Tao’s 2 Cents

I have a new favorite magazine. I’ve heard about Mother Earth News and probably seen copies of it laying around since I was young but never really read it until a couple weeks ago. I got a subscription after reading about the articles coming out in the next issue and after reading it cover to cover I ordered the 40 years of archives on CD. I can already tell it was an excellent investment. That’s a lot of wisdom for $50.

I’ve been reading back through the issues looking for articles and information that might help me on my way to a sustainable existence. I’d say about 75% of the articles are relevant or interesting to me. I’m especially interested in the renewable energy, natural building, gardening and water/rainwater management articles. I came across a really interesting one on solar power and wanted to share a few of the highlights…[continued]

I believe that this guy, Richard Heinberg, is absolutely 100% right on the money. I haven’t seen someone sum up everything I’ve read this well yet and I’m so glad I found it. This is why I’d like to start an organic permaculture farm and live a sustainable lifestyle. After I get myself taken care of I want to start working on a local level around the farm to teach others and help the community work on larger community projects that can’t be done by individuals.

Anyway, watch these videos. They’re important. You may not want to hear it, but it may be the most important thing you’ve ever watched.

Click to continue reading this entry and view the other 5 parts to this talk.

I was thinking about what I will tell future generations about what life was like during the time of oil. Whenever I think generally of oil my first thought is the opening credits to “The Beverly Hillbillies”. I found myself thinking of those nicknames, “black gold” and “Texas tea”.

While I was living in El Salvador I developed the tendency to think of the Spanish version of words and phrases. It was just mental practice of thinks I might want to say.

So when I translated “black gold” to “oro negro” I started actually thinking about the latin origins of “oro”. I’m sure that it is derived from the same word that we use for “ore”, which immediately brings to mind mining…

I arrived in downtown D.C. in front of the White House about 30 minutes late for the protest. I was a little worried that the march would have already started but the speakers had only just started. The place was packed, it was an ocean of people. If I had to guess I’d say that there were 50-60,000 people (the organizers claimed 100,000) there when the march first started. However I think only about 20,000-30,000 ended up at Congress after the march.

I managed to get within about 50 feet of the stage and got to here Cindy Sheehan, Ramsey Clark, Adam Kokesh, Etan Thomas, and Ralph Nader speak. I think the largest applause was for the Iraq veterans, but calls for impeachment and ending the corporate dominated government also got big cheers…

It seems that George Bush will appear to give in to overwhelming public opinion and withdraw troops from Iraq. Of course, he won’t withdraw any more than he put in for his so called “surge”. It’s quite a trick. Send more troops in so you can bring them home and appear generous? sympathetic? human? I don’t know any more.

It would have been near impossible for him to give in and bring troops home if we weren’t “winning” in Iraq. Thats why General Patraeus had to at least have some smidgen of good news…

I recently finished reading a book called “Deep Economy” by Bill McKibben. It discussed how life will inevitably have to change after oil goes away. That’s of course assuming we don’t find any other form of cheap energy, which is unlikely.

The main change is that we’ll all have to start living more locally. Right now it takes 10 times more energy to deliver a pound of peas than the peas actually contain. The main reason for this is processing and especially delivery. Did you know the average piece of food you eat travel 1,500 miles to get to your plate. These are colossal wastes of energy which can be solved simply by growing things locally…