I've seen some great things over the course of this crisis. Many of the people reporting in have revealed great acts of bravery, ingenuity and survival. Ingenious solutions have been suggested to help supply food, shelter, heat, electricity... you name it, on less oil than before.

That's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the many other people who haven't been making changes. There are a lot of people who have altered the bare minimum of things in their life and essentially continue exactly as they were, using too much resources and wasting what we have. People are still driving. The richer ones have even kept their SUVs and sports cars. So they pay a little extra for gas, so what? they can afford it. The same with food - there are a lot of people who quite happily spend a little extra on the air-freighted stuff because to hell with the environment and the poor people that are suffering, it's me time, damn it!

You know the problem? There's a lot of greedy people out there. Many people will choose what's best for them over what's best for everyone. While there's a lot of people that want change and are doing it in their own life, that means nothing unless we get the others out there who won't change. Some people need to be made to change.

And that's why we need politics. As much as I've loved wwo and the people I've interacted with, and admire many of the things that they've done, the truth still remains. All of us can try as hard as we can to change things but without government changing it too our efforts are lost in the tide.

Our fridge died today. It was barely 5 years old. Mum said that the one her parents owned in the 60s lasted 25 years and probably would still have gone on if they hadn't upgraded to the newest model. She said things lasted longer back then. And you know what? I think she's right. Everything I buy these days, be it a mobile phone or a saucepan, seems designed to break. Our consumer culture, living off cheap oil and plastic, means all those companies WANT their products to break, so that in a year or three we can buy their latest model.

We can go back to the old way, of designing things not to be state of the art but to do the job effectively and economically and LAST. But we can't make the companies build such things. Only government can do it. Only they can for instance make longer mandatory warranties on products, so that companies are forced to design ones that need less repair. We may end up spending more money on a particular product, but we won't have to buy it three or ten times as often. How many new, good kitchen knifes have you had to buy? I bet if they're good quality, you'll have ones that are decades old, because they're designed to last.

We need that mentality now. We need to conserve not consume. But the way the world works means companies want us to consume - they make more money that way. Only by good government can we change that. And that means that even the most-politically-averse of us MUST take part, because politics and government is the only way to make what we know to be common sense apply to everyone.

government can charge heavily to companies that import via aeroplane. They can ration food grown far away using energy-intensive methods. They can charge for road use, and for driving a heavy car. They can give incentives and encouragements to local business and trade, and to favour the small farmer over the big one. But they won't, not unless we make them.

This will be my last post. It's a cry, a desperate plea from a teenager growing up in a world that has changed so much in the last 8 months. At first I denied it existed, this oil crisis. Then I was angry at those that had caused the problem, those who had let our culture run unchecked without checks or balances, without any thought to stop spending our planet's precious resources.

Now I'm channeling my anger, and I urge everybody to do the same. We must make those at the top listen to our pain and our anger and our fears, about what the crisis has done and will do to our lives. Because if we don't force them to make a change, they won't. Now is the time for us to begin crafting a new world. The individual doesn't matter unless the whole world follows in her footsteps.

-Mia

[author note - week 31. This is Mia's last post in her own words. I have plans for something special tomorrow but it will not be a post by Mia. there's no commentary to this one. All I want to say is in her words.]

great posts last week fromCeeGee, lead_tag, meggido_tell and the war is in words. They've made me go out and look at what's bad in Bristol since the crisis.

I've been a bit guilty of concentrating on the positive - of which there's been a fair bit, like the new Severn Barrage, the food rationing, the new allotments and the new, more practical teaching in our schools. I've learnt more about cooking, growing and building than I ever knew before the crisis, and I feel far less stressed out since they removed some of the exams.

But there have been consequences here that haven't been so good. Like others say, whilst some people have profitied from the crisis (like Greg's solar company) and most people have survived so far, those close to the breadline before have had their worlds pulled apart.

The number of student houses still with letting signs up is incredible - usually the streets of Redland and Clifton are packed just before christmas with students but although there's a fair few still around, they are quieter - that student loan's got to spread even further, I guess. I wonder what'll happen when I'm applying to university next year - will the whole system have changed again? I'm enjoying biology the most now - coupled with the stuff I'm learning about growing plants. It's looking like a good option to study further.

There was a report in the paper saying that a lot more students were applying to their home unis than ever before - it used to be most students would move to a different city on their parents' money but apparently there's been a big shift this year. Some kids I met on holiday in France said nearly everyone studies from their home university there, so I guess we're just catching up with the rest of Europe.

