tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post5503004766392811246..comments2024-03-24T11:01:27.668-04:00Comments on Resource Insights: Why doomer porn is good for youKurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-31167359573402638202009-04-02T07:09:00.000-04:002009-04-02T07:09:00.000-04:00I agree. There's never anything wrong with alterna...I agree. There's never anything wrong with alternatives, and they are like a shock to the system compared to the regular daily news. That's a good thing, and you can't ignore it. They are an extreme extrapolation of things that are really going on in front of us.<BR/><BR/>In fact, when you have the daily news on one extreme and the doomers at the other extreme -- and as long as you take them both in and don't focus on one or the other -- you'll be more likely to have a balanced view, I think.<BR/><BR/>Far worse than the doomers are things that the spirituality industrial complex put out -- "The Secret", Oprah, etc -- which tell you that everything will be OK as long as you project positive energy to the world around you. There are so many people that buy into that crap these days. It's worse than organized religion, because at least the latter required some personal sacrifice.mattbghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531548248683577666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-23080251680184930282009-04-01T03:33:00.000-04:002009-04-01T03:33:00.000-04:00Thank you, thank you for this essay. It's annoying...Thank you, thank you for this essay. It's annoying when a large part of the Peak Oil community refuses to think about the other scenarios, i.e. the ones in which everyone doesn't make the transition smoothly. I feel a little less paranoid now.<BR/><BR/>Great essay!Zachary Nowakhttp://www.preparingforpeakoil.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-872930720844009752009-03-30T01:23:00.000-04:002009-03-30T01:23:00.000-04:00@Jan: what a great comment!@Jan: what a great comment!Jeffrey Bennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09108628495248619991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-74830763526035103982009-03-30T00:05:00.000-04:002009-03-30T00:05:00.000-04:00Dear Jan Steinman,Most Peak Oil preparation/planni...Dear Jan Steinman,<BR/><BR/>Most Peak Oil preparation/planning blogs, including mine, offer information about preparing for Peak Oil impacts and "focus on what can be" done. These blogs are listed on my blog: http://survivingpeakoil.blogspot.com/<BR/><BR/>What we can not do is invent energy (First Law of Thermodynamics) nor use solar energy to run the economy (there is no technology, plan, capital, or time). After 80 years of trying hard, we still are in search of a decent storage battery. No time left.<BR/><BR/>There is no advertising on my blog and I do not sell anything. I have given free advice to hundreds of people. Like most professionals, I charge for major commitments of time, such as giving professional presentations or developing a plan. Anyone is welcome to know where I live and come see what me an my neighbors do to prepare for Peak Oil impacts here in rural Mexico. As I mentioned to you previously, 6 people have been here, and I charged none of them anything. Contact information is on my blog.Clifford J. Wirth, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of New Hampshirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00604482549497831495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-57061615340475368602009-03-29T23:36:00.000-04:002009-03-29T23:36:00.000-04:00Hey, congratulations, Kurt — you've been hit by th...Hey, congratulations, Kurt — you've been hit by the Clifford Wirth Bot!<BR/><BR/>Send him a bunch of money and he'll tell you about his secret place, and maybe even give you the keys to the clubhouse.<BR/><BR/>But seriously, I don't really see what good comes of "doomer porn." It's a distraction. We need to focus on what can be, not on what we don't want. The Law of Attraction says you can only reap what you sow.<BR/><BR/>Or, as David Holmgren, co-founder of Permaculture, wrote, <I>"it is about what we want to do and can do, rather than what we oppose and want others to change."</I><BR/><BR/>It seems to me that doomers focus on the bad stuff everyone else is doing, rather than the good stuff <B>they</B> could be doing.<BR/><BR/>Run to the light, not away from the dark!Jan Steinmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11899788309779228244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-71658670014990973752009-03-29T20:02:00.000-04:002009-03-29T20:02:00.000-04:00This is what is happening. Global crude oil produc...This is what is happening. <BR/><BR/>Global crude oil production peaked in 2008.<BR/><BR/>Oil production will now begin to decline terminally.<BR/><BR/>Within a year or two, oil prices will skyrocket as supply falls below demand. OPEC cuts could exacerbate the gap between supply and demand and drive prices even higher.<BR/><BR/>Independent studies indicate that global crude oil production will now decline from 74 million barrels per day to 60 million barrels per day by 2015. During the same time, demand will increase. Oil supplies will be even tighter for the U.S. As oil producing nations consume more and more oil domestically they will export less and less. Because demand is high in China, India, the Middle East, and other oil producing nations, once global oil production begins to decline, demand will always be higher than supply. And since the U.S. represents one fourth of global oil demand, whatever oil we conserve will be consumed elsewhere. Thus, conservation in the U.S. will not slow oil depletion rates significantly.