PEAK OIL? SHOULDA, OUGHTA, GOTTA

Yes, we’re behind. Way behind in recognizing the threat of Peak Oil. But can this sow’s ear of threatened loss of all that North Americans hold dear be turned into the proverbial silk purse? By my dead mother’s legacy of looking at every catastrophe as an opportunity for personal growth, yes. In this case, the growth would have to be collective. But if one considers cheap oil and gas as warty growths on the sow’s ear that brought us urban sprawl, the demise of family farms, the globalization of corporations, accelerated destruction of eco systems and entire species, and the disappearance of real communities, then perhaps a cleaned up sow’s ear could reveal the most beautiful silk purse. Although I think a sow’s ear is beautiful in itself, we are speaking metaphorically here. And we would have to think.

In my opinion, we haven’t thought in a long time. Not really. Not collectively, not outside the expert’s findings (usually TV experts). Reverting back to thinking for ourselves would free us to think realistically about time, how children learn, what constitutes happiness, when and how we feel the most at peace, how to consider love and laughter, music and dance, how to garden, how to find and use natural products, how to become and stay healthy, how to connect with others who are ill, how to recognize and acknowledge the spiritual component in our lives, what constitutes a responsible adult…the list goes on. But this list composes the shining silken strands of the proverbial purse. This list composes community. The community that was lost with the excessive and unmitigated use of oil over the last century.

So here in the peak oil crisis we have the opportunity for personal grown in the collective. We can think about how to convince citizens in the city to give up lawns and except perhaps for a few border flowers, grow good things to eat. In Vancouver we have many flat top roofs, may city owned garden spots places where children and adults alike can grow food; we can think about how to narrow some streets that would take away parking spaces and give them over to food plots, with food prices going through the roof we must think food, first, foremost and above all. But I would like to bring forward one other thing for discussion…the nationalization of Canada’s oil and gas reserves.

I understand as a mayoral candidate that if elected I could not personally nationalize Canada oil and gas. But let’s think about this. The energy reserves of Canada, in my opinion, belong to Canadian citizens. They do not belong to a federal government that governs as an oligarchy and they do not belong to Alberta as though Alberta were some sovereign county in the mist of Canada and they do not belong to a select group of private foreign or domestic citizens who already have more money than they should have. More later.