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Overview
Why are so few peak oil authors women? There's been much debate about this, and no one has yet arrived at a definitive answer. But whatever the reason, Sharon Astyk has established herself as a true rarity within the peak oil community by virtue of being a woman who has chosen to write about peak oil. The perspective she offers is thus both uncommon and vital.
In Depletion and Abundance, she shows how rewarding life on her New Home Front could be, immeasureably improving our health, nutrition, sense of community and overall well-being. Chief among its benefits would be all the extra time that we'd have. She points out that people in medieval times worked far fewer hours than Americans do today, and that most people in modern-day peasant societies also work less hard than we do.
This, along with Astyk's unique perspective as a woman, a mother and a peak oil activist, makes Depleiton and Abundance well worth a read. The ring of authenticity to her writing will hook you - while its relaxed style, ineffable humor, personal anecdotes and comforting touch will soothe your melancholy peaknik soul like a warm hand on the shoulder.
Reviewed by Frank Kaminski, Energy Bulletin
Sharon's introduction is pricelss in its succinct, dead-on analysis of collapse, and is reason enough to buy and send this book to everyone you know who is partially or completely clueless about where we're headed. "When I realized that everything was going to change, I was at first afraid. Because I thought, if my government or public policy or other choices weren't going to fix everything, what could I possibly do? What hope was there, if I had to take care of myself, if my community had to take care of itself?
But when I began looking for solutions that could be applied on the level of ordinary human lives, that involved changes in perspectives and pulling together, the reclamation of abandoned ideas and the restoration of strong communitites, I began to feel hopeful, even excited. Because I realized that when large institutions cease to be powerful, sometimes that means that people start being powerful again."
Depletion and Abundance is not a feel-good book, but it is intensely human, compassionate, supportive, pracitcal, alarming, enlivening, and astonishingly accurate.
Reviewed by Carolyn Baker, Carolynbaker.net
Climate change, peak oil, and economic instability aren’t just future social problems—they jeopardize our homes and families right now.Our once-abundant food supply is being threatened by toxic chemical agriculture, rising food prices and crop shortages brought on by climate change. Funding for education and health care is strained to the limit, and safe and affordable housing is disappearing.
Depletion and Abundance explains how we are living beyond our means with or without a peak oil/climate change crisis and that, either way, we must learn to place our families and local communities at the center of our thinking once again. The author presents strategies to create stronger homes, better health and a richer family life and to:
*live comfortably with an uncertain energy supply
*prepare children for a hotter, lower energy, less secure world
*survive and thrive in an economy in crisis, and
*maintain a kitchen garden to supply basic food needs.
Most importantly, readers will discover that depletion can lead to abundance, and the anxiety of these uncertain times can be turned into a gift of hope and action.
An unusual family perspective on the topic, this book will appeal to all those interested in securing a future for their children and grandchildren.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781550923735 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | New Society Publishers |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2008 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 288 |
| File size: | 851 KB |
About the Author
Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsPART 1: Where Are We? O N E · Getting Out the Boats: A Primer on Hard Times Time to Get Out Our Boats Facing up to the Future Hurry Up, Please; It's Time Defining Our Terms With What Will We Fix It, Dear Liza, Dear Liza?
