Part IV: Helping Others Eschew Oil
“You never change things by fighting
the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” - Buckminster Fuller
So you’re working on reducing your own oil use but maybe
you’re downhearted. Maybe you figure, why bother? I’m just an oily drop in an
oily nation. What does it matter if I cut my own oil use if everyone around me
wallows in the stuff?
First off I would argue that each of us has to do what’s right
because it’s right. If I don’t want to support fracking, polluting, stonings,
and beheadings, I have to stop abetting ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia through my
oil use.
But never fear, there are many ways to also influence
others to reduce their oil use. You won’t impact everyone, but you can do your
part to nudge/cajole/enjoin American society towards a less oily future.
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| Swat those pesky facts |
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Americans are
curiously fact-resistant, especially when it comes to anything concerning the environment,
the climate or the economy. We might lament the current state of human
intellect, but it’s always been the case that most people don’t find data and
factoids nearly as persuasive as emotion. Trial lawyers know this, preachers
know this, con men know it, and though it frustrates the engineer in me to no
end, the novelist in me is not surprised. It’s part of the business of being
human. Now, I know you are persuaded
by facts. You love a good fact for breakfast and dine on three more
at lunch. After all, here you are reading a post about energy, sustainability
and climate, proof that facts have already reached you. I have no doubt you
were one of the three kids paying attention in your eighth grade science class,
too. But we have the other twenty-seven to consider.
Emotions! Bah, you say! You want to read how to help others
eschew oil, not some namby-pamby squishiness about feelings. Wait! Don’t click
away! If we can’t reach someone through facts, emotions may very well be the ticket,
but in a different way than you might think. In order to convert to an
oil-light life, most people will need to believe that such a
life will bring them status and pleasure. You
might think that health and happiness would be
enough, but remarkably neither are as psychologically powerful. Below we'll look at sixteen ways to help others eschew oil, some aiming at status and pleasure, others political or practical. Let's begin.
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| (Credit: Josef Beery) |
1.) Walk the talk.
You cannot expect others to do what you won’t do yourself. Model oil use
reduction. In Gandhian fashion, exemplify the change you wish to see in the
world. And let it transform you. Yes, initially people may see your new habits as
crazy, pointless, etc., but as your life gets better and better—you gain
health, you save money, your personal life satisfaction grows, you become
pleasantly grounded in your neighborhood and community, slowly your friends and
family will take notice. So walk, bike or take transit to places others think
impossible. (This isn’t hard: most Americans think walking half a mile
impossible.) Arrive invigorated with your trusty stainless steel water bottle,
full of amusing stories of your adventures along the way. Sate your hungry
ghost. Clear out your excess stuff. Replace the plastic in your house with
fewer but more beautiful things. Celebrate local goods and foods. Give them as
gifts, and when you have guests to dinner or when you bring food to other
homes, point out the tasty, high quality local food the meal contains. (Bonus
points for food you grow in your yard.) Through your vitality and obvious
satisfaction, you’ll show rather than tell how a life with less oil can be
better than one saturated in it.
2.) Become a roving
ambassador for walking. Thirty years ago I read that the best way to
improve your neighborhood is to walk around the block. I think this still holds
as good advice. Walking not only puts eyes on the street and creates social
cohesion through interactions between neighbors, it’s the best way to encourage
others to walk. So walk. Don’t be afraid to be noticed. Being seen is the point.
Realize that everyone likes to be approved of and admired, even by complete
strangers, so approve and admire away. Smile and say hello to the people you
pass. Chortle about what a fine day it is. Make eye contact and nod at other
pedestrians like you’re both members of the Grand Secret Walking Club. Offer
praise, simple encouragement (you don’t have to go overboard) or just beaming glances of approval. Do yourself a
favor and get a pair of attractive yet highly comfortable walking shoes. And
dress well! Athletic gear is okay for a morning power walk, but we’ll never
raise the cachet of walking if it only looks appropriate for people in t-shirts
and sweatpants. You could wear a hat and carry a natty walking stick, but that’s
not required. If you’re up for it, you could do a David Sedaris and pick up
litter. (You might even get a garbage truck named after you.) Use a wire
handcart to walk groceries or other goods home to show it can be done. Lead
community walks if that happens where you live. Tell store owners you walked to
get there. (They’ll assume you drove.) Your job is to raise the status of
walking, to encourage those who don’t walk to try it, and to help those who do
walk to find it so enjoyable they’ll do more of it.
