Yeast (From Bucks Free Press)

Yeast

11:26am Wednesday 25th August 2010

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Somebody always has an answer to Peak Oil. ("We'll all drive electric cars!") There is always someone to deny our impacts upon the climate. ("CO2 is not a pollutant!") We really should be more cautious. We are in a century of declining resources whilst economies and populations continue to grow. There are limits to growth and we must learn to live within them. Yeast has not. Yeast will expand to consume all of its food. It converts it into alcohol. The alcohol then kills the yeast. Are we smarter? Transitioners are not 'end-of-the-worlders'. Ours is a message of hope - of a new & different world to look forward to. We only ask for a change of direction to avoid us sharing the fate of yeast. That change will happen HERE in High Wycombe as it must do everywhere. It will happen when communities change to become more resilient.

Change will eventually be forced upon us from the outside. It will not be relieved by shopping or TV. I don't know when that will be or what will cause it. It probably will be a combination of factors. It can happen in five years or fifty. If it isn't Peak Oil it will be Climate. If it isn't them it will be Top Soil or Water. Did we learn nothing when we opened a hole in the Ozone layer? These are the first of many warnings that we ignore at our peril. What of technology? Maybe LED's will replace light bulbs but LEDs are made of Gallium Arsenide of which there is only another 5 years of supply. Then there is 'peak Phosphorus' (2035 to 2055) for which there is no substitute and unlikely to be one. It doesn't matter WHAT trips us up. All that is certain is that we WILL eventually fall down. There is a better way. Come and dance with us for your soft landing. You are not yeast.

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