This era in history may be remembered as the "Peak Age", a brief time when nearly all materials used to power and create our society reach the maximum extraction and production potential. Past this point, all of these resources become increasingly difficult to extract until they are no longer economically viable resources to be using. There are hundreds of examples of resources, currently embedded in our industrial society, which have reached their peak in the 50 years surrounding 2010, but the one which will most impact our society is petroleum.

The goal of living for 100 days without oil is to understand the extent of our dependance on oil in American society today. Specifically, how it will affect my life, as a 25 year-oil living in Minneapolis, MN. By using myself as a metric I can take a close and conscious look at where oil dependance occurs in all aspects of our daily lives : How we transport ourselves from one place to another, what we eat, how much waste we create, how water is cleaned and transported, where oil is used as; an energy resource, in conventional medicine and for hygiene and how oil affects how we entertain ourselves and communicate with others. By demonstrating how someone would be forced to live without using any oil resources, outlining both what the sacrifices will be as well as the benefits, we can can identify the many systems which will have to be re-designed in a world without cheap oil, and explore a new way of living in which we live in an energy balance.

(At the bottom of this page is a link to my version of a flow diagram of 'Where Petroleum Exists in Our Daily Lives' (using information from the Energy Information Administration-Annual Energy Review 2008 fig 5.0 Petroleum flow) click and zoom to enlarge)


Monday, October 11, 2010

DAY 54_DAILY TIME USE

7 October 2010

My schedule has been modified doing this project because there are quite a few things that just take A REALLY LONG TIME.  Food is the big one, as I have mentioned before, but there are also smaller differences that add up which has recently been making me feel like there just aren't enough hours in a day.  My time is getting sucked away and I wanted to figure out how:

The graphic below shows how I am using my time currently (no oil) compared to how I was before:


(click to enlarge)

The major differences are in food prep (an additional 7% of my time) and commuting (additional 3% of time).  I spend slightly more time doing dishes but less time getting ready for the day (don't waste time in the shower when its in a bucket) and less time at the gym because I am getting good exercise biking around everywhere.  Time left to study and do research, however suffers by about 2 hours.  
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