OIL... get your pants up !!

The oil issue is going to catch us with our pants down if we don't wake up!

Guardian: "Over a barrel" here

Some of us have been expecting an end to the age of oil for years, but I never though I'd see a negative oil price. How long do you think producers will produce the stuff if they have to pay to have it stored? Then if production collapses and demand rises again what do you think will happen to the price?
And what happens if and when governments stop propping up the oil industry with subsidies, (put at $20 billion annually in the US, see here).

And where we will feel our lack of pants most suddenly in the industrial world is in our stomachs, as oil's used every step of the way in our food production - figures vary but something between 10 and 20 fossil fuel calories for every single food calorie.

So get growing! 

It's time to produce our food locally. If you have a garden, get some fruit and veg going, if you don't, grow stuff in jars or pots on your window ledge, if you don't have a window get some lights! Or help locally, there's loads of people with gardens they can't manage themselves and there's brilliant community projects like our own Perth Community Farm to get involved with. Even if you're a complete beginner you'll soon learn and have a lot of fun. It can be hard work but it's also very rewarding to see your stuff growing. You get more and more of a feeling of self reliance and a soul-satisfying connection with the land around you. The alternative is empty shelves in the supermarkets and at home, and empty stomachs.
At some point soon we need to be thinking at a local government level about local food security and larger scale local food production - have you seen an electric tractor yet?