Dismantle Civilisation

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Thanks to www.peakmoment.tv for this. 2 weeks of working like a dog, for a whole year? Perfect!

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Following on from Techno-Peasant’s eye-opening, but ultimately realistic article about living outside of civilization, I thought this would be a perfect time to publish Sharon Astyk’s brilliant list of “100 Things You Can Do to Get Ready for Peak Oil“. Lists rarely cut it when looking at real life solutions or providing effective advice: these things are better accumulated as life-experiences and shared knowledge. However, this list is far too good to ignore – American-centric it may be, but considering that the USA is probably the most oil-dependent culture on Earth, it seems a decent basis for all industrial cultures. Some items may not be relevant, some are obvious, some are a little wishy-washy, but taken as a whole you would be foolish not to read it:

SPRING

1. Rethink your seed starting regimen. How will you do it without potting soil, grow lights and warming mats. Consider creating manure heated hotbeds, using your own compost, building a greenhouse, or coldframe, direct seeding early versions of transplanted crops, etc…
2. Your local feed store has chicks right now – even suburbanites might consider ordering a few bantam hens and keeping them as exotic birds. Worth a shot, no? You can grow some feed in your garden for Them, as well as enjoying the eggs.
3. Order enough seeds for three years of gardening. If by next spring, we are all unable to get replacement seed, will you have produced everything you need? What if you can’t grow for a year because of some crisis? Order extras from places with cheap seed like www.fedcoseeds.com, www.superseeds.com, www.rareseed.com.
4. Yard sale season will begin soon in the warmer parts of the country, and auctions are picking up now in the North. Stocking up on things like shoes, extra coats, kids clothing in larger sizes, hand tools, garden equipment is simply prudent – and can save a lot Of money.
5. The real estate “season” will begin shortly, with families wanting to get settled in new homes during the summer, before the school year starts. If you are planning on buying or selling this year, now is the time to research the market, new locations, find that country property or the urban duplex with a big yard.
6. Once pastures are flush, last year’s hay is usually a bargain, and many farmers clean out their barns. Manure and old hay are great soil builders for anyone.
7. Check out your local animal shelter and adopt a dog or cat for rodent control, protection and friendship during peak oil.
8. As things green up, begin to identify and use local wild edibles. Eat your lawn’s dandilions, your daylily shoots, new nettles. Hunt for morels (learn what you are doing first!!) and wild onions. Get in the habit of seeing what food there is to be had everywhere you go.
9. Set up rainbarrel or cistern systems and start harvesting your precipitation.
10. Planning to only grow vegetables? Truly sustainable gardens include a lot of pretty flowers, which have value as medicinals, dye and fiber plants, seasoning herbs, and natural cleaners and pest repellants. Instead of giving up ornamentals altogether, grow a garden full of daylilies, lady’s mantle, dye hollyhocks and coreopsis, foxgloves, soapwart, bayberry, hip roses, bee balm and other useful beauties.
11. Get a garden in somewhere around you – campaign to turn open space into a community garden, ask if you can use a friend’s backyard, get your company or church, synagogue, mosque or school to grow a garden for the poor. Every garden and experienced gardener we have is a potential hedge against the disaster.
12. Join a CSA if you don’t garden, and get practice cooking and eating a local diet in season.
13. Eggs and greens are at their best in spring – dehydrated greens and cooked eggshells, ground up together add calcium and a host of other nutrients to flour, and you won’t taste them. We’re not going to be able to afford to waste food in the future, so get out of the habit now.
14. Make rhubarb, parsnip or dandelion wine for later consumption.
15. Now that warmer weather is here, start walking for more of your daily Needs. Even a four or five mile walk is quite reasonable for most healthy People.
16. Start a compost pile, or begin worm composting. Everyone can and should compost. Even apartment dwellers can keep worms or a compost Bin and use the product as potting soil.
17. Use spring holidays and feasts as a chance to bring up peak oil with friends and family. Freedom and rebirth are an excellent subjects To lead into the Long Emergency.
18. Store the components of some traditional spring holiday foods, so that in hard times your family can maintain its traditions and celebrations.
19. With the renewal of the building season, now is the time to scavenge free building materials, like cinder blocks, old windows and scrap wood – with permission, of course.
20. Try and adapt to the spring weather early – get outside, turn down your heat or bank your fires, cut down on your fuel consumption as though you had no choice. Put on those sweaters one more time.
21. Shepherds are flush with wool – now is the time to buy some fleece and start spinning! Drop spindles are easy to make and cheap to use. Check out www.learntospin.com
22. Take a hard look back over the last winter – if you had had to survive on what you grew and stored last year, would you have made it? Early spring was famously the “starving time” when stores ran out and everyone was hungry. Remember, when you plan your food Needs that not much produces early in spring, and in northern climates, A winter’s worth of food must last until May or June.
23. Trade cuttings and divisions, seeds and seedlings with your neighbors. Learn what’s out there in your community, and sneak some useful plants into your neighbors’ garden.
24. If you’ve got a nearby college, consider scavenging the dorm Dumpsters. College students often leave astounding amounts of Stuff behind including excellent books, clothes, furniture, etc…
25. Say a schecheyanu, a blessing, or a prayer. Or simply be grateful for a series of coincidences that permit us to be here, in this place, as the world and the seasons come to life again. Try to make sure that this year, this time, you will take more joy in what you have, and prepare a bit better to soften the blow that is about to fall.

