Book Review: Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs

I have just finished reading a book, as I have strained my knee, so I'm supposed to be 'resting'. Remarkably I have been sickness free all winter, so I have had little opportunity for reading and this book has been on the go for at least 6 months. It is called 'Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs' by Wendy Brown. and I feel it is well worth a quick review.

"Let's pretend that we know that in 21 days life as we know it will come to an end. It does not mean that life will cease to exist, and it does not mean that humans will be obliterated from the Earth. What it means is that all the things we have come to expect, all of the luxuries we enjoy, all the accoutrements of modern life that are part of our day-to-day existence will be harder to get or just no longer available."

To me this is a really useful exercise, because we don't know what the future holds. Major events often happen too quickly for us to take stock and prepare. Thinking and preparing now can stand us in good stead for all kinds of eventualities.

I know it seems unlikely that anything drastic will happen here in Britain, but just think back to some of the events that our grandparents lived through. World War II and rationing, the North Sea Flood of 1953, the Big Freeze of 1963, the 3 Day Week of 1974, the Winter of Discontent in 1978/79, and the Fuel protests in 2000, to name a few. Technology may have advanced, but if anything that makes us even more exposed and vulnerable to loss of power or shortages. For instance do you know the phone numbers for your family, friends or doctor if you can't charge your mobile?

In her book, Wendy takes a day at a time and looks at the priorities that you may need to think about in order to be better prepared for eventualities. Starting with Day 1 looking at Shelter, she works through subsequent 'days' discussing water, food, cooking and so on, all the way to Day 21, which is about transportation. Some of it is common sense, but it is still good to hear again, because it makes you wonder why you haven't done anything to improve that aspect or be better prepared. For instance I know that in a power cut my boiler doesn't work because the controls rely on electricity, so what could I do about it? Wendy offers lots of solutions from the perspective that shortages are likely to be a long term problem for us in the future.

Wendy is clearly very knowledgeable about many aspects of what we call 'self-sufficiency'. I have certainly learnt more from her book about keeping animals, alternative healthcare and how to make my own vinegar. The only are where I disagree with her ideas is about wind turbines though, which I feel she dismisses rather too easily, based on them needing high-tech equipment to manufacture and maintain them. Wendy seems to have missed the potential for small scale wind turbines to provide useful mechanical energy or electricity. Many parts of the UK are still scattered with old windmills, that were used for milling wheat into flour, and have been recorded at least as far back as 1250. This is surely testament that we can harness the wind without the need for fossil fuels and modern day technology. The first wind turbine that was installed 30 years ago at The Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales was made with wood and canvas sails. In strong winds someone had to climb up and furl the sails to prevent damage, but it was still a viable low tech solution.

Wendy also sees solar PV as lasting only 10 years, but with no moving parts they are expected to last at least 30 years. They probably aren't much of an option in Maine where Wendy lives, as summers are short, but in the UK and Europe prices have been dropping with government subsidies and these could potentially provide a partial alternative source of electricity for the next 30 years.

On the whole 'Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs' is a very easy to read book, with lots of good tips. It isn't very apocalyptic, so no zombie hordes or nuclear meltdowns, which suits me fine. There is the tiniest mention of guns in the chapter on security, but Wendy also points out that having a loud dog is the best security measure. I have yet to find a British 'preparedness' book, but I think that having read a few other American ones, Wendy's book is the best substitute. It is a calm and sensible evaluation of everything you may need to consider. Whether you decide to read the book or not, it is well worth thinking what you would do if you knew you only had 21 days to prepare.

Distances

Having recently evaluated my annual mileage, I have been thinking a lot about distances. Yes I am talking about how far it is from one point to another, such as the distance from your home to work, or the distance the apples have travelled to end up in your fruit bowl.

When I buy apples I can stand there for several minutes peering at labels and evaluating the distances. Sometimes there will be coxes apples from the UK, but this is much less likely out of season. Then I will be sifting through the apples mainly from China, USA and New Zealand to try and find some that are from somewhere more local, like France or Holland.

