Our Investments
We used home equity as an ATM to make up for falling wages. The family home was the greatest part of our net worth. Then the real estate bubble popped, and the money dried up. (The stock market lost 50 percent, too.)
Cheap Energy
We depend on cheap energy for almost everything. Nothing yields the high return for energy invested we got from the easy-to-reach oil fields we’ve already used up.
It Takes Energy to Get Energy
A Stable Climate
As climate change escalates, weather disasters become more frequent and intense. In the past 50 years, events requiring federal aid have increased almost sixfold.
Oil
The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) says peak oil is near—when production begins an Irreversible decline, spelling the end of our oil-crazy culture. Optimists, including the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), predict rising production. But even if they’re right, the additional CO2 will accelerate climate change.
More Oil or Less Oil, We Have to Change
Kelly Shea researched and designed this fact sheet for A Resilient Community, the Fall 2010 issue of YES! Magazine. Kelly is an editorial assistant for YES! Magazine.Interested?
- The Page That Counts: Fall 2010 (with complete citations)
- What's your Resilience IQ? Take our quiz
A Resilient CommunityHow do you navigate an unsteady economy, a future without cheap oil, and unimaginable changes in the climate? Here are ways to learn skills for self-reliance, build lasting communities, and take care of the important things in life, whether good times or hard times come our way.Sign up for our free newsletter and be the first to know when articles go online. |  [Full table of contents of our Fall 2010 issue] | ||
 |  A cob house, an ecovillage, bee hives, and other innovations and inspirations |  In an uncertain world, who's got your back? Here's how to build a resilient community.
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 Transition Towns make plans for an oil-poor future–and have a blast doing it. |  Your grandparents could. Food, shelter, clothing–the self-reliant way. |  Richmond, Calif., lost its industry–now it's gaining a future, one garden at a time. |
 These days, whoever shares the most stuff wins. |  Rebecca Solnit tours a city where people came together during their darkest hours. |  Lessons from people who've learned through experience–your ancestors. |
 Why build resilience now? Because here's what we can't rely on ... |  How to have honest conversations about climate change, the future, and our hopes and fears. |  |
ARE YOU SELF- AND COMMUNITY-SUFFICIENT? 1. I put my savings and investments in community and regional banks and local institutions. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 2. I buy or barter the goods and services I need from local merchants, organizations, or individuals. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 3. I make my income from my local economy. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 4. I know how to fix, grow, build, or create things (such as repair a roof, grow kale, give a guitar lesson) that others would want in good times and hard times. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 5. I have an alternative source of livelihood that could sustain me (and my family) if my current source were no longer viable. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 6. I consume locally grown food that I could afford even if prices went up substantially (e.g., from a food co-op, backyard garden). STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 7. I know how to preserve food and keep a well-stocked pantry. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 8. I have access to sources of water, even when the weather is unpredictable or the tap water doesn’t work (such as a rainwater tank or a reliable well). STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 9. I have ways to get around, even if the gas at the pump is unavailable or pricey (such as feet, bike, electric car). STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 10. I have alternative heat and energy sources (such as solar panels or a wood stove) if the power goes out or utilities get expensive. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 11. I actively promote the development of renewable energy in my local community. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 12. I have a hopeful vision of what my community and life can look like in a future without fossil fuels. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE |  | DO YOU HAVE A SUPPORT NETWORK? 13. I have friends and acquaintances in my local community (and I know their faces, not just their Facebook pages). STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 14. I am comfortable asking my neighbors if I can borrow stuff (e.g., tools, ingredients). STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 15. I could easily call on nearby friends and neighbors for help in an emergency. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 16. I offer support to people in my community when they need help. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 17. I’m active in community groups (like neighborhood associations, potlucks, churches, soup kitchens, gardening clubs, arts organizations, or local political groups). STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE DO YOU HAVE SOURCES OF PERSONAL RESILIENCE? 18. I sing, dance, paint, or otherwise participate in arts or creative work on a regular basis. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 19. I regularly engage in activities that help me stay calm and balanced (such as meditation, exercise, prayer, or spending time in nature). STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE 20. I take care of my health, such as through regular exercise, a healthy diet, and an appropriate amount of sleep. STRONGLY DISAGREE DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY AGREE  |
Your Score:
Compare your score:70 or higher = Leading the way to more resilient communities!
