tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post4446459188107985192..comments2024-03-24T11:01:27.668-04:00Comments on Resource Insights: What will it take to convince people about the dangers of peak oil?Kurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-28849272310579062642010-08-07T11:18:39.940-04:002010-08-07T11:18:39.940-04:00Ruppert might be a bit premature, but not much - m...Ruppert might be a bit premature, but not much - maybe a year or two. He was maybe a year premature with his prediction of the property bubble bursting. China's housing and financial bubbles are about to pop and at the rate that unemployment and foreclosures are rising in the US, we are set for another stumble down the ladder very shortly. <br /><br />Energy and Money are intimately interconnected in our industrial civilisation, so the ill health of one severely restricts weakens the other. I have not seen any evidence of a 'revival' partial or otherwise - only governments including those in Asia attempting to restart the failed system of Infinite Growth by printing money and borrowing. <br /><br />If there is a delay, then we should be grateful for a bit more time to prepare because that is all it is.OrwellianUKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03605173659842718539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-57074588321088222542010-08-06T01:30:37.335-04:002010-08-06T01:30:37.335-04:00Have to agree with Rice Farmer. It's downright...Have to agree with Rice Farmer. It's downright debilitating to try, year in and year out, to bring on the necessary response to climate and peak oil. Futility.<br /><br />Much more sane to get one's own house in order first, but not as a futile, selfish self-survival strategy. We should try to be in the best possible position so that we can exercise leadership when rapid change starts to happen. <br /><br />This is <b>not</b> a retreat from leadership, its a constructive form of leadership accepting the reality described in the essay.<br /><br />In the meantime this global debate about the coming emergency is critically important in itself. Perhaps the best thing we can do right in the moment is to egg on the global conversation amongst those who do see the brick wall looming. <br /><br />Kurt, you are doing that better than most of us.Chris Harries + Carol Bristowhttp://waterworksvalley.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-16848996139483555802010-08-04T04:00:34.897-04:002010-08-04T04:00:34.897-04:00With predictions it's often a matter of timing...With predictions it's often a matter of timing. For example, is industrial civilization going to crash? Of course. It's inevitable. All great civilizations and all empires have fallen. We can see industrial civilization falling apart before our eyes, and we can see the ponzi-scheme growth economy crumbling. People who talk about a recovery and a Jetsons-like future are just whistling Dixie.<br /><br />If we just use common sense we can safely predict a lot of things, even if we can't say exactly when they'll happen. For example, I can predict with confidence right now that billions of people are going to starve/freeze to death as energy becomes too expensive to prop up industrial agriculture and heat so many homes. Maybe not this year or next year, but it'll happen.<br /><br />I can also predict that civilian space programs and the budding "space tourism" industry will founder, and space development will become increasingly given over to military purposes. It's inevitable.<br /><br />So we shouldn't get so hung up on when, but fix our gaze on what will inevitably happen, and make preparations accordingly.Rice Farmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09172342023074235356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-72663793380581387572010-08-02T10:34:03.596-04:002010-08-02T10:34:03.596-04:00Simple. when the price at the pump reaches at leas...Simple. when the price at the pump reaches at least 4.50 again. <br /><br />The powers that be know this and have been keeping the price at the pump artificially low for the last few years. <br /><br />We will wake up from our consumer zombie haze one day and the price will be 6 bucks. <br /><br />prepare for the riots.Suburban Guyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10133372565364320854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-71363765003365796442010-08-02T08:06:00.486-04:002010-08-02T08:06:00.486-04:00Also, I agree with John about failed predictions.
