point forward, and this will only cause further economic contraction

As for exporters, this is a predicament: there are responses but not really solutions. The solution was to ‘get off oil’ starting 20 years ago, but that path was not taken. Leaders will know that people are going to be very angry as living standards decline. They will be looking for someone and/or something to blame, and U.S. leaders from Congressmen to oil company executives will be likely targets.

As oil prices spike and wreck oil-dependent economies, some possible outcomes are:

1. Mass starvation down to a level that the land can support (a die-back)
2. Population decline as recent immigrants leave
3. Wars for access to oil
4. Breakup of the nation into smaller, more self-reliant pieces
5. All of the above

The first is unlikely but not impossible. The second and third are happening now in the U.S., and the fourth, once unimaginable, now seems at least possible given the division within the country – and hard times haven’t even hit yet.

Responses to the Peak Oil Predicament for Importers

Importers can either reduce imports or find a way to keep the oil coming regardless of declining supply. The most recent U.S. overthrow of Iraq was arguably an attempt to keep the oil flowing; certainly the U.S. has overthrown governments in the past to keep the oil flowing. The United States has a large military presence in the Middle East for just that purpose.

Importers, interestingly, also have the same possible responses to peak oil as exporters:

• Massive force and a police state to keep the masses in check, as the Soviet Union, North Korea, and any number of other dictatorships have done or currently do.
• “Ethnic cleansing,” or any other excuse to reduce the population and provide a target for people’s anger.
• Continue subsidising an unsustainable lifestyle until it all comes crashing down – people are starving and/or rioting, parts of the country are seceding, the centre has lost all credibility. This happened to the U.S.S.R. and has happened to many empires. It is predicted for the United States on its current course.
• Use remaining oil to build a non-oil-dependent, regionally sustainable economy. So far, only the Scandinavian countries are serious about this, although Germany and some of the other European countries, and Brazil are heading in that direction.

The first three options don’t “solve” anything, at least not for you and I. Unfortunately, many ‘democracies’ have put in place laws that allow the federal government great power in the event of an “emergency,” especially anything that can be defined as “terrorism.” My friend recently had a rude awakening about this when the police showed up at his door to ask about an email he had sent that mentioned blockading the Canadian tar sands; how they got the email they would not say.

The final option is not being pursued or even seriously considered in countries like the United States, as the third option is flogged to death. This makes the first two options more likely in the long run.

Awareness is a Powerful Thing

We do not have to actually hit the ‘peak’ of oil for the previously mentioned things to start happening. All that has to happen is for enough people – especially those in power – to realise peak oil is coming and what it will mean.

The responses to oil supply concerns so far by importers have destabilised world peace and the world economy. There is no reason to believe that the current crop of world leaders will take serious action to ‘get off oil,’ making a crash progressively more likely.

They were nice enough about it – told him they really just came to look at his car. (He has a Ferrari.) They had left a card earlier for him, from some constable in the Saanich Police Department, asking him to contact them. Brad* hadn’t seen it until I gave it to him that evening, when a few of us came by to talk and play some pool.

But it’s not that nice, is it, when you discover that some police force, somewhere, is monitoring your email and has detected something they regard as potentially dangerous.

In this case, Brad had sent an email to a group of six people, including me, that mentioned blockading the tar sands. The cops had it with them, and they had some questions.  But my question is, how did they get that email? It went to six people; all say Of course they didn’t forward it.

The officers (three of them; perhaps they were worried they were dealing with an insane jihadist) did not mention a warrant. Does this mean that Canadian email is run through filters – put in place by whom? I don’t recall any Act of Parliament authorising domestic spying on Canadians.

And finally, why are the municipal police coming to the door? I am pretty sure the Saanich police department is not monitoring Brad’s emails. That would come from the federal police or a spy agency: the RCMP or CSIS.  Perhaps that agency wanted to send a message. As someone who received Brad’s email, message received.

You’ll notice that this site has a GGoD page, on which is a statement and a manifesto. Some of us on the planet have noticed that a few of us are making a fabulous profit at the expense of the rest of our lives, that they are smart people doing very foolish things. They are wrecking our future. There are seven original members of that group, of which I am one, who exchanged a number of emails discussing ways to stop climate change.

