Ran Prieur has an interesting post up on his site about choosing appropriate technology.
if you’re raising your own food through permaculture, no-till gardens, perennials and self-seeding annuals, fruit and nut orchards integrated with small animals, you can surpass even the efficiency of forager-hunters. And you can do the same thing with shelter, using indigenous materials to make thick sun-absorbing buildings with super-efficient wood stoves, that require no electricity or gas and far less wood burning than stone-age shelters.
There’s much more in his post. It’s very interesting. Particularly in light of what other people are doing or not doing. I had a conversation with a co-worker recently who wasn’t sure if she was going to have a garden because of our drought. I suggested that they set up a rain-catchment system to take advantage of what rainfall we do have. We may be in an apartment right now which limits what we can do but we’re trying to do what we can in our limited space. Aside from learning as much as possible we’re also growing at least some food. Particularly things that are high cost like herbs and tomatoes. We do have to make good choices, live locally, and be much more self-reliant than we are now.
I’ve added several links about Peak Oil to the links list on the site. It’s time (past time really) to get busy.
