Life Without Oil

(photo from d BP oil spill flickr)

It is hard to imagine living without oil. And yet, if we look at both a thirty-plus year history of oil spills (which does not include the BP Gulf spill or the million gallons that just recently spewed into the Kalamazoo River), and if we remember that scientists are telling us that we have reached the historic peak oil mark, after which oil becomes more and more scarce, and more and more costly, we know the time without oil is coming.

Might as well start the process now. Not just the technical research or business application components, but the emotional, social adjustment part as well.

You know the need: If we dither and dally, we will further destroy the planet, deplete our economy, and spend more and more of our money extracting less and less accessible oil. That will in turn increase the price of everything that depends on oil (food, fuel, fertilizers, transportation, refrigeration, medical supplies, cosmetics, plastics, etc.); and lay the groundwork for a grand economic upheaval.

And more war. Not just between regions and countries but possibly even between neighbor and neighbor.

The gradual way will not be easy, either, but it will be easier than the meltdown promised by the current way. And it will be a change we can manage, that we can survive in and even thrive in. You can't say the same about the too-late version of change.

There are two great lines in William Powers' new book, Twelve by Twelve: a one-room cabin off the grid & beyond the American dream that capture the spirit we need to make these changes. (I am only half-way through the book and can only half-heartedly recommend it to you. For while it could be great, and maybe it will redeem itself, I don't like the way Powers is doling out the story, and manhandling the reader in the process. Nonetheless, it is entertaining enough if you don't mind being manipulated by a writer.)

The first is: "Humans are nature become conscious" (p. 85). This is reminiscent of Thomas Berry's stunning teaching that as far as we know, humans are the only way the universe is able to be aware of itself.

Just as the science fiction movie "Contact" muses that without other intelligent life out there, it would be an awful waste of space, so too we can argue that if there were no one at all to witness and celebrate the grandeur of the universe, it would be an awful waste of creation. It is our job to marvel at creation, and protect and preserve it so that there will always be others to marvel at it as well.

We cannot take this earth for granted, or our place in celebrating and protecting it. And in case we need reminding, Powers simply writes in his second great line: "Everything comes from the earth." Everything. Period.

How easy it is to forget as we go about our day flicking on lights and opening up faucets, pushing buttons and turning keys.

It is our task to remember - and to begin to imagine how we will live in a world freed from the chains of oil. And we must begin to do it, now.