The Community Solution to Resource Depletion, Climate Change & Inequity

1. The Community Solution to Resource Depletion, Climate Change & Inequity Pat Murphy, Executive Director, Community Solutions Yellow Springs, OH 45387 March 2010

2. The World Is Faced with Four Major Crises • Fossil fuel depletion – “Peak Oil” • Climate Change • Record Inequity • World population has exceeded resource base

3. What Are the Potential Effects? And What Should Be Done? • Effects • Dramatic decline in energy resources and living standards • Likely destruction of the environment • Resource Wars • Needed • A major change in lifestyle • A replacement of consumerism with small community living

4. Small Community as a Peak Oil Solution • A proposal for a different world view – includes concepts of • Localization vs. Centralization • Agrarianism vs. Industrialism • Locally Owned Businesses vs. Corporate Capitalism • Community • Embraces curtailment as an extension of the community virtue of thrift • Envisions small local communities rather than urban megalopolis • Perceives excessive technology with high energy use as a key reason for societal problems

5. Some Community Definitions • “Community consists of persons in social interaction within a geographical setting and having one or more additional common ties.” – Hillary • “Social organization of a place within which social and economic institutions enable the day-to-day functioning of the residents’ lives.” – Mulkey • “By community, I mean the commonwealth and common interests, commonly understood, of people living together in a place and wishing to continue to do so. To put it another way, community is a locally understood interdependence of local people, local culture, locally economy and local nature.” – Wendell Berry

6. Two Aspects of Community • Physical • The best community is small and local • “Virtual” communities are not an option • There is a “place” of community – a location on the earth • Mental/spiritual/emotional • The “culture” • A particular “world view” or “personal philosophy” • May be mixed with religion • Has something called “the spirit of community”

7. Community’s “Different World View” • Community as a set of Values and Beliefs • Could includes Attitudes, Goals, Practices, Intentions, etc. • An alternate term is “social capital” • Only one way of looking at it – describing the soul • Other ways of talking about views • Who I really am • My heart of hearts • The character of a person

8. Community Values and Beliefs • Values – something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable • In this presentation listed as quality pairs • Value System – the way to live in the world • Belief - conviction of the truthfulness of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon • Statements of principles • Belief System – what the world is

9. Classifying Community Values and Beliefs • Physical • Social • Mental/Moral/Spiritual • Economic • World • Other Driven

10. Values – Physical

11. Values – Social

12. Values – Mental /Moral /Spiritual

13. Values – Economic

14. Values – World

15. Values – Other Driven

16. Community Beliefs – Physical • Physically limited – a small place (not “online”) • Food production incorporated – live closer to food sources • Nature available for education and recreation • Ease and safety of walking and biking • Low energy – minimal machine transportation • Closer living to our work, schools, and shops

17. Community Beliefs – Social • Centralization of the economy and education system harms community relations • A community can supply more emotional needs than a single spouse or nuclear family • Most people would move to a small community if meaningful employment was available • Lack of community is painful – loneliness and alienation predominate • People hate the crime and anonymity of large cities and the lack of diversity of suburbs

18. Community Beliefs – Economics • Economics are needed that are more intimate and more immediate to people’s lives • Consumers and producers should not be separated. In local communities they are not • Community Supported Agriculture creates relationships between costumer and grower • All local economic activities are at a disadvantage because of subsidized transport

19. Community Beliefs – Mental /Moral / Spiritual • Spiritual – we need spiritual fulfillment and freedom • Tolerance – no more “Clash of Civilizations or “White Man’s Burdens” • Historical awareness • Act considering the needs of future generations

20. Community Beliefs – World • Emphasis on fair trade – not “free” (vicious) trade • Governmental • We need efficient planning for the good of all • Share resources with others living today • Avoid government tendencies to resource wars

21. Community Beliefs – Other Driven • Respect for cultural and spiritual diversity • Respect for and stewardship of the Natural World • Practicing some version of the “Golden Rule”

22. Small Local Communities – an Option • Are these viable? • Are they vestiges of the past? • Are they anachronisms? • Do people prefer suburbs, freeways, internet sharing?

