Jez, I know what you mean about quality tools. I am still using my great-grandfather's axe. It has had 3 new heads and 5 new handles......... floot
As people have mentioned previously, peak oil is part of a bigger resource shortage, but it's likely to be a trigger that will collapse the whole house of cards. I look at it this way: The world as it is, is heavily dependant on oil. Transport, food production in the quantities needed to support the population,etc. It's a known finite resource. Wars have been fought over resources before. There are a lot of countries that - if it came to maintaining their quality of life that they're used to (*cough*American dream*cough*) - are prepared to "do what it takes" to "get the job done". What that means for you and me is debatable. There's no current energy source that can be easily slotted in to replace oil in the timeframe we've got. Nuclear, maybe. Renewable, on the scale needed to keep things on track - not a chance. So, on a personal level, the general plan is to reduce my requirements from the world at large as much as possible. For me, this involves : - Moving to a small, relatively isolated rural community. Not that isolated that goods and services can't still be easily sought from the rest of the world, but isolated enough that everyone else doesn't think, "Hey, lets all head off to xxxx and camp out there!" when things go awry. - Becoming as self-sufficient as possible. I've the diesel car with ridiculous mileage, I'm in the process of doing the house, the RAPS, own tank water,etc. The permaculture bit is something I'm working on. I get the feeling that bit might be a long-term project for me. The ideal situation that I would like to be in is when I read in the paper of rolling blackouts, skyrocketing food prices and petrol at $8/L , I can simply think, "Really? Those poor bastards", and carry on regardless. And if you're into the worry and stress involved with The End Of The World As We Know It, check out these sites. I generally cruise through them once every couple of days to see what's going on. https://www.timebomb2000.com - Lots of current events stuff, a plenty of info on Things To Do To Prepare For The Worst. Pretty US-centric though, lots of tedious US political rhetoric to wade through at times. But their ability to aggregate lots of global current events stories is pretty good. https://www.aussurvivalist.com - Australia-focused, a bit over-the-top at times, must be silly season there at the moment. But there's some good nuggets of info in there. Once you wade past all the rather extreme views, general personality clashes and rather tight tinfoil-hats. https://www.homesteadingtoday.com - Good US site with a fair bit of general stuff in it. Less doom and nail-biting, generally more hands on.
G'Day All, Having failed to raise capital for a candlenut based biofuel venture we decided that society was set for a crash and that we had better throw ourselves upon the mercy of the Mother Earth. We live on our 18 acres on the New England Highlands of NSW- we bought here as it has good rainfall, a bit better than 800mm per annum and reasonable soils. You have to be spot on with your plantings as the soil temperature remains fairly low until Christmas!! Our 180 sq,metre shed uphill provides our gravity fed water supply while the house tank supplies the garden below the house. We are milking a British Alpine goat but will try to improve the genetics so that we can get two litres per day per goat on grazing alone - apart from something nice whilst we are milking!! With Peak Oil almost upon us the Russian Dachas are a tantalising concept . see https://www.friends-partners.org/oldfrie ... dacha.html They supply over 50% of Russians food as of now with only 600 square metres per dacha and only 35% of families with them! Something like this may be more sensible than people going it alone on small acreages... Cheers, Sololeum
Hi Fiona Living a debt free sustainable life is the best way to go. We are Muslims and it is against our religion to have debt with interest and it is a must to support one another and not waste the resources that Allah (god) has provided for us. To save money we enter a savings agreement with other muslim families called jamaya. What it is we designate one person to be the leader and handle the funds each month. It is based purely on trust. Before we start we agree on an amount we all want to save eg.$10000. then we divide that amount in the number of months we plan to save for eg. 10 months (that would be $1000 a month). And we each give the leader that amount each month for ten months. Each month one person gets the jamaya. We decide on who needs it the most and who needs it the least as to who gets it first and who gets it last. (or we just draw out of the hat). We all help each other out with shopping and home grow veggies eg. one grows potatos and one grows tomatoes then rotate them seasonally. With the shopping if the milk (only organic) is going cheap we get enough for everybody and divide it up. We rely on God to provide and help each other we don't live in the same house, farm, or street, but we live in the same heart and needs! Bye Healing Organics
That is awesome Healing Organics. Its banking without the banks. Beautiful. Mollison talks about how local communities need to do exactly that...
Yeah, I often wonder what the world would be like if Christianity hadn't diverted from its moral strictures and condemnation of usury (profiting from a loan by charging interest). Historically, one major reason Jews have been persecuted over centuries is that they were always the designated 'moneylenders' in Christian Europe - for most of the timespan of A.D. history it was considered immoral for a Christian to profit from a loan (exactly the same as Islamic tradition). So they got the Jews to do the 'dirty job'...then, more often than not, persecuted them for it, ran them our of town and stole back all the profits - that was morally ok. Sadly, nowadays the bulk of mainstream Christianity is perfectly comfortable with usury.
Jez, Just to follow on from your thread, I hate to state the obvious, but the jews have done pretty well out of it too. Do a search on the US Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the Banking Acts of 33 & 34. Good luck to them. I read an interesting article once that Jewish Societies worldwide had generally subjected themselves to a sort of 'financial darwinism', it made for fascinating reading. Just an FYI for you. Australia officially recognised Judaism as a religion before any other a country, I think in about 1824. Also it has meant that jewish groups in Australia have never really publicly pushed an agenda, they are Australians like the rest of us. Maybe, given our convict past and no need for Australian Jews to 'stand up and fight' for their identity we unknowingly dissolved a lot of the areas of conflict that existed elsewhere..... Look at it another way, we may have dragged 'em back to our level.... If you really wanna dig into Australian Jewish History, we were just a heartbeat or a decision away from having Moshe Dayan as an Australian. Cheers floot
Sure Floot, there's plenty of very wealthy Jews around the world, I was just putting a historical background behind my musing over what a different world it would be if the 1/3rd of the world's population which claim Christianity as their religion were also against usury.
