Given the vast existential problems of our civilization, we usually feel overwhelmed and powerless. While understandable, this is not necessary. There ARE actions we can undertake at our personal individual level which offer the prospect of revolutionary change at the societal level...

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"The human name doesn't mean sh*t to a tree" Jefferson Airplane, Eskimo Blue Day (1)

Most of us sense, to one degree or another, that something is fundamentally wrong with the world around us. Some focus on environmental, economic, political, military, or energy catastrophes looming just over the horizon. Others just have a vague but persistent sense that something just is not right with the world. They are all right, of course.

Considering our misgivings, most of us are constrained from taking action in any meaningful way simply by the sheer magnitude of the forces involved: Nature, the global human political economy, the entrenched power of our governments, the capture of the governments, including that of the United States, by trans-national corporate oligarchies.

The result of such contemplation is often a sense of foreboding, despair, and a crippling, pervasive feeling of helplessness in the face of such vast, if out of control, systems. Consequently, we turn our attention to areas in which we have more control, things closer to our everyday lives. We learn to just live with that vague sense of dread, to ignore it. Predictably, the deep, unresolved, problems of human organization continue to worsen.

Yet, we are NOT helpless before these forces. While no one of us, as individuals can deal "head on" with the magnitude, or historical trajectory, of such vast systems, we can take actions in our own lives, at the scale of ourselves as individuals, which can result in REAL, positive, change, both at the individual level, as well as at the systemic level.

First try to dispassionately understand the nature of the problems we are facing. Knowledge IS power. At heart ALL of our deep civilizational problems arise because of a mismatch between our human political economy--the manner in which the human world is organized, our "operating system"--and the far larger, far, far more powerful "operating system" that is Nature.

Put very simply we humans take and take and take, and do not give back. We break and do not repair or restore. Our economy is predicated upon rapaciously plundering the land, the seas, the skies and returning nothing but devastation and pollution.

For pre-industrial civilization, such an approach would eventually result in a localized collapse, followed after several hundred years, during which the exhausted soils would regenerate, by a new civilization's flowering. This would allow for another flourishing of civilization. Distant civilizations would hardly be affected by these far away rises and falls. The fall of Rome went largely unremarked in China, for example.

With industrialization, civilization became global. Its effects on the biosphere increased by orders of magnitude. Any collapse would henceforth be global as well.

Fossil fuels--oil, coal, gas--became central to our civilization. Our new industrial manufacturing culture came to be based upon materialism, endless consumption, and waste. Unfortunately, industrialism's externalities rapidly began to destabilize the biosphere upon which our civilization depends for its continuing existence.

Now we are about to face the worst of all worlds, so to speak. Oil production has peaked globally except for the contributions of "fracking" and tar sands in North America. Net energy per capita is in decline globally. Only the labor arbitrage (e.g. substituting cheap Chinese labor for expensive American labor) savings provided by globalism, have allowed this system to continue to expand.

The stress on nature is reaching the breakdown point--just as near-term energy decline means that our civilization's capacity to respond meaningfully to our self-engineered existential crisis will be reduced ever more with each succeeding decade. If you can't see catastrophe accelerating towards us you have your eyes closed!

What my wife Ramona, and myself have done under these circumstances, solely at our personal, individual level includes the following:

1) We went completely off the electric grid. We live in a costal suburban area of north San Diego County, in California. Over a period of two years, I designed and, with professional expertise, deployed, what ended up as a 5.3 kilowatt solar system, with another 1 kilowatt of wind power. Finally we have a 400 watt bicycle generator inside the house for human input. For power storage, we have 24 Trojan 105 deep cycle batteries. Result is that we have been continuously off grid for nearly two and one half years! We do not have an electric meter at all! Living this differently, you must, literally, "trim your sails (e.g. energy usage) to the wind" (and sun).

2) We have laboriously created over 1,000 square feet of organic gardens using terra preta (carbon sequestration in the soil) agriculture techniques. See HERE and HERE for our personal account of creating, and bringing to life these gardens. We are permaculturing our front lawn. We have put in a 4,000 gallon catfish pond. After the catfish begin to breed regularly, we anticipate being able to produce about one catfish every two weeks for our dining pleasure. Waste water from the pond is very rich in nutrients. Accordingly, it is recycled into our gardens, which benefit greatly from this.

3) We have used a commercial product, basically a glorified dehumidifier, to produce nearly all (about two gallons per day) of our drinking water year around using only renewable electricity. The machine is fairly simple and easy to maintain.

4) We purchased a Chevy Volt. To my surprise, we have been able to keep it charged, for the most part, year round, while also powering everything else, from our renewable energy system. This vehicle also serves as our home energy system's backup generator. It is easy to access the car's 17 kilowatt battery pack if needed to "top off" our household's 33 kilowatt battery bank. So far, however, this has never been necessary.

5) Other projects we have planned include installing about 5,000 gallons of catchment rainfall storage and associated drip irrigation for the gardens. Passive solar space and water heating are among other possible future projects.

Overall, we produce ALL of our household electricity year round. We produce a significant portion of the Volt's power using renewable energy. We produce a substantial portion of our food from our gardens. For the past three years, our grapevines have gifted us with 26 bottles of wine per year! This wine improves every year! We produce all of our drinking water from air using sun and wind power only.

While the deep problems of human civilization still remain, we have decoupled significantly from its failing, environmentally destructive economy in terms of energy, food, water, and transportation. We even use satellite internet, so that local grid failure will not disconnect us. We are increasingly resilient and self-reliant. This is something we as a people have generally lost as we've become industrialized. Now we are reclaiming it!

By decoupling as we have, we have eliminated most of our personal "carbon footprint." As others come to adopt these practices, their carbon footprints will also plunge.

When our numbers are millions, then tens, hundreds of millions, not only will our collective consumption of fossil fuels decline dramatically, the polluting industries which depended upon our being their captive market, will wither and collapse as well!

As concentrated corporate power has overwhelmed our political system, we, by seceding from it and all that it offers, will strangle it. This without firing a shot! At this point, we will all be much better positioned to compel the rapid de-carbonization of our society. If you do not understand WHY this must be undertaken, and why it MUST be rapid, read THIS.

We feel empowered. At the level of our own lives, we have fought back against the Empire! When we become many ("I'm Spartacus!") this becomes revolutionary.

This is a way for each of us, individually, to begin to reclaim the balance with Nature that our civilization so conspicuously lacks.

That is revolution from below! Join! Take action NOW!

http://lyrics.wikia.com/Jefferson_Airplane:Eskimo_Blue_Day

Authors Website: https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts/3979729587610286911

Authors Bio:

Michael P Byron is the author of The Path Through Infinity's Rainbow: Your Guide to Personal Survival and Spiritual Transformation in a World Gone Mad. This book is a manual for taking effective action to deal with the crises of our age including global climate change, peak oil, and political failure to deal with these and other problems.

His previous book is Infinity's Rainbow: The Politics of Energy, Climate and Globalization.

Byron-has a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine.--He teaches all aspects of Political Science and Political Economy in local colleges in the San Diego area.- He was the Democratic Party's candidate for United States Congress in California's 49th Congressional District in 2004. In 2002,-he- ran as a write-in candidate upon discovering that the Republican incumbent, Darrell Issa, had no major-party challenger.

Mike lives in Oceanside, CA with his wife, Ramona Byron. Both are Navy veterans.