23. Do People Want Small Local Communities? • Gallup 1989* – What kind of place do you want to live in? • Small Town – 35% • Suburb – 24% • Farm – 22 % • City – 19% • Popular View – the small town is the best place to raise children*From “The Second Coming of the American Small Town,” Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Wilson Quarterly, Winter 1992, quoting 1989 Gallup poll

24. Several Aspects of Small Communities • Rural Communities Histories • Community and “Development” • Community and Democracy • Community and Agrarianism • Changes for Community • Community Energy and Equity • The Good News

25. Rural Communities History – Destruction • U.S. Basic Policy for Farmers – “Get Big or Get Out” • Corporate interests – Industrialized Agriculture • Media propaganda • Years of slandering “farmer/peasants” made us “urban elitists” • A cultural bias – can’t visualize a “modernized peasantry” • “As a class, farmers are one of the despised minorities” – Wendell Berry, Think Little

26. Values about Farmers (and Small Towns) • We are: worldly-wise, cool, hip, sophisticated, blasé, trendy, upscale, tony, chic • They are: provincial, unsophisticated, hayseeds, bumpkins, yokels, hicks, peasants, hillbillies, natives, indigenous, country-cousins • If in doubt – visit a migrant labor camp • Average life span – 59 • Values that justify wars on “peasants”

27. Small Local Communities Decline • Destroyed by deliberate government policies • Similar to Soviet and Chinese collectivism • Based on the availability of cheap energy • One of most tragic events in history • End of cheap oil will show error of agribusiness • And Green Revolution depletion of water and soil

28. Community and Development – Goals • Development is the opposite of sustainability. • Popular Attitude: “Winning the war on global poverty by development” • Development Goal – the 3rd world will be rich like the 1st world • Success – a nation has the per capita energy of OECD • Unsuccessful Development – a nation uses very little fossil fuel • World “Development” is impossible! • Not enough fuels or waste dumps for all

29. Community and Development – Energy • Development is the use of fossil fuels to run machines • Its not better education, a “can do” attitude, or superior national characteristics • America developed fastest because they had the most oil earlier than others • And annexed half of Mexico oil rich areas • Texas has about half lower 48 oil resources

30. Community and Democracy Myths • Size dilutes democracy (U.S.) • 1790 – 60,000 citizens/representative; 150,000 citizens/senator • 1910 – 210,000 citizen/representative; 1 million citizens/senator • 2003 – 640,000 citizens/representative; 2.8 million citizens/senator • A senator talking 8 hours per day could talk to 36,000 people during a 6 year term (1% of the people in his or her district). • What are the chances a congressperson will read your letter? • Or meet with you? Small – unless you are wealthy • Most American’s don’t vote because they feel it’s useless • Democracy can only work at a local level in a small community • Greeks – “fathers of democracies” – lived in small communities • Our democracy is to vote for the ads of two people selected for us

31. Community and Agrarianism • Post Industrialism stage will be a form of “Agrarianism” • Local technology - mostly low/medium tech - will predominate • Small local communities will be the norm • Decentralization will occur – move from cities to villages • A cities’ infrastructure renews every 60-70 years • Farming will be “organic” and local – like most of the world • Food will not be transported 1500 miles • Economy will not be “fossil fuel based” • End of “cheap fuel” globalization • Wind, PV cells, will provide minimal but adequate energy

32. Changes for Community

33. Community, Energy and Equity • A Bold Assertion • Unlimited use of energy harms community and results in inequity – first proposed by Ivan Illich • Technology applied with energy also harms community • In the context of capitalism – “Every man for himself” • Fundamental Reasons • You can’t compete and “commune” at the same time • Competition destroys compassion and other human feelings • Supports greed and hostility as basic values • High energy use implies hierarchy and more inequity • The Results – Perpetual War, Inequity, Planetary Degradation

34. Community – the Good News • Man’s basic nature is to live in small communities • Gallup Poll – small towns preferred over all other options • U.S./World social indicators are declining – little to lose • “Bowling Alone” • Terrorism is inevitable result of worsening inequity • The current global industrial world income allocation cannot continue

35. Community Summary • Something often felt rather than known • Has been under assault for more than two centuries • Its enemies always used fossil fuel • With fossil fuel gone, enemies will run low on ammo • Prodigal sons and daughters will return