What can we do to change the minds of decision makers and people in general to actually do something about preparing for the forthcoming economic/energy crises (the ones after this one!)?
Early days, but this might find some traction with dramatic consequences. The autumn's energy bills could represent a Poll Tax moment.
No idea who's behind it, but they are showing some sense in how to build a movement. Physical leg work in community, regional organisers etc across all the social media but not constrained to it. A simple, understandable message.
The government simply could not let this get traction. Expect public announcements and possibly legislation to allow or even enforce disconnectIon of customers who cancel direct debits even before the bill normally becomes payable. Replaced by prepayment metres en mass. If I was the government I would be ordering a ramp up of prepayment metre production.
No new legislation or dramatic actions are required. Simply install a prepayment meter, set to a higher rate until any outstanding debt is cleared.
It is only natural gas and electricity that people expect to use first and then pay later, if they can afford it.
Logs, coal, LPG, heating oil, petrol, diesel fuel, and most other fuels have to be paid for in advance.
I do however expect an increase in abstraction, and accidents resulting therefrom.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
We have been forced over the centuries into a life system where we have, in the main, to work for an entity owned by someone else in order live. We are in effect slaves to the system unless you have taken measures to make yourself independent as some of us here have done. That is OK as long as the system continues to provide fairly optimal conditions for most people to live fairly contentedly. Those optimal conditions are now fast disappearing and the few who required welfare are now becoming a significant minority or maybe a slight majority so the system can't support them all.
We have been deprived of the means to obtain fuel, the means to burn that fuel, the space to grow our own food and also the means to grow it and now the system has failed to provide the food and fuel at an affordable price for many. The system has provided people with inadequate housing so that it can make more profit and If the system wishes to stay in place the system will have to find a way of making the essentials of life affordable again or people will rebel against the system. The above is the start of that rebellion.
Many of us here have seen this coming which is one of the main reasons that we have adopted the life choices which we have of living in insulated houses with non mains dependent, or only slightly dependent, heating and cooking systems and also the means to grow and store a good proportion of our food. We may have to defend those life choices in the near future and one of the best ways of doing that is to educate people in ways to reduce their fuel and food bills, things that the system has been reluctant to do in the past but is starting to do now. Our local authority is starting a campaign to insulate and draught proof houses for instance. Another way would be the encouragement of allotmenteering although there would be a gap in food provision while enough allotments are provided and people grow their first crops.
This is the first sign of the societal breakdown that we have talked about for decades here. The slaves are revolting!!
There was a case in New Zealand when someone on dialysis (or something similar type of machine that operated on electricity in their home) who died as their power was cut off for non-payment. I am not sure whether this led to some forgiveness on the part of the authorities and an increased lack of bill payment.
There has also been some discussion amongst renewable energy forums and other websites in Australia on how to address the problems that people on lower incomes being able to afford energy 'saving' for want of a better word additions to their power supply such as solar panels and batteries, even insulation and how this will affect their ability to pay ever increasing power bill with the implication that bills are increasing due to fossil fuel depletion and increases.
I am not sure that people have been deprived of their own space to exist. Rather the increased use/capture of unsustainable and previously unobtainable sources of energy have led to mankind to expand to fill the 'ecological' space made available by these energy sources.
This is gaining traction:
" We received over 1,000 orders today for leaflets & stickers! Bear with us as we know this is scaling up hugely and volunteers will be packing leaflets on Monday. We also placed an order for 1 million leaflets & 100K stickers to meet the demand. This movement is taking off "
Hopefully the "Don't Pay" stickers will be stuck near to the electricity meters of the people who can't (or more probably won't) pay their bills so that they can be disconnected accurately.
This could extend into a form of load shedding.
I hope that as much effort is being put into reducing people's energy use such as insulation, cooking multiple meals at one time, preparing one's own food rather than buying ready meals etc.
I am not hearing much from the UK media about energy saving measures in the same vein as the "Save It" campaign from the 1970s.
BritDownUnder wrote: ↑30 Jul 2022, 08:46I hope that as much effort is being put into reducing people's energy use such as insulation, cooking multiple meals at one time, preparing one's own food rather than buying ready meals etc.
I am not hearing much from the UK media about energy saving measures in the same vein as the "Save It" campaign from the 1970s.
Indeed! Johnson's has personally, specifically rejected any efficiency/conservation programme as a response to energy shortages and price hikes assorted with Russia's invasion. Sure, some enlightened individuals and organisations are pushing it, but this is against rejection from above.
BritDownUnder wrote: ↑25 Jul 2022, 04:20
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I am not sure that people have been deprived of their own space to exist. Rather the increased use/capture of unsustainable and previously unobtainable sources of energy have led to mankind to expand to fill the 'ecological' space made available by these energy sources.
The widespread use of fossil fuels in farming for both fertilizer production and motive power has enabled the agricultural industry to vastly increase food production to enable a much larger population to be fed. Without that vastly increased production the world's population couldn't have increased at the rate it has. The increased population is entirely down to fossil fuel use.
Large increases in prices of fossil fuels herald the end of civilisation as we know it as that civilisation was built entirely on the back of cheap fossil fuels.
The only logical response to the shortages of fossil fuels imports that we are now suffering would be to reduce use as many European countries are now trying to do. The ultimate way of most people reducing their use is to stop driving a car and to insulate their awfully wasteful houses. But once again economics gets in the way of common sense as this is bad for growth. One day hopefully common sense will win out and government will see the logic of using less to less expose ourselves to international blackmail.
Can't see this ending well for all the reasons previously mentioned. It represents an unwillingness to pay, which presumably opens the door to all sorts of legitimate action by energy suppliers; a willingness to pay, but a struggle to do so is another matter. I hope this is some sort of token backlash that will lose support somewhere around sept 30th; i hope they bottle it TBH.
Persistence of habitat, is the fundamental basis of persistence of a species.
We received over 1,000 orders today for leaflets & stickers! Bear with us as we know this is scaling up hugely and volunteers will be packing leaflets on Monday. We also placed an order for 1 million leaflets & 100K stickers to meet the demand. This movement is taking off 
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