SUMMER

1. If you don’t can or dehydrate, now is the time to learn. In most climates, you can waterbath can or dehydrate with a minimum of purchased materials, and produce is abundant and cheap. If you don’t garden, check out your local farmstand for day-old produce or your farmer’s market at the end of the day – they are likely to have large quantities they are anxious to get rid of. Wild fruits are also in abundance, or will be.
2. Consider dehydrating outer leaves of broccoli, cabbage, etc…, and grinding the dried mixture. It can be added to flours to increase the nutritional value of your bread.
3. Buy hay in the summer, rather than gradually over the winter. Now is an excellent time to put up simple shelters for hay storage, to avoid high early spring and winter prices.
4. Firewood, woodstoves and heating materials are at their Cheapest right now. Invest now for winter. The same is true Insulating materials.
5. Back to School Planning is a great time to reconsider transportation in light of peak oil. Can your children walk? Bike? If they cannot do either for reasons of safety (rather than distance) could an adult do so with them? Could you hire a local teenager to take them to school on foot or by wheel? Can you find ways to carpool, if you must drive? Grownups can do this too.
6. Also when getting ready to go back to school, consider the environmental impact of your scheduling and activities – are there ways to minimize driving/eating out/equipment costs/fuel consumption? Could your family do less in formal “activities” and more in family work?
7. Consider either home schooling or engaging in supplemental home Education. Your kids may need a large number of skills not provided By local public schools, and a critical perspective that they certainly Won‘t learn in an institutional setting. Teach them.
8. Try and minimize air conditioning and electrical use during high Summer. Take cool showers or baths, use ice packs, reserve activity When possible for early am or evening. Rise at 4 am and get much of Your work done then.
9. Consider adding a solar powered attic fan, available from Real Goods www.realgoods.com.
10. Don’t go on vacation. Spend your energy and money making your home A paradise instead. Throw a barbecue, a party or an open house, and invite The neighbors in. Get to know them.
11. Be prepared for summer blackouts, some quite extensive. Have Emergency supplies and lighting at hand.
12. Practice living, cooking and camping outside, so that you will Be comfortable doing so if necessary. Everyone in the family can Learn basic outdoors person skills.
13. Make your own summer camp. Instead of sending kids to soccer Camp, create an at-home skills camp that helps prepare people for Peak oil. Invite the neighbor kids to join you. Have a blast!
14. Begin adapting herbs and other potted plants to indoor culture. Consider adding small tropicals – figs, lemons, oranges, even bananas can often be grown in cold climate homes. Obviously, if you live in a warm climate well, be prepared for some jealousy from the rest of us come February .
15. Plant a fall garden in high summer – peas, broccoli, kale, lettuces, Beets, carrots, turnips, etc… All of the above will last well into early Winter in even the harshest climates, and with proper techniques or In milder areas, will provide you with fresh food all year long
16. Put up a new clothesline! Consider hand washing clothes outside, Since everyone will probably enjoy getting wet (and cool) anyhow.
17. If you have access to safe waters, go fishing. Get some practice, and Learn a new skill.
18. Encourage pick-up games at your house. Post-peak, children will Need to know how to entertain themselves.
19. For teens, encourage them to develop their own home businesses over The summers. Whether doing labor or creating a product, you may rely On them eventually to help support the family. Or have them clean out Your closets and attic and help you reorganize. Let them sell the stuff.
20. Buy a hand pushed lawn mower if you have less than 1 acre of grass. New ones are easy to push and pleasant, and will save you energy and that Unpleasant gas smell.
21. Keep an eye out for unharvested fruits and nuts – many suburban and rural Areas have berry and fruit bushes that no one harvests. Take advantage and Put up the fruit.
22. Practice extreme water conservation during the summer. Mulch to reduce The need for irrigation. Bathe less often and with less water. Reduce clothes Washing when possible.
23. This is an excellent time to toilet train children – they can run around naked If necessary and accidents will do no harm. Try and get them out of diapers now, Before winter.
24. Consider replacing lawns with something that doesn’t have to be mown – Ground covers like vetch, moss, even edibles like wintergreen or lingonberry, Chamomile or mint.
25. If it is summer time, then the living is probably easy. Take some time To enjoy it – to picnic, to celebrate democracy (and try and bring one about , To explore your own area, walk in the nearby woods.