The UK is fairly densely populated, certainly compared to the rest of Europe, so it may be little wonder that we are not currently self-sufficient in food. However there has always been trade with our European neighbours, notably France, Holland and Spain for food. The distance across the English Channel to France is just 21 miles, and from London to Paris is 213 miles as the crow flies (or 282 miles by road and ferry/tunnel). This is about the same distance as it is from New York to Washington DC, yet they are within the same country. Does this distance still count as local for us, whether it is in another state or a neighbouring country?

New York to Los Angeles is 2,448 miles direct (or 2,790 miles driving), which is more than 10 times the distance from London to Paris or Amsterdam. It's still in the USA though, so is it local for New Yorkers? Where do you think the equivalent distance from London would take you? To Rome? Or Moscow? Cairo? Further than that! It's 2,201 miles (2,854 driving) from London to Damascus in Syria, but Syria doesn't feel local to me. Yet during the course of a year my husband and I drive enough miles to get to Syria and back four times (including our business miles).

What can I take from this? I definitely do too much driving, even though the distances I travel are short and very local. But the main point is that this is our global economy. The apples in our shops can quite easily have travelled further in their short lifespan than I do in a year. Half way round the world even. I can also appreciate that it is our European neighbours, even though they may speak a different language, who are our closest allies and are best placed to supply us with food in times when oil for transport is expensive or scarce.

Spring weather

It definitely feels like spring now, and already I am feeling behind in the garden.

The crocuses have been glorious this year and already the first daffodil is ready to open. It has been a mild, though very wet and windy, winter - completely different from last year!

If you look at the projections for how climate change is expected to affect the UK, this winter is the kind of winter that they are predicting more of. In short milder wetter winters, and less occasions of snow.

However there was an interesting article recently on the BBC website about the reduction in solar activity. They believe there is a 20% chance that within 40 years Europe will have entered a period similar to the Maunder Minimum, an event during the late 1600's when the temperature was below average and River Thames froze over every year. They are not predicting global cooling, more that the jet stream over Europe is likely to be affected by the lack of solar activity, plunging it into some very cold winters, a bit like those experienced by the US and Canada this year..... all interesting stuff!

On to more frugal issues. Now what do you think this is?

It is my first ever homemade cider vinegar! All thanks to Wendy Brown's tips in her book Surviving the Apocalypse in the Surburbs. It is so very easy to make. Just fill a jar with apple peelings and cores, cover with water and leave it in a warm cupboard for a month. Cover the top with a cheese cloth or muslin to keep out dust or flies. A layer of scum forms on top, but that's fine. Ok so the cupboard smells of mouldy apples for a little while, but the resulting vinegar is mild and fruity, and will be great for salad dressings. (It could be stronger if I left it for longer.)

I wanted to be more organised with my veg growing this year. I ordered some seeds nice and early and also took advantage of the Transition Loughborough Seed Swap event. These are some of the seeds that I picked up for free, including sweetpeas, squash, kohlrabi, oregano and some beautifully coloured peas/beans. What I liked about the seed swap is you could just pick up a few seeds to try, and given how small my garden is, that is a very good thing!

The Transition team had also been along to the Chesterfield Transition Potato Day and here are 2 of the varieties they brought back to share. I can't for the life of me remember what they were called, but the knobbly ones are salad potatoes. Last year my potatoes were a disaster, so this year I am going to stick to growing just these four spuds in sacks or pots instead.

I had started planning out what to plant, where and when to plant them, the first seeds to be sowed in February. But the last couple of weeks have been very busy with work and now it is already March and still nothing has been started. Do some of you more experienced gardeners feel like spring is a complete race against time too?

The good news is that the little apricot tree that I planted last year has survived the winter and is ready to break out in lovely pink blossoms :-) It doesn't seem to have grown much though.... although it is supposed to be a dwarf variety. I thought the wall would shelter it a bit, but maybe I have planted it too close...hmm. I would love to hear how your garden plans are going?

Peak short-sightedness

The last post got me reading some of the Department for Transport (DfT) forecasts, which have some amazing predictions in them. It did strike me odd how the DfT can forecast things like future mileage, without any mention or regard to the global decline in oil supplies that we call Peak Oil. Surely that will have some effect? All the graphs and quotes are taken from Road Transport Forecasts 2013 : Results from the Department for Transport's National Transport Model or Road Transport Forecasts 2011: Results from the Department for Transport's National Transport Model, January 2012 Lets start with a good one.......