Scary stuff from around the world, especially Venezuela and the prospect of war with Iran... it's all too much. Can't we just all get along? I guess not, when the oil is running out.

There are positives though. Mum was saying it's been a long time since she heard about a car crash. I had a think then. Of all the people I know who died that weren't over 50 or in the army or something, they were almost always killed by a car crash. With people driving less, so long as we keep a decent grip on healthcare and crime, could this crisis actually reduce the number of deaths?

A lot of angry programs at the moment on the tv about the lack of oil, mostly the more infamous b-list celebrities complaining that their lifestyles been cut down. Another positive then!

We're entering a new world. There are positives and there are negatives. As oil gets less, there will be hard times. But I think as long as we're prepared to adapt, there will always be positives.

Update: As Prudent RVer linked to this article, so will I. It's a great look at how we can change things but we'll have to make a few very hard turns to do it.

[author's note: week 30. Two days to go!

A short one with my last two exams coming up. Expect tomorrow's post to be very small or missing entirely.]

I bought a new toothbrush with disposable heads - it's a cheap as a normal toothbrush but without the wasted plastic throwing away the handle every time. The fibres are natural too!



A lot more people using these nowadays. Lots of slim people here in Bristol! meanwhile the debate over road charging continues.



This was a great sighting! Our postman has given up on his van to ride this bicycle to work!

Richard Heinberg's post last week was scary. It made me realise that our problems are going to be far less immediate and 'hollywood' style collapse. Not being able to drive isn't going to kill us. But not being able to eat will. There's a lot of mouths to feed in the world right now. It scares me to think that our world will die not in some massive crisis over a few weeks but in a long, drawn out starvation.

The efforts in Cuba since their petroleum based fertilisers ran out to change their country to a small-farm based one makes me optimistic but we're going to have to overcome all the greedy corporations running the massive industrial farms if we're to get there. a lot more of us will have to become farmers, and live more simply. But will that not cure some of the problems of our lives before? People were stressed working in high-stress low-reward meaningless jobs, sitting in an office pushing paper all day, seeing no evidence of what they were working for. Almost all of the profits went to the select few at the top whilst those at the bottom had little freedom or autonomy, simply cogs in the machine! Maybe if we go back to the land, we'll remember what it's like to live slow. I can't help but feel a strong appeal. I'm definitely going to learn how to grow things in the new practical lectures at school.

I made a prize for someone today! I made a mix tape based on the crisis. It's a lot of angry protest songs mixed with a few on a more hopeful note. The song list is in the cut below:

( WWO mixtape )

Now, you could always make one with the same songs - but where's the community in that? I'll post someone a copy if they can complete my challenge!

The Challenge: to call up, email or write to your representative in congress, senate, state senate, parliament, council, whatever. Ask them what they think about peak oil and what your government is doing about it. Obviously calling/email is preferable because it'll hopefully get a response before the wwo project finishes. The first person to post a response gets the cd! (if there are more than one good responses, I might be tempted to burn a few more!) Either put your representative's response in one of the miawithoutoil posts, or email it to me at darrkespur@gmail.com. Feel free to post it as a contribution to wwo too!


-Mia

[Author's Note - week 24. The road congestion is from yesterday's news. I think it's a great plan, as long as they siphon the money into public transport. In the UK we've run out of room for cars but the alternatives are expensive and badly managed. I think this kind of road charging scheme, combined with huge increases in spending on trains, buses and new trams, etc, is the only way to go in the end. If we do it quick enough, we may even start the trend away from the automobile before peak oil even occurs. Now the government is pushing this excellent legislation forward, we just need to overcome the stupid shortsighted opposition of many of the nation's motorists. There was one of the biggest political petitions ever when this bill was first announced. It makes me really angry. This could be a great thing for the Uk. If people took a step back and let their attachment to their vehicle go for a few seconds, they would see that this could only be a good thing for the country - we've seen a lot of positive things on wwo about people finding alternatives to the car. If we can do that without the upheaval of an oil crisis, so much the better. Part of me is hopeful, another pessimistic.