FALL (AUTUMN)

1. Simple, cheap insulating strategies (window quilts and blankets, draft stoppers, etc…) are easily made from cheap or free materials – goodwill, for example, often has jeans, tshirts and shrunken wool sweaters, of quality too poor to sell, that can be used for quilting material and batting. They are available where I am for a nominal price, and I’ve heard of getting them free.
2. Stock up for winter as though the hard times will begin this year. Besides dried and canned foods, don’t forget root cellarable and storable local produce, and season extension (cold frames, greenhouses, etc…) techniques for fresh food when you make your food inventory.
3. Thanksgiving sales tend to be when supermarkets offer the cheapest deals on excellent supplements to food storage, like shortening, canned pumpkin, spices, etc… I’ve also heard of stores given turkeys away free with grocery purchases – turkeys can then be cooked, canned and stored. Don’t forget to throw in storable ingredients for your family’s holiday staples – in hard times, any kind of celebration or continuity is appreciated.
4. Go leaf rustling for your garden and compost pile. If you Happen into places where people leave their leaves out for Pickup, grab the bags and set them to composting or mulching Your own garden.
5. Plant a last crop of over wintering spinach, and enjoy in The fall and again in spring.
6. Or consider planting a bed of winter wheat. Chickens can Even graze it lightly in the fall, and it will be ready to harvest in Time to use the bed for your fall garden. Even a small bed will Make quite a bit of fresh, delicious bread.
7. Hit those last yard sales, or back to school sales and buy a few extra clothes (or cloth to make them) for growing children and extra shoes for everyone. They will be welcome in storage, particularly if prices rise because of trade issues or inflation.
8. The best time to expand your garden is now – till or mulch and let sod rot over the winter. Add soil amendments, manure, Compost and lime.
9. Now is an excellent time to start the 100 mile diet in most locales – Stores and farms and markets are bursting with delicious local produce And products. Eat local and learn new recipes.
10. Rose hip season is coming – most food storage items are low in accessible vitamin C. Harvest wild or tame unsprayed rose hips, and dry them for tea to ensure long-term good health. Rose hips are Delicious mixed with raspberry leaves and lemon balm.
11. Discounts on alcohol are common between Halloween and Christmas – this is an excellent time to stock up on booze for personal, medicinal, trade or cooking. Pick up some vanilla beans as well, and make your own vanilla out of that cheap vodka.
12. Gardening equipment, and things like rainbarrels go on sale in the late summer/early fall. And nurseries often are trying to rid themselves of perennial plants – including edibles and medicinals. It isn’t too late to plant them in most parts of the country, although some care is needed in purchasing for things that have become rootbound.
13. Local honey will be at its cheapest now – now is the time to stock up. Consider making friends with the beekeeper, and perhaps Taking lessons yourself.
