Dropping the fossil fuel habit

By Dave Bonta, a co-founder of Rah Rah Village

April 3, 2024

For most of us that are paying attention, we keep getting ongoing messaging that we need to cut fossil fuel use immediately. Between the UN reports and other scientists' dire warnings, the consequences of our continued use of coal, oil and gas will be catastrophic, and World changing. We are being told in no uncertain terms that we MUST stop burning the fossil products, not just NOW, but that we should have done so 10 years ago, or even the decade before last or even 30 years ago, as so much damage has already been done. There are 3 or 4 degrees of warming already in the pipe - no matter what we do – IT IS CODE RED - the warning sirens are wailing off the wall, we’ve hit the tipping point! No wait! We are past the tipping point! We are told we didn’t act and so are totally screwed. OK-OK I get it, I got the memo. Now what? What do you expect me to do?? What can we do??? Let’s find out!

If you do take a look on You Tube about stopping the use of fossil fuels, you will find pitifully little that actually is helpful about how to stop using these products. In fact the predominant videos are seemingly produced by Fossil Fuel marketing think tanks and basically tell you that it is impossible to stop using them now, and to do so would be akin to living in the Stone Age. So we are locked into a highly frustrating “Fight or flight” mode of anxiety. We feel compelled to do something, and yet we are overwhelmed by the seemingly impossible task of dropping the fossil fuel habit. Now, to be fair, there are a few videos on You Tube that showcase places where fossil fuel use is being seriously curtailed, if not downright eliminated all together. Mostly, the place where this approach is being tried is in Intentional Communities. I saw a couple of videos from a place in Virginia called Living Energy Farm, and there is also a community in Bristol, Maine where they are learning to get off the fossil fuel habit. The folks there are riding bikes, using solar and living without fossil products as much as they can.

It would seem that we of the Intentional Community persuasion may be on the forefront of at least trying to get practical about how to address this issue. I can tell you that we have tried for a good long while here at Rah Rah to transition away from the use of these detrimental energy products. Let’s start with the basic premise that it is impossible to stop using these things. Well, that’s plainly false and absurd, as these kinds of energy products are actually fairly recent in the history of civilizations. Indeed, there have been other forms of energy used way before the fossil variety, including wood, wind, water power, solar power, whale oil, animal & human power and the like, but to say it’s impossible is just not true. Maybe life became easier with these products, there is no denying that, but to insist that life without them is impossible is just not so. Lately, I tried a little thought experiment - that being ‘What would happen if we had no more fossil fuels available up here at Rah Rah? What would we do? How would we live?’ Well, to be honest, we have been thinking about this stuff for a long time and have addressed some of the uses of gas and oil with alternatives. What I am going to do next is to list those alternatives that we came up with - and maybe folks will say “I can’t do that”, or “ I won’t do that”, or “That ain’t about to happen”, and that’s up to them. All I can say is that if it helps with your anxiety and it makes you feel like you are at least trying to do something about it - well, good for you. Who knows, if enough people start to do it, maybe it will catch on. Beyond these things that I’ve listed, you can write letters to your elected representatives, and to the editors of local papers, vote for folks with responsible climate policy positions, even protest if you think it will help. For my time & money, I would rather do all that I can myself first before expecting someone else to do it for me. Just sayin’.

Task	Currently use	Fossil-Free Options
Electric Generation	PV Panels/LP Backup generator	More PV panels, wind genny, Biodiesel genny, bike genny, On site micro hydro genny
Cooking	LP Gas range	Induction cooktop, outdoor bakeoven, woodstove inside in winter, crockpot, air fryer
Water Heating	LP Gas water heater & solar	More solar collectors, wood boiler , wood stove
Clothes drying	LP Gas dryer	Hang clothes outside, rack by the woodstove in winter
Space Heating	LP gas fired water heat	Woodstove and return fans, outdoor wood boiler
Transportation	Gasoline powered hybrid	E-Bike, Aptera, bicycle, walk
Gardening	Organic fertilizers	Organic fertilizers
Lawn tools	Electric battery type	Electric battery type
Death & Disposal	Cremation by burning/gas	Compost to soil

So, you can see there are alternatives. It is not as impossible as one might think. Some of these we are doing already, and some we will plan on doing as soon as fate allows. It’s a tall order, to expect others to do it too, and as I look around I see so many people in their cars and trucks, just going about their business, I think - “Naw, it ain’t gonna happen”. As individuals it probably is too much to expect…but as folks that are part of an Intentional Community, maybe…yeah. Maybe we could drop the fossil fuel habit.