Our technologies have developed at an astounding rate over the last 200 years. Also astounding, is how rapidly we are becoming completely dependent upon them. Electricity was not even widely available in homes until 1910-1920. Now, when the power goes out for more than a day or two, people often leave their homes and stay with family / friends that have power.

What will happen if you suffer a local catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina or the recent earthquakes & tsunamis in Japan? Can you live without modern luxuries? Could you manage life for even a couple months without modern utilities? A mere 100 years ago, a blink of the eye relative to the history of mankind, that was the normal daily life for most. There are techniques to help offset our reliance on modern utilities. And in many cases, once they are implemented they have little to no loss in modern comfort and convenience. Not only can they reduce your reliance on others, they can reduce your impact on the environment. In some cases they can also reduce you energy bills over the long term.

With all these advantages there are plenty of reasons to pursue alternative energy sources now, as opposed to later.  Establishing many of these resources and getting them operational would become exponentially harder in the midst of a local disaster.

I will be documenting many of my own efforts to reduce my reliance on traditional energy sources here. I have started many of them years ago, such as the conversion of my diesel truck to run on waster vegetable oil (WVO) . My more recent projects have included a rain water collection system .