Concepts of Curtailment and "Less is More"
Underpinning the Transition model (see attachment below for "The Purpose, Principles & Guidelines of Transition Initiatives") includes the following concepts:
* Peak Oil, Climate Change and the economic crisis require urgent action
* Adaptation to a world with less available oil is inevitable
* It is better to plan and be prepared, than to be taken by surprise
As we think about adapting to a world with less availalbe oil, the conclusion many of us come to realize is that we really need to dramatically curtail our energy use. As Pat Murphy, of Community Solutions, writes in "Plan C: Curtailment and Community":
"Plan C differs from Plans A and B by assuming that the relatively recent availability (a blip in geological time) of fossil fuel energy has caused a temporary detour in the evolution of humankind. Fossil fuels have led to a two-century long addictive fascination with oil-based technology and machines, which in the future can no longer be sustained.
"Under Plan C, the first priority for society as a whole is to drastically reduce our consumption of fossil fuel energy and products derived from it. We must “curtail.” That means buying less, using less, wanting less and wasting less. Curtail means to “cut back” or possibly to “downsize.” It is more reflective of the seriousness of our current situation than the probably more politically acceptable word “conserve.” Conservation often implies a relatively small reduction in consumption, possibly recycling or buying compact fluorescents or maybe buying a hybrid car. If conserve is to be used as a synonym for curtail, it would be appropriate to preface it with some modifier such as “radical” conservation or “extreme” conservation or “rapid” conservation.
"Plan C also implies massive and permanent societal changes. A major restructuring of our society will need to take place. It requires reducing our consumption of fuels, minerals and plants as well as wasteful use of water. We must abandon the “American Way of Life” and reduce our “standard of living.” Shortly after his 1980 election, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in which he equated conservation with being cold in winter and hot in summer, and vowed to spare Americans that fate. Twenty-five years later, we are beginning to realize that the attempt to keep people from experiencing the physical reality of living on the planet has led us to a point where “being cold in winter” and “hot in summer” may be only a small part of the stresses we will be facing. Survival, rather than comfort, could be the question of the day.
"What do we mean by curtailment and how could it be measured? The concept of Peak Oil, the year of world maximum production of oil, has introduced new frames of reference on which to measure our way-of-life. One of the most important is to understand that pollution, in most of its varied forms, is a byproduct of the inordinate consumption of the various fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas which is most damaging to the atmosphere, is simply the result of fossil fuel burning.
"Much of the waste in our landfills comes from products made from fossil fuels, such as plastics, or products made using large amounts of fossil fuel generated energy, such as paper and glass. Sewage pollutants come from a concentration of fecal material from cattle feed lots and people in cities – material that should be used to nourish the land that provides our food. What we call sewage, properly handled, is food for plants; placing it in waterways makes it a biological pollutant.
"One might designate Plan C people as conservers rather than consumers. Such people are much fewer in numbers than the Plan A or Plan B supporters. The seeds of this “conserver movement” come from a few thousand people, not millions. "
Less is More
So, how do we approach this idea of curtailment? Is there a silver lining to making drastic cutbacks, tightening our belts, and changing our ways?
Consider attending Literature Live tonight at Village Books. Author Cecile Andrews will share that when we have too much, we savor nothing. When we choose less, we regain our life and can think and feel deeply. Throughout history wise people have argued that we need to live more simply – that only by limiting outer wealth can we have inner wealth. Less is More is a compelling collection of essays by people who have been writing about Simplicity for decades –including Bill McKibben, Duane Elgin, Juliet Schor, Ernest Callenbach, John de Graaf, and more. They bring us a new vision of Less: less stuff, less work, less stress, less debt. A life with Less becomes a life of More: more time, more satisfaction, more balance, more security.
Cecile Andrews is the author of Circle of Simplicity and Slow is Beautiful and cofounder of Phinney EcoVillage, in Seattle.. She has her doctorate in education from Stanford.
This event is co-sponsored by Transition Whatcom. Pertinent info is on our events page here.
* Thanks to Walter Haugen for reminding me of Pat Murphy's "Plan C."