Two of those members mentioned, in emails, that blockading the tar sands, would certainly send a message. No action has been taken in that regard; ideas were simply being discussed.  None of us would have forwarded an email containing those ideas without telling the rest of us. So I believe, and I have asked the group to confirm.

That leaves electronic eavesdropping. Apparently, if you mention “blockade” and “tar sands” in a email,, that is picked up by some police organisation’s email filters somewhere – Canada or the U.S.? – and you may be visited in your home by the police.

Disturbing. That emails are almost certainly being monitored, and that local cops are being sent out to intimidate the citizenry into silence.

UPDATE 1: Brad emailed to say:

I can’t imagine how they got a hold of that email but the implications are certainly stunning and very concerning as it appears that the authorities can access any information which in any way might challenge their authority or threaten the evil and corrupt industries they are (indirectly) in bed with!

UPDATE 2: To those commenting on the apparent hypocrisy of owning a Ferrari and being green, Brad started going green quite recently. He has been mostly vegan for many years; that ought to ‘pay’ for a few of his Sunday afternoon drives this summer.

He hadn’t really considered climate change until recently. Less than 10 years ago I was driving an Infiniti QX4: I didn’t know anything about “global warming” or peak oil at the time, and would have spouted the usual denier propaganda had you asked me. Now that Brad is realizing the predicament we face, what does he do with the Ferrari? Sell it? Then it’s still on the road. Crush it? What?!

Except for people who have been hippies since birth, we all go through a stage where our dawning green awareness leads to the realisation that so much of what we do is harming someone and/or the planet. At that point we all have to make choices about what and when we will cut back – considering that almost nobody else is.

UPDATE 3: Changed paragraph 3 and added 4 and 5 for clarity.

*Name changed, not that it matters at this point.

Here is the ideal post-collapse (meat) meal.* For future hunter-gatherers, here’s an easy meal when you just want to warm yourself around an open fire on a cool spring evening, drinking some mead and laughing with family and tribe. (Update below with recipe in English.)

My wife and family are from Colombia, which means that my wife’s mother retains memories of and skills from a more self-reliant age. She can turn milk into cheese using only the sun and a powder called “Milkset,” for example. And every now and again, my wife, who has the memories but not the skills, because like most of us in the developing world, her generation never had to use them, still occasionally goes back to her roots.

This dish – Lomo al trapo – likely has very old roots. It’s the sort of thing people have been cooking for thousands of years, because the requirements are simple: cloth, string, fire, beer, salt, hunk of meat.

The instructions below are in Spanish below (here’s the original), but essentially here’s how it goes:

1. Lay out a square of cotton large enough to wrap a hunk of meat.
2. Spread 1 kg of salt over the cloth.
3. Soak another cloth in beer and lay it over the first.
4. Put the meat in the middle, wrap it up and tie it.
5. Cook for approximately 30 minutes per side over an open fire.

I can imagine people cooking this back in the middle ages and even much further back for a small feast.

It looked delicious, and I’m told it was. (As a vegetarian, I didn’t partake in the meat portion of the meal.)

* If you’ve read other articles on this site, you’ll know that I normally write about what we can expect in a future of declining oil supplies, climate change, and worse-than-useless leaders.)

Lomo al trapo

UPDATE: Lomo al Trapo – Beef Tenderloin in Cloth (English recipe)

Comensales: 6
País: Colombia
Tiempo de preparación: 15 mins
Tiempo de cocción: 40 mins
Tiempo total: 55 mins

Preparación:

El lomo debe ser bien fino, largo y sin nervios o grasa.
Mojar el trapo de algodón y cubrirlo con un kilo de sal; colocar el lomo en el centro, y cubrirlo con el resto de la sal. Cerrar bien la tela, cuidando de que la carne quede bien cubierta de sal; superponer los bordes largos y doblar hacia adentro los extremos. Atar muy bien con hilo de cocina, ajustando cada 5 cm. para evitar que se escape la sal.

Colocar en la parilla, cuidando de que las brasas no quemen la tela; cocinar por 8 minutos de cada lado, si le gusta bien jugoso. Si no, extender el tiempo de cocción a 10 minutos para término medio; y 12, si lo desea bien cocido.

Al voltearlo, se nota que la sal se solidificó por efecto del calor. Para retirar la carne, hay que romper esta capa de sal, y quitar bien con un cuchillo lo que puede haber quedado sobre el lomo, el cual debe estar seco por fuera y tierno por dentro.