Spreading the long emergency.
Apr. 12th, 2007 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I told a man today that all numbers point to the world running out of oil in thirty years, that most people just think that means no more gasoline, but they're wrong. That means no more gasoline, no more pesticides, no more plastic, no more manufacturing. All these enterprises are available to us because of cheap fossil fuels. Before industrialized farming, the Earth could feed about a billion people. Now, with massive industrial farming we can feed about six to seven billion. That means that when oil runs out in thirty years, we will suddenly have about five billion too many people who will likely starve to death. The man said he's going to go home and forget all about that because he'll be gone in thirty years and it will all be in the hands of "you young ones."
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Date: 2007-04-13 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-04-13 11:29 pm (UTC)What I find amazing is that no one wants to face up to the facts now. Actually, through this lens, the actions of the Bush Administration make sense: Grab As Much Oil As Possible Before It's Gone.
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Date: 2007-04-13 06:42 pm (UTC)Yes, Peak Oil is here soon if not already.
http://www.energybulletin.net/4856.html
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
"As one commentator recently observed, the reason our leaders are acting like desperados is because we have a desperate situation on our hands.
If you've been wondering why the Bush administration has been spending money, cutting social programs, and starting wars like there's no tomorrow, now you have your answer: as far as they are concerned, there is no tomorrow.
In 2003, the BBC filmed a three-part, relatively apolitical, documentary entitled "War for Oil" about the role the Bush administration's knowledge of Peak Oil played in their decision to invade and occupy Iraq. As the documentary explains, in private the Bush administration sees the war in Iraq as "a fight for survival." From a purely Machiavellian standpoint, they are probably correct in their thinking.
For what it's worth, Bush's Crawford ranch is completely off-the-grid and equipped with the latest in energy saving and renewable power systems. It has been described as an "environmentalist's dream home." The fact a man as steeped in the petroleum industry as Bush would own such a home should tell you something.
On a similar note, Dick Cheny's personal investments indicate he (or more accurately, whoever handles his money) is expecting economic collapse."
Get Ready. Now.
Gold. Guns. Groceries. And God, too: you won't make it through the 21st century on fin-de-siecle materialist cynicism and bon vivant. There was a good reason why all those medieval peasants were fervent believers. When you ain't got matter, you better have spirit.
Awareness. Are you close by a farm? Can you/do you know and trust the people around you? What does your region's economy and agriculture look like? Water supply? What would you do if you have no more gas delivery to your house? Do you have a wood stove instead? Anything?
These are life and death questions. Get on it.
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Date: 2007-04-13 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-14 02:35 am (UTC)Haha! Well, there will be good things as well as bad, though.
Read Post-Soviet lessons for a Post-American Century:
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Archives2007/OrlovLessonsPartOne.html
parts 2 and 3 here as well:
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/SecondPage.html
This guy lived through the collapse of That Other Superpower, the one whose decline and fall brought juvenile jubilation here, instead of mature "there but for the grace of better marketing and cheap oil go we" reflection.
In a way, they had it better: as he points out, there was NO LEGAL MECHANISM to evict anyone, period.
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Date: 2007-04-14 03:42 am (UTC)Not all is necessarily grim, incidentally:
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=3003
Turns out, you CAN grow food without oil and petro-chemicals. Who knew?
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Date: 2007-04-15 09:13 am (UTC)The *really* disturbing thing is that I *like* this attitude.
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Date: 2007-04-15 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 09:49 pm (UTC)I read once that prophets never meant to tell the future, but that they were warning us of what might happen, so in a way, they wanted to be wrong.