* Peak Oil, Climate Change and the economic crisis require urgent action
* Adaptation to a world with less available oil is inevitable
* It is better to plan and be prepared, than to be taken by surprise
As we think about adapting to a world with less availalbe oil, the conclusion many of us come to realize is that we really need to dramatically curtail our energy use. As Pat Murphy, of Community Solutions, writes in "Plan C: Curtailment and Community":
"Plan C differs from Plans A and B by assuming that the relatively recent availability (a blip in geological time) of fossil fuel energy has caused a temporary detour in the evolution of humankind. Fossil fuels have led to a two-century long addictive fascination with oil-based technology and machines, which in the future can no longer be sustained.
"Under Plan C, the first priority for society as a whole is to drastically reduce our consumption of fossil fuel energy and products derived from it. We must “curtail.” That means buying less, using less, wanting less and wasting less. Curtail means to “cut back” or possibly to “downsize.” It is more reflective of the seriousness of our current situation than the probably more politically acceptable word “conserve.” Conservation often implies a relatively small reduction in consumption, possibly recycling or buying compact fluorescents or maybe buying a hybrid car. If conserve is to be used as a synonym for curtail, it would be appropriate to preface it with some modifier such as “radical” conservation or “extreme” conservation or “rapid” conservation.
"Plan C also implies massive and permanent societal changes. A major restructuring of our society will need to take place. It requires reducing our consumption of fuels, minerals and plants as well as wasteful use of water. We must abandon the “American Way of Life” and reduce our “standard of living.” Shortly after his 1980 election, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech in which he equated conservation with being cold in winter and hot in summer, and vowed to spare Americans that fate. Twenty-five years later, we are beginning to realize that the attempt to keep people from experiencing the physical reality of living on the planet has led us to a point where “being cold in winter” and “hot in summer” may be only a small part of the stresses we will be facing. Survival, rather than comfort, could be the question of the day.
"What do we mean by curtailment and how could it be measured? The concept of Peak Oil, the year of world maximum production of oil, has introduced new frames of reference on which to measure our way-of-life. One of the most important is to understand that pollution, in most of its varied forms, is a byproduct of the inordinate consumption of the various fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide (CO2), the gas which is most damaging to the atmosphere, is simply the result of fossil fuel burning.
"Much of the waste in our landfills comes from products made from fossil fuels, such as plastics, or products made using large amounts of fossil fuel generated energy, such as paper and glass. Sewage pollutants come from a concentration of fecal material from cattle feed lots and people in cities – material that should be used to nourish the land that provides our food. What we call sewage, properly handled, is food for plants; placing it in waterways makes it a biological pollutant.
"One might designate Plan C people as conservers rather than consumers. Such people are much fewer in numbers than the Plan A or Plan B supporters. The seeds of this “conserver movement” come from a few thousand people, not millions. "
Less is More
So, how do we approach this idea of curtailment? Is there a silver lining to making drastic cutbacks, tightening our belts, and changing our ways?
Consider attending Literature Live tonight at Village Books. Author Cecile Andrews will share that when we have too much, we savor nothing. When we choose less, we regain our life and can think and feel deeply. Throughout history wise people have argued that we need to live more simply – that only by limiting outer wealth can we have inner wealth. Less is More is a compelling collection of essays by people who have been writing about Simplicity for decades –including Bill McKibben, Duane Elgin, Juliet Schor, Ernest Callenbach, John de Graaf, and more. They bring us a new vision of Less: less stuff, less work, less stress, less debt. A life with Less becomes a life of More: more time, more satisfaction, more balance, more security.
Cecile Andrews is the author of Circle of Simplicity and Slow is Beautiful and cofounder of Phinney EcoVillage, in Seattle.. She has her doctorate in education from Stanford.
This event is co-sponsored by Transition Whatcom. Pertinent info is on our events page here.
* Thanks to Walter Haugen for reminding me of Pat Murphy's "Plan C."
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David MacLeod on
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When I first posted this I made a typo, writing: "Undermining the Transition model..."
Oops. I meant "underpinning"! It has been changed!
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It was an excellent event last night! There were probably more than 60 people in attendance, and Cecile was impressed with the turnout. Cecile Andrews took the San Francisco Transition training last year, and so is very supportive of Transition work.
