By-law Bullshit

OP not to worry. The enforcement of bylaws of this kind will soon fall by the wayside as we collectively slide down the backside of Hubbert’s Peak. Your neighbours will be digging up their manicured lawns and growing as much veg as they possibly can. Your long grass will become a welcome community pasture for the above-mentioned goats. And in the very near future, perhaps next spring, you may even have the pleasure of owning a few backyard laying hens to supply you with fresh eggs every day!

These are not the (crack-) pipe dreams of a some superannuated hippie or a crazed “guns and gold” survivalist. These visions are the shape of things to come. We are on the cusp of an event unprecedented in human history. In the last 150 years or so, we have seen a world created largely by the consumption of a limited and one-time endowment of cheap fossil fuels. As a result, we have overshot the carrying capacity of this planet. The relatively cheap energy sources that have fueled the rise of a global economy are from now on going to become more scarce with each passing year, and there is no other option in existence that will keep over 6 billion souls alive on this planet, and no energy source on the horizon that will meet the world’s present and future needs.

Just to add insult to injury, the rapid consumption of this fossil fuel resource in the last 150 years has already bequeathed to the atmosphere (and to future generations) a ‘gift’ of climate changing CO2 that cannot be taken back. Collectively we have let the opportunity to do something about it slip from our grasp. We are indeed headed for very challenging times. Many of us (meaning our descendants) will not survive past the middle of this century as the twin impacts of climate change and fossil fuel scarcity make themselves felt on the global food supply.

That’s the bad news.

But there is good news. With the coming collapse of the global economy, we will also see disintegration of the corporations which currently rule the world, either as they break up into progressively smaller business units more aligned to relocalized economies, or as they disappear altogether. Much of the consumer driven economy will disappear also. Manufactured items, if they are still produced, will just be too expensive for people to be willing to buy them, ie there will be limited or no markets for much of the crap that currently fills up our lives, because most of us will be expending most of our energy in securing the necessities of life.

As the scale of life becomes smaller and more localized, we will find that we have more power as citizens (of whatever civic structure remains) to make our voices heard. Gone will be the days when some bureaucrat in an office (government or corporate) thousands of miles away makes a decision that fucks up the life of your community. No. Those that make the decisions in the future will be much closer to home and well within reach of an angry and motivated citizenry if they make bad decisions.

Most people will lose weight and become healthier without even trying. There will be two main reasons for this. First, with energy becoming more expensive, our lives will be less automated and we’ll be doing more for ourselves – like walking around instead of driving and doing more physical work than many of us are used to. Second, the collapsing global agribusiness sector will no longer be providing us will crap processed food. Those of us who have grown fat on additives like high fructose corn syrup, like steers in a feed lot, will find ourselves losing weight as our food choices become, out of necessity, more local and less processed.

Maybe the good will outweigh the bad. I don’t know.

When the time comes, I will be walking my goats to the Dartmouth Commons for daily grazing. Maybe I’ll see you there!