Declaration of Independence from Fossil Fuels

We the people, in order to form a more perfect world, do hereby declare that we will free ourselves from the tyranny of Fossil Fuels.

We know that nothing lasts forever. If we do not use the fossil fuel energy we have available to us now to build a way of life based on renewable energy then we will be choosing life in a pre-industrial society.

We recognize that fossil fuels separate the haves from the have-nots. They are the cause of massive conflicts from the Vietnam era oil fields of the Mekong delta and the South China Sea to wars in the deserts of Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Their extraction has caused environmental devastation and social injustice from Appalachia to Australia.

Production and distribution of our food requires 10 calories of energy from fossil fuels for every calorie of food produced. We therefore resolve to produce our food locally as it was done by our forefathers before it was controlled by multinational corporations who supply the petroleum based herbicides and pesticides that have poisoned the food, soil, water, and air, resulting in untold numbers of cancers, birth defects and diseases.

Knowing that doubling an ingredient in any recipe can lead to a disaster in the kitchen or in a chemistry lab, we recognize that the delicate balance of the web of life can be drastically altered. Using fossil fuels we have released 200 million years of stored carbon into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide from burning coal, natural gas and petroleum creating an imbalance on Mother Earth which has already led to desertification, environmental refugees, sea level rise, and threatens to make life miserable for billions of this planets inhabitants.