Tom M. Wilson

I heard the American peak oil commentator Richard Heinberg talk this evening at the University of Western Australia. Oil production is currently just keeping up with oil consumption. By approximately 2010 however we’ll be wanting to put petrol in our cars at a rate that will not keep up with how many barrels of oil are being pulled out of the ground (even taking into account projected new discoveries of oil deposits). So the current increase in the price of oil will turn into a much sharper increase. We’ll have reached a peak oil crisis. With this knowledge we can continue with business as usual, in which case in four or so years time a yearly increase in demand for oil combined with a yearly decline in the global supply of oil will surprisingly quickly reek havoc on our social and economic system. Or we can prepare for a world in which oil isn’t always there in endless supply, and thus avoid an unpleasant jolt.

On my way home from the talk I passed by these big badges of oil dependence standing beside the Fremantle harbour. For over the last hundred years we’ve used the magical substance contained within these silver monoliths to replace human and animal labour. It is hard for us to imagine that it won’t always be around in such large quantities as we’re accustomed to. It won’t.

Earlier this evening I was over at FERN. This Tuesday night gathering is gathering force. My friends Nick and Johnny projected some of their photos…

I projected some of my own images later in the evening. While the photos rolled off the digital projector I gave a commentary, to those willing to listen, which was possibly a little blurred due to the effects of shiraz.

Yesterday I and my friend Ravi, a Byron Bay horticulturalist now based in Fremantle, prepared the soil for a large garden bed at FERN. I thought it was time that we kicked the ball off in terms of gardening here at the site, so away we went. We planted seeds and seedlings of capsicums, cucumbers, eggplants, chilli, silverbeet, basil, and tomato. I even put in a few kangaroo paws, Perth’s great glory.

I and Ravi stepped out into the dark this evening for a photo beside our soon to be germinating bed of life.

In an issue of the British magazine The Ecologist the journalist Paul Kingsnorth recently reminded me of the campaign during the second world war in England to get families to grow their own vegetables.

Britain needed to become self-sufficient in terms of food at this time with the seas swarming with German U-boats.

Next time you hear a check-out chick ask you if you want fly-buys at the supermarket, just remember: Dig for Victory!

Now I’m on the board of FERN - the Fremantle Environment Resource Network. This old community garden centre is just around the corner from where I live in Fremantle. It could become a centre for sustainable technologies, but at the very least it is a nice glass-walled, open space, which will be filled with Lee Perry and Freddie Hubbard style sounds, and nice food and company each Tuesday evening. Next Tuesday we’ll be projecting slides of nature photography as well, and this may become a regular feature.