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Dear Pat,
Thanks for raising this question, I think it is an important one and will
become increasingly so in the next thirty years. We will be entering a
phase in which everything to do with oil--locating it, extracting it,
transporting it, refining it, distributing it, and burning it, will come
with increasing dire effects for humans and the rest of the earth. I think
the American "take over" of Afghanistan is a case in point---the energy
megalith will do what it will with whatever opportunity to get oil under its
control.
So I see any efforts to get off oil dependency as political acts; both from
the perspective of human peace and earth well-being.
I find it very useful to think about the three main dimensions of the Great
Turning, as Joanna Macy calls it, the moving toward sustainable living with
justice. First, all "holding actions", basically the efforts to stop bad
things from happening, which have been the main focus of mainstream
environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, and peace
groups such as End the Arms Race. Secondly, are efforts to create new
institutions and appropriate technologies, examples would be local
currencies, the GPI, all efforts to educate youth in conflict resolution
skills, and wind power generation, and local democratic institutions.
Thirdly, is the work of transforming basic beliefs or worldviews away from
the materialism, nationalism, and militarism that is so rampant, toward the
direction of a new cosmology that celebrates diversity and the place of the
human within the larger earth process. The best example that I know of in
this area is the work referred to as The Universe Story, following the work
of Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, Joanna Macy, and many others.
All three dimensions are needed for a Great Turning, and all of us are
called in different ways to work in a way that grabs our fascination and
passion. Thomas Berry says there is an awakening spirit he calls the desire
for Pax Gaia, the peace of Earth, and I believe that this is so. Not that
the Earth will become a benign place, it will always have it's turbulent and
destructive/reformation aspect, but there seems to be a pulling toward this
peace that transcends the purely human into something much larger...this is
the spiritual dimension of the Great Turning.
Just as growing and purchasing local organic food is a political act toward
political well-being and peace, so too are efforts to get off oil dependency
and in tune with local energy systems, the wind for example, and to reduce
energy consumption and find meaning in celebration in more benign ways.
There is much more to say about all this, but there are a few thoughts this
morning.
For Peace with Justice (for all Earth being),
Roger
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