14. Fall is the cheapest time to buy livestock, either to keep or for butchering. Many 4Hers, and those who simply don’t want to keep excess animals over the winter are anxious to find buyers now. In many cases, at auction, I see animals selling for much less than the meat you can expect to obtain from their carcass is worth.
15. Most cold climate housing has or could have a “cold room/area” – a space that is kept cool enough during the fall and winter to dispense with the necessity of a refrigerator, but that doesn’t freeze. If you have separate fridge and freezer, consider disconnecting your fridge during the cooler weather to save utility costs and conserve energy. You can build a cool room by building in a closet with a window, and Insulating it with Styrofoam panels
16. Now is a great time to build community (and get stuff done) by instituting a local “work bee” – invite neighbors and friends to come help either with a project for your household, or to share in some good deed for another community member. Provide food, drink, tools and get to work on whatever it is (building, harvesting, quilting, knitting – the sky is the limit), and at the same time strengthen your community. Make sure that next time, the work benefits a different neighbor or community member.
17. Most local charities get the majority of their donations between now and December. Consider dividing your charitable donations so that they are made year round, but adding extra volunteer hours to help your group handle the demands on them in the fall.
18. Many medicinal and culinary herbs are at their peak now. Consider learning about them and drying some for winter use.
19. If there is a gleaning program near you (either for charity or personal use) consider joining. If not, start one. Considerable amounts of food are wasted in the harvesting process, and you can either add to your storage or benefit your local shelters and food pantries.
20. Dig out those down comforters, extra blankets, hats with the earflaps, flannel jammies, etc… You don’t need heat in your sleeping areas – just warm clothes and blankets.
21. Learn a skill that can be done in the dark or by candlelight, while sitting with others in front of a heat source. Knitting, crocheting, whittling, rug braiding, etc… can all be done mostly by touch with little light, and are suitable for companionable evenings. In addition, learn to sing, play instruments, recite memorized speeches and poetry, etc… as something to do on dark winter evenings.
22. While I wouldn’t expect deer or turkey hunting to be a major food source in coming times (I would expect large game to be driven back to near-extinction pretty quickly), it is worth having those skills, and also the skills necessary to catch the less commonly caught small game, like rabbits, squirrel, etc…
23. Use a solar cooker or parabolic solar cooker whenever possible To prepare food. Or eat cool salads and raw foods. Not only won’t You heat up the house, but you’ll save energy.
24. A majority of children are born in the summer Early fall, which suggests that some of us are doing more than Keeping warm . Now is a good time to get one’s birth Control updated .
25. Celebrate the harvest – this is a time of luxury and plenty, and should be treated as such and enjoyed that way. Cook, drink, eat, talk, sing, pray, dance, laugh, invite guests. Winter is long and comes soon enough. Celebrate!