46–69 = Off to a good start...
45 or lower = You have many opportunities to become more resilient.
Cheat Sheet for Resilience
Now that you’ve taken the YES! resilience test, here are some ways you can improve your score.
1. Build a support network
Research shows that individualism rarely works for surviving change and calamity. According to author Rebecca Solnit and disaster scholars Lee Clarke and Karen Chess, people who thrive during times of upheaval do so with the help of community. And knowing your neighbors, volunteering, and sharing with others substantially improves your health and happiness. In a survey by United Healthcare, nearly three-fourths of Americans who volunteer report that their volunteer work lowers their stress level; 70 percent say it makes them feel physically healthier.It’s easy to build informal community networks by getting involved in neighborhood and community activities and organizations. Personal Safety Nets (Safety Nets Unlimited 2007) by John Gibson and Judy Piggott also provides strategies for deliberately building a support network that can help you through life changes and unexpected circumstances. The authors’ website (personalsafetynets.com) provides resources and toolkits for organizing a team of people who can help one other both through crisis and during life’s more minor bumps in the road.
2. Become locally reliant
A growing number of experts believe it’s inevitable that our society needs to move away from businesses and institutions that are “too big to fail” and toward small, more diverse, local economies and organizations. And as we reach the end of cheap oil and try to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, we’ll need to produce more goods locally, rather than shipping them across vast distances.If oil becomes scarce and food prices spike, the cost of every imported good is likely to go up as well. That’s why it’s important to have means for procuring the basics (food, energy, heating, water) locally.
Chris Martenson, a former Fortune 500 company vice president and a leading expert on resilience, offers a series of steps and ideas for becoming self-reliant and resilient—they include everything from learning to store your food to investing in alternative energy and water filtration systems. You can find his report, “Personal Preparation,” through the Post Carbon Institute.
Bay Localize, an Oakland, Calif.-based organization devoted to sustainability, also offers tips for strengthening your personal and community resilience and becoming less reliant on fossil fuels, such as:
- Get a home energy audit.
- Form a city peak oil task force.
- Ride your bike.
- Start a carpool.
- Plant a community garden.
Want to improve your water self-reliance? Try one of these six ways to “Bring the Water Revolution Home.”
And explore these tips for joining the local food movement.
3. Develop sources of personal strength, and take care of yourself
Change is stressful for most people. Responding to change and crisis requires that we develop deeper wells of personal, emotional resilience, in order to cope, thrive, and support others around us.Dennis Charney and Charles Nemeroff, leading experts on stress and trauma, note that “Recent studies have shown that resilience can be improved with intentional effort. People can learn to build their psychological reserves, toughen their physical response to stress, and become less vulnerable to anxiety or depression.”
They identify key strategies for strengthening your personal resilience. The first is physical health—eat well, exercise, sleep well, take care of yourself.
A second is called positive “appraisal.” Learn to view change as an opportunity. Develop a hopeful vision of what your community can look like, even without cheap oil, even in the face of an unimaginable climate future.
Lastly, invest in the activities and practices that bring meaning to your life. Staci Haines, an expert on healing after trauma, says these practices and activities include: “spirituality, a strong relationship with animals and or nature, creativity and art including music, movement and visual arts. Other more relationship-based resilience strategies include: being able to help others both during and after the trauma … and being positively connected to at least one other person.”
This article was written by YES! Magazine staff for the Fall 2010 issue, A Resilient Community.
Interested?
- Why Build Resilience? Get the facts from our Fall 2010 issue.
- Pam Chang blogs about the Transition Town movement
- L.A. Eco-Village: How one urban community is taking action in the city
- Multimedia on resilience from our Fall 2010 issue