The black line in this graph shows the actual recorded car miles travelled per person per year, and the red line shows the most likely projection according to DfT. The black line looks very much like the peak of a bell curve to me, but to the DfT this is a minor blip in the continuing growth that they are expecting. Despite an increasing older population who drive less miles and many young people unable to afford to learn to drive or buy a car until they are much older now, the overall trend in their view is for us to be driving more, as soon as the 'temporary' constraints of the recession and high fuel prices pass. Even the light green line, which represents the projection if there is a continued high oil price and continued low growth in GDP, shows a growth in travelling! How do they work this one out given the impact of the last 5 years has shown a continuous decline?

The DfT don't make these projections alone. They rely on projections for the population increasing from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), and projections for the economy growing from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and projections for oil prices from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Here is their forecast for oil prices....

This is probably my favourite graph of the bunch :-) What does it tell us? That oil prices over the next 15 years are not expected to follow the trend for the last 15 years, but could do anything from increase by 72% or decrease by 27%. It gives the impression that DECC really has no idea what oil prices are going to do.

If we just think logically, what kind of impact would a growing global demand for oil have? It may well push prices up. Instability in oil-producing regions? It is likely to push prices up. Increasing carbon taxes (Ok this is me wishful thinking)? It could push prices up. Increasing extraction costs for oil as we have to dig deeper and go to more remote areas like the Arctic to find oil? They will push prices up. But wait....high oil prices lead to recession and recession in turn reduces the demand for oil, so oil prices could subsequently drop, just like they have in 2008. My prediction is that we will see more high peaks in price followed by troughs, but the overall trend will see prices rising. I suppose the graph is roughly on track in that prices are mainly shown to rise, but it just looks like no graph I have ever seen!

 Car miles per person (with 5 year annualised growth rates)

The blue line in the graph above is showing the average car miles per person since the 1950's, and conveniently points out all the dips where there were recessions. The pink columns show the rate of growth, so in the fifties many people were just getting the oppotunity to own their own car and petrol was becoming available again after the rationing during the war, so there was plenty of growth. The Suez Crisis caused a small dip in growth. The 1970's price spikes had a far bigger impact, but growth recovered in the late eighties. Really since then growth in miles driven per person has been far lower and has decreased from 2005 onwards.

"Historically, static growth or falls in car miles per person correlate with periods of high oil prices or economic contractions. This is specifically seen during fuel rationing of 1957, twice during the 1970s where there were spikes in the oil price and economic recessions, during the recession of the early 1990s and in the year 2000 when fuel prices increased by over 10%. "

Now here comes the lovely green line predicting that economic recovery will lead to continued growth in miles driven. Plus of course new cars are now more efficient, so will cost less to run, meaning we can all afford to drive even further! I really feel that there is a trend here that DfT are missing. People I know are looking to reduce their commute, walk and cycle more, and drive slower to reduce fuel consumption, not just to reduce fuel costs, but also to reduce carbon emissions and the time spent stuck behind a wheel. What about you?

Looking at the car miles per person back to the 1950's makes the graph look even more like a bell-shaped curve. Can anyone else see this or is it just me? Car miles per person in England really seems to have peaked, and only wishful thinking by DfT is trying to slow down it's descent. Of course growth in car miles would be good news for a short-sighted government, who think about increased income from fuel duty, sales of new cars and increased GDP. But can we really ignore or dis-associate it with the longer term issues such as climate change, air pollution and diminishing natural resources.

I am glad peak car miles is here. The more we can reduce our reliance on driving everywhere, the better prepared we will be for rising oil prices and the supply restrictions which are on the horizon.