WINTER

1. Your local adult education program almost certainly has something useful to teach you – woodworking, crocheting, music training, horseback riding, CPR, herbalism, vegetarian cookery… take advantage of people who want to teach their skills
2. Get serious about land use planning – even if you live in a suburban neighborhood, you can find ways to optimize your land to produce the most food, fuel and barterables. Sit down and think hard about what you can do to make your land and your life more sustainable in the coming year.
3. The Winter Lull is an excellent time to get involved in public affairs. No matter how cynical you tend to be, nothing ever changed without Engagement. So get out there. Stand for office. Join. Volunteer.
4. Now is the time to prepare for illness – keep a stock of remedies, including useful antibiotics (although know what you are doing, don’t just buy them and take them), vitamin C supplements (I like elderberry syrup), painkillers, herbs, and tools for handling even serious illness by yourself. In the event of a truly severe epidemic of flu or other illness, avoiding illness and treating sick family members at home whenever possible may be safer than taking them to over-worked and over-crowded hospitals (or, it may not – but planning for the former won’t prevent you from using the hospital if you need it).
5. Most schools would be delighted to have volunteers come in and talk about conservation, gardening, small livestock, home-scale mechanics, ham radio, etc…, and most homeschooling families would be similarly thrilled. Consider offering to teach something you know that will be helpful post-peak (although I wouldn’t recommend discussing peak oil with any but the oldest teenagers, and not even that without their parents permission
6. Now is the time to convince your business, synagogue, church, school, community center to put a garden on that empty lawn. If you start the campaign now, you can be ready to plant in the spring. Produce can be shared among participants or offered to the needy.
7. The one-two punch of rising heating oil and gas prices may well be what is needed to make your family and friends more receptive to the peak oil message. Try again. At the very least, emphasize the options for mitigating increased economic strain with sustainable practices.
8. Get together with neighbors and check in on your area’s elderly and disabled people. Make a plan that ensures they will be checked on during bad weather, power outages, etc… Offer help with stocking Up for winter, or maintaining equipment. And watch for signs that they Are struggling economically.
9. Work on raising money and getting help with local poverty-abatement Programs. After the holidays, people struggle. They get hungry and cold. Remember, besides the fact that it is the right thing to do, the life you save May be your own.
10. Get out and enjoy the cold weather. It is hard to adapt to colder Temperatures if you spend all your time huddled in front of a heater. Ski, Snowshoe, sled, shovel, have a snowball fight, build a hut, go winter Camping, but get comfortable with the cold, snowy world around you.
11. Have your chimney(s) inspected, and learn to clean your own. Learn to care for your kerosene lamps, to use candles safely, and how To use and maintain your smoke and CO detectors and fire extinguishers. Winter is peak fire season, so keep safe.
12. Grow sprouts on your windowsill.
13. Now is an excellent time to reconsider how you use your house. Look around – could you make more space? House more people? Do projects more efficiently? Add greenhouse space? Put in a homemade Composting toilet? Work with what you have to make it more useful.
14. If a holiday gift exchange is part of your life, make most of your gifts. Knit, whittle, build, sew, or otherwise create something beautiful for the People you love.
15. If someone wants to buy you something, request a useful tool or preparedness Item, or a gift certificate to a place like Lehmans or Real Goods. Considering giving Such gifts to friends and family – a solar crank radio, an LED flashlight, cast iron pans, These are useful and appreciated items whether or not you believe in peak oil.
16. Do a dry run in the dead of winter. Turn out all the power, turn off the water. Turn off all fossil-fuel sources of heat, and see how things go for a few days. Use What you learn to improve your preparedness, and have fun while doing it.
17. Learn to mend clothing, patch and make patchwork out of old clothes.
18. Write letters to people. The post is the most reliable way of communicating, And letters last forever.
19. Make a list of goals for the coming year, and the coming five years. Start Keeping records of your goals and your successes and failures.
20. Keep a journal. Your children and grandchildren (or someone else’s) may want To know what these days were like.
21. Wash your hands frequently, and avoid stress. Stay healthy so that you can be useful To those around you.
22. For those subject to depression or anxiety, winter can be hard. Find ways to relax, Decompress and use work as an antidote to fear whenever possible. Get outside on sunny Days, and try and exercise as much as possible to help maintain a positive attitude.
23. Memorize a poem or song every week. No matter what happens to you, no one can ever take away the music and words you hold in your mind. You can have them as comfort and pleasure wherever you go, and in whatever circumstances.
24. Take advantage of heating stoves by cooking on them. You can make soups or stews On top of any wood stove or even many radiators, and you can build or buy a metal oven That sits on top of woodstoves to bake in.
25. Winter is a time of quiet and contemplation. Go outside. Hear the silence. Take pleasure in what you have achieved over the past year. Focus on the abundance of this present, this day, rather than scarcity to come.

