Friday, January 27, 2012

Expense vs. Expenditure

In common everyday usage, expense and expenditure are used synonymously.  Even some accountants use them interchangeably.  In the United States tax code, there is a subtle but important difference.  No, even though one of my careers is a professional tax preparer, I am not turning this blog into a detailed discussion of taxes.  However, the distinction between expense and expenditure is a critical one for any discussion of sustainable economics, especially from the top of Hubbert's Mesa.

To put it simply, an expense is spending money for something which you completely benefit from in the current year; an expenditure is spending money for something which you benefit from for multiple years.  For example, your car is an expenditure (or at least I hope if you're reading this blog, you're not buying a new car every year!), the gasoline to fill it is an expense.

Where this distinction relates to sustainability and Peak Oil is that it doesn't just apply to money.  For those purposes, though, one year is very arbitrary; it probably should be expanded.   For example, making concrete takes a tremendous amount of energy, invariably from fossil fuels these days.  If you make concrete objects so that they are only put to one use and then discarded, that represents a substantial energy expense.  On the other hand, concrete objects that are designed to be reused over and over are an expenditure that can pay dividends for centuries.

We need to carefully analyze whether the resources we use are expenses or expenditures, because on the Long Ascent, expenses weigh us down, but expenditures are what allow us to go higher.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Lawn Nazis and Trash Fascists

Today I want to tell you a tale of two cities.  Call one "S", for "stylish", and the other "R", for responsible.  (The identities are hidden to protect the guilty.)

The residents of "S" are very concerned with outward appearances.  In particular they want everyone to have impeccably groomed lawns.  They have even gone so far as pass an ordinance that grass must be kept below 6 inches, and one of the town officials goes around in the spring with a ruler to make sure that people comply.  Those who don't are given one warning and then face a $300 fine.

People living in "R" want to make sure we leave the planet in as good a condition as possible.  They are very strict that people recycle everything they can.  The refuse collectors are charged with watching the trash as gather it.  People who fail to separate out recyclables get a note on their trash can warning them they could face a stiff fine.

Why does this matter?  Because as long as these Lawn Nazis and Trash Fascists only hold power at a local level, you can choose whether you want to be stylish or responsible.  If you find yourself in the wrong town, you can easily move to another more to your liking.  Heck, you might even find a town, call it "SR", that has both, if that is what you want.  Once they start taking over state or national governments, however, escaping them becomes much more costly.

Having as much local control as possible will help us navigate the Long Ascent.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Tom Brown's "Grandfather"

When I was going to college in California, I took a survival course from Christopher Nyerges.  One day he related to us the story of Tom Brown, Jr.  He gained fame for his skills as a tracker.  One interviewer mistakenly reported that he ran a survival school, and he was flooded with requests, so he did start teaching survival skills.  His story, "The Tracker", is a fine read.

Today, however, I want to discuss part of the story of his teacher, who was called "Grandfather" even from a young age.  One particular valley plays an important role three times in his life.  When he was growing up, he would frequently visit that pristine valley to play.  In the middle of his life, decades later, he discovered that a mining camp had been erected.  The natural beauty had been devastated by all the human activity.  Finally, as an old man, he visited the valley one last time, when he discovered that the intervening decades had erased much of the evidence of the exploitation.  Except for a few scraps here and there, the valley was starting to look much as it did in his youth.

There is, of course, a point beyond which nature will never recover.  After the last tree on Easter Island was cut down, they never came back.  But as long as something remains, the natural world has a remarkable ability to heal itself, given time.

One of our most immediate tasks on the Long Ascent is ensuring that enough of the wilderness is preserved so that healing can take place.

Friday, January 6, 2012



The End Of The World As We Know It.


I'm confident you've already heard that the Mayan calendar ends on 12/21/02012.  In reality, it doesn't so much end as it starts over.  It's more of a Y10K problem; as long as we only use 4 digits to write the year, in 7988 years we will have the same problem.

Don't get me wrong, while I don't like the concept of THE EOTWAKI, it is useful to talk about the world changing so fundamentally that the rules we have known no longer apply; you could call it a teotwawki.  However, I don't the fact that the emphasis is on what is ending.  If the sun goes supernova or an asteroid the size of Texas crashes in to the Earth, then by all means call it a teotwawki.  Other, lesser changes like the supply of oil not meeting the demand represent an opportunity, though.  We should use an acronym that represents that. I propose TSOABWTWHEK:

The Start Of A Better World Than We Have Ever Known

While we need to watch our step, we also need to keep looking up as we make the Long Ascent.