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| Day view |
3.) Pamper your local
pedestrians. Adopt a stretch of sidewalk and make it a place pedestrians
feel happier walking through. As I described in Building Community One Bench at a Time, we put a decorated bench in
front of our house. We also strung up solar-powered light strings to make our
stretch of sidewalk friendlier at night. Since then I’ve also started sweeping
75 feet of sidewalk belonging to three sets of neighbors. Why, you ask? My neighbors
live up a whole bunch of stairs and can’t keep their compost bins at street
level. I have a garage at street level and so can more easily discard
sweepings. For years I was annoyed that they didn’t keep their sidewalk clear
and pedestrians had to trudge through leaves, branches and litter to get by.
Now I just sweep it. It takes about twenty extra minutes a week and the
sidewalk looks much, much better. I challenge you to choose a stretch of
sidewalk beyond your own to sweep or keep snow-free. You’ll be helping out not
only a neighbor but also our planet. If you have the space, plant flowers or
lovely shade trees along your sidewalk, put in garden gnomes, stone lions,
whatever might interest or amuse pedestrians as they pass. Walking naturally
feels good, but you can make it that much better.
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| Night view |
4.) Become a roving
ambassador for bicycling. First off, if you’re a serious bicyclist with an
awesome road bike you’ve spent major bucks on that is fantastic for hundred
mile rides, good for you. But you also need a town bike, one suitable for
leisurely, conspicuous, happy bicycling. For this assignment, being duded up in
Lycra hunched over your handlebars while barreling along at 30 mph just won’t
do. I recommend an upright bike because it shows your face, which, of course,
will be beaming due to just how much fun it is to casually bike around town.
People like to look at faces, so you’ll attract more attention, which is the
point. Make your bike festive! I have a wicker basket decorated with silk
flowers. I get lots of compliments; however, I didn’t put on the basket for
compliments but rather to make bicycling look as appealing as possible. Guys
might not be wild about flowers, but a tweed-style approach to bike riding is
always eye-catching. Women, don’t be afraid to wear fashionable clothes while cycling. Looking stylish while pedaling very much raises the status of biking, and
it’s easier to ride a bike in heels than to walk in them. (My husband and I
ride our bikes to the ballet and the symphony.) Cargo bikes and box bikes can
be great fun to decorate (involve the family!), and every single bicycle can
benefit from festive lights at night. (I love the Monkey Lights on both my bikes
but there are many sparkly, twinkly options.) Festive lights are not only
safer, they attract attention in a positive way. On a bike it’s easy to strike
up conversations with other bicyclists and pedestrians at intersections. Be
cordial, be genial. Give out compliments; help the people
biking around you feel great about what they’re doing. If you have a kid-toting
cargo bike, be sure to regularly park it in a conspicuous place in front of your
kids’ school and chat up anyone who asks about it.
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| My about-town bike |
5.) Change the story.
As we discussed in Part III, the average American gets a phenomenal amount of
brainwashing (aka advertising) persuading them that cars make them powerful,
sexy, and free when actually most of their time in a car is spent in traffic
stressed, alone, and unhappy. The story most Americans have running in their
heads about bicyclists and pedestrians is that they must be poor and stupid (so
pity them) because anyone with money and sense has a car. It’s the American
way. So your job is to convey with every stride and pedal stroke that not only
do walking and bicycling save you money, not only do walking and bicycling
improve your health, walking and bicycling are highly pleasurable. It’s the
people in cars--getting more stressed, obese and diabetic by the hour--who
should be pitied. Now I know there are days when you think, “Walking and bicycling
would be bliss if it weren’t for all these crapola drivers trying to run me
over.” However true this may be, if you’re going to change the walking/biking
story, harassed fearfulness is not the sentiment to convey. You want your body
language to exude the joy of walking, the fun of bicycling. You want to express that this is one the best parts of your day. Beam, smile, emote. That’s
your focus, that’s your mission.
