Wendell Berry Rule #8

Wendell Berry's Rule #8 (taken from a poster published by Yes! Magazine www.yesmagazine.org):
"Strive to produce as much of the community's own energy as possible".

All Mr. Berry's "Rules" are so eminently sensible, why aren't we already doing these things?  Could it be that we have allowed ourselves to be entrapped by the advertizing industry that persuades us we need to let go of the old, sustainable ways in favor of buying things from big corporations?  Now, I'm not against corporations, I'm only unhappy with how some corporations do their business and what they are selling us.  We do not need, for example, processed cereals in boxes "fortified" with nutrients that were removed from the original grain during processing! Much of the western world is now addicted to these boxed cereals.  Even the box and paper bag the product is wrapped in makes no sense!  A waste of resources.

We can save money and be healthier and affect the planet in better ways by not buying these things. Why can't we start with the grain itself, cook it, soak it, grind it and then prepare delicious foods that are much better for us and have a lighter impact on the planet?

So, in this way, I think we all are aware how addicted we have become to lots of ingenious products that companies have devised, advertized to draw us in .  "Packaged energy" i.e. energy, or fuel, delivered to our homes automatically through municipal pipelines that we don't even see or think about, or delivered like liquid propane to tanks near our homes, or gasoline into our car tanks, perpetuate the illusion that energy is sort of free for the taking, harmless, in fact.

Well, most of us know now that this way of heating and moving ourselves is hugely expensive.  I'm not talking money here.  I'm talking the overall cost to the planet of even using these fuels.  Fossil fuels.

Mr. Berry's Rule #8 is admonishing us to develop fuel sources in our own communities and we can do this to a great extent.  Geographical, climatalogical, geological and hydrological characteristics of our region play a part in what mix of renewable energy sources we can use.  Solar energy is available all over the planet.  When the sun is gone, we are gone anyway. 

Communities are getting together to make plans for the energy descent that is very likely coming in this century.  That is, the fossil fuel energy most of us rely on.  Without it, where will our food come from?  Where will our heat come from?  Where will our transportation come from?  There are ways to address this but it won't work if we wait till the last minute.  In America, it seems to me, as a society we are in a rush and trying to get ahead and not making plans but reaping short term benefits instead.  Some communities like Bloomington, Indiana, for example, has made a well-thought out and comprehensive plan to prepare for the day when large amounts of inexpensive fossil fuel is no longer available.

Even if this day doesn't come in our own lifetimes, it will come because fossil fuel is finite.  Isn't it better to have a plan in place and know what to do?  Future generations will thank us for this.

To see what Bloomington, Indiana has done check out www.bloomington.in.gov/media/media and for other examples and help on this subject:  http://transitionwestmarin.wordpress.com/projects/energy-descent-plan/

I would love to know what other communities are doing or have done to prepare for the change and hope that any readers who know of towns, cities, neighborhoods or co-housing groups, addressing this issue, will let me know I can feature their progress on this blog.