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And the final
section, with parting references to those lethal paradigms. Kwc Post Carbon
And now we come to
the second man I would like to honor tonight, Julian
Darley of Global Public Media and the Post Carbon Institute. Put simply, the Post Carbon
Institute’s mission is to save lives. Put a little more succinctly, the Post
Carbon Institute’s mission is to work with local groups around North America
and the world to facilitate their construction of their own lifeboats,
specifically tailored to the strengths and weaknesses faced by each unique
locale that presents itself for help. To facilitate this, the Post
Carbon Institute has adopted a unique approach. Rather than dictate top-down
policies or provide cookie-cutter solutions which may or may not prove helpful
as collapse accelerates, the Institute facilitates relocalization by insisting
that each Post-Carbon “outpost,” as it calls them, operate autonomously while
receiving only guidance, support, and updated information and news from the
Institute itself. Each outpost then has only one mission, to focus on immediate
improvements to its community such as, but certainly not limited to: local
farming, car sharing, local currencies and event organization. As Julian puts
it, “the stakes are the survival of this project we call civilization.” Since beginning its work in the
second half of 2003, the Post Carbon Institute has fostered the creation of
more than 90 local groups all over the US and Canada, as well as in the UK,
Australia, Sweden and even Yemen. It has grown explosively as small, aware
groups of citizens have seen the wisdom of Julian’s approach which begins with
one of the first rules in any survival situation: Let the people on the ground
make the decisions according to their own judgment, in their own place. Instead of 90 Post Carbon groups
around the world there should be 9,000. These are the kinds of numbers we need
to see if we are to really make a difference in helping to decide who eats and
stays warm, who lives and who dies.
If you have not yet visited the Post
Carbon web site, you must. If this conference has motivated
you to start preparing for the challenges that lie ahead, you need to begin by
accepting the headstart that the PostCarbon Institute has given you. Richard Heinberg—another great hero of this
movement—has said, “The Post Carbon Institute is clearly the first medic on the
scene—the first organized response to Peak Oil.” About a year and a half ago,
seeing what was coming, I looked around and saw a crying need for someone to
take the lead on this challenge. Before that, my expertise and that of From the Wilderness had been geopolitical
and economic analysis. I had precious little experience or training on issues
of sustainability, agriculture, water, alternative construction, and all the
other things we need to learn. Nevertheless I was willing to take
FTW and my writings in that
direction even though I knew that there had to be others far more capable than
I was. I am happy to report to you tonight that I and FTW no longer need to go in that
direction. An expert—and I know Julian will protest that label—has arrived and
this has made a huge difference for us. It is now vastly more effective for me
and FTW to say that on the key
issues of relocalization, downsizing and sustainability, we encourage everyone
to look to the Post Carbon Institute for guidance and leadership. Julian has
invented that wheel for us. We only need a few more and we can make a wagon to
take us down survival’s path. As a result, I and FTW are free to return to what we do best:
geopolitical and macro-economic analysis. Since our recent move to Ashland, Oregon,
we have hired three new staff. We have increased our production of original
stories by more than 50% and we plan on doubling our output within the next
four months. In this way FTW can
work as a strategic partner with the Post Carbon Institute and all of the other
great groups that have come here to New York to provide what no one else can:
an early warning system and the kind of analysis that will identify hot spots,
key issues, trends, and pending crises far enough ahead so that each locality
can prioritize its own efforts according to its own needs in light of a rapidly
changing global map. This is the way in which those who
see Peak Oil for what it is can plan, prepare, and respond as needs dictate.