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| Storytelling |
Now don’t expect instant change--we’re trying to alter the
collective unconscious here. Most likely your joie de vivre will intrigue some
people and give those waffling on the edge permission to give walking or biking
a try. If you want to be a roving ambassador for transit, go for it, but
depending on how well your local transit system works, it may be harder to
convey great happiness about it. (Train buffs, on the other hand, have no
problem waxing euphoric about riding the rails.) At least don’t trash talk your
local transit. Instead, offer encouragement/admiration/ positive reinforcement
to those friends and family members who take transit. Always be respectful,
kind and polite to your fellow passengers on transit and act as if you approve
of and admire them. The psychological field you radiate can actually make
others around you feel calmer and more content.
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| Live, die and even be buried in your car. |
6.) Combat American
car culture. Car culture in the US has long been bonkers. Maybe our love
affair with the auto has dimmed a little since the fifties when we ate cheeseburgers
and saw movies in our cars, but we still congratulate people when they get a
new car almost as much as when they have a baby. And getting a driver’s license
is still a rite of passage almost as important as graduating high school. This
is nuts! To counter this, never admire a car and do not congratulate anyone on
buying a new car ever. You don’t have to say, “Gee, the value must have dropped
$4000 when you rolled it off the lot.” Just don’t say anything. Instead, compliment
people on their spiffy bikes, their awesome water bottles, or how nice their
sidewalk always looks. When teens you know get to driving age, chat with their
parents about how much safer it is for kids these days to take Uber/Lyft (or
transit or protected bike lanes if you have them), how it really cuts down on
teen traffic fatalities, the number one cause of teen deaths. Enough said.
7.) Gifts. If you
give gifts at holidays and birthdays make them count! Every dollar you spend
has influence. Certainly give non-oily/non-plastic presents, but if you can
also help your loved ones eschew oil, why not? At this point my family knows my
eccentricities (and hopefully forgives them), but I have been known to give LED
bulbs, low-flow showerheads, and stainless steel water bottles as Christmas
presents. I am absolutely not kidding. (With kids I’m less dogmatic and usually
give non-plastic things on their wishlists.) Next year, I swear, I’m going big
with wool dryer balls. If you can’t think of anything your friends and family
would appreciate, try consumables (preferably local food) that at least don’t
add to their pile of stuff. You could also give gift memberships to a local
CSA, bikeshare, or carshare. Strategically support with your gifts any
interests or inclinations your friends and family have already shown in
reducing their oil use.
8.) Holiday
Gatherings. Get there by non-automotive means if possible. Bring local food
in your non-plastic dish to share. After the meal go on a walk (so good for the
digestion) and invite/prod/cajole others into coming with you. Make it fun, a
great opportunity for pleasure and adventure. (See flowers! Birds! The sunset!
Stars!)
Helpful hint: it’s quite possible to walk and bike at a
leisurely pace without sweating. But if you’re prone to sweat, bring a shirt to
change into or invest in some merino wool t-shirts and wear them as a base
layer. They’re marvelous at absorbing both sweat and stink. Truly, you’ve got
to try it to believe it.
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| Guerilla plumbers strike again! |
9.) Make
walking/biking safer. Support daylighting, the removal of one parking space
just before crosswalks. It makes pedestrians much more visible to car drivers,
and makes it easier for pedestrians to see if a car is really going to stop for
them. In addition, speed kills. Support lowering speed limits on residential
streets to 20 mph ("Twenty is plenty") and adding speed humps to enforce this speed. The main reason
people give for not riding bicycles is safety. The underlying emotional reasons
are the fear and stress that come from biking next to cars. Support protected
bike lanes that create a peaceful, stress-free biking experience even if it
requires giving up parking or a lane of traffic. If you really feel gung ho,
you could do some guerilla bike lane creation, using plungers to mark off protected
territory like a group did in Wichita.