Incidentally, for anyone interested in US politics (and at this strange time in the world's history I feel that should include everybody), the most important witness in the US Attorney firing scandal, Monica Goodling, testifies in Congress today. With all the scanadla surrounding Gonzalez' Justice department, this could be a crucial moment. Goodling was the one that fired the 8 attorneys last year, which many people believe was done for political reasons, either because they weren't pursuing (mostly false) accusations of voter fraud against Democrats, or that they were pursuing (mostly true) accusations of criminality and corruption by Republicans.

The important part in terms of history is less that act and more the administration's response - to refuse to testify to congress. When Gonzalez took the stand he said 'I don't remember' to nearly 100 questions. Goodling has refused to give up documents detailing her actions, despite being granted immunity so that she could testify. There's a huge constitutional crisis brewing because a lot of these justic department officials are refusing the constitutional right of Congress and the Senate to perform oversight. There's a lot of circumstantial evidence to suggest that the reason Bush is so keen not to let Gonzalez go is because a non-partisan Attorney General might uncover a lot more illegal activity by the Administration.

I know it's not strictly wwo-related but I urge anyone to follow this story and pressurise your government if you're American. This could be as big if not bigger than the Watergate scandal. UPDATE: Here's a link to the transcription liveblog on Daily Kos following the hearing live.

PS: I loved the image the wwo site gave me yesterday - of an atom and its orbiting electrons. It was ironic because I wrote the post about an hour after my particle physics exam.]

The cinema was back open this week and doing good business - with all the power restrictions, a lot of people are thinking twice about turning on their TVs. Plus the cinemas dropped their prices a ton during the crisis, meaning you can go for £2 and the place is almost always packed. We saw the harry potter film that was supposed to be out in the summer - it was surprisingly fun, even if the moments in the real world were sad.

On my way back from the cinema with Uncle Andy, we were approached by a man that asked us for the time.

"Sure," Andy said, taking it all in stride, "It's 9.15."

"Where you guys been then," the man asked. "I'm Delroy, by the way."

He shook our hands. It felt rude to say no.

"the cinema," we said. It was odd to be approached in the street but the guy was strangely disarming and I didn't feel too unsafe with Uncle Andy there.

"it's nice that we can still go to the cinema after all that's happened," the man said. "It's like they're trying to keep us happy."

"Who's they?" I asked.

"Well, you know," he said, his eyes focusing on something that wasn't there. "This world is an amazing thing. You know, science tells us that energy is in everything, and that we're aware, right?"

"Yeah..."

"So if we're made of energy and aware, and you know there are particles where if you separate them, no matter how far apart, they know what the other ones doing? There's this quantum field yeah? and that means that everything's connected, everything's aware. You get me?"

"I understand the words you're saying..." Andy said with a half-grin on his face. "I just don't understand what you're suggesting it all means. I mean, how does all this come together?"

The man looked insulted, as if somehow we were supposed to follow this stream of consciousness speech perfectly. I hung back and let Andy deal with it.

"It means that if everything's connected, the whole world and energy, yeah?" Delroy continued. "That means that there must be something more, right? That it all means something, that it's all part of a higher force."

Oh god, I though, religion. Andy smiled. he seemed to be enjoying this.

"So you're saying this is all for a reason?"

"Yeah man, definitely," Delroy said. "I mean - look at all the CCTVs and the shrinking computers whilst they grow in power. Biotech and genetics? They're controlling us man. They could have done something about this crisis, they've known for a long time it's coming. They just wanted to take away some of our rights and possessions -we were getting too much freedom and the had to stop it."

"So all this was planned?" Andy was struggling to avoid laughing.

"All of the leaders of the countries and companies are in on this," Delroy told us, whispering like it was some deadly secret, eyes serious and preaching. "They want us for our money and our work but they want to control us."

"Nice talking to you Delroy," Andy said, pulling on my arm. "We got to go now."

"Don't forget what I said!" Delroy called after us. "We're all connected! This isn't random - there's something going on bigger than us we've got to wake up to!"

We wandered home, not quite sure what to make of the experience.

I understand how Delroy feels - wouldn't it put us out of responsibility if this was one big conspiracy to destroy and control the world as we know it? If we know there was some vast secret group scheming so much that nothing we did mattered? It's both orwellian-style scary and strangely attractive. Why attractive? Because if some group is controlling our destiny we have no responsibility and so can put away our guilt over what's happened and not feel bad about looking out only for ourselves and no one else - it was the evil overlord's fault!

