IDEAS21

Society as a whole needs to use the remaining extractable oil and other fossil fuels to build the infrastructure for sustainable energy and to prepare for the energy descent. At a personal level, one way I am doing this is to bring wood (as a future source of fuel) onto my farm. Conveniently, there is a sawmill about 15 kilometres down our road; the operator dumps pine offcuts in a huge pile and burns it once a week. Anyone is permitted to cart off as much of this discarded wood (which sometimes includes very nice, usable planks) as they like. So every time I pass by (usually on my way back from the nearby Korentepoort dam), I load up my bakkie with free wood. It takes just a few litres of petrol to transport this wood to my farm - but consider the effort involved to cut down and transport that amount of wood by non-motorised means!

Free wood