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| Don't be evil |
10.) If you must drive,
drive peaceably. I live in San Francisco where half the people drive
responsibly, another third are texting, and the rest are freaking maniacs. This
shows up in the high number of pedestrian/bicyclist fatalities we have caused
by inattentive, speeding drivers. Where you live, drivers may be calmer. (I
hope so!) Still, most people justify speeding and rolling through stops because
“everybody does it.” So don’t be that everybody. All cars have blind spots, and
pedestrians and bicyclists make mistakes. At every single stop sign and every
time you turn before you proceed make absolutely sure you’re not about to run somebody over. When
you get to intersections busy with pedestrians, slow down rather than blast
through. Follow the speed limit however much it pisses off the car behind you. Never
double-park in a bike lane. (So evil!) And never, ever honk at a bicyclist just
to tell them “you’re there.”
11.) Advocate for
electric buses, electric shuttles, and electric trains. Now that electric
bus technology has advanced to the point where range is not a problem, write to
corporations like Google, EBay, Genetech and Apple that use corporate internal
combustion buses and ask them to use electric ones instead. These companies are
rich and can easily afford it. If you ride to work on a corporate bus, you
should especially make your voice heard. If company buses routinely pass
down your street (like they do mine) politely request of those companies to switch to
electric models made by American companies such as Proterra so as to reduce the
noise, vibrations and particulate matter that internal combustion buses inflict
on your neighborhood. If your employer uses any kind of shuttle, these too
could easily be replaced with electric ones. Though the initial cost of an
electric bus or shuttle is higher than an internal combustion equivalent,
because of reduced maintenance and fuel costs, they are actually cheaper to
operate over the life of the vehicle. Many cities are now using electric
transit buses, reducing the toxic levels of pollution they are dousing their
citizens with. Yours could too. And vigorously support electrified trains
everywhere. In a few years we’ll all be extremely grateful for every single
mile of electrified rail we have in this country. (Oil glut or not, peak oil
and falling oil EROEI are still with us, folks.)
12.) Ask for drinking
fountains and water bottle refill stations in public areas. Drinking
fountains used to be a common public amenity, and they can save each taxpayer hundreds
of dollars a year in oily bottled water costs. Public access to drinking water
is not an unreasonable request.
13.) Support biking/walking/street
safety programs, weekend street closures, as well as congestion charges/HOV
lanes, etc. This is the traditional
approach to helping others eschew oil, and all of it is certainly worth doing. Participate
in or otherwise support bike to work days, walk to work days, walk/bike to
school days, safe routes to school, Vision Zero, Summer Streets, Sunday
Streets, etc. Get upset whenever a bicyclist or pedestrian dies in a traffic
crash. These are not accidents. They are almost always the result of poor
driver behavior or poor street design. Street design that properly protects
pedestrians and bicyclists saves lives and encourages non-automotive
transportation. The Netherlands has the most bicycling per capita in the world,
no one wears helmets, and yet they have almost no bicyclist fatalities and very
few injuries. What they do have are careful drivers and excellent bicycle
infrastructure.
14.) Be a YIMBY.
Say Yes in My Backyard. Support accessory dwelling units, such as granny flats,
in your neighborhood. Support infill development of multistory residential over
office space or ground floor retail, especially if it will replace car
infrastructure such as parking lots, parking garages, automotive repair shops,
gas stations and car dealerships. Support adding density especially when it
allows new residents to live in ten-minute neighborhoods (see Part II).
