Why I'm afraid

Things are looking up in many ways....

The war in Iraq is effectively dead by strategy and it's merely ego that keeps us there a while longer, but the process of withdrawal has begun.

At least within partisan politics of Al Gore's political disciples, Global Warming is an issue is the warm&fuzzy issue to be loved and held close to our collective hearts, with the fuzzy polar bears as the icon.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/1 Al Gore: 15 ways to avert a climate crisis

Renewable energy is looking up. Perhaps wind turbines will become our power trees of the future ... zero emissions, and free solar energy for the taking. And ennumerable other possibly competitive alternative energies to power our future.

My personal finances are looking good. I've saved lots of money by not having a car for the last 2 years. (Bicycles rule!) I'm hoping my mortgage might get paid off in a year with my extra payments. I pay a little extra for my electricity khw through the "WindSource" program through Xcel.

When I no longer have a mortgage on my home, I can think more seriously about what I'd like to invest in to protect my future.

Energy efficient windows? Passive solar heating? Solar photovoltaic on the roof? Or perhaps investing in a wind turbine, shared by my entire community? I live in one of the highest locations in the Twin Cities. Why not have a wind turbine next to our water tower? Who can say what we can do working together? Maybe I'd even risk taking a new mortgage to help borrow to invest in the cost?

So why am I afraid?

I'm afraid because I don't believe that what is necessary will be easy, and those selling "green" don't tell the truth on what's needed and what makes a difference. I don't believe enough people are prepared to deal with the truth, the need for debt reduction, for reducing our consumption.

I can't expect technology to save us, and I think false, unrealistic projections merely encourage us to keep on our wasteful ways.

I'm as much afraid that short term successes will just empower humanity to continue expanding our domains over the world and reducing the natural systems that support us.

I don't know what can change. Life explodes with success and crashes when natural systems become degraded to support the successes. I can't see how we can take our intellect to move smoothly to a new equilibrium without the crash.

Perhaps I shouldn't fear the crash, and just live as if it will happen. Not crash and burn, but crash and suffer.

The need for the crash to me is because of expectations. We expect continual growth in a finite world. Every problem we've solved has been done through using more and more energy in the future. Perhaps knowledge doesn't need to decline with energy, but it's an unknown world.

I will have more hope when more people are both afraid and willing to take control of their own dependencies.

I just can't see how things can turn out. Knowledge is a double edged sword - it allows us to know what we're doing, and it allows us to maximize our influences, and in a time we have to become smaller, I must be afraid.

Postscript - It is interesting to see how different people are, how some like me are risk-averse, and some are risk-loving, fearless builders of bridges to infinity, rockets to the stars. Just using a simple miracle - the technology of human flight ... I can seriously live without it. I guess my fear is both good and bad. I admire those who fearlessly jump off the cliffs of possibility, and get away with it. I think perhaps most people benefit by the risks of others, and in times of expanding horizons we are all lifted. I just worry that in times of hardship and crisis such behavior can be a weigh pulling us down faster.

The "get rich quick" illusions drive risk takers to gamble what they have to get more, and half the time they're just suckers/bait for bigger fish to eat. I hope there's enough like me, to be afraid enough to defend their own living, and have enough left over to protect their communities from the dangers of dependence upon a scary future.

I really can see economics like being a fish in the sea - success creates the big fish, and the rest try to cozy up to these, hoping for some scraps, rather than defending their territories from such brutes. I'll be glad for the millionaires in my neighborhood, but hope they are looking out for me as much as their escape plan when things turn sour. Power corrupts and I can imagine it isn't easy to defend a community when your horizons are the world.