[Greenbuilding] if we had to cut all our firewood by hand...

[Frank Tettemer]

Reuben, you are really on to something here!

These are the questions our decedents will very soon be faced with.
These are the questions I've been keenly working on, from my teens, 
throughout my adult life.
I am now in my mid sixties.
These questions clearly only have one slight rewording needed, I think.
Simply replace the word "If" with the word "When".
I truly believe that it's only a matter of time. Next generation? The 
one after that?

It is a remarkable time to be alive, and in our lives, we can offer our 
best thinking on your questions, Reuben.
Even having been experimenting and physically working on these questions 
for over fourty years, it has taken most of a generation of time to cut 
our household's daily energy consumption to two armloads of firewood, 
about a dollar's worth of propane, and two to four kilowatts of 
electricity per day.  And the amount of gasoline to go to work has 
improved a bit over the years, but I'm still fully dependent upon it.

There is much more to learn.
I've taken the liberty to reword your phrases.  No criticism or harm 
intended:
.................................................................................................................
  When we have to cut all our firewood by hand...
... we will insulate our houses *much, much, much* better.

When we have to generate electricity to power our refrigerator with a 
pedal generator...

... we will have smaller and better insulated refrigerators, and perhaps 
none at all.

When we have to grow the rapeseed and press it into oil and make 
biodiesel out of it to drive anywhere....

... we will probably bike instead.

If we did not have the energy slaves (fossil fuels) doing all this work 
for us all the time we would work harder, waste less, be more likely to 
live within our means, and rediscover a whole lot about how our systems 
of provisioning fit together, what makes them go. Sounds kind of 
back-to-the-land-ey, doesn't it? But what if we really had to all do it 
this time?

I'm trying to map out and then figure out how to phase out my _direct 
_reliance on fossil fuels one category at a time (_indirect _I hope to 
get to eventually). It is exhausting just cataloging it all. Has anyone 
else here tried something like this? It seems like a lifetime project. 
Perhaps it will become mine.

Reuben

-- 

Frank Tettemer
Living Sol ~ Building and Design
www.livingsol.com
613 756 3884