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Moving to Wales - Join me?
Right, I've been contemplating this thought for a few days now and I've decided to go for it, conditions in MK aren't getting better (They're infact getting alot worse but the less I think about it the easier it is). I'm going to Wales, Carreglefn on Anglesey. My nan used to live there until she passed away and now my Grandad owns the house but he's in Tenerife so I'm sure they won't mind me using it :) It's got a huge propane tank in the garden (All this is based on my memory of when I was last there 10 years ago) so atleast short term we'll have fuel to get us set up. It's in a very rural community, but there are the towns of Amlwch and Cemaes Bay close by. Food and that may be short lived in these places but if (and it's a big if) a few of us club together I'm sure we can take enough food to get us by until we become self sufficient. I have very fond memories of this house, there is a huge garden with a massive vegetable patch, so besides stocking up on seeds I think we should be able to get things moving there very quickly. Also it's surrounded by fields so that'll supply us with plenty of Mushrooms, poultry and rabbits :) Pretty sure my granddads gun will still be there. Also this bungalow has 3 Bedrooms, 2 lounges 2 bathrooms a nice kitchen, a work room (with Wood Lathe (Is that how you spell it, one of those things that spins wood, I've never been the most practical of people), a band saw and lots of other tools. Now here is where you come in, I don't want to go alone, one fuel will cost me alot, travelling all that way will be costly, but worth it in the long run, right? I'll be able to get a van to pack up loads of food, and to be honest, anyone else who wants to come. The house would be able to house 6 people I think very easily, So that leaves room for 5 more people, Is anyone out there interested, I'm sure if we club together, we can get those whole local community on board and create a self sufficient community very quickly. This is all a very quick decision, but please if your keen or no anyone that would be keen then let me know. I need to get out of MK now before I get caught up in this growing violence. Please anyone out there up for this? I fear I cannot afford it alone. Please please please get in touch as soon as possible, I'm already packing the essentials. Please spread the word of this, Thank you everyone! Stay safe and green! Michael in MK (Soon to be of Caraglefn, Wales) x p.s I realise I've missed ALOT of information out. If you have any questions about this venture then don't hesitate to ask me questions
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Scared in MK
So as you know from my last blog I've been without the internet for a few weeks. I thought I'd let you all know what provisions I've taken in preparing for this crisis. Thinking about it now though, Am I just one of those do-little's that Gala_Teah spoke about a few weeks ago, I use a bike sure, but I've never drove. I watch my electricity consumption, I've stockpiled what food I can, but is this all I can do? Sit here, tell people what little I'm doing and expect to feel good about myself? The city around me is going mad and I'm left here with a manual powered water purifier and a few bags of pasta, How far will that get me? I really could do with some other people around here, to try and club together some information and help each other through this. The violence here is not good at all, and now talks of Terrorist attacks, is this what happens when the seams of reality at ripped? Ha ha, listen to me go on, it's just a small oil shortage (for now) and already I'm talking like it's judgement day, I need a drink, had best make it a treble!
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Sorry, but I'm back
Well, I don't know who reads this, and if you have noticed I've not been around for a few weeks, but a catalogue of problems have led to me not being able to use a computer. Firsty, My powerpack on my PC went out, and well it's amazing how hard it is to find a replacement in this day and age. And the irony of it all, it was caused by a power SURGE!!! In a time when power and oil is at a premium we're having power surges which knocked out the power for a fair few hours in our area. Also last Wednesday morning I was out on a little bike ride, minding my own business keeping up my energy (It's amazing how much I've got done with my internet being down, but I'll tell you that later on) when I see a "lovely" black plume on the horizon, so a few hours peddlaing later I happen upon this. I've got a game for you, remember from me first seeing this, until me taking this photo was a few hours and now the question: Where are the firemen?  Is that one behind the tree? Nope! Oh oh oh under the sign, no not there either. 2 hours and not a single emergency service, hell not even anyone else paying attention like me. Is this what society in the UK has come too? Everyone for themselves? It's a very sorry sight indeed, and one that's becoming ever frequent. Life surrounding a city isn't the nicest normally and now in this shock it's getting alot worse. I wish I had taken RockLobsters approach and ran to the hills when I had a chance. As for the rest of MK, well fuel is knocking at £1.75 a litre and queues are getting longer and stations with fuel are getting less. It looks like BP are closing alot of their stations around here, I guess keeping a few full is better than a few empty, when WILL people learn? 9 weeks in and people are still using cars and talking about summer holidays like this will just blow over. Check out my next blog for what I've been up to over the past few weeks. Michael in MK x
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Milton Keynes In Flames
