Protecting Communities from Computer Chaos
by Paul Glover

If the world's computers fail when the 19th century ends on January 1, 2000, there's a good chance that disruptions of food and fuel supplies could bring us a colder, hungrier winter. But while the national economy depends on computers, resilient local economies could, with sufficient planning, carry us through serious disruptions of national supplies. Here's what could happen, and what your community can do to become secure.

Fuel
Without fuel, our food won't travel to stores, water won't move to hydrants or homes, telephones will silence, buildings will freeze, and cars will stop. If enough computers collapse, life will get very tough, because computers manage the extraction, refining, transport of and payment for fuels. They manage the manufacture of the myriad tools needed for these processes. Assuming our top priorities are to provide food, water and warmth, we can do several things:

Warmth
Our prime effort (beyond weatherization) should be to superinsulate housing, which reduces residential fuel consumption by up to 87 percent. In my home town of Ithaca, New York, the Finger Lakes Energy Co-op could put dozens of people to work insulating homes.

In the absence of conventional electronic banking systems, workers could be paid in Ithaca Hours (Ithaca's basic unit of local currency, which is nominally equal to an hour of labor and is convertible at the rate of $10/hour.) Hours would be accepted by landlords and merchants and local governments could pay employees partly with Hours. We'd gain secure housing and create dozens of new jobs, while keeping millions of dollars in the local economy- money that would otherwise have gone to outside energy suppliers. These saved dollars would stimulate new business and job creation, which then expands local sales tax collection, which sustains essential public works employment.

Residents can prepare for a massive power failure by organizing to relocate to local buildings that produce their own heat and light, independent of the national energy grid. In Ithaca, the buildings of Cornell University are heated by an on-campus coal-fired power plant. The Cornell campus store, which was build underground, is a model of superinsulation. Larger stockpiles of coal (extending beyond the existing 45-day supply) should be laid in at such sites before Year 2000.

Food
Since most of our food is cultivated, harvested, processed, packaged, transported and retailed by large corporations that depend on computer linkages, food supplies could become irregular and prices could rise. We may no longer be able to depend on imported winter food from California and Mexico. In this part of New England, 80 acres of hydroponic double-walled thermopane greenhousing would be sufficient to grow enough winter vegetables for the entire population of Ithaca.

To make sure that everyone is fed, cities could create food storage facilities (granaries and root cellars) and contract with regional farms for part of their harvests.

Storage facilities could be operated by independent nonprofits that also contract with local growers who sell food through farmer's markets. This is simply an extension of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), which has already taken root across the US.

Home-built solar greenhouses attached to residential buildings can both capture heat for human comfort and create decentralized spaces to produce food.

Public support for regional farms is the best investment we can make. Conversion of topsoil into suburbs is an attack on future generations. We can promote farmland retention by passing right-to-farm laws and by exempting from taxes all small farms (less than 100 acres) that market 50 percent of their harvest through local outlets.

Were a full food crisis to overtake the nation, local farms, community gardens and greenhouses, aquaculture and urban orchards could help to keep us alive. Every city should plant fruit trees and edible berry bushes in public spaces, along roadways and in vacant lots.

Water
Water districts should stockpile a year's supply of fuel, while sponsoring water conservation measures. The need for household water can be in half by installing waterless composting toilets (which are odorless and create safe topsoil). Homeowners can also conserve water by installing cisterns to catch rooftop rainwater. In Australia and much of the world's equatorial countries, a large percentage of the domestic water supply comes from rooftop catchment.

Transportation
The auto industry, like many other computerized manufacturers, does not maintain inventories of parts. These industries rely on computers to deliver needed parts on a "just-in-time" basis. If the parts don't arrive, the assembly lines shut down.

Fueling cars, trucks and snowplows could become problematic. If fuel shortages immobilize private cars, mass transit would be essential to move people and goods efficiently.

More primary reliance can be placed on trolleys for reduced long-term fuel cost. (In Ithaca, trolleys were once powered by water falling in Six Mile Creek.) Railroad grades still exist in many towns and cities. These can be revived to service light-rail links between cities.

Most cross-town trips could be conveniently accomplished with bicycles. This will require the expansion of safe and separate bike lanes. Electric motorscooters, and electrically assisted bikes - such as the ZAP line of vehicles [zapbikes.com] - can be recharged using small generators, modest solar, wind or hydro electric systems,. They can even be recharged off automobile electrical systems, using very little gasoline.

Health
The physical and emotional stress of a significant Y2K disruption will challenge public health. Conventional medical care may be limited by shortages of food, fuel, medicines and money. We must reinforce locally reliant emergency technologies.

The Ithaca Health Fund has connected hundreds of health practitioners who exchange their services for local currency. A nonprofit dental clinic and Wellness Center accepting payment in Hours are in the planning stage.

Finance and Trade
ATMs may shut down; credit cards may jam. Even large Y2K-compliant banks and corporations can be dragged into confusion by noncompliant banks and suppliers.

If we are forced to survive without stable dollars, we will need to expand the supply of local money. Because Ithaca Hours directly reflect the value of labor, they measure local effort without depending on the unpredictable swings in global dollar markets.

Trading in local currencies will require the creation of currency-hour standards. A community congress could establish reasonable prices for labor and goods. Individuals would remain free to negotiate Hour values independently.

A Y2K disruption would change existing labor priorities. During a severe crisis, essential survival skills (especially physical and craft skills) become more valuable. Thus, one hour spent on a farm to produce food might be more highly paid than one hour spent dispensing legal advice.

Without reliable dollars, local currencies could permit a region to become self-reliant in the production of necessary goods. To the extent other communities are prepared to issue their own local scrip, trade would become possible between regions.

During any serious economic crisis, there is a rising demand for redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. When legislation fails, food riots and revolutions can follow. If it becomes terribly difficult to be poor, it will become inconvenient to be rich. To ensure an orderly transition that respects all people and basic property, we all must work together to bring everyone through Y2K intact.

Paul Glover holds a degree in City Management. He is the founder of Citizen Planners of Los Angeles and the creator of the Ithaca HOURS local currency system [E-mail: hours@lightlink.com, Web: www.lightlink.com/ithacahours]

Excerpted from Awakening: The Upside of Y2K, available from The Printed Word [(509) 642-3177] and amazon.com.