NNEMA

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
It seems appropriate to start this the day after.
Let us give thanks for our blessings here in this rich and powerful country where many of us have more than we need.
As you may surmise, our lifestyle is based on cheap energy. This is a recurring theme of our little site, cheap oil.
And it is also suggested that our continued survival is dependent on our cooperative efforts, especially in view of pending Peak Oil.
This site is an ettempt to gather information and ideas on how to meet the threat of the end of cheap energy.
How to retool and retrench as our one-time blessing of irreplaceable fossil fuels diminish.
As Americans, who use five times the energy everyone else does, we will find it much harder to adapt to lesser energy supplies than the rest of the world.
Our fall will be greater and harder.
At one time it was suggested that massive conservation efforts on our part would solve the problem.
But at this late stage in the game, it is doubtful that changing our lightbulbs to fluorescents, and installing evaporative coolers will have much impact in lessening our dependence on irreplaceable fossil fuels. Especially since few have heard of Peak Oil, nor are ready to learn conservation. There are far too many new models of cars that we must buy, and the corporate structure must continue to sell us more and more stuff so that management can get its big bonuses. It may be far too late to look for this brass ring of conservation as our solution.
Nor is that 100 pound bag of rice stashed away going to give much long term help -- what happens after it is eaten up?
Our hope, as individuals and a society is to quickly learn to work together. To become neighborhoods, and learn sustainability.
Please, read the books mentioned on this site about our energy crisis. You must become informed of the magnitude of the threat we face, or you will not truly understand the urgency.
If we are unprepared it may truly be a historic disaster.
Let's not let that happen.

It might be wise to discuss both long-term and short-term solutions.
If our oil supply is suddenly disrupted from the increasingly unstable middle east, what plans to we have in place for this possibility? And, what plans do we have for a slower disruption?
Do we have any?
Do you have any?
Again, it is up to us to prepare.


So today, let's start talking about tools. In this case, very simple tools.

The lowly gallon wide-mouth glass jar.
This is a should-be in your cooking tools.
Thousands of these wonderful jars are thrown out daily from our various bars and restaurants.
While on the way home from work one of these days, stop by the neighborhood bar, and ask the bartender to save you a glass jar or two.
You know the kind, the ones that pickles, olive, and cherries come in.
They are just the handiest things.
I use them when making soymilk among other things, and these are the kind of jars that you can do solar cooking in. You can also sterilze water in them -- cooking temperatures will destroy harmful bacteria in your water, to help keep you healthy when drinking questionable water supplies.
The simplest solar cooker is a gallon glass jar placed over another smaller jar, with a foil reflector bouncing more sunlight into the cooker. Of course, it helps to paint the outside of the smaller inner jar with black paint. This paint helps it all heat up better.
We'll talk about building solar cookers over the coming weeks, as well as changes we can make to our eating habits to lessen our impact, save us money, and point us toward sustainability.
So go have a beer after work, talk to your neighborhood bartender (tip him/her) and start collecting a few glass jars.

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