Peaked

We live in interesting times. There is plenty of news discussing that we are living in a world of finite resources - oil included - and yet the mainstream media rarely talks about the scarcity of things like oil and water. Why do they interview economists and analysts instead of geologists (that are not funded by the oil industry)?

Tonight I attended a meeting with the City of Bellingham Peak Oil Task Force. I am not part of the official group, but attended anyway, as there will be splinter groups forming from this. We actual had a video conference with some city officials from Portland, a forward-thinking city that is making strides in the inevitable decline in the resource on which we base most of our existence. Whether two or fifty years out, oil will peak and could potentially wreak havoc in the world. Actually, the price spike is already creating severe problems in many places around the globe. It's nice to be in the second city in the US that is addressing the serious repercussions in our society and its economic and living models based upon this hypothetically infinite resource.

But call me an alarmist, but it's one reason I conduct the outreach in the community with the gardening. It's great to meet like-minded people, and even better to establish this network of friends to learn valuable gardening skills. Oh, and it's fun too.

And I increasingly like to know where my food is grown. It's great to get cheap food from faraway places, but I been reading how many of the horribly dangerous chemicals we banned in the U.S. decades ago are being applied to produce in foreign lands and then imported into this country. At one time corporate social responsibility meant something. But that's so last century. Why do people spend hours and hours researching the latest high-tech gadgets, but don't even care about the food the put in their bodies? Strange world.