This is the way in which true leadership, whether it be visionary and
analytical as is the case with Dimity Orlov, or organizational and educational
as with Julian Darley, can make a difference. This is the living embodiment of
Catherine Austin Fitts’ maxim that “No one is as smart as all of us.” Ladies and gentlemen, I would like
to present to you my good friend, a man who I respect and admire, Mr. Julian
Darley. Conclusion
A well-known Peak
Oil activist has already moved into a post-oil paradigm. He has no car. He has
no cell phone. He travels only by train to avoid leaving a large energy
footprint. Yet at the same time he tries to organize conferences around the
country, leaving people who depend on quick responses and decision making to
operate at levels not seen since the 1940s or 50s. Does anyone here believe that Dick
Cheney or Hillary Clinton or Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke or any of the world’s
business leaders are making such self-sabotaging choices now? They may have to,
someday. But for now they are taking every possible advantage, using whatever energy
is needed, to prepare and position themselves to stay ahead of what are now
certain coming events. I hate to say it, but perhaps we
should take a lesson from our enemies here. Let us not forget that in order to get to the Post-carbon
world that is inevitable we must first survive the collapse and the die off
that is inevitable. The challenges of the transition period will be completely
different from the challenges of living in a world without cheap energy. It is the almost complete failure
of the Peak Oil movement in the United States—and around the world—to grasp,
ponder or even acknowledge these transitions that are pointing to a needed
evolution in our approach to education, research, networking, and organizing. Psychologically it is always easier to
plan along the lines of a single challenge rather than to try to prepare for chaos on a fluid, multi-dimensional
field where serious challenges may be completely different from one day to the
next. But the easiest path is not always the best choice. The maxim that I live by is that
what we need today, right now, is not a plan, but options. Plans do not bend well. They tend to break. And with breaks in plans
come break downs in function. The only plan that I live by today—the only plan
that I recommend to our subscribers—is to increase one’s options as much as
possible and to selectively choose those options based upon what is happening
in the world now and what those developments might mean for the future. I would submit to you tonight that
perhaps a more important question that needs to be answered first is: “How do
we get from a civilization where collapse and dislocation is just beginning to
a place where we can prepare to transition away from oil and gas when the time
is appropriate”? John Lennon once wrote that “Life
is what happens to you while you were busy making other plans.” This movement
needs to reflect on that. A dear friend of mine, Dr. Faiz
Khan, once said that a
paradigm is what you think about something before you think about it. If the global economic paradigm that we
live under dictates infinite growth, then we must disengage individually and by
community from that paradigm. If the activist paradigm that we
live under says that we must slow down the process of reform and planning to
make room for all and offend no one, no matter how much they may slow down or
confuse the process, then we must disengage from that paradigm. This is no
longer about protracted—and almost always ineffective—social change. This is
about survival. I refuse to die, and I refuse to encourage anyone else to risk
death or to slow down for or argue with people who are either incapable of
understanding, too lazy to do the necessary homework, or too tightly wedded to
old ideas. Are these old ideas and cherished
values and principles now luxuries or necessities? We will each make our own
decisions, and in a world that will give us near instantaneous feedback. We
will suffer or prosper, we will stop or continue, we will live and die
accordingly. Buddhist philosophy teaches us that life is suffering. It is amazing how much
joy and liberation can be achieved from that viewpoint. It has to do with
lowering expectations so that little pieces of joy and cause for celebration
are more accessible to our hearts and minds. Judeo-Christianity, as practiced in America, tends to make us all believe that
if we are spiritually and morally correct, we will be rewarded with abundance.
As Dmitry Orlov observed, Christianity in other parts of the world teaches that
the path to salvation and redemption lies through suffering and denial. Which
is it then?
If the spiritual or religious paradigm that you live under influences
your thinking in either direction, then that paradigm is your enemy and my
enemy. What is it that you think about before you think? Find it, identify it,
and discard anything that is not a survival necessity. The only thing that
the universe is offering the human species now is the opportunity to change—to
evolve…or to perish. Perhaps there is a new
understanding of God awaiting those who survive. I have long held the personal
belief that
religion is for people who are afraid of going to Hell and that true
spirituality is for those who have already been there. What I do know, because I have
faced many survival challenges in my life, is that the less baggage one takes
into any survival situation, the more likely one is to survive. Perhaps this philosophy is best summed
up by one of my favorite quotes of all time. In his classic science fiction
novel Dune, Frank Herbert wrote: I must not fear. http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042706_paradigm_speech.shtml |
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