Oil and rust

RustedRobot wins the blogger of the week award. After writing an inspired post about his new hometown a few days ago, he's landed an interview with The End of Oil author Paul Roberts. Jeff's own commentary is quite thoughtful too.

Since the 70s, my family had cars that got good gas mileage. It was more a matter of being frugal back then, but my folks certainly were aware of the environmental impact of cars. Today it's hard for me to imagine buying a vehicle without considering the environmental and political implications of doing so.

I started living a lot more gently once I arrived in California six years ago. The bills are higher, sure, but the big story for me was confronting real scarcity for the first time. It doesn't rain for eight months out of the year here; environmental engineering and land use have always been hot-button issues as a result, especially in a place of such natural beauty. Battles over water rights, virtually unknown back east, are the subject of court battles and screaming headlines. (Great movies, too.) The book that really did it for me was Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert, but the power crisis of 2001 helped a lot too. It isn't just about oil -- it's about using less of everything. Lower thermostats in the winter, more wool shirts, less driving, more walking. Compact fluorescents have come a long way. I don't like telling my roommates what to do (let alone my downstairs neighbors, with whom I share a power bill!) but I've tried to gently show them that we can all stand to shrink our eco-footprint. It probably makes me an annoying bastard sometimes but that's a price I'm willing to pay. (The real annoying bastards are the drivers of giant trucks with "Keep Tahoe Blue" stickers on the bumper, aren't they?) Still, the change that can occur at the regulatory level is probably greater than what all the individual citizens put together can do.

Anyway I recommend spending a little time with RustedRobot's blog today. It's worth it.


FMFM: The Pixies' knockout performance at Coachella 2004.