Back To The 1800s

Transportation in New York 1800s style.

Experts say that if we were ever to lose our electrical grid, even if "only" for a year, our standard of living would soon resemble that of the 1800s. That sounds like an adventure one should be prepared for ahead of time.

I take that scenario as approximating living conditions as we make the transition to a drastically lower energy/renewable future.

Curious to see just what conditions were like back then, I did a search. 

"What could we be in store for?", I wanted to know as I entered "living conditions 1800s".

This is how one of the first links I looked at summed the period up:

"Living was hard work. It lasted from sunrise to sunset. Daily life was so difficult that when it came time to die, many felt relief."

At first I laughed, unsure if the author's purpose was to entertain with an overly dramatic exaggerated story, or inform us of actual facts of the time.

Then I was sobered by the thought that it basically did a good job of describing conditions for many people in 2019 already.

On the other hand, cheap, plentiful energy has made life very easy for a small portion of the world's population. Shielded from the realities of their low energy counterparts, making changes could be particularly difficult for them. 

Or is it "us"?

I do think that life in the coming decades will be more difficult, but I also believe it will ultimately be an improvement over the days of thinking that everybody could have everything if we just let selfish capitalism do its thing unhindered and unregulated.

We can see that dream is now in its death throes, and that it was a lie from the start. 

What they didn't tell us is that we would need several more planets to destroy to make their selfish dream happen, and that even then there would be many left out and waiting for the ultimate relief of death.

Now, at this late stage, we will be lucky if we only have to wind things down to the energy level of the 1800s, and not the Stone Age. 

“We still have the possibility to redesign our societies for a huge decrease in energy use. It will upset some people, of course, but the window is still open.”

- Raul Ilargi Meijer

Words of Mass Seduction

Words are powerful things. They can be deployed to woo you into supporting endless wars. Or to make you think that people don’t pull triggers, mental illness does (there has been no established link between mental illness and gun violence).

Words deployed with malice and deceit can make you do other dumb things, like buy junk you don’t need.

Advertisers know all the phrases that trigger your impulse to buy, and they are not afraid to use them against you. 

Being aware of these loaded words can help protect you from needless purchases.

Watch out for the following words on packaging or in advertising:

Unique

Luxurious

VIP

Extended

Triple

Premium

Mega

Authentic

Extra

Platinum

Speedy

Ultimate

Pure

Efficient

New

Advanced

Express 

Super

Intensive

Classic

Superior

Ultra

X-large

Deluxe

These are only some of the words marketers use to fire the desired brain cells that will push us to buy their crappy product.

Don’t be fooled. To be forewarned of the words of mass seduction is to be protected.

Watch for these, and think of other loaded words that may be used by sellers of stuff to fight that little frugal voice in your head.

And that is the end of my super mega, unique, classic (and green!) post. I hope you buy it, so you won't be tricked into buying junk you don't need.

Have an ultra superior day.

A Triumph of Principles

A return flight from Halifax to Calgary for two would produce 1.11 tons of CO2.

I could have went with the title, "Should we Stay, Or Should We Go?" for this post. I consider this after we were invited to fly an 8000 km round trip to attend a family gathering for the weekend.

Then running across some Ralph Waldo Emerson helped me out with what I thought to be the better title. 

“Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles", he said.

That really spoke to me, so I thought about it for a while.

First I looked to see if there was still a climate emergency. Check. There is.

Then I added to that the extinction emergency, resource emergency, and inequality emergency (to name just a few). The flight was not looking as good as it looks on the surface.

"At what point?" I wondered, "should one start to change ones behaviour?" When it is a Class 1 emergency? A 5? Are we at at 10 yet? Should I change my ways now? 

How about now? Now? When? 

Are we being "climate ignorers"? Being addicted to a consumer lifestyle, like any addiction, requires the denial of the consequences. How long can the ignoring go on?

Moving forward, we all will have to determine exactly what our principles are, and what we are willing to do, or not do, to be true to them. 

Am I willing to stand for what I believe, or do I cave easily and do something that doesn't jell with me just because it would be nice? Or fun. Or out of the ordinary? 

My principles tell me that the two of us flying such a trip would significantly increase our carbon footprint at a time when scientists are imploring us to reduce and even eliminate our carbon consumption. 

My principles tell me there are consequences to our behaviours, and those consequences are now coming to haunt us. The time to change our ways, it seems to me, is now.

Therefore, in the end we decided that while family is important, the importance of our commitment to the Earth, to the larger human family, and to our principles, is greater still. 

Going on such a trip would bear gifts, no doubt, but for us, not as much as not going will.

We are willing to make this sacrifice for the greater good, and see our decision as a triumph of principles. 

We are staying.

That brings me peace, even if I do miss my family.