Ten Steps to Post-Carbon Living

WHY will we have to move to a 'Post-Carbon' way of living?

The Graph on the left shows the trend in the Global Air Temperature over the last 150 years. It shows a steady rise since about 1910. This information is from the CRU - the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. You can follow this curve as they occasionally update it on line at the web site www.cru.uea.ac.uk.

The Graph on the right shows the trend in the Price of Oil. If you hover your mouse pointer over it you can see the trend over the last month, the last quarter, the last year or the last five years.

One thing you can be sure of is that Temperature and Oil prices are going to rise in synch for the foreseeable future. This is because both climate & oil are finite resources. These resources are depleting more quickly than they will renew. This is a finite planet but the human enterprise continually expands. Something will change. We will switch to a smarter way of working to mitigate the risks of declining resource.

The risk comes from the threat to fuel, food & economy. All are carbon-based and none can expand forever. It is not a question of if they "peak" - only when. Evidence shows that this 21st Century will be the Century of declining resource.

I Don't Like It

It matters not whether or not you believe in man-made climate change or not. Governments do. The market does. The scientists do. This is because the decarbonisation of the economy is the logical conclusion from what is actually happening. No modern economy will continually expand based upon declining resources. The argument about Climate Change is now only of academic interest because it will be rapidly over-taken by issues of security and scarcity.

The bottom line will be the price of carbon. Scarcity of such a critical resource as Oil will lead to sharp price rises. If scarcity doesn't do the trick then Government intervention will. You will live to see carbon rationing, carbon budgets and carbon taxation. So why wait? Mitigate the risk. Move away from Carbon - completely. It is no longer a question of being a bit "low-carbon". We must now think about what lies beyond carbon. What does the post-carbon world behold? What opportunities are there for the pioneer?

A quick recap

From Global Vulnerability to Local Security

Imagine the Britain of 2020. Petrol is £5/litre. It will cost you £1200 to heat your house for a year. Another £1000 pays for a year's household electricity. Energy prices are doubling every year. There is a shortage of food in the shops. You haven't seen a Banana in three years let alone snow. The Summers are long, hot and dry. Sometimes there is no water. Sometimes no electricity. Unemployment is 20% and rising at 5% a year. There are riots and mass homelessness. Crime is rampant. TV News shows the body bags flown home from the endless foreign wars.

Now imagine if you made different decisions in your life in 2010. You moved to a smaller home with wood boiler and some land. The new home is extremely well insulated, you now grow your own food and make your own hot water & electricity through the power of the sun. Your Business diversified out of fossil-fuel dependency and into renewable and local alternatives. Your Community erected a Wind Turbine and supports itself now after transitioning to system of self-reliance. All Food & Fuel is now locally supplied. You aren't just surviving - you are thriving and have job security. These were the best decisions you, your Community and Business ever made. The decisions of millions like you increased security for all of us.

Wouldn't you do the right thing too?

Something To Do Today