Back to Utopia - solutions for a low-carbon lifestyle
Clive Blazey
Replacing oil
Fossil fuels are going to run out in 10-30 years so we need to find a replacement anyway. When the price rises to $200-300 a barrel it will cripple our food distribution system and at that price it will be the end of supermarkets. Most of us will have to grow all our own food. This will improve our health, our nutrition and our state of well being. We will all have to walk, ride bicycles or take public transport and drive carbon neutral cars. This will cut pollution and eliminate the health risks of CO2 pollution in our cities. At the moment much of our oil comes from the Middle East. To secure its supplies we have been in a constant state of warfare. (Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Palestine, with Iran next). We are also transferring a large portion of our wealth outside our borders, and have become financial hostage to the unstable Arab world. If we used renewables like wind or solar power to replenish electric car batteries, most of that money gets spent locally in rent to farmers, which is spent in local towns rather than a multinational corporation.
Renewable power
Coal fired power stations also cause pollution and are the major contributors to lead poisoning of our fish resources, and further up the chain to humans. A change to cleaner technology – particularly renewals which have endless capacity – would be welcomed in China, in India and throughout the Northern Hemisphere. People don’t want to breath in such dirty air, remember Beijing’s Olympic games smog?! People die from CO2 pollution!.
Healthy soils
Our soils are losing their carbon content and are unable to hold moisture and provide fertile crops as they did 50-100 years ago. We now use fertilizers and pesticides which are oil derived, to prop up our yields which produce pollution, killing wildlife, insects, fish and polluting our streams and oceans.
If we return to sustainable food production we will increase our farm population because farm sizes will reduce. Italy is a wonderful model for inspiration. Most Italian farmers are within 30 minutes drive to a town so they mix city and farm life harmoniously. Their produce is excellent, their diet superior and they enjoy a healthy long life. Contrast this with our sterile thousand acre farms where wealth goes to big corporate players and town and community life is fracturing and suicides are increasing.
Water and trees
If we supported the massive replanting of forests we would eventually increase our rainfall and lower the ground temperature. We would provide habitat to halt the decline in bio-diversity. The cost is barely noticeable but the benefits are huge.
So if you are right, but we still act to rebalance CO2 we will have a sustainable planet like it used to be. The air will be clean, our soils fertile and human beings will be once more a part of nature and not its predator. It’s not only utopian it is how most of us want to live isn’t it?
We must get Australians out of their air-conditioned houses and cars and into the garden where they live with the rhythm of the seasons and learn to understand the relationship between soils, plants and animals