Rob Hopkins, of the amazing Transition Culture in Ireland, lead a recent meeting on energy descent in Lampeter, Wales.

I talked about peak oil and the need to begin preparing for it at a community level. I talked about the experience of Cuba and of the process which gave rise to the Kinsale Energy Descent Plan. 

I happen to know a little (very little) about this town.  My mother’s grandmother was born near there, a fact which drew me to hike up and down the green hills to find my people in my mid-20s. I didn’t find many people, but I found the overgrown foundation of a house and a sense that these small towns didn’t have much need for the technology that shaped my life.

One of the points Hopkins makes fairly frequently is: older structures are already prepared for power down.  This is true for buildings as well as for human structures like governments.

Hopkins mentions the Cuban experience.  My local Post Carbon group recently showed “The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil.”  Wow.  What a film.  An article last summer in Yes! Magazine compares the post-Soviet power down in Cuba and in North Korea.  Guess who survived best.  How and why Cuba was prepared offers very interesting lessons to those of us who will meet (or whose children will meet) peak oil in the near future.