90% transport

I have been tracking our fuel receipts for a few years now. We have 2 cars. One is a small, fairly efficient, petrol-engined car. The other is a very old diesel-engined, 8 seater people carrier. You may have guessed it is rather inefficient, but incredibly useful for camping, sharing lifts or carrying big loads. It is also 4 wheel drive, so tends to be safer to use in muddy or snowy conditions (ok mainly muddy conditions!). It isn't used so much now, but on Thursdays it really comes into its own, when I drop off at dancing on the other side of town. Last week I gave lifts to girls from 4 different families as well as my own kids, so we are potentially saving 4 other car journeys. In my mind that makes it effectively 4 times more efficient. Also I wait outside dance, rather than going to and fro, so saving even more journeys :-)

I am a bit of a spreadsheet anorak! The graph below shows the total amount of fuel we use a year, made up of the blue for diesel and red for petrol. It is great to see that we spend £840 a year less on fuel now than we did 2 years ago, which equates to 700 litres (154 gallons) less fuel. Some of this saving is down to changing to a more efficient, smaller car in April 2012. We have also reduced our speed on motorways, averaging just 60-65mph, where the limit is 70mph, to reduce our fuel consumption.

How do we do against the average American and can we achieve a 90% reduction? I'm going to use Sharon Astyks analysis to work it out. This is the section referring to transport fuel.

1. Gasoline. Average American usage is 500 gallons (2,273 litres) PER PERSON, PER YEAR. A 90 percent reduction would be 50 gallons (227 litres) PER PERSON, PER YEAR.

I'm not really sure if gasoline is petrol or diesel, but for ease I'm going to use it for both. Our total for 2013 was 2,006 litres (441 gallons). However this is for the whole family and also includes our business miles. At first I thought that 'per person' consumption meant per person who can drive a car, but after a bit of digging through old posts it appears that it means per person in the family. I'm going to exclude my eldest daughter who is at Uni most of the time and has now had her own small car for 6 months. So for 5 people we use 401 litres (88 gallons) each. What about business miles? Should they count or not?

I only have mileage figures to go on for business use, so I have used the annual odometer reading, taken from the MOT records, and worked out that 50% of our total mileage is business use. If we recalculated our consumption per person, excluding business use, we are at 200 litres (44 gallons) per person per year. Now in addition a journey shared is a journey halved - but this is just too much to record and analyse. Without the business miles we are below the 90% target and including them we are only a little bit over, especially if shared lifts were included. Hurray - this is one target that I have more or less nailed!

We have taken lots of steps to reduce our car usage, but I really feel we could still do better. I have specifically chosen to work from home to cut out time, money and pollution commuting. We live on the edge of town, but still only 2 or 3 miles away from the town centre, and there is a good bus route (which I don't use, but should!) . It is 2 minutes walk to the supermarket and post office, 15 minutes walk to my daughters school, 25 minutes bike ride to my sons school and 25 minutes ride to the train station. We rarely go to the nearest city for shopping, which is a whole 15 miles away, but we do travel 150 miles to visit family. I feel like I am always driving around giving kids lifts places, but as most of the journeys are short and our car is small these aren't really amounting to as much as it seems.

Still, I know families who bike almost everywhere and I pass them in my car everyday :-(  They aren't just 'fairweather' cyclists like us! The weather can really put you off cycling, as you need head-to-toe waterproofs, gloves, hi-vis gear and of course bike lights. We are not well kitted out for this and to top it all off my bike has been stolen, so no cycling this winter! But when we go bike shopping I will be looking to get properly kitted out, so there are no more excuses. If I can skim another £800 off our fuel bill it will be well worth it.

 

My perception of a 90% reduction would be like one of these cycling families who are all on their bikes whatever the weather, no matter what distance - but my perception is wrong. They are the 99% reduction. A 90% reduction looks more like me! Living close to the places that we visit every day, walking when I can but still using a small efficient car regularly for short journeys and making sure that we liftshare whenever possible. Where do you think you fit on the scale?

I have been searching for the UK average per person fuel consumption and the best I can come up with is from the Department of Transport: Road Transport Forcasts 2011, which state...

In 2010 the average person in Great Britain made 960 trips, travelling a total of 6,726 miles.

Using average UK fuel efficiency would give 808 litres (178 gallons) per person, which I have used in the graph above. This is already 36% of the American average that Sharon uses. So chances are, if you live on this small island, your fuel consumption isn't too bad either ;-)