I have the feeling “we” are approaching the
tipping point where
Americans will actually sit up and take notice that the planet is going
into the crapper at an alarming rate. Like a snowball (soon to be but a
quaint memory), environmental concerns seem to finally be gaining
traction and speed. Whether that’s because people really
care or because they sense their days of Hummers and speedboats may be
coming to an end is irrelevant to me, as long as they are provoked to
actually make enough collective noise to move their representatives in government to implement change.
I’ve noticed a constant buzz going on lately, a zeitgeist, if you will,
the main theme of which is impending doom. Not exactly a recipe for
societal harmony and good will, but there you have it. It's everywhere: The gardener
yesterday discussed with me his plans to sell his Marin County home and
move to
Shasta to farm the land, because when the oil runs out, so will the food. No trucks to deliver goods = no goods. My friend
Shana attended a star-studded emergency preparedness
meeting at
Feral House’s
Los Angeles compound a couple of weeks ago to discuss strategies for
self-preservation when our infrastructure collapses. Al Gore’s “
An Inconvenient Truth”
has stirred up quite a movement as even people who thought they were on
top of it realize that they didn’t know global warming was as bad as it
was. Two of my favorite blogs by
Neal Pollack and
Adam Felber
were both filled today with tongue-in-cheek references to cockroaches
taking over the earth or self-defense in the "end-times". The Middle
East is swirling with
war
and devastation, and people are depressed and terrified. Something is
going on here. It’s not just me. Doomsday is coming out of the closet.
In the silver lining department, I have only three payments left on my
gas-consuming people-mover. This means that when it becomes obsolete
shortly and I can only use it as a storage unit, at least I won’t owe
300 dollars a month in a collapsed economy. It will be a fully paid
storage unit.
It is beyond my comprehension that while they still can, the state and
federal governments aren’t frantically building electric trains and
implementing emergency plans for an impending energy crisis or collapse
of infrastructure. But then, have we learned nothing from Hurricane
Katrina?
This country has the foresight of a mole. That’s why I am glad people
are actually starting to grumble and look concerned. Me, I’m looking to
buy some land up north, start a commune and live like a hippy when the
shit goes down. Homesteading, round two. Who’s in? I know how to forage
and identify mushrooms. I have an unbelievably green thumb. I can knit
and crochet. I can fish, particularly when somebody else puts a worm on
the hook and kills the poor thing when I reel it in. I can build a
fire. I can fight bears and build houses. No, OK, so I can’t do those last two.
That’s why we need a commune. What can
you do?