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‘A Farm for the Future’ is the BBC’s recent excellent documentary on Peak Oil and its effects on farming, leading to the promotion of Permaculture (all of which happened at 8pm on a Friday evening, so a good visible slot for the masses!). I’ve included some blurb from Chris Vernon of The Oil Drum written just before broadcast below as an intro:

On Friday the BBC will be broadcasting an excellent peak oil documentary; it focuses on farming. Presenter and co-producer Rebecca Hosking explores the importance of oil in farming and the potential impact of peak oil. The film has a passionate narrative centred on Rebecca’s small family farm in South West England; can she make her farm fit for the future?

The subject mater is top notch. Colin Campbell and Richard Heinberg contribute, permaculture, forest gardens, gardening vs farming, biofuels, biodiversity, industrial farming and no-till farming are all covered. It seems certain that present methods cannot go on feeding Britain as they are highly dependent on fossil-fuel. The film concentrates on the necessity to find a new way to feed the nation.

Above all, the presentation comes from the heart. It is sure to capture the imagination of many people who, not least due to the deepening recession, are primed for new ideas like never before.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about this film is that it exists at all. Within the BBC, the Natural History Unit is one of the most conservative. The producers of ‘A Farm for the Future’ had a tremendous struggle getting this film made. BBC executives were not keen; the big global travellers even called the film “messed up propaganda”. However two years after I met with co-producer Tim Green at the inception of the film; it does now exist. The hope is that with the Natural History Unit producing a film with peak oil at its heart, the gates are now open to all the other departments such as News at Ten, Panorama, Horizon etc. to cover peak oil. There is knowledge and understanding of peak oil within the BBC but also nervousness about reporting.

Rebecca and Tim would like to thank the community here at The Oil Drum for providing much of the information needed to make this possible.

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Permaculture has been mentioned regularly on this site and others as a sustainable way to live on the earth, a way in which to limit our environmental impact whilst using the earth’s resources. It is noticeable, however, how large a breadth of alternative visions are held by those practicing or praising Permaculture. This and similar sites promotes it in the context of Dismantling Civilisation, whilst most use it as a way of making Civilisation more sustainable. We believe that Permaculture is at its most useful and beneficial applied to Rewilding, rather than limiting it to reforming Civilisation.

A short definition of Permaculture is that it is a system of designing with the intent of replicating the cyclical systems of nature. This began with just food production (Permaculture derives from Permanent Agriculture), but it was soon realised it could be applied to all areas of life to make them sustainable. A Permaculture garden can often be described as an ‘edible ecosystem’, with plants beneficial to humans placed in relation to each other and other influences and factors so that every output is another’s input – there is no waste. It is based on the realisation that nature does, and has done for 4.6 billion years, a much better job than us of creating complex systems with high biomass and diversity that satisfies all the lifeforms involved. Monocultural agriculture has failed to create anything near as complex, and requires huge inputs compared to a self-sustaining forest. As a result of these concepts, Permaculture is very much an inclusive approach, seeing humans as part of the global ecosystem, and not separate as in the myths of Civilisation.

A growing movement of people have taken up Permaculture as a great way forward, seeing it as the best path to sustainability. This can be seen in the Transition movement, in which people are preparing for Peak Oil and Climate Chaos by collectively reducing their town or village or cities energy requirements. However, most of these people see it as a way of making the current state of affairs more sustainable – they are reforming Civilisation with it rather than dismantling it. When talking about ‘doomers’ i.e. those who believe we are on the brink of collapse, I have heard remarks questioning their sanity and motives, seeing them as extreme and unhelpful in the debate. Even in these circles, questioning Civilisation can be a risky business.

