A review of Andre Angelantoni’s presentation on “Personal and Family Resilience in the Post Oil World” in Boulder, Oct. 8, 2009

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

- Lazarus Long in Robert Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love

You can almost always tell how well-received a presenter is by how long people hang around afterwards. Nearly an hour after Andre Angelantoni’s talk at the Boulder Meadows Community Room earlier this month there was still a group huddled around him, eagerly soliciting his advice.

For good reason. In the wake of $140 a barrel oil last summer, and as the real unemployment rate nears 20%, many are looking for answers to what the future holds. While Andre does not have a crystal ball, he has put together some truly impressive research to help others better understand where our economy is headed, and has recently started a business, Post Peak Living, that is “committed to helping people prepare for peak oil.”

In addition to an acute understanding of the challenges we all face at this point in history, Andre has also demonstrated a deep commitment to developing community-level solutions as a founder of Post Carbon Marin, a chapter of Post Carbon Institute’s now-defunct Relocalization Network.

Indeed, the most striking aspect of Andre’s talk was not his detailed statistics on peak oil or the housing bubble, but rather his suggestions for how to prepare as individuals and families for continued economic hardship.

In speaking about post-peak careers, Andre challenged the audience to consider whether they currently provide a “nice-to-have” or “need-to-have” service for their community. Many jobs providing “nice-to-have” services will evaporate in the near future, as more resources will have to be focused on meeting basic needs, he predicted.

Andre suggested that promising post-peak careers will primarily be highly practical trades such as farmers, welders, electric vehicle retrofitters, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, health practitioners, police, and renewable energy installers. On the other hand, dog walkers, masssage therapists, cosmeticians, luxury goods makers, luxury goods salespeople, jobs that rely on tourism, jobs in higher education, marketing, entertainment, and more are all likely on their way out.

Beyond purely physical preparations, Andre also emphasized the importance of mental and emotional preparation for difficult times ahead. Instead of expecting a continuation of our current standard of living that is without precedent anywhere on the planet,  we could hold a vision of possibility that “a life with less oil could be preferable to the present,” in the words of Transition Movement founder, Rob Hopkins.

When an expectation is thwarted, it typically leads to a feeling of disappointment, while the destruction of one possibility simply leads to the birth of another. In post-peak times, Andre asserted, our greatest asset will be our agility. And in order to be agile, we will need to be mentally and emotionally resilient.

For all of its great value, this introductory presentation was only meant to be a taste of a more in-depth six-session online program, The UnCrash Course, that Andre designed and co-teaches with Dr. Jason Bradford, formerly of Willits Economic Localization, and now with Farmland LP.

As Daniel Lerch of Post Carbon Institute has written: “The UnCrash Course is an incredibly thorough introduction to individual preparedness for life after cheap oil. Andre Angelantoni and Jason Bradford have a deep understanding of the challenges at hand, plus a wealth of practical experience in preparing for the uncertainties that peak oil will bring. If you want to dive head-first into preparing yourself and your household for the worst scenarios of the post-peak world, the UnCrash Course is for you.”

Covering the critical areas of health, skills, food, transportation, finances and shelter, and disaster preparation, two new installments of The UnCrash Course will begin next month: one on Mondays, starting November 2nd (with Jason Bradford), and one on Saturdays, starting November 14th (with Andre Angelantoni).

If you are intrigued by the The UnCrash Course, but still not sure, check out the 50-minute video, “Preparing for a Post Peak Life,” and the “Peak Oil Primer,” offered for free on Post Peak Living’s website.