John's Weird World

More often we are hearing various terms bandied around in the media and some of them are not self-explanitory... one of these is 'Peak Oil'.  So last week I attended a York Greenspeak meeting which was all about this fascinating and very current subject.  I knew a bit about the theory that oil reserves are about half finished, but less about how this will affect us economically and socially.

Peak oil was suggested by Shell geologist Dr Marion King Hubbert in 1956 as he had worked out that the discovery and extraction of oil would follow a 'bell curve' distribution.  He accurately predicted peak US oil production (1970) and that world oil production would be somewhere about now, ie that we may be about to start the long period of reduced oil extraction.  Peak world oil discovery was 1964, which means that although there is probably more oil to be discovered, it isn't the 'easy to get' stuff and it will be smaller quantities, and more expensive to get out.  Meanwhile, world oil use continues to rise, as developing countries continue to develop and human populations continue to grow.  Published world oil reserves suggest that peak oil will be about 2030, but recently Shell has drastically reduced their reserve figures, suggesting that oil companies may have overstated their reserves (to boost confidence and share prices?).

So, we are heading for a situation with less available mineral oil, and this will affect us in a number of ways.  Firstly, scarcity drives prices up.  We are already experiencing this.  When the price of a barrel of oil goes up, it becomes more economically viable to extract oil out of 'unconventional' sources such as tar sands and oil shales, but these require more energy to get the oil out, so the price won't go down again.  Higher prices also mean that investment into alternatives such as hydrogen, biofuels, coal liquifaction and nuclear will go up.  But all of these alternatives have problems and knock-on issues... biofuels for instance are competing for finite arable land for food and biodiversity, the hydrogen economy depends on either electricity to split water or fossil gas to provide the hydrogen, and coal and gas both add carbon dioxide to the overloaded atmosphere.  The two greenest solutions to the coming energy crisis are energy efficiency and renewables from wind, sun, tides and hydro.

So how do we 'ordinary people' deal with this knowledge?  Well it would be responsible and prudent to reduce our energy use, by driving less and in smaller more efficient vehicles, by reducing energy use in the home by insulating, having more efficient appliances and switching them off when not in use, by reducing meat and dairy in our diets, by buying less and recycling more, by buying locally and in season... you know the score by now!  Unfortunately, we all know what we SHOULD do but are finding it very difficult to change.

This week in Community Care magazine I have a column about Britain's favourite hobby, gardening. An essential part of any garden is making compost, and this is my favourite pastime, so much so that my wife says I have 'OCD', Obsessive Composting Disorder'.  I've been obsessed by it and related subjects since childhood... I used to put food items in glass jars and watch the various bacteria and moulds develop over days and weeks, and I've always liked mushrooms and creepy crawlies.  Since coming out as a 'green' in my early 20's I've known that home composting is the best way to recycle all of the stuff which goes smelly in your dustbin, to save energy with reduced bin-lorry weight, to reduce landfill space, to reduce pollution from landfills, to help biodiversity by creating habitat and food, to help trap carbon in soils, to help fertilise soils to grow healthier plants, to reduce the need for peat which should stay in peat bogs, to reduce the need for fertilisers which use fossil fuels in their manufacture, to help reduce rainwater evapotation from soils and not need irrigation.... I could go on and frequently do.  I even did my dissertation on composting!

So, armed with all those reasons to have a home compost heap or wormery, here's my 'short guide'.  Good compost needs three things, the right mix of materials, the right amount of air and the right amount of moisture.  That's all.  Get those right and biodegredation WILL happen!  Biodegradable materials are any which have come from living things recently, any plant materials or animal materials and their products.  There are a few exceptions, including rubber which has been vulcanised with sulphur (tyres and inner tubes don't rot, although natural latex rubber like balloons and marigold gloves do, eventually) and some plastics made from oil now have an additive which allows them to 'oxo-biodegrade'.  Rotting is the natural breakdown of complex materials into simpler ones (water, carbon dioxide, humus) by the action of bacteria, fungi, and other organisms such as worms.  I find the whole process almost magical!