Cecile has a great sense of humor and had the audience laughing throughout. Her emphasis was on the importance of "Joyful community." She talked about social networking as a powerful tool for social change, saying "we have to bring people together to talk to each other" and "democracy is born in conversation."
She mentioned numerous and humorous things to try: "Stop and Chat Campaign" (walk your neighborhood and stop to chat with neighbors); "Grocery line activism" (choose a long line with interesting people and try to engage conversations); "cell phone subversion" (talk loudly on a cell phone, even if you don't have someone on the other line. Say things that will provoke thought, and maybe someone will engage you when you hang up); "Cafe Conversations" (go to a cafe with a cohort and have a conversation those around you can overhear - "Hey, did you hear about the Great Unleashing coming up in March!? That's gonna be so cool!").
She also of course talked about simplicity. It's not about suffering and self denial, but is about learning that simpler lifestyles can actually be so much more rewarding and fulfilling - Less is More! She encouraged the audience to do less. "Cross things off of your to-do lists, even if you haven't done them" she joked. "Schedule a meeting with someone, and then cancel it. They'll thank you for giving them a free evening!"
She closed with a great story from Kurt Vonnegut, which I've heard before, and can probably find on the internets...hold on...yes, here's the quote from a conversation on PBS with David Brancachio:
"I told my wife I'm going out to buy an envelope. 'Oh,' she says. 'Well, you're not a poor man. You know, why don't you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?' And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I'm going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, I ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, I don't know. The moral of the story is we're here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don't realize, or they don't care, is we're dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we're not supposed to dance at all anymore."
By the way, the whole interview is great, including the portion where Kurt Vonnegut talks about peak oil:
KURT VONNEGUT: Look, I'll tell you. It's one thing that no cabinet had ever had, is a Secretary Of The Future. And there are no plans at all for my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.
DAVID BRANCACCIO: That's a great idea. In other words a Cabinet post--
KURT VONNEGUT: Well, it's too late! Look, the game is over! The game is over. We've killed the planet, the life support system. And, and it's so damaged that there's no recovery from that. And we're very soon going to run out of petroleum which powered everything that's modern. Razzmatazz about America. And, and it was very shallow people who imagined that we could keep this up indefinitely. But when I tell others, they say; Well, look there's-- you said hydrogen fuel. Nobody's working on it.
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcriptNOW140_full.html
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Permalink Reply by Heather K on
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Great to hear about the night with Cecile Andrews, as I did do less by not attending, but missed the laughter and maybe dancing too?....
I am awed by what a small temperature range humans can survive within, and how thin our liveable earth atmosphere is....its been said to be relatively thinner than an eggshell is to the egg!
Walter - I understand you may think better in the winters cold....But my body is different with a thin insulation factor better suited to warmer temps...hot water bottles in the bed by feet work wonders for deep sleep in an unheated building..
I do not think well when I'm cold...in fact I can recall a hike once when one of the hypothermic signs I had was I stopped thinking and went on instinct survival actions to warm up...and I can think of a desert canyon backpack where the reverse happened with the heat intensity feeling like a brain meltdown so that I had to spend a few post noon hours huddled under a 2 foot shrub casting shade while sipping on water with a wet bandana draped over my head until the earth turned a few hrs away from the sun's intensity....
Ditto on the words by Pat Murphy "Much of the waste in our landfills comes from products made from fossil fuels, such as plastics, or products made using large amounts of fossil fuel generated energy, such as paper and glass. Sewage pollutants come from a concentration of fecal material from cattle feed lots and people in cities – material that should be used to nourish the land that provides our food. What we call sewage, properly handled, is food for plants; placing it in waterways makes it a biological pollutant."
I really appreciate when I can physically give my water-waste to the earth-garden and bury my fresh solid ferilizer....and may my full body someday nourish an apple tree!
I've been reading 'The End of the Long Sumer" by Dianne Dumanoski 2009 (recommended), along with bits of 'A World Without Us"...sometime I may post on our book group...
The earth turns & tilts & the tides change from the moon and the earth climate has all days been changing.....seems like the earth has taken a bit of a mellow climate siesta for multi generations and is now ready to get dancing and a shaking whether we are here for the last dance or not.
The miracle is that we are alive in this moment at all...
I'm dancing in the garden eyes wide open heart beating towards joyful community together!
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