Nick,

It's late so you may not see this before this thread goes to thread heaven.

We all want to believe that there are alternatives that will work.  But, the reality is that homo sapiens are sucking every resource dry - water, aerable land, gas, oil, the sea, minerals, forests; everything.

It is a package deal.  Gaia if you will.  There are no magic answers.  I say this from personal experience since I embraced alternative energy and a concern for sustaible living 30 years ago.  I'm not into theoretical arguments about alternatives.

I'm not going to tell you are wrong because a change in reality only comes through experience.

Todd

"the reality is that homo sapiens are sucking every resource dry - water, aerable land, gas, oil, the sea, minerals, forests; everything."

Well, I agree that there are serious problems with all of these.  I haven't had time to research all of them thoroughly.  But TOD is dedicated to peak oil, and I have had time to research PO and energy thoroughly, and as far as I can tell peak oil is NOT peak energy.  I find that encouraging.

"It is a package deal.  Gaia if you will.  There are no magic answers."

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  It sounds a little...err...faith based.  This seems unclear and fuzzy.  I respect the role of intuition, but I find that I don't understand something in a clear way I get in trouble.  

"I say this from personal experience since I embraced alternative energy and a concern for sustaible living 30 years ago."

I've been interested in these things for more than 30 years too, ever since I read the Club of Rome's report.

"I'm not into theoretical arguments about alternatives.  I'm not going to tell you are wrong because a change in reality only comes through experience."

Well...talking about this, and learning from each other, is what we do here.   I know there are people feeling pessimistic, but that alone doesn't really tell me whether that makes sense, or give me a chance to change your mind.  I think you shouldn't give up on things, and that includes not giving up on communication - we can't come to a consensus on things unless we talk about them.