If the companies knew that the oil was running out, and so did the governments and they conspired to organise the crisis, to take away our rights, then we could give in to the despair - because if we're being controlled that much, there's no hope of individuality surviving - we're pawns in this massive game.

But that's not what's going on. I don't believe it. I don't believe the people in charge, even the bad ones, are perfect or evil enough to plot such a massive scheme - it's silly. While some of the bad stuff has come from oil people and politicians looking to profit or being greedy, it's not part of some vast worldwide conspiracy. It's simply a lot of greedy people ignoring the consequences to get rich in the short term. And these CEOs and stockbrokers and oil executives are the ones to have lost the most in the crisis.

Whilst that means there's no easy guilt-remover, it does mean that we as normal people have the power to do what the greedy rich people did not do: make a change. We should have done it earlier, before it was too late. We shouldn't have let those in power take too much when they didn't deserve it. They didn't do it because they were part of an evil masterplan. they did it because they could. They did it because we gave them the opportunity. In future, we need to not let them have the chance to ruin everything.

There's no great conspiracy. If you were in their position, you might get greedy too, if there weren't enough safeguards to stop you overstepping your boundaries. There's no great conspiracy but there's a lot we can do to prevent those people from grabbing too much for themselves from us.

-Mia




[author's note: week 23

another action item from Daily Kos about US food, for those interested in making a positive impact now: As featured in this diary the USDA are trying to legislate to water down Organic standards in America - meaning you wouldn't have to use organic intestines in sausages, or organic hops in beer. This is basically a way for organic food to be pretty much wiped out as a class of foods. There's some talk of it being prompted by the drugs agencies because they make money from unhealthy people but take that with a pinch of salt and read Mia's story for today on conspiracies! whatever the reasoning behind this, any of you guys in the states that care about food production would be well advised to sign the petition and try and stop this legislation.

The Delroy character actually exists, under a different name, in Bristol. I've talked to him a few times whilst coming home from my girlfriend's or a bar. He's very friendly and interesting, even if what he's saying doesn't quite add up.He's basically a preacher for David Icke, as weird as that sounds. It's strange, a little disturbing but mostly fascinatingly odd.

The people-powered motif is an important one, one that can help us try and avert this kind of crisis in the real world. Accountability from the voting public is probably the most important thing we can do to stop it. In recent times politics has been pushed to one side by many people as 'not my business'. This has allowed those who would take advantage of it to gain much more strength. We can't let that continue. As the people of the world, we need to hold the greedy people accountable and keep them in check otherwise the real crisis could end up worse.]

It's becoming horrible obvious to me that America is not in a good state. Here in Britain things are grim but we're holding it together. The new taxes, ration system and immigration laws are harsh, there's been protests but there's nowhere near the level of chaos and violence I've been seeing reported all across America (muggings here in Columbus, armies gathering bases in Maine, the conspiracy-filled bombing in LA, riots in Seattle.)

Some people like rdy2rte and drewkitty are reporting more positive things (drew, I'm amazed at your bravery) but generally I feel totally overwhelmed by the level of chaos we're seeing on the BBC news - and that's from the areas they've got reports from. It's like will without oil is saying: Whilst Brown's new government here quickly made some hard decisions to keep us afloat, the US government still seems to be suffering from the same problems it was before any of this began; corruption, indecision and lobbyist-induced bending of the facts...

It reminds me of this DailyKos post before the crisis, talking about the horrible problems with American democracy in the 00s. The quote that stood out was:

'Seven years ago a Turkish friend of mine said that America would have a civil war within 20 years. I was shocked that she would say this. I tried to convince her that the checks and balances built into our system would prevent that from happening.I could not have been more wrong. Now, it scares me to think how close we came or are to that. Even though it feels like the tide is changing, we're not out of the woods yet.We are in Constitutional Crisis now; the Constitutional Confrontation is yet to come.'

it seems the writer's Turkish friend may have been right - talks of civil war aren't as crazy now, nearly 5 months on from the first oil price increases. With people talking about the alberta oil field conflict and even talks of a potential new COUNTRY called Cascadia, things are getting really weird. It's all muddled what we receive over here but in class a lot of people were talking.

"Have you heard about Cascadia?" one of my new classmates in biology said, "I hear they're trying to break away from the US or something?"

"Don't be silly," another one replied " the government's just going to do what they did in LA and drop another bomb on anyone that gets out of line..."

