Plant now to survive in the future
VIRGINIA WINDER Last updated 08:44 26/07/201
Kevin Moore opens a jar filled with frilly slices of a dried substance that looks unpalatable.
But as the leathery sliver meets mouth and moisture, it plumps up and then dissolves into a sweet tasty morsel at once recognisable as dried apple.
"Here, you'd better try the strawberry," he says giving away the origins of the seedy slice that again melts into a mouthful of tart sweetness.
These fruits are products of the greenhouse effect.
Stop. At this moment in this story there is no need to be alarmed because this effect has been orchestrated by Moore , who has added a trombe wall to a sunny spot on the outside of his New Plymouth home.
"It's just a block wall with air space and glass facing north," he says. "It's the greenhouse effect. Glass traps heat. Light passes through the glass, is absorbed by the blocks and re- radiated at a different wave length that doesn't pass back through the glass."
The result is a pocket of warm air that Moore uses to dry fruit grown on his property.
He slices it as thinly as possible and then places it on a wooden drying rack inside the trombe wall. "It's a very time-consuming process," he says of the cutting.
However, it only takes a couple of days for the fruit to turn leathery and then, in mid-winter, when the trees are bare it's possible to have a mouthful of summer, like a childhood memory.
The trombe wall has other winter benefits. While it's cool outside, behind the glass it's usually warm. In fact once, he remembers that on a spring day, when the outside temperature was between 14 and 16 degrees Celsius, inside the enclosure it was 31C.
"It's not hugely effective, but it does raise the temperature of the house by two degrees," says the man who has a BSc Honours in chemistry and a Diploma in Industrial Technology.
Look closely and you'll spy a set of pipes that are a preparation for a solar system, he's not certain whether he'll install.
But for now the drying system works and is, for Moore , another step towards preparing for a time food won't be plentiful.
"The key to self-sufficiency is tiding yourself over when there's not much food," he says.
Like the overcast day, Moore is gloomy about the future.
His bugbear, and it's one that he's tried to hammer home again and again, is that those in authority aren't preparing for a post-oil future.
Ad Feedback The world is officially past peak oil, which happened in 2005-06. "America peaked in 1970-71," he says.
Moore has twice put his name forward for mayor of the New Plymouth District Council and twice been defeated. "I couldn't even get on the council," he says.
His frustration at not being listened to has slowly ground him down. "It's a state of grief now," he says. "I've given up."
But he hasn't. Not really.
Dispirited yes, but on the table in front of him is a stack of books he's written, including a new one called The Easy Way.
"I had a friend whose daughter was in denial, so I wrote her out a few pages of bullet points," he says. "It turned into 40 pages. That was in April of last year and I did nothing with it."
Then someone suggested that he get it published and so his next book was born.
In 2001, he published Burn Baby, Burn - the terrible truth about global warming and the global consumer society. In 2006, he released The Thinking Person's New Zealand Guide to Surviving the Future, with revised versions in 2007 and 2008. Also in 2008, he published A Short Guide to Surviving the Future and another book called Ten Things Everyone Ought To Know.
Moore says he's made a loss on the books and his crusade has taken a toll on him. "This whole project has crippled me. It's not done my health or finances any good."
He says other environmentalists around the world are also in despair because people refuse to take heed of the looming crisis. "It's called manufacturing scepticism."
The collapse of the present industrial system isn't far away, with some scientists and economists predicting it will hit somewhere between 2013 and 2015.
But personally, he won't put a date on the collapse - his own crystal ball is cloudy on this one, just like the sky outside.
On a brighter note, Moore has planted for the future.
The Englishman has a large terraced garden packed with edibles. "I've planted in excess of 100 trees," he says.
On his impeccable property he has figs, feijoas, all kinds of citrus, apples, apricots, peaches, pears, persimmons, pomegranates, passionfruit, mountain pawpaw and pepino. He's also got walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, pinenuts, pecans, loquats, guavas, grapes and olives.
Then there are the four vegetable beds, plus a huge selection of berries, including strawberries, which are everywhere.
In the early 2000s, he lived in Auckland, where he started off with just six strawberry plants. When he came back to New Plymouth he arrived with 150 plants that he'd propagated and now he's got way more.
"I just take the runners off them, put them in a little pot and plant them next season."
He's also got a huge collection of buxus cuttings, simply because he doesn't like to waste anything and the edging plant was already on the property when he bought it.
Moore has completely cleaned up the section, which is as tidy as the suited man who appears in public.
He advises everyone to get planting fruit trees and other edibles now, simply because many species take a few years to get established.
On that note, he's off, talking about the local council and how it should only be planting fruit trees.
The 61-year-old is extremely suspicious of those in authority and says everyone should be asking questions. "It's a paradigm shift that's required," he says. "But while they are locked into the industrial system they are not going to move. They've got to think outside the box and take the blinkers off."
And they need to get planting.
KEVIN MOORE'S TOP TIPS FOR SURVIVAL
Become informed about what's happening on the planet.
Learn about and practise permaculture, which is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems, which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.
Plant an edible garden.
Power down. Cut down on your use of electricity, which will save resources and your own pocket.
Walk and cycle instead of driving.
Disengage from highly processed food.
Pressure councils to return nutrients from sewage back into the soil.
Insulate your house or, if you're building a new one, make sure it's energy efficient and embraces the passive solar philosophy. Make sure windows are north-facing.
Put in rain-water tanks.
Live simply. "People have been trained to live complicated lives and want things instantly. That's because of cheap oil and electricity. They go hand in hand."
Don't rely on councils or the Government to rescue you in the face of famine or an industrial crisis. "It's up to communities and individuals to look after themselves. Take control of your own future."
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