Community Solutions: Seeking local answers to a global issue

Global warming was talked about and debated for years. In January leading world scientists confirmed what activists had been saying for decades: global warming is real, and is largely the result of human activity on the planet.

Peak oil has been talked about for years. Proponents of Hubbert’s Theory argue that peak oil may be upon us now. But others debate the theory, and consider those sounding the alarm to be extremists.

The late Dr. M. King Hubbert, a geophysicist who studied patterns of discovery of energy resources and their depletion, theorized that the rate of petroleum production tends to follow a bell-shaped curve. His research showed how to calculate in advance the point of maximum production (“peak”), based on discovery rates. The downside of the curve, he said, reflected production declines due to resource depletion.

Peak oil is not about running out of oil. It is about running out of the light, sweet crude that has been so cheap to get at, leaving oil that is heavier, dirtier, more costly to bring to the surface and more costly to refine. Hubbert cautioned, “So long as oil is used as a source of energy, when the energy cost of recovering a barrel of oil becomes greater than the energy content of the oil, production will cease no matter what the monetary price may be.”

In 1949 Hubbert made the prediction that the age of fossil fuels would be a short one. In 1956 he predicted that U.S. oil production would peak in 1970. And it did.

In 1974 Hubbert predicted that global oil production would peak in 1995, “if current trends continue.” However, there were trend changes that pushed off the predicted peak. In the late 70s and early 80s there was a focus on energy conservation in the U.S., when OPEC increased oil prices. Speed limits on state highways were reduced to 55 miles per hour, and there was an increase in the use of electricity and natural gas for heating. People bought smaller homes; large homes were considered “white elephants” on the real estate market.

But then the U.S. started importing a larger percentage of its oil, and people forgot about the oil-lean 70s — except for the experts. Today experts agree that production of the world’s finite oil supply will peak anywhere from now to 2015, with many predicting a peak around 2010. But the trouble with a peak is that you don’t recognize it until you’re past it. Oil industry insider Matthew Simmons, chairman and CEO of Simmons & Co. and one of the world’s leading experts on the topic of peak oil, believes world production may have peaked in December 2005.

In an interview for the Energy Bulletin, Pat Murphy, executive director of The Community Solution, a program of Community Service, Inc. in Yellow Springs, Ohio, said, “There’s this need to change our oil use driven by the supply question, and from another direction by the global warming question. . . .the issue is not how long the other half of the oil will last, but that we can’t burn the other half of the oil.”

The use of oil permeates the fabric of American life. It fuels our transportation, heats our homes and businesses, provides us with plastics, fertilizers, pesticides and helps puts food on the table. If the oil supply dries up, what does that mean for our way of life? Grassroots groups across the country are calling for relocalization as a way to help secure the things that are essential to our daily lives — food, water, shelter, warmth — and to create a lifestyle that is sustainable and ensures a viable future for our children, using resources that are renewable.

Relocalization means returning attention to the local economy for basic needs. It means growing food locally and supporting farmers who grow local food — instead of relying on the wheels of agribusinesses to fill local supermarkets with foods trucked in from all over the country to provide us with just-in-time groceries. It means discovering ways to work locally, supporting local businesses and craftspeople, and getting our essential needs met within a radius that is close to home.

Interested citizens can band together and take actions in their towns. Such grassroots groups are springing up all over the country, and are involved in everything from studying ways to reduce energy usage to teaching people agricultural skills that have been lost to time. There are more than 10 relocalization groups in New England, among them at least four in Massachusetts — the Pioneer Valley Post-Carbon Council in Greenfield, Sterling Local, Groton Local and Harvard Local.

A critical mass of concerned citizens can do a lot, whether in organized groups or individually. Here are some things people can do to help reduce their usage of petroleum-based resources, collectively making a significant impact:

· Grow as much of your own food as possible. Reduce the demand for food trucked in from across the country.

· Support local farmers by buying at farm stands, farmers’ markets or through CSA programs.

· Learn to preserve some of your own food. Save some of the summer’s harvest to use through the winter months.

· Unplug electronics when not in use. Many of these act as “energy vampires,” drawing a small amount of power even when not turned on. According to ClimateCrisis.net, “the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.”

· To reduce use of plastics, use cloth totes for groceries instead of the plastic bags at the store (which are not biodegradable, and will be around long after we’re gone).

· When packing lunches for school or work, wrap sandwiches in wax paper instead of tucking them into plastic bags.

· If you must use plastic bags, rinse out and reuse, where practical.

· Buy recycled paper products.

· When appliances are ready to be replaced, be sure to choose Energy Star models.

· When it’s time for a new car, consider a hybrid.

· Take public transportation, or car pool.

· Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs).

· Hang the wash on a clothesline to dry in good weather, instead of using the dryer.

· Set the thermostat 2 degrees lower in the winter (dress in layers), and 2 degrees higher in the summer.

· Insulate your hot water heater.

For more information about peak oil visit the Web at www.energybulletin.net, www.peakoil.net, www.hubbertpeak.com or www.relocalize.net; books on the subject include “Power Down,” by Richard Heinberg, “The Long Emergency,” by James Howard Kunstler, “Twilight in the Desert,” by Matthew R. Simmons.

As the 21st century unfolds, people are starting to become more aware of humanity’s impact on the global environment, and are looking for ways to live that will minimize the detriment to earth’s finite natural resources. This column seeks to offer ideas to help individuals, and thereby communities, develop lifestyles that can be maintained into the future; to help people think globally and act locally.