Well RDNA (thats the 9 month Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness program i'm taking) just retreated from buckeye primitive skills gathering, in Forestville Ca. due to some sickness. but while partaking in 3 out of 5 days of reskilling in primitive skills such as fire making, archery, bow making, animal skin tanning, making things with those skins, and various other symposiums, talks, and classes, something occurred to me- the current model of economics- that is the industrial blitzkrieg  infinite growth model of the 19th and 20th centuries is coming to a close. this festival promoted both cash transactions, trade and barter, and almost everything in terms of materials (not including the huge carbon foot print of all the people getting there) was wild crafted, harvested, hunted, or gathered.

The Era of Growth is over. The non-nature conscience un-natural expansion of the industrial revolution which collided in a break neck pace with the modern and post modern Eras, has now reached the global Era. meaning that- the desires, dreams, and wants of the the select few that have in the western world due to the exploitation of the rest of the world (cheap labor, cheap oil, cheap resources, etc.) will not become true for the "have-nots." (ultimately these eathlings who have been allowing these cheaper resources to be, will want them all the same eventually- this is the rising global middle class such as China and some of the middle east- where people who were the cheap labor and cheap resource givers/workers now desire those very things they were being exploited for)

The Arab Spring was a perfect example of people rising up asking for better lives, jobs, resources, and luxuries, which was sold to them by the west. Powered by mobile phones, internet, and all around western technology (and democracy so to speak) it was a bitter sweet irony that 21st century technology and want for its better living aided and caused such revolution. After all, the great enlightenment not nearly 300 years ago was exactly that- freedom of man for freedom of life.

Well the truth is that the whole world cannot have what its unfortunately  has been sold. Consumer based anything cannot be sustainable unless it is regenerative. one example of this is the production of organically produced food, or sustainable agro-forestry for the continued harvest of food and fuels. The high concentrate carbon fuel century is nearly over, and will be the better parts of history that only post-industrial science fiction writers have been geekily writing about for almost the same amount of time.

side note and tidbit fact-
The combustion engine has stayed unchanged for nearly 100 years-except for a few more modern electronic add-ons that have brought some efficiency but not much- it is still a soon to be dead technology if we dont figure something else out. At least not for the whole global human population.  thermodynamically speaking, the combustion engine is only usually at its golden and ideal state 37% efficient- and on average with all the day to day variables and constant maintenance that would be needed for that 37%, the steel built engine is only around 18-20% efficient.
good thing we have cheap and easily procured fuel for it!!!!


in short the question(s) of the day is:

How long do we have before the line in the sand between the post-modern-industrial era technology and its finite resources come to a tipping point?

What does a globally conscience earthen population do on a whole, when their model of trade and society based on infinite growth suddenly is not so infinite?

Finally, Where do you see your self in this picture? what are your basic needs? how will you meet them? and what skills will you want to have inevitably to deal with this future?

mind you-

this future i am certain will take place in my life time albeit maybe later in my life time....

the picture above is my garden 3 years young. in a 35ft x 68ft plot (it now is fenced in equal to a 5th of an acre, but not fully cultivated. fruit and nut trees, as well as berries, have been added to this new expansion) we grew enough fresh food through the late spring and through to the early fall, to feed around 6 people. granted the work 3 of us put in was maybe 15 or less hours per week. if it were a full time job, we could process, grow and even sell enough food to possibly last us through the winter or even subsidize our bills substantially....

 yes people, it is possible to start and maintain a profitable, locally based, and regenerative designed cottage industry here in America.... go forth and grow!