The conspiracy theories are endless. I was just happy to be back at college (I chose to do Biology, chemistry and *shudder* maths - me and greg sat down and worked out which would be the best for any kind of career. Of course, now I'm back in school looking to learn after all this news and all anyone can talk about is the crisis...

things here are much likeEnglish village has been talking about - lots and lots of police, some dodgy people lurking. Some people are very unhappy - One of the tescos near us has been bought out by its local managers and is now a 'Bristol groceries' Shop. Other big companies like Mcdonalds and HMV are floundering - McDonalds closed weeks ago with various notices about lack of ingredients, whereas most of the music shops are slowly disappearing with the new music downloading system. A lot of people are saying that Movies and Tv might head the same way but it hasn't happened in a big way yet, not like with mp3s. David's beaming all the time because he can download games for much cheaper than they used to be - although I'll bet it's mostly old or simple games they're releasing, I can't see many massive budgets around at the moment.

Greg is also a happy man. Since we moved in with him his alternative power gadget company has been raking in cash - some people are profiting from the crisis. He's actually got a big raise - practically unheard of in this day and age! The company's trying to setup more local co-opted manufacturers as mass producing in china doesn't look so hot anymore. Greg's been assigned a task to find a few handymen in the South West that can build some of these gadgets to distribute locally. He celebrated by spending a fortune on a side of beef - using up most of our restricted item rations in the process. It tasted gorgeous after so many days without meat.

[author note - week 18. That DailyKos post is actually from today. It's worth looking at. There are some very troubling matters in US politics at the moment that might not even need an oil crisis to start a major breakdown.]

Enough sitting around! Now that school's out, me and Jodie and Alun decided we'd go plant some vegetables! We got some rocket, basil and lettuce seeds for now. I'll try and get some pictures whilst we plant them over the next few days and weeks. Mum said it's a bit late in the year but at least we're doing something!

I wanna make these! lead_tag, I accept your challenge! if i can find some old tires, I'm gonna give it a go! I'll see if I can ask someone at the garage if they have any spare. this self-sufficiency stuff is fun!

things are getting a little hairy around the world - milwaukee has had some deaths, Romania's oilfields no one knows what's going on and four more tankers like uncle andy's got attacked. rory23 sounds like he has it worst - i hope it doesn't end up where I think it will. cycleboy_wwo had it bad too - a riot on student campus is never a good idea!

I managed to find some positive stuff about Bristol though! I thought we'd be in trouble to stay here if things got REALLY bad, and that it'd be better to move to dad's in Brecon. Turns out, there's a great group of people working for the Transition Towns project, in this very city! I hooked up with the Transition City Bristol people over email - they seem to have been aware of this long before us - just look at This event held in week 1!

Plus, we have a new prime minister! Brown was sworn in today, with Blair leaving. Mum said she hoped Brown would be a bit more sensible and stabilise us in this time of crisis. Greg (a tory - bleaugh) said Cameron would be better but at least if Brown kept the economy as well as he did as chancellor we'd be ok.

His speech was good. Mum made us sit and watch it on the 10 o'clock news. David grumbled but I was happy to see what Brown said.

Some major points from the speech:

- He's planning to go full-out aggressive on containing any trouble. Economically we're shielded because we tax fuel so high anyway, so the shock should be less.

-a lot of money being put into public transport all of a sudden, to stop the price gougin (maybe some of those cheap train tickets will come back)

-plans are being drawn up to ration fuel. Those that don't use their credits can get reduced fares on public transport - that's great for me!

-food prices are being fixed at their current levels, except those flown in or shipped from far away. No more mangos for me, eep!

-the one that got most people's heads turning was the withdrawal. Brown's decided that the troops are needed back here and a lot of those in Iraq will be withdrawn within weeks. The Afghanistan ones like my friend Ally's dad are staying though.



Sounds like our government is at least trying to do something about this. I've never really thought about Politics before but this speech, while a bit boringly spoken, really got me excited. Will it work?



[author's note - Tuesday, week 10]

Many thanks to wwo_mitchtrix and gracesmominnh for putting me onto the Transition Towns project. Like Mia I was totally unaware of their work in Bristol!

Having mentioned Brown over here, I'll be interested to see if any of my US compadres talk about how the presidential candidates are spinning the crisis. by the end of the wwo we'll be near the primaries, after all.

I accidentally posted this in draft form yesterday - apologies to anyone that got a brief look at the unfinished entry!]