Watching the local news over the last week my greatest fears have been realised. Milton Keynes, The city of the car, has turned into the city of "car"nage. (Please forgive me for the awful pun). Protests have been popping up around the city as the government announced that these prices hikes may be hear to stay, and that the national oil reserve is already in a very sorry shape. The word rationing was throw around frequently in a press release by the Ministry of Transport. This grey news lead to wide scale hoarding, protests and unfortunately violence. Below is an extract from the local paper:  The City Burns This is the sight that met the population of Oldbrook on the morning of May 3rd. Reports have still not been confirmed when we went to press but we believe that there was a crash between groups of protestors. But the outcome is clear as firefighters fought all night to try and contain the blaze. In a time where petrol reserves are low this is not the scenes we wish to see. There have been 3 reported casualties, and many more are in hospital being treated for burns, 2 are critical. This is a very grey day for the city, and unfortunately I doubt that it will be the last we'll hear about incidents like this that are springing up world wide with more and more frequency. Looking back at past fuel shortages it's easy to see what the short term effect can be, but long term is totally un-charted waters for the UK, Europe and the world. Here are some of the effects from the 2000 fuel shortage, notice the cost from a 1 week shortage, £1 billion!!! "Executive Summary In September 2000, British farmers and truck drivers launched a dramatic campaign of direct action to protest a fuel duty. Their campaign followed a similar one by farmers, truckers, and fishermen in France, which had resulted in concessions from the French government. The UK protesters blockaded fuel refineries and distribution depots, and, within days, created a fuel crisis that paralyzed CI sectors and brought the country to a virtual halt. The impact of the protest was much deeper than anticipated because it struck at a particularly vulnerable point of the UK economy -- the oil distribution network, which had been organized along just-in-time delivery principles. This, combined with anticipated shortages by fuel consumers and consequent panic buying, magnified the impact of the protests on practically all CI sectors in the UK. The disruption in the energy sector created a chain reaction among other CI sectors such as transportation, health care, food distribution, financial and government services due to their interconnectivity and interdependencies. The financial impact of the week-long fuel drought was estimated at close to £1 billion." So with riots happening, talks of rationing and a government that's totally clueless I think I may soon up and leave the city and go to my old nans house, I think cars are considered evil there, that can't be a good thing in this impending crisis.  Is this what a rationing queue may look like in the future? Keep it green and keep safe people Michael in MK x
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Milton Keynes - The city of the car
 Milton Keynes, The city of the car, but for how long?  With news from the US arriving on our shores queues like this are not an un-common sight at your local petrol station I'm sure. There is a huge rush for petrol while it's still "cheap". I've told many motorist friends of mine that this is NOT a short term thing, but I've been told to go take my conspiracy theories elsewhere. When will people learn that this is not a short run thing? We're into the 3rd week now and still people think/hope it's short term. Milton Keynes is a city based on the car, huge car parks, and a road system with about a million roundabouts, all to try and cut traffic in the city. I live just outside the main city, and when I look out my window I see the wonderful orange glow of street lamps, how long until even this stop working, so many things we take for granted are at risk. Even bottled water, this will stay forever right? But what about plastic, it's another bi-product of oil, isn't it? And yes there are some natural alternatives, but how long will it take to mass market them? And can we produce them without ANY input from oil? What things in this world and trully oil "free"? I'm just waiting until these sings spring up around the city, maybe they'll believe me then.  From a lonely bike rider in the city of the car, Michael
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UK Government - Waste of time and money?
I've been thinking about how the government has reacted to this situation. It's ALWAYS been on the horizon that one day oil, being the finite resource that it is, will run out. Well now it is happening and what provisions has the British Government put in place. Well from what I see, very little. Looking at some figures throw around on the internet I found these figures: "Between 2002 and 2008 the Government is spending over £500 million on supporting renewable energy projects including wind, biomass, photovoltaic and marine energy." The page has since been removed but it was found on a GOVERNMENT website http://www.ukinvest.gov.uk/2/d/10338/en/G Does this mean they're proud of spending just £83.33million pounds a year on RENEWABLE energy? The energy that will fuel us in the future, in fact the energy that may very well be powering our present if a solution to this crisis is found! It then got me thinking on how much the government spends on other projects. It got me thinking about the extension of the M1 that currently causes delays for anyone traveling into London, They're changing it from a 3 lane motorway into a 4 lane, meaning more OIL eating cars can pump MORE emissions into our atmosphere, below are some of the frankly SHOCKING figures I found: " * Widening of the M1 through the East Midlands. Multi-Modal Study estimate: £700 million. Cost when entered the roads programme (Targeted Programme of Improvements or TPI): £1.9 billion. Cost escalation: 171 per cent. * The A14, Cambridgeshire (Ellington to Fen Ditton Improvement). Multi-Modal Study cost estimate: £192 million. Cost when entered the TPI: £490 million. Cost escalation: 155 per cent. * The A453 M1-Nottingham. Multi-Modal Study cost: £62 million. Cost when entered the TPI: £90 million (May 2004). Cost escalation: nearly 50 per cent. * Upgrading of the A30/A303 (London-South-West). Multi-Modal Study costs: £167 million. Cost after further Highways Agency study: £431 million minimum. Cost escalation: 158 per cent." Source: http://www.transport2000.org.uk/news/mai That's nearly £3BILLION pounds of expenditure on roads which will be obsolete in weeks if the prices keep increasing as they are, Where would we be if they had used this money to invest in renewable, green energy. Surely 6 times the investment would have lead to a massive development, but alas it wasn't and we're left with these dark days ahead. I was watching "ararejul"'s vox about public transport and that got me thinking yet again (Sorry I've been doing a lot of thinking and if you've read this far I commend you) about the UK transport system. It's awful, our rail network is falling to pieces, in the summer the tracks expand under the heat and this causes tracks to bend and massive delays on major services running into and out of our capital. And in the winter the tracks get too cold and contract leaving some track un-usable because of dangerous gaps in the line. When the trains are running, especially in peak hours (early morning 7-9 and early evening 5-7) there are issues of overcrowding which the Rail Network hope to resolve by 2014! See attached article for details of this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6448327.st It's stupid, 7 years to bring it level with demand now, PRE-CRISIS!! What will happen when the demand, doubles, trebles, or more when driving becomes too expensive. This country does not have the expenditure NOR the infrastructure to deal with this, If the government doesn't change it's attitudes to spending QUICKLY it will be very grey days ahead for the UK. From a worried UK, Michael
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Are we entering a new age?
Most of you out their will be familiar with Darwin's theories on Sexual and Natural selection. But now we are entering a new age, the age of Financial Selection. It's already been documented how there is a fierce battle over the negotiation over contracts for oil, and how the smaller countries are missing out, but with rising fuel prices this is surely going to effect the individual. Now is the time to start thinking "What am I worth to society?" With the scares of the Avian flu "KEY" workers were identified. Those that work in the public sector or that were important to the economy were "ranked" in order of receiving vaccinations etc... Is the same going to happen for fuel? Are you as important as you thought you were? Will the government care if you can't get to work? And what if you don't have the money to afford fuel to get to work, or to friends, or to family? Only the rich will survive unless we can find ways to combat it. Get a bike, stock up on food, Always wanted to start a vegetable patch but never did? Now is the time! I'm sure there are plenty of "older folk" in your are that can help you if your at a loss! Love thy neighbor! Keep it green! Michael
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What will the effects of the US increase be?
So we've made it to the 2nd day of the crisis, and still very little has happened in the UK. But a crisis in the US has in the past had a big effect on UK fuel prices in the past. At the moment they’re sitting at around 93p per litre in my hometown. This is slowly creeping up, and having read this article about the effects on fuel prices after the Katrina crisis it’s only time before we get hit by the impending crash. http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11 Also, at the end of the article it raises the issues of the massive fuel duty we find ourselves paying in the UK. If the price of oil is going to rise and rise, surely if the UK wants to keep “on the road” then the government will have to lower these duty prices. But lower duty means lower revenue. The budget in this country is already stretched to breaking point. Which services will suffer if there is a massive loss in duty revenue? Will the health service go? Defence? Public Transport? Education? Policing? Surely none of these can go, but what if they have too? And if this crisis does leads to riots which are so often seen in other countries when massive incidents occur then surely we are going to have to increase our spending on Policing and Military to try and keep the population alive. It’s definitely a dark time ahead, a time for TOTAL lifestyle change! Be green!
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Is Bio-Diesel the answer?
http://www.climateimc.org/en/breaking-ne I've been looking into shortfalls of Bio-Diesel as it seems alot of hope has been put on this very new, limited product. Just reading the article makes me think about how is it possible to survive on Bio-Diesel as a replacement to our ever running out Oil. We don't need alternatives, we need lifestyle changes, I for one am out to by myself a nice "state of the art" bike, because I'm sure down the line even bike prices will get hiked up when Joe Public realises that cars are not the way forward. So please anyone that reads this, not just for the sake of the enviroment that has been the big push since Kyoto, but for the sake of YOUR lives, Travel as little as possible, if you do have to travel, Car-share, even better, Bike-share!! Re-live your youth and jump on the back of someones bike, Save oil, save this planet, save yourselves!
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The World Without Oil, Day 1
Hi, As some of you out there may know, What Nico told us was true, The oil crisis has begun. I awoke to check the news fearing that Nico's warning would indeed turn into a formaility. My fears were realised when the gas prices in the US were shown a $1 is just huge, And what will happen to the UK, all we have is our North Sea oil, but for how long? This will effect everything, we need to prepare, but how? Buying candles? Canned food? But we can't eat canned stuff, dry food, what can we do, our lives are run by oil. So many questions, someone help me find my way, please! I'm scared Mitch x
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