Hopedance

by Bob Banner

According to Matt Simmons, previous energy consultant to Bush I, author of books (i.e., Twilight in the Desert) and articles about peak oil, and chairman of the board of Simmons and Company International (Investment Bankers to the Energy Industry; http://www.simmonsco-intl.com ), we have reached peak oil, a period when the level of demand outweighs supply. There is a great body of work by many professionals, social scientists, urban planners, geologists and philosophers who attest to this dire situation. Many also claim it may take the same amount of time (about 20 years) for peak oil to gain entrance into the public mind as it took for global warming.

HopeDance created three issues delving into peak oil more than two years ago and initiated the first Peak Oil/Energy/Consumption Film Festival and Panel Discussion in Santa Barbara, featuring Richard Heinberg. The point of these efforts has been to introduce what appears to be the inevitable consequence of peak oil, a return to the local. Michael Ruppert and others have made the claim that peak oil equals the reverse of globalization. It can be summarized thusly: when the price of oil increases, major corporations that depend on the bottom line for their survival are going to be hit hard, unless of course the government keeps bailing them out with even more of the subsidies they already enjoy. For example, when fertilizers (a petroleum product) get more expensive and trucking (fossil fuel) gets more expensive, then the 1,500-mile Caesar salad will no longer be economical, unless of course it’s the only food in town. However, if lettuce, tomatoes and eggs become cheaper by buying them locally rather than at the supermarkets which purchase their products thousands of miles away, you can now begin to see the advantage of “shop local.” It will not just be a simplistic provincial slogan. It will be the priority message of our survival, and it will be infused intensely with the political talk of the day. Investing in the local will become an issue for legislators and city council officials, not just about food and crops and meat sources, but our energy, our housing, our transportation. Just imagine the price of eggs going up twice the amount because of fuel increases. How long do you think it will take a person to locate eggs down the street, or at the farmers’ market or through a local cooperative? Or to have hens in our backyards. Just as quickly as it took consumers to locate the cheap deal at a Wal-Mart, they will take their non-loyalty bargain-mentality and move it toward the local, as if the only thing that mattered was price, not the full price mind you, but that short-run immediate low price that consumers demand.

If more and more prices go up at the chains and transnationals, we will see a search for a better price locally. We will also see cities doing something about it. Seattle has already undergone research to locate all its cultivatable land so that land can go towards urban farming ASAP. What will our Board of Supervisors do if the local farmers’ markets become engulfed with hordes of people buying fresh produce not because it’s organic or pesticide-free or because it’s local or because it tastes better; they will come in hordes because it’s cheaper. They may even ride that bike they abandoned during the cheap oil days, to the farmers’ market.

Of course the tiny percentage who shop now for their food locally or that even tinier percentage who have subscribed to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or the even tinier percentage who demand organic and local food have changed their purchasing behavior for a variety of reasons: health, support of local farmers, ethics, not because it’s cheaper.

When more and more people are getting less and less for their dollar and when the middle class shrinks and when more jobs are outsourced, more and more people will inevitably watch their finances. The end of cheap oil is upon us. We are seeing the beginning of the repercussions and simply need to prepare. Don’t complain to the politicians or the mass media about why they didn’t tell us about the effects of peak oil. We elected them primarily to keep us deluded and entertained. If they ran on a ticket of possible collapse and inevitable changes, would a majority have voted for them? If our television stations told us the truth about the end of cheap oil, would we stay tuned? I will venture to say it’s human to stick our heads in the sand. We want bread and circuses, not truth or responsible politicians or journalists who might scare us into the inconvenient process of empowering ourselves to become active citizens who can stand up to the future scenarios.

The term relocalization basically means we had a local economy before. We connected to our local business people; we knew them by their first name. We had local shoe repair people, cheese makers, bread makers, farmers, ranchers, and clothing manufacturers. We got our needs met. We didn’t face an obesity epidemic or bouts of depression. We were playing in the fields, not on computers; we enjoyed local entertainment, rather than traveling hundreds of miles to see the “more popular” entertainers or venues. We often walked or rode our bicycles to school, to town for shopping, or to visit friends.

When the legal entity of the corporation was radically transformed so that the commons were no longer for the existence and sustenance of the community, the local shop owners died a quick death. When the Wal-Marts, K-Marts and Sears and numerous corporations have taken the capitalist direction to its maximum, along with cheap oil, it is only a matter of time before they are going to be hit hard. So, relocalization means to become local again. The local stores that the Big Boxes destroyed now may be able to reemerge. But there is a timing to it. People throughout the country see it coming and are doing something about it. In the past two years, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economy (BALLE) membership has tripled. This new energy is helping not only to oppose globalization but to strengthen the local. See the various articles and book reviews in this issue that focus on relocalization and the move toward local living economies. These new organizations (collaborating between citizens and government agencies) are reestablishing local power, thereby strengthening ties between the manufacturers and retailer, the farmer with the school or restaurant, the natural builder with the City building codes, the recycling people with the ecoprenuers who can locally manufacture shoes, clothes, etc. And how about ethanol or used oil or biodiesel manufactured locally for our city trucks and buses? The list is endless. The unfathomable cornucopia of solutions is all around us. This does not have to be a change based on fear, but a wonderful transformation where we can return to the days of neighborliness, to reclaim public spaces as they have done so successfully in the city of Portland with its City Repair projects.

With so much excitement, based on a whirlwind of healing on various fronts, alienation will withdraw. Fear may increase, but people’s creativity and profound concern will also increase; a return to what is really vital and necessary will be felt by neighborhoods and cities. Who will need to watch television when there will be so much genuine drama in the neighborhood? Perhaps the media will once again turn to local solutions and feel compelled to encourage active citizen participation where democracy can be actually practiced. This is good news. I smell lots of collaboration. I see individuals teaming up with more and more organizations to put pressure on the policy makers to turn the tide around. There has been lots of work already in motion for years. The pioneers who have been ridiculed in the past will be honored now, because we need them. I sense that the return to the local is the most important step in moving forward, and I hope these articles and stories and resources will resonate with you and help in the coming years.

Bob Banner is the publisher of HopeDance and is Director of HopeDance FiLMs. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text21987 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 805 544 9663.