As home composting is so beneficial and saves the local authority lots of money in landfill charges, most councils are subsidising compost bins, many with WRAP as their partner, and this website also has a good section on composting, one of many guides available.  So get a cheap compost bin, or make an enclosure using pallets, or just have an untidy pile in one corner of your garden.  Throw on a mixture of green/sappy/moist/'nitrogen rich' materials and brown/dry/'carbon rich' materials and wait.  Rainwater will help keep it moist, the browns will help it keep aerated, and turning it over and mixing it will help speed the process.  Your compost is finished when the materials look nothing like what you put in... it ia a brown, crumbly soil-like material.  This can be 'top-dressed' on soil to suppress weeds and conserve moisture as a mulch, or riddled and used to add to potting composts; I mix it with leafmold and loam to grow my tomatoes and cucumbers.

Many websites and books advise on not composting cooked food, meat etc, but this is just because rodents find these foods even more delicious and may find their way into heaps containing them.  It is possible though to make your heap rodent proof, or to process these materials using Bokashi or a wormery so they can be recycled too. Search the web for many suppliers of composting products, or for designs for home-made versions.

Many people now understand the concept of embodied energy, ie the amout of fuel resources it has taken to make or grow something and to get it to the consumer. However, the concept of embodied water is just becoming known. This may be called 'virtual' or 'embedded' water and it is the amount of fresh water used to grow or manufacture something. Water is just as important to us as fuel and energy, if not more so, and to understand our true use of this much under-rated resource can help us behave more ethically.

This week the UK has experienced torrential rain and floods, and the attendant disruption of our transport links, schools, workplaces, and the emotional turmoil for flooded householders. This the week when NewScientist Magazine has brought the issue of persistent drought in Australia to our attention, and the problems that water scarcity has for agriculture, industry, power generation, and of course, the needs of domestic customers for personal use.

Social Workers care. You care about other people and the planet we all share, and the communities we live in. You work towards better health, better relationships, better living and working conditions and promoting a fairer world. I'm sure you care about yourself, the environment and for the welfare of people not yet born. Now I'm not a social worker - as such, but I care, and many of the things I do are connected with developing a just and equitable society, where we care about each other and take responsibility for our own and collective actions. I label my voluntary work 'promoting sustainability', others might call it 'green', and i've even been described as an 'eco-warrior' but I prefer to think of myself as an 'eco-lover'!

My column every 3 weeks and weekly blog for Community Care stems from my helping BBC Newsnight's 'Ethical Man' Justin Rowlatt with his year of green living. I have been trying to live a low impact lifestyle for 20 or so years, and therefore have a wealth of tips, ideas and suggestions about how you too can live a more ethical life, if you wish to. One of my main concerns is the issue of climate change caused by increased greenhouse gases from human activities, and I will share with you how I keep my fossil carbon emissions low. There has been debate in some circles about whether or not the high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are man-made and how exactly these are connected with climate change, but I invoke the precautionary principle, and suggest that if the majority of the world's experts are telling us that fossil-fuel emissions are going to raise sea levels, increase severe weather and wreck ecosystems, then we should aim to curb those emissions and take personal responsibility and action.

My column will have a different theme each time; the first one's water, as my compost-toilet is why Justin wanted to come and film... future columns will cover energy, transport, food, recycling, holidays etc. My blog however will not just add detail to the column's content, but will react to news, tell you what I've been doing in the garden and within the community groups I participate in. These include York Rotters home composters and York Credit Union, both of which I started, and others like Alternatives to Violence Project and the Carbon Rationing Action Group where I'm active as an organiser. I'm political too, and am standing in the local elections in May, and should I get elected, I'll be able to tell you about the trials and tribulations of a City Councillor.

Blogs are interactive. You can post your comments, add your views to debates and tell all readers your green solutions. I have much to learn about the world of Social Work, and may pose questions or display ignorance which you can help me with. You are also welcome to ask me questions about your ethical dilemmas and I will do my best to be helpful.