These movements are at the forefront of the environmental movement, and show some of the best reactions yet to the global crisis. But how much difference can they make if limited to reforming civilisation? Permaculture is based around principles including cyclical systems with no waste, equality of parts, inclusivity of humans and fairshares. Civilisation, in contrast, is based upon the principles of linear, non-cyclical systems (input-process-output) creating waste and resource depletion, inequality of parts through hierarchy, humans as being separate to the earth and thus able to abuse it, and unequal shares of natural resources. The two are complete opposites! If we were to fully implement Permaculture to its full extent, Civilisation would have to be dismantled and replaced. Just partially implementing it to counter the negative consequences of Civilisation is not enough to stop the rape of the earth.

It is not the reformist’s fault that they stop short of attacking civilisation – it is all they have ever known and are unlikely to have considered its structure and impact on the planet. Their action through community gardening, smallholdings and Transition Initiatives is an inspiring first step in tackling the world’s problems. But we have to take the next steps beyond this quickly in the short time we have, and to do that Permaculture has to be seen as a tool for many further means. Permaculture is an immensely useful tool for repairing our relationship with the earth and its inhabitants, but in order for its full potential to be realised we must use it for rewilding, not just reforming.

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Having just spent a slow-paced week in the woods learning the basics of the art of bushcraft, the return to civilisation has been somewhat disorientating.  Many things bothered my mind on my return, from the urban noises to the claustrophobia of the buildings and the density of people.  But the main underlying cause of this unease was the jump from very simple living on what nature provides compared to the massively complex way of life currently gripping humanity.

From dawn to dusk in each of our western lives, we use objects and energy derived from far-off places via many hands to bring it here.  The very houses we live in, the manner in which we transport ourselves, the food we eat and how we cook it, it’s all provided for us with us having very little control of it.  The raw materials for even the most simplest tool is shipped from abroad to be manufactured and distributed to us via a huge network.  Very few things can be said to have come from our own hands or from the local environment.

Compared to bushcraft, the level of complexity is huge.  Although still using some basic tools from civilization, the abundance of nature was clear to see in its ability to provide for fairly comfortable human existence.  Food, medicine, tools, shelter – all could be found and made usable by oneself.  The realisation of how difficult it was to provide these very basic needs in the middle of a huge selection of resources brought home how disempowered we are in this way of life, unable to provide for our needs without the massive life-support machine of civilisation.

How could we survive without the life-support system though?  Using bushcraft in the woods is no doubt very useful, but it is impossible for the current population to survive off the relatively few tracts of unabused land for long without destroying them too.  This is where Permaculture comes in, in its ability to take the abused land and rewild it with humans and biodiversity in mind.  By designing the recovery of the land, we can live off the land with very little impact.  Although the earth will regenerate in time after humans, if we wish to survive too we need to give all the assistance we can in accelerating this process before any more damage is done.

This is all necessary to reduce the complexity of our lives and thus reduce its destructive impacts on the earth and ourselves.  It is hard to suddenly ‘drop-out’ of civilisation though, and this must be done gradually for the majority of us.  In the meantime we must take responsibility of the complexity.  If you drive a car, do you really currently need it?  If not, remove it from your life, if you do then keep it, but only if you accept the consequences of that and commit to eventually being able to finally change.  The same can be applied to everything in our lives, to every object and activity that depends upon the life-support system of civilisation.  We must slowly become independent of it, accepting what we currently need from it with the full commitment to as soon as possible to destroy these links too.