<BR/><BR/>Alternatives will not even begin to fill the gap. There is no plan nor capital for a so-called electric economy. And most alternatives yield electric power, but we need liquid fuels for tractors/combines, 18 wheel trucks, trains, ships, and mining equipment. The independent scientists of the Energy Watch Group conclude in a 2007 report titled: “Peak Oil Could Trigger Meltdown of Society:”<BR/><BR/>"By 2020, and even more by 2030, global oil supply will be dramatically lower. This will create a supply gap which can hardly be closed by growing contributions from other fossil, nuclear or alternative energy sources in this time frame." <BR/><BR/>With increasing costs for gasoline and diesel, along with declining taxes and declining gasoline tax revenues, states and local governments will eventually have to cut staff and curtail highway maintenance. Eventually, gasoline stations will close, and state and local highway workers won’t be able to get to work. We are facing the collapse of the highways that depend on diesel and gasoline powered trucks for bridge maintenance, culvert cleaning to avoid road washouts, snow plowing, and roadbed and surface repair. When the highways fail, so will the power grid, as highways carry the parts, large transformers, steel for pylons, and high tension cables from great distances. With the highways out, there will be no food coming from far away, and without the power grid virtually nothing modern works, including home heating, pumping of gasoline and diesel, airports, communications, water supply, waste water treatment, and automated building systems. <BR/><BR/>Documented here: <BR/>http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html<BR/>http://survivingpeakoil.blogspot.com/Clifford J. Wirth, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of New Hampshirehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00604482549497831495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-85020365036060987392009-03-29T17:37:00.000-04:002009-03-29T17:37:00.000-04:00people have said "hope for the best, prepare for t...people have said "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" for a while. maybe not in the peak oil scene though where wing nuts creep in with property obsession and ideas of pseudo-tribalism based on generic, dated, or assumed anthropological data. you can hit the sites and see references to books on the species being 'biologically' warlike, etc, etc... total barnes and nobles garbage. ideologists always put the cart before the horse and make brutal mistakes in analysis because of it. same thing goes for Peak Oil in many respects on developing ideas for post-collapse. <BR/><BR/>most of all, the scenarios and dialog is always insanely ethnocentric and a sweepingly generalized across locale. impact and adaptation will be far different in different regions - which is stating the obvious. <BR/><BR/>people already living on or near the margins of civilization already have massive head starts on lifeways that were highly autonomous and self-sufficient. something the peak oil basement wing nuts hoping to hoard food could learn fromKarlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06816975649174987528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-10678891637587977552009-03-29T15:15:00.000-04:002009-03-29T15:15:00.000-04:00As one who leans towards the doomer side, I don't ...As one who leans towards the doomer side, I don't feel that I dismiss other forms of energy so much as:<BR/><BR/>1) I question our capability to harness enough of them quickly enough.<BR/><BR/>2) I question our ability to accept that trying to seriously develop these alternate forms of energy will mean conserving and re-directing what cheap fossil fuels remain.<BR/><BR/>I do also worry that our tendency is to sacrifice that which sustains us, in order to achieve power over others, remains too strong. However I think this pertains to more crises facing us than just peak oil/resources.<BR/><BR/>Having said all that, I may be a doomer but I am not a quitter. I'll continue to work toward, and urge others toward, what I consider to be better options. Options such as encouraging true partnerships between land/capital owners and those who provide labor and/or services. Such as looking to work with nature rather than so often trying merely to dominate it.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for yet another engaging post Kurt.Jerryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10354640729644229842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-57261164785142941482009-03-29T13:59:00.000-04:002009-03-29T13:59:00.000-04:00What peak oil theory has done for me is to highlig...What peak oil theory has done for me is to highlight the urgency of our swift conversion away from petroleum-based energy generation. But that isn't a new idea. I've known oil has a limited span of usefulness my entire life.<BR/><BR/>What is annoying about peak oil is their occasional tendency to dismiss every other form of energy as inadequate to replace oil - even though the energy output of the sun alone is many orders of magnitude beyond what the human race could ever conceivably use.Jeffrey Bennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09108628495248619991noreply@blogger.com