...Also, I agree with John about failed predictions.<br /><br />You can't take Matthew Simmons seriously anymore unless you are also willing to accept his contention that the only way to fix the Deepwater Horizon leak is to launch an underwater nuclear explosion, or that the entire Gulf Coast should be evacuated because of the risk of an underwater gas bubble coming to the surface in the event of a hurricane and poisoning the coastal population.<br /><br />I really like reading and listening to Kunstler, but how many times is he going to predict catastrophe just around the corner (usually by Memorial Day if he's writing in the spring, or by October if he's writing in the summer) before he starts to think twice?<br /><br />"The Great Reset" is a book worth reading. It's not an excellent book, but it's good food for thought. It will at least remove the Ben Stein timbre from some peoples' voices and offer a glimpse of hope to some.mattbghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531548248683577666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-39856381973609025072010-08-02T07:59:01.753-04:002010-08-02T07:59:01.753-04:00There is the problem that the "problem" ...There is the problem that the "problem" isn't obvious. Most people don't pay attention to serious news of any type, and peak oil doesn't even make it into serious news. The only indicator most people have is gas prices.<br /><br />A lot of people -- and they tend to be left-leaning types -- simply don't agree with the concept of supply and demand. They either don't understand it or feel comfortable ignoring it. Oil prices are high, they say, because big oil companies are conspiring against us. It usually really is just as simple as that: there is no peak oil problem -- prices are at sustained highs because of the world conspiring against me.<br /><br />You still cannot talk about this even with educated people who pay attention to the world around them with any sense of urgency. There is an attitude that it's a problem just like Middle Eastern politics are a problem -- acknowledged with a serious nod over lattes but not really of personal concern and simply something that we are awaiting a science-based solution for. It's a problem, but that it's not something they should concern themselves with. Which really means that they don't believe it's a problem.<br /><br />I think survivalists are on the wrong track. I think that, if things go bad, all efforts will be made to send resources to cities. Cities are where our problem solvers live and it's where the chaos will ensure. It's also often where the politicians live, and they will demand the problems before their own eyes are fixed first.<br /><br />Personally, I think that peak oil is a problem, but I also think that we're all in this world together and if something goes wrong then we will all go down together. Until most people take the problem seriously, I won't. I don't think you can predict how things will unfold, and so I don't see much value in preparation.<br /><br />The most I will do is make sure I live in a decent location where I can get by without a car as much as possible, and in a location that has provided past successes -- i.e. near rivers, near railway lines, and near supplies.<br /><br />The canary in the coal mine will be personal transportation. That is the most wasteful use of energy and will be the first to suffer.mattbghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531548248683577666noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-60127504283920064782010-08-01T16:54:00.405-04:002010-08-01T16:54:00.405-04:00I think wise readers and thinkers aren't turne...I think wise readers and thinkers aren't turned off by predictions that don't turn out exactly as predicted.<br /><br />Humans are far too impatient. If we looked at history more as the record of both humans and the natural world, we would see events certain to happen within two decades as essentially "just around the corner."<br /><br />Our family study this summer of Pacific Northwest geological history has helped me to start seeing history in this broader context. Suddenly 7,000 years ago is not that far back, not when I'm learning about and looking a rocks that were formed 200 million years ago.<br /><br />How to get people to take notice?<br /><br />I'm not sure that's possible. They need to get there themselves. More than anything else, elders need to model a love of learning, respect for boundaries, respect for science, ethical living, etc. so the young will care about and preserve these things as well.<br /><br />If they are raised to value these things, they will likely be able to connect the dots.John Andersenhttp://www.unconventionalideas.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-21412910422062786982010-08-01T12:00:15.346-04:002010-08-01T12:00:15.346-04:00Thanks for this fine essay, Kurt. I have developed...Thanks for this fine essay, Kurt. I have developed a comprehensive set of living arrangements, and I have offered to help others do the same, in my "what works" series at guymcpherson.comGuy R. McPhersonhttp://guymcpherson.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-39025003906337011282010-08-01T08:42:22.468-04:002010-08-01T08:42:22.468-04:00Here, here!
Make a plan and work it!Here, here!<br /><br /><i>Make a plan and work it!</i>Mike "Pops" Blackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11764915910014484680noreply@blogger.com