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A week ago, the third Camp for Climate Action concluded with a day of action at Kingsnorth Power Station in Kent.  The aim was to shut down the plant and prevent more greenhouse gas emission at its source.  Although some activists reached the fence and some claim minor facilities in the plant were shut down, the action failed to shut down the whole plant, and the camp ended with the main achievement being publicising underhand police tactics and some inspiration for people taking part in workshops.

Although the camp’s intentions were good, there was no real substantial ‘Climate Action’ taken, nothing that would have lasted more than a day even if the plan had succeeded. It is very unlikely the government would listen to activists when presented with the monetary might of the coal power lobbyists.  But the enthusiasm and energy shown illustrates people’s yearning to make a real difference.  In the face of the onslaught of Industrial Civilisation and its associated Climate Chaos, how can we really take ‘Climate Action’ that’s positive and really effective?

Some of the issues surrounding the Climate Camp can help inform a better course of action in the future.  Practical concerns include how easy it is for the police to keep and eye on the planning of the camp and then proceed to surround the field and prepare for the actions.  This made it very difficult for the activists there, and is arguably the main factor hindering action.  Heavy police repression also deters potential campers, who might already struggle to reach the rural and often far-flung place chosen for the camp.  Varying ideas and plans for the action also tend to confuse things, creating potential divisions the police could play upon.  There is also the criticism that a Climate Camp is essentially just a normal day of protest preceded by a week squatting a field and passing the time in workshops.

There are some important ideological issues too.  The power station emitting the Carbon Dioxide is merely one link in the chain of Industrial Civilisation.  Shutting it down, even permanently, would not stop Civilisation continuing to pollute the atmosphere.  If the activists seized and squatted the land successfully, another plant would simply be built to fill the need.  The direction of civilisation is incompatible with maintaining the environment, if civilisation exists pollution will also always exist.  So shutting down a power station or an airport is at best well intentioned but naïve, and at worst distracting from the real issue at hand.  This action would also piss a lot of ‘normal people off, and repel them from environmental issues as they react negatively to the actions of the activists.  There is also the danger that the camp becomes the main Climate Action for these activists, and that the rest of the year more significant changes in their lives are passed by and made up for by attending the camp.

In light of these issues, the current form of Climate Camps can be counter-productive and ineffectual at taking real Climate Action.  But what is real Climate Action?  Real Climate Action is the process of dismantling civilisation and reviving the alternative way humans can live, a process of rewilding ourselves to work together with the planet.

I propose that future Climate Camps should take advantage of large amount of manpower they have for a whole week, and do something like squat abandoned brownfield land and restore it using the techniques of Permaculture.  Use the time to re-skill people with the skills needed return home and grow their own food and make their own energy, to become more independent of civilisation.  Perhaps even do it on a co-operative farmer’s land to help him convert it to a more wild and productive state.  This way the police could surround the site, but it would be more difficult to harass them as the activists are working on-site and planning nothing more than at worst squatting.  The activists would then spread across the country taking the skills with them, beyond the control of the police.  They can use their new knowledge to set up groups in their hometowns where in a similar manner people get together to work together on each members garden in turn, making Permaculture much easier to implement and enjoy.  A scheme like this operates in Bristol, called GROFUN.

For those who still want some more daring action camps, I suggest changing targets to, for example, small business class airports where the security and size is less, and fewer ‘normal’ people are affected.  Other targets could be in cities, such as central parks in commercial areas or even office buildings of implicated companies.  They must adopt a mindset more of a guerrilla campaign, using surprise and the local environment to their advantage against the superior numbers of the authorities.  But most of all, these actions must focus on building the alternative structures to civilisation.

I believe the ‘Green’ movement in evidence at the Climate Camp need to make a change in direction, and focus on skilling people for the building of a new alternative to civilisation.  The current protests are unable to make any deep changes without this crucial element, and will ultimately fail in stopping Climate Chaos.  Let’s make 2009 the year for a Camp for Real Climate Action!

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Part One:

Part Two:

Plants for a future website and database of edible and medicinal plants. Very useful.

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more useful videos on http://www.ecohood.info/

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