Check out this online comic strip about a city girl named Luz (Light in Spanish), who recognizes big changes coming with the scarcity and rising prices of petroleum.

The strip begins with Luz writing her list of “Skills We Need to Learn for Survival After Peak Oil”. She pictures herself collecting and purifying rainwater, transporting large loads on a bicycle, producing heat and light with fire, growing and storing food, and communicating with others.

Luz was created by Claudia Davila, who grew up in Montreal. To her, Luz’s namesake is “the beacon of a lighthouse during a dark night as a storm is brewing on the horizon”. It’s about Peak Oil, she explains, “Our civilization is running out of energy to fuel its modern lifestyle. It’s time to slow down.” Since petroleum is running out, and oil is in almost everything, we have some changes to face. “But it’s not all bad,” she explains, “Luckily, life is sustained by air, water, food, and shelter. As a species we’ve managed to survive for millennia without air conditioning, baseboard heaters, or African lemons in winter? We have the ability. We have the heart…”

Claudia has begun to compile “The Post-Oil Survival Guide for City Dwelling”. It’s filled with tips and how-to’s for food production, first aid and general health, water, heat and light, houses and buildings, and more.

She explains her motivation for creating the survival guide and comic strip: “The inevitable future for urban citizens entails producing and preserving our own food, heating our homes with woodstoves using renewable materials, and converting single family homes into multiple family dwellings as we empty apartment buildings and high-rises. Building outhouses and composting toilets, making our own natural remedies, and reusing all materials and waste available.”

Claudia is a member of the Toronto Peak Oil Discussion Group. This group believes that though of course we will never be cavemen again, we must rearrange our lives to require far less energy. Renewable sources of energy will replace some of our “need”, but not nearly all of it, so we need to rearrange our lives to . We are fossil fuel brats!

Ultimately, Claudia is hopeful for the future, yet realistic about changes we will have to make, and skills we should begin learning. “I believe deep down we have the love for life necessary to turn our fate around and reconnect with our reverence for nature,” says Claudia.