T W O · Actions as Activism: The New Home Front and the Riot for Austerity The Riot for Austerity On the New Home Front Reconsidering Public and Private Women's Work and Political Power The Political is Also the Personal The Power Lines Coming Together on the Home Front The Church Model of Community Building
T H R E E · Time to Pick Up Your Hat Pick Up Your Hat Feels Like I'm Dyin' From that Old Used-to-Be The Long-Term Problem of Technological Solutions Not the End of the World The Theory of Anyway
PART 2: Money Changes Everything F O U R · Meet the Real Economy Confronting the Real Economy Self-sufficiency as the Opposite of Poverty Peasant Economics for Everyone Digging for Dollars
F I V E · Making Ends Meet The Problem of Consumption Use-What-You-Have Adaptation Get Out of Debt Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do or Do Without Hang On to Your House
PART 3: Real Family Values – Facing the Future Together S I X · Talking Population With the Old Men Why Bring Up Population? Trusting Women The Limits of I=PAT Understanding the Demographic Transition The Tragedy of the Bathroom
S E V E N · The Permaculture of Family Home Economics and the "Mommy Wars" Husbanding Our Resources This is the Way the World Ends ... With Your Brother-in-Law Sleeping on Your Couch
E I G H T · Raising Kids in a New World: Family Life and Education I Don't Know How She Does It! Toys are Not Us Childhood in a Changing World School and Energy
PART 4: Home Economics, Home-Land Security N I N E · Little House in the Suburbs Home is Where You are Now Staying Put Buy or Rent? Where to Live? Sufficiency Plan for a Suburban Home
T E N · The Beauty and Necessity of the Low-Energy Home Why the Lights Go Out and What to Do About It What Life in Our Low-Energy Home Looks Like
PART 5: Food and Health: The New Basics E L E V E N · The Bountiful Home: Grow and Preserve What You Need The Crazy Lady and the Garden The Bull's-Eye Diet How to Start Your Garden Squirrel Time
T W E L V E · The Hand that Stirs the Pot, Rules the World It's All About Food Getting Over Picky Food Preservation and Democracy Frugality, Economy, Preparedness How to Eat Cheap
T H I R T E E N · Health Care
Public Health The Myths of Medicine The Costs and Benefits of Modern Medicine Why Health Care Should Be at the Center of Things The Most Bang for the Health Care Buck The Beginning and the End
PART 6: Recompense F O U R T E E N · Abundance, Democracy, Joy Scared? Duh! Abundance Am I Romanticizing Poverty? The One Thing We Did Right
A P P E N D I X O N E · Things You Can Do to Get Ready for Peak Oil, Climate Change and Difficult Times
A P P E N D I X T W O · The Best Books About Nearly Everything
Index About the Author
What People are Saying About This
"Depletion and Abundance offers a vivid portrayal of where resource and energy scarcity is taking us, and with calm, incisive logic disassembles the too-easy answers and the panicked proposals offered on all sides of the energy debate. What's more, the author gives us a path having both heart and reason toward a sustainable and appealing future." — Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
"This thoughtful, passionate book breaks away from the conventional wisdom of doomsayers and cornucopians alike to offer a deeply practical vision of survival through family, community, and personal responsibility in the age of peak oil. Highly recommended." — John Michael Greer, author of The Long Descent and The Archdruid Report
"You come out of an Inconvenient Truth and you're lost. You can hope that technology will figure it out. Or, like Sharon Astyk, you can take the situation into your own hands. You can lead your family away from dependence on fossil fuels and stuff and towards a joyful vision of simplicity, self-reliance, planetary stewardship and strong local community. If that is your bent, this is your handbook." — Colin Beavan, author and blogger at NoImpactMan.com
"A smart book that will get you thinking about what the world might look like if it changed — which seems altogether likely. Sharon Astyk has all kinds of suggestions for individuals and families, but never forgets that real resilience lies in working communities." — Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy
"Sharon Astyk has given us an exquisite roadmap describing where we are now, where we are likely to find ourselves in the next few years, and how to prepare on myriad levels for the journey. This book is both brilliant and beautiful, reverberating with her insight, wisdom, and compassion. At the same time that she pours a tall glass of hard reality for the reader, she sits beside us with her hand on our shoulders while we drink it. I will enthusiastically use this book in every college class I teach." — Carolyn Baker, Ph.D., author of U.S. History Uncensored: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You , and blogger, Speaking Truth To Power, www.CarolynBaker.net
"This is a wonderful book about a terrible subject; situation — we're screwed. If it doesn't kill us, the coming depression could be the best thing to happen to Americans in a long time. A marvelously funny, compelling, passionate and practical book about how to survive the hard times ahead, written by a farmer and a mother of four for anyone who loves their family. More common sense than anyone deserves to find between the covers of a book. Buying it would be a good use of your last $25." — Peter Bane, publisher of Permaculture Activist, www.PermacultureActivist.net
"Many of us can see the ruins of our society for what they are, and understand that we have to make some other arrangements if we are to survive. Fewer of us seem able to make the switch to serving best those who matter to us most: the people in our lives. Sharon lifts the curse of the lost and lonely individual by pointing us toward family and community and giving us all work to do." — Dmitry Orlov, author of Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects
"Without Sharon Astyk's courage and style, the converging crises that headline the daily news would indeed seem ominous. But Sharon has ventured off into our worst dystopian nightmare and experienced it, personally, and then come back to report to the rest of us, "Hey, it isn't all that bad!" She has seeded abundance from scarcity and happiness from despair, and is willing to share that secret." — Albert Bates, author of Climate in Crisis: The Greenhouse Effect and What You Can Do and The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook