oil-free lifestyle

[Steven Parker]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/29/eaoil129.xml

The Archers' brings the idea of a self-sufficient community to the fore

By Rowena Mason

Last Updated: 12:01am BST 29/06/2008

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World shortages of petroleum and the belief that supplies will become too scarce are driving some to seek an oil-free lifestyle. As 'The Archers' brings to the fore the idea of a self-sufficient community, Rowena Mason asks whether this new movement is the product of panic or a common-sense solution. The petrol pumps are dry, the supermarket shelves are bare and family cars sit uselessly in driveways. Faced with a national shortage of oil, the comfortable lifestyles of middle-class people are threatened by an austerity not seen since the post-war rationing of the early 1950s.