May 31 '06 - 688 W, 2 I - Vote Good + 4 :: Bad - 17 How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Published May 31, 2006 by C.I.C.L.E.
Contributed by Harv
On May 26th, the film, "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" was shown at Carlotta's Passion, an art gallery in Eagle Rock, California. Instead of how Cuba survived peak oil, this film is more about how Cuba survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and their subsequent cessation of support. It serves as a valuable lesson for us regarding life in the post carbon era. As I pointed out to the audience, the situation for the rest of the world at present is represented by the peak oil bell curve, with the upside of the curve haven taken 100 years, and the downside to zero oil will take at least another 100 years. But Cuba received a karate chop to their fossil fuel supply with the Soviet Union pulling out all support. The rest of the world could be dealing with similar severe shocks much before actual total oil depletion.
Enough about that, we are interested in what Cuba did with their transportation system and their use of bicycles. Since the film was not primarily (and only poorly even secondarily) about this, I had to squint into the background of the video and listen for appropriate dialog.
Cuba was never a modern consumer of automobiles. For many years they made do with cars from the 1950's and earlier, due to the embargo of imports from the U.S. since 1962. Cubans have become very clever at keeping these relics running and were thus somewhat prepared for the near total collapse of the transportation infrastructure. But not enough prepared.
Enter bicycles. Did Cuba suddenly embrace a bike culture and pedal around the town and countryside smiling and waving? No they didn't. What happened was that 1.2 million bikes were imported from China and another half million were manufactured in Cuba and all were distributed to the population which now numbers 11 million. No carbon fiber 30 speed bikes here, just single speed, 50 pound steel clunkers. Cubans grudgingly swung a leg over these transportation devices, sitting upright and slowly pedaling their way over dusty and bumpy roads alongside the make-shift buses and oxen drawn carts. I did notice, however, a significant number of three-wheel multi-passenger pedicab type devices. At least as many of these as two-wheelers were shown in the urban scenes of the film.
Bicycling was looked upon as a necessary chore for Cubans. Not something they took to with enthusiasm. Rough dirt roads, long distances with heat and humidity did nothing to enamor Cubans of their bikes. Health benefits were mentioned as a side effect of bicycling and the diet changes which came with the development of the new organic farming lifestyle born of necessesity. Urban bicycling in Cuba is nothing like that of China, the Netherlands, or even that of the U.S.
But the lesson is learned. People will do what they have to do in the event of a real emergency. Cuba has been the world's laboratory for this. We have only to observe and project ourselves into the situation, even though our situation is, and will be, very much different than theirs. We will go through many mini-crises, ups and downs, interruptions of supply, and unfortunately long and expensive wars. We probably will not have a sudden catastrophic blow to our fossil fuel supply as Cuba did. We can survive what is coming. Like the Boy Scout motto advises, we can 'Be Prepared'. Unfortunatey our government cannot be part of the solution while it is still part of the problem. Our government and general population in the U.S. will continue to be only reactionary while we
(alternate transportation advocates, permaculturists, environmentalists, etc) are proactionary. Our only hope is to expand the pool of preparedness by undergoing lifestyle changes. Many of us are already well into this process.
Rock on.
Would you like to contribute to C.I.C.L.E.? Do you a have bike-related article, news story, event, idea, suggestion, etc...? Check out our submissions page.
Thank you to those of you helped make this a great event – Robert Squire, Harv, cicle.org. We had raised $194 in donations for TreePeople http://www.treepeople.org), and the sales of DVD was enough to cover the chair rental and refreshments.
I think it is worth mentioning that the Cuban culture when contrasted with that of the U.S. is one of cooperation and working together torwards that common good. This is quite different to what you see in this country where the spirit of competition and consumption is much stronger than that of cooperation and conservation. I think what we can learn from this documentary is that the challenge we face is one of evolving our culture torwards one of cooperation and common good.
There are no technological bariers to living sustainable and weaning ourselves off fossil fuels. Our species were living relatively sustainably until 200 or so years ago (or at least not so drastically unsustainable) without the use of modern technology. Granted the use of currently available technology might ease the transition, but the real barrier to overcome is our culture of competition and consumption. I wouldn’t maintain that competition is all bad, but it shouldn’t take precedence over the common good of our community or our ecosystem.
I would agree with Harv people will do what they have to, but it looks like most of us are much less prepared to do it than the Cubans were. The more we do now to work together as a community, the better off we will be when fossil fuel shortages hit. As we go down the path of fossil fuel decline, how well people adapt will vary greatly from community to community, depending on how good of system of cooperation and support they have in place.
If you haven’t seen the documentary, I’d recommend you see it. It doesn’t get as far into the issue of peak oil as The END of SUBURBIA, but it is valuable to see the contrast of the Cuban culture to our own. We need to step outside of our own culture to be able to see it’s good points and flaws more objectively. It is also inspirational to see how the Cubans were successful at meeting the challenge of a drop in petroleum imports of around 80%.
There were several people who wanted to host screenings of this documentary, including someone in Sun Valley, and someone in the Santa Monica area. Check back at http://www.lapostcarbon.org for more information.
Eric (Email) (URL) - May 31 '06 - 22:21
Thanks for organizing such a great event! I really enjoyed the film.Shay - June 01 '06 - 11:36
I was dissappointed by the bike section of the film…it was somewhat discounted and thrown to the side. In another doc I saw on Cuba, they talked about how people moved closer to their work, so that bike transport would be a viable option for them.duff - June 02 '06 - 12:06
The film you are thinking of is Velorution- A portrait of Havana Cuba during the period shortly afterthe break up of the USSR, when for lack oil, Cuba adopted the bicycle
as the major means of transportation. Our bicycle coop at Plattsburgh State University showed it this past spring semester. Highly recomended. You get get a copy from:
Bruce Petschek
Seven Generations Video
44B Sacramento Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Office: 617-876-9430
Cell: 617-686-6172
7generations@comcast.net
BN - June 06 '06 - 20:33
Hey BN…Thanks for the info… will definitely be checking into that film.
Shay (Email) - June 06 '06 - 21:14