The sun sets on the era of cheap and abundant energy

Pause, if you will, look back and take in the spectacular sunset as the era of cheap and abundant energy slips below the horizon.

Windmills could again be common as we
 witness the sun set on the era of cheap 
and abundant energy.

It’s over: nearly three centuries of phenomenal growth ignited by humanity’s cleverness and hard work, made possible by the unleashing of ancient sunlight in the form of fossil fuels, is ending.
The feast is finished and a famine of energy is shaping to bring on what is in fact a true famine, a decided dearth of food to feed earth’s ever-growing population.
As with other life forms, human numbers ballooned when the circumstances allowed and in that goldilock’s-like epoch, those years when it was not too hot or too cold and we had, thanks to oil, a team of labourers working non-stop for us.
However, those “labourers” are tiring and soon, after a couple of centuries of our wasteful use of the ancient sunlight that became, among other things, oil, the tireless work they have done will again fall to us, changing our lives in ways we can’t yet even contemplate.
Enjoy the sunset for the following sunrise will be a red sky in the morning, which, if we take note of a sailor’s adage, will be a warning.
I feel like weeping as the realization that this wonderful life is ending sweeps over me, but then my optimism returns as the wonder of human resilience, innovation and tenacity fills my mind.
We have lived for nearly three centuries as if the limitations of nature were irrelevant, arrogantly striding the world confident that humanity had successfully manipulated the world to suit itself when all along it was Mother Nature who was actually in charge.

The late
E.F.Schumacher.

We stand between an emotional sunset and a troubling dawn that will introduce us to a new era in which the comforts of the past couple of centuries will evaporate, meaning the essential positivity that has sustained us for decades will still be in demand, but directed at different outcomes.
The dichotomy between never-ending growth, something most economists consider the epitome of good business, and earth’s ecological finitude illustrates an alarming, and a societal threatening, misunderstanding of realities.
The late author, E.F.Schumacher, discussed the realities of primary and secondary goods with the former being provided by nature and the second by human effort.
Beyond that, however, there are tertiary goods where fanciful abstractions on the world’s economy created from nothing are ultimately worth nothing.
The serious shrinkage of fossil fuels, complicated by a crumbling economy takes us closer to the abyss, but standing between us and that fall is the richness, versatility, resilience and tenacity of our fellows and if we stand with them, then that striking sunset will lead to a different,  but better,  day.

'Closure' rarely provides true answers to source of discomfit

Rarely does the much touted “closure” people suffering various traumas seek provide real answers to the source of their discomfit.

Daniel Morcombe

That imagined end is transitory with the emotional damage continuing as every-day, and seemingly ordinary, events hurl people back in time.
The arrest and charge of a fellow with the murder eight years ago of Queensland youth, Daniel Morcombe, may have brought some closure for his parents, Bruce and Denise, and two brothers as it helps to explain the primary reason, but ignores deeper social issues.
Research abounds suggesting our lifestyle choices bring on events such as that in which the Morcombe family has become embroiled.
Although ridicule awaits those who resort to such simplifications, and in this specific case it well may not be true, the built environment we prefer – that being remote subdivisions that do not allow for genuine socialization of people – can have a huge negative impact on an individual’s behaviour.
An increased density in our living, not overcrowding, makes it likely, if not certain, that not a day will pass without us having an unexpected, but socially reinforcing, face-to-face meeting with a neighbour.
The wellbeing of our neighbourhoods and the broader welfare of our communities, means we have healthier, happier and energized societies that in turn can be measured by the behaviour of individuals.
Residential sprawl, that is developer-driven creation of residential subdivisions stranded without a motor car from the life of the city, is evident in Shepparton.
What is happening in Shepparton, and or course the rest of Australia, is an echo of the phenomenon that swept America after the Second World War reducing it from a country that had some of best public transit systems in the world to being absolutely car-dependent.
Many of that country’s most tight-knit, inclusive and civil communities were sacrificed on the altar to oil as residential subdivisions erupted throughout the nation, mostly distant from the services that ensure communities can expand intellectually, socially and organically through daily serendipitous meetings with others.
Without the benefit of true community, America has become, without challenge, the most violent nation in the world – murder, rape, assault and other disruptions to life result from illegal processes that saw public transit destroyed and replaced by the car, all in the name of profit.
It is unreasonable to suggest that the murder of Daniel Morcombe could have been avoided if human-scale communities had existed, rather than the sprawl of modern development, but the dynamic that leads to such events would have been eased.
Humans are social animals, we need to interact with our fellows, we need to belong, we need acknowledgement, and, although we may not know it, we need mentoring – all things that spring from chance meetings in tight-knit communities.
 