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| Ditch the SUV |
15.) Be an early
adopter. If/when bikeshare, carshare or scootershare programs start up in
your town, sign up even if you’re unlikely to use them extensively. They usually
don’t cost much and could use extra support the first year to get them off the
ground. If new light rail starts up near you, make a point of at least trying
it out. And if you can afford it, get one of an explosion of new models of electrified
cargo bikes available these days. They’re a blast to ride and really can
replace your car for the lion’s share of errands. The more of these on your streets, the more likely others are to get one too.
16.) Advocate for
sidewalks. Sidewalks are the most basic way to make our lives less oily.
Unless you live extremely rural, your neighborhood should have them. If it doesn’t,
petition or advocate for them. Your town/community might feel they’re
expensive, but if paid for over ten to thirty years (completely valid for
capital improvements) they’re not all that much. The cost of not having them is
far higher.
Okay, at this point you may be saying this woman is batshit
crazy. We’re never going to get the world off oil in these tiny, incremental
ways. We need big action, on a federal level, and that is completely not going
to happen anytime in the next four years. All is doomed, the arctic permafrost
is going to melt releasing a methane climate bomb, and human extinction (as
well as extinction of a large portion of the animal world) is next up on the
agenda.
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| Massive carbon absorber |
I’m sorry but this line of thought is both untrue and will
freeze you into passivity like a deer in existential headlights. We human
beings haven’t even tried to truly deal with climate change yet, not in any
kind of concerted way. There’s still time; there’s still hope. There’s still
time to cut our energy use in half, largely through electrification and
efficiency. There’s still time to prudently use natural gas as a bridge fuel
while we build out renewables. Massive amounts of carbon can be still
sequestered through biochar, reforestation, wetland restoration, regenerated grasslands,
and regenerative agriculture. World population can slowly ebb by educating
girls and giving women access to contraception. Yes, all this must be done on a
scale we humans are nowhere near to approaching, but what’s necessary is not
beyond our reach, have we but the will. The issue at hand is entirely human
culture, which in turn is entirely a creation of our collective minds.
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| Not the best choice. |
But (you might say) we don’t have a functioning collective mind!
Our politics are insane and brainless! We are Thelma and Louise, driving off
the cliff!
Seriously, if the human race drives off a cliff without
making any real effort to deal with the problems that we ourselves have
created, then we deserve extinction. Take comfort in that.
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| Physics lesson |
I am not so hopeless. Let me leave you with an image. At the
Exploratorium in San Francisco, a museum about art, science and human perception,
before it moved to the Embarcadero (let me complain about the loss of the old
museum and how, like all good San Franciscans, I hate change in my venerable
institutions like cats hate rain) there was an exhibit called the Resonant
Pendulum. It featured a massive hunk of concrete and metal weighing in at 350
lbs as it hung from the rafters of the Palace of Fine Arts. Imagine its bulk in
front of you. You are given the challenge to get the pendulum moving, but you
can’t touch it. Your only tools are a bunch of pathetic little wires with puny magnets
at the end of them. You throw the magnet at the metal on the pendulum and it
sticks, but when you pull with any force, it pops right off. Schoolchildren
flitting by are indignant. Moving this colossal pendulum with such teensy
implements is impossible. A complete waste of time.
But. But. If you throw your puny little wire with its puny
little magnet at the pendulum and five or ten others do also, and if you pull
just a little bit, not enough for the magnet to detach, and if those on the
other side pull just a little bit on their puny magnet when the pendulum shifts
almost imperceptibly in their direction, then slowly, slowly, the massive
weight begins to move. Slowly, slowly, if tenacious children and inquisitive
adults pull in time to reinforce the pendulum’s natural frequency, the
humongous object begins to swing. Slowly, slowly it really begins to swing. And
all of the sudden it’s making a huge arc across the floor.
Though there are all sorts of physics lessons here, there
are many more about what is possible, how it is possible, and when it is
possible. Timing, weight, cooperation. Magnificent.
Perhaps the moment will come when it’s appropriate to
despair, but that time is not yet. The enormous pendulum of human culture can
still be moved if we are but wise enough to coax it.
Be the puny magnet. Change the emotion, change the story,
change our culture. It’s a worthy endeavor.
