Energy Descent Plan

An energy descent plan is a plan to use less energy. It sounds very simple but the implications of such a plan will effect every aspect of our lives. We have created a fantastic world from one extremely powerful energy source, fossil fuels. Coal, oil and natural gas have been formed over million of years, in the last 150 years we have been incredibly successful in finding ways of using that energy to manufacture a world that can transport us to the moon and beyond. So reliant have we become on this prehistoric energy source, just the idea of severely limiting our consumption is very bad news for many people, not least the major corporations whose business model is based on continually increasing consumption.

In my view there has to be a limit to this growth, our planet does not have the easily accessible resources that it once had. We have used up the bulk of these resources and without too much thought for the consequences, dangerously altered much of the Earth's fragile eco systems at the same time.  
We must act to reduce our consumption in every aspect of our lives...as someone so succinctly put it 
"We must leave fossil fuels before fossil fuels leave us"  
So what to do?
Well a good start would be to analyse how we in our community use energy,

How do we feed and clothe ourselves?
How do we use water and what do we do with our waste?
How do we provide warmth and shelter?
How do we travel, locally,nationally,globally?
How do we entertain ourselves?
How do we cure our illnesses?
How do we teach ourselves and our children?

In all of these areas ,and I'm sure there are more, we need to move towards a community that is more self reliant, a community that can sustain itself using renewable resources, a community that leaves answers for its children rather than questions.



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