A steady flow of ideas boost and protect civilization

Civilization is a fragile thing.

The late Ann Rand
who said culture
cannot exist without
a constant stream of
 ideas.

Its veneer of decency is all that protects us from the brutality of the mob.
And that sliver of integrity between good and evil has, for the want of ideas, obviously failed in parts of Great Britain.
That scarcity of ideas has been equalled on two recent occasions here in the Goulburn Valley, although with a distinctively different outcome, thanks to restraint of those who felt the sharp end of that dearth of ideas.
Little protects us from what we have witnessed in England with the levee that stands between us and that angry anarchy being nothing more than one good life-affirming idea upon another.
A poverty of ideas, or a life built around muscle, brutality and a disregard for others, brings upon those in that life, the chaos seen in Britain or to a lesser degree what has happened here – the closure by Heinz of its Girgarre plant and the sacking of 150 people from SPC Ardmona.
Interestingly it is not so much simply an absence of ideas that creates the vacuum, as it is also a failure to even consider that there might be a different, and better, way to do things.
The late author and philosopher Ann Rand said that a culture cannot exist without a constant stream of ideas and the alert, independent minds who originate them.
Sadly the freewheeling values of our commercial world are the reverse of what their proponents believe them to be as they are contrastingly quite narrow, being primarily about growth and profit for a few at the expense of many.
What began in Britain as something of a pillory of those values was quickly seen by others as an opportunity to promote different values and so it exploded socially, resulting in death, injury and theft, and property damage.
Ideas are the oxygen of anything and everything – it was little more than an idea that first saw the Girgarre plant opened; an idea closed it; and an idea will hopefully see it reborn.
Today’s commercial world is nomadic and responsive only to profit and growth, but that will change as our access to abundant energy ends, within a decade or so, and businesses that understand and are able to operate in a steady state economy, will finally be putting down roots.
When that happens, what we know and understand as civilization will be given a significant boost for following the death of globalization, international trade and travel, we will see the re-birth of the true local community; a tight-knit social structure that hinges on the well-being of people, not things.
Civilization, just like nature on which it depends, is fragile and should we treat either badly, they will change, sometimes beyond recognition.

Building a lifeboat in Shepparton to survive the 'perfect storm'

To the Mayor and Councillors,
Economic difficulties have ricocheted around the world and although Australia, and by implication Shepparton, has avoided a direct hit, the collateral damage is growing as are the conditions for a perfect storm.
The City ofGreater Shepparton Council is one of many, but the most important of bulwarks to protect our community from the rigours of a failing and flailing economy.

The seven-strong City of
 Greater Shepparton Council, led
by its mayor, Cr  Geoff
 Dobson (right),
 who can build Shepparton into
 a "lifeboat city".

