Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Running on empty?
I was just reading a Newsweek article by Jane Bryant Quinn on our energy dependency: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12333796/site/newsweek/
In it, she discusses the growing conventional wisdom that we may not be able to drill, buy, and shoot our way out of our energy problems. What then?
I'm writing this blog as a musician and "escape artist." What does that mean for me? Does it mean putting my head in the sand, taking my rum punch via intravenous, and ignoring it and hoping it goes away? Probably not.
I'm a fan of what Permaculturist and communitarian Brock Dolman calls "sustainable hedonism." We can live well and be happy while consuming far less. Granted, it's hard to grow mangoes in Minneapolis. But there *is* a beautiful world out there, in between the buildings and billboards, practically next door to wherever you happen to be.
The price of jet fuel may make it harder to fly, and to get exotic things from exotic places. Global warming will probably claim the Florida Keys as one of its victims. But if I can create and hold onto a state of Paradise in my own mind, it doesn't much matter what the price of oil does.
"They say this universe is bound to blow
I say we crank up the calypso control." - J. Buffett, "Apocalypso"
In it, she discusses the growing conventional wisdom that we may not be able to drill, buy, and shoot our way out of our energy problems. What then?
I'm writing this blog as a musician and "escape artist." What does that mean for me? Does it mean putting my head in the sand, taking my rum punch via intravenous, and ignoring it and hoping it goes away? Probably not.
I'm a fan of what Permaculturist and communitarian Brock Dolman calls "sustainable hedonism." We can live well and be happy while consuming far less. Granted, it's hard to grow mangoes in Minneapolis. But there *is* a beautiful world out there, in between the buildings and billboards, practically next door to wherever you happen to be.
The price of jet fuel may make it harder to fly, and to get exotic things from exotic places. Global warming will probably claim the Florida Keys as one of its victims. But if I can create and hold onto a state of Paradise in my own mind, it doesn't much matter what the price of oil does.
"They say this universe is bound to blow
I say we crank up the calypso control." - J. Buffett, "Apocalypso"
# posted by Loren Davidson @ 10:39 AM 