That “perfect storm” has arisen from a collision of circumstances that some skeptics still doubt – humans, that is you and me, have irreparably damaged our atmosphere causing huge shifts in weather patterns; our growth mandated economy is breaking down; the fossil fuels that underpin the energy on which the world as we know it depends are severely depleted, or becoming uneconomic or impossible to recover; and the technology that many pay homage to and declare our saviour, is bankrupt.
Bankruptcy is something that has crossed the minds of many recently and it is something that will devour entire communities in decades to come and so rather than scurry of to a secluded hut in the bush armed with a loaded gun and rations, people need to bond with their community and work with council to build hope and resilience.
Difficult times can best be surmounted if courageous and decisive leaders step forward and who better to do that than those already elected to such a role, our councillors.
Our unfolding future will be decidedly different from the immediate centuries past, which were awash with easily accessible and effectively free fossil energies.
Starting from today, council needs to build a community that will answer human needs and happiness without the fossil fuels that have lifted it to its present stature.
Food will be a priority and council needs to create several significant community gardens throughout the city; fuel being rare and expensive means significant effort should be applied to the creation of frequent, fast and reliable public transport and both cycling and walking should be made easier and encouraged; planning and zoning should encourage increased residential density in the heart of the city; and as the modern world edges towards collapse, council needs to instigate throughout the community, ways and means for people to learn about and understand the skills of yesteryear.
Applying the adage that it is never too late, council needs to engage with the community and so exploit our richest resource – people and their innovation and resilience – to build on the rich wisdom, and hard work, that fortified the Greater Goulburn Valley.
Difficulties beyond what is understood and expected will emerge with alarming rapidity and Shepparton, guided and cared for by the council can become what is known in post-fossil fuels era nomenclature as a “life-boat city”.

Villawood riots escape my understanding

Few of those born in Australia understand what it was that recently drove asylum seekers in Villawood to the extremes of riot. I don’t.
I do know that they would be confused that a country portrayed as free, fair, democratic, liberal and generous appears to be few of those things.

Villawood rioters make
 their point in the only
way they can.

After months of waiting to see evidence of those claimed traits, those at Villawood, their patience exhausted, resorted to all a denied person has left, violence.
Reaction to the riots has been varied; some, who deserve our praise, have turned out in numbers to protest on behalf of those in Villawood and some have roundly condemned rioters, arguing they should simply be sent back from whence they came.
Considering the latter view, it is important to remember that these people came here in the belief, and hope, that Australia was a better place than that they left.
The riots suggests those beliefs and hopes have been dashed and so it is time we looked to our supposed qualities and considered whether they are real or imagined.
Shepparton has a strong history of assimilation of the other, of blending cultures and holding open the door to a better life, or at least a life that is secure and has promise.
Although that maybe the case in the Goulburn Valley, something some would argue about, those at Villawood see only promises denied, hopes dashed and security of the wrong sort.
A few things about people, whatever their race or culture, are constant, but their way of life embeds patterns of living and habits making them different and often that does not sit well with others.
It is a belief of mine that nothing is neither better nor worse, just different and so before criticizing Villawood rioters, we need to consider how we would behave if confronted by such striking differences.
Not only is life different in the extreme for the Villawood internees, the length of their imprisonment has little by little, drip by drip, eroded their hope.
So consider for a moment that life in your birth culture and country has, for various reasons, often beyond your control, become impossible and despite the threats and dangers to your wellbeing, you, brimming with hope, choose to get to Australia as best you can.
The journey made, the risks endured you arrive at your new home only to be effectively thrown in jail and the unspoken promises made by this wonderful, democratic and generous country prove to be an illusion.
Armed with only patience and civility you wait, and you wait, and yet the promised decency and democracy seems to be only for those walking free on the other side of the razor wire: what would you do? 

Famine in Somalia and U.S. debt problems have similar solutions

Famine in Somalia is linked inextricably to seemingly unrelated matters.
Obviously many are starving, but the reasons are not as clear as most imagine as hunger is just the most obvious symptom of deeper and more complex issues.

Nobel prize winning
economist, Amartya Sen,
  has views about life
  that would benefit
Somalia and probably
the U.S.

Oddly, and interestingly, those same matters are concepts to which we here in Australia, and by default the Goulburn Valley, should attend with both clarity and eagerness.
Democracy, uninhibited by greed and a lust for power, has rarely, and maybe never, allowed for conditions in which people have wanted for the necessities of life.
In a genuine democracy people have legitimate and ready access to decision makers and so can influence processes ensuring that food is broadly and readily available to all.
That same democracy also ensures individual rights, equality, and justice and within that safeguards access to food, which according to Nobel prize-winning economist, AmartyaSen, is best achieved through freedom, civil rights, economic freedom, social opportunities, transparency in dealing with government and others.
Those critical human civilities have been somewhat absent from Somalia and so the solution is not simply about providing more food, rather it is about helping the Somalians unscramble the workings of a society left emaciated after a few lunged for power and the rest of the world embraced globalization.
The solution for Somalia rests not with the economy, rather with an understanding of what it is that ignites and maintains human happiness and within and beyond that, an individual’s well-being.
The people of Somalia, and the rest of the world for that matter, will only be adequately fed when the focus is on people as opposed to things.
America presently wrestles with its multi-trillion dollar debt and sees the solution in economic terms when in reality the spotlight needs to be turned toward those things that are lamentably missing in Somalia – civil rights, equality, social opportunities, transparency and a return to the root meaning of democracy in which people actively engage with the administration of their lives.
The idea that economic growth can and will continue indefinitely is dead and survival on our finite world is now about building communities that are resilient, sustainable, adaptable and, of course, both happy and content.
A rare few, comparatively, find that ever elusive happiness and contentment through the economy, while most find nought but delusion and discontent.
The Somalian solution will not be easy, straightforward or simple, but it begins through the application of those things such as civil rights, equality and freedom as discussed by Sen.
The American situation is equally complex, for different reasons, but a solution for the U.S. is also to be found with a drive toward civil rights, equality, decency and the abandonment of the idea that a growth-based economy is a cure-all.

Euphoria overlooks reality

Australian cycling enthusiasts, along with many others, were jubilant as Cadel Evans rode last night to victory in the Tour de France.

The 34-year-old Northern Territory born Evans, set up his tour win in the final individual time trial of the tour in the penultimate last stage of the tour.

Cadel Evans in the
 colours of the world
 champion- a title he
 won in 2009.

Evans started that stage 57 seconds down on the tour leader, Andy Schleck, and demonstrated his clear edge in time trialing to finish a minute and 34 seconds ahead, gaining more than two minutes to effectively win the tour.
The ride into Paris, the final stage, is largely a formality with huge honour going to the rider who wins the last sprint for the tour on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Evans had no need to feature in the sprint, rather simply finish with the peloton.
Evans’ win prompted enthusiastic comment from many quarters with some declaring him to be the complete road cyclist with only success in the Olympic Games having eluded him.
Many in the cycling fraternity were euphoric about an Australian winning what they, and many outside the sport, consider the greatest sporting event in the world, even bigger than the Olympics.
Some declared it a seminal moment for Australian cycling as it illustrated to younger and emerging riders that they were not geographically denied opportunity of reaching the epitome of road cycling.
Embedded in the ecstasy of Evans’ success, the commentators predicted the growth in cycling over the next ten to 20 years, but overlooked some critical realities I can’t ignore, although the sheer virtuosity of the Australian’s success made me stand taller.
The tour, in its modern manifestation is a product of the industrial age and so despite its world embracing magnitude and complexity it edges towards collapse as the world uses more and more of irreplaceable resources; resources upon which such massive events are built.
Our world is moving toward “peakeverything”, the peaks for some resources such as oil have already passed, and within decades it will become increasingly difficult to sustain events such as the tour.
Humanity, and so by implication events such as the tour, faces a crisis of sheer existence brought on by the collision of multiple peaks – food, water, soil, oil and innumerable minerals – with a changing climate brought on by our seemingly irresponsible use of the very resources that are becoming exhausted.
One hundred years ago, the Tour de France was just that and limited largely to local riders and maybe that scenario will soon return.
In riding to victory in the Tour de France, Evans rode over several seemingly impassable peaks, but interestingly the peaks that both he and humanity may find even more difficult are yet to come.