<DrumBeat: March 30, 2007 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: March 31, 2007>

62 comments on Three Pieces of Peak Oil Media: Simmons/Kilduff and Pickens on CNBC on GAO/Peak Oil and Kunstler on Peak Oil and the Car Culture

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b3NDZ3La on March 30, 2007 - 8:37pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The "conservation" bit has always been one of my pet peeves.

It's a misstatement to refer to adapting to shortage as "conservation."

Conserving a resource is something you do when you have the choice to do so. And you're right: conservation would have been a very, very wise thing to do in the 80s. But Americans wanted Ronald Reagan, and you know the rest.

Dealing with shortage is more like deprivation.

Calling it conservation is like being a poor man claiming to be "saving" his cash.

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SailDog on March 31, 2007 - 2:08am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Maybe, but if you sell your 10mpg SUV and buy a 40mpg diesel car (eg VW Jetta) your fuel bill will be cut by 3/4. You still get around just as much in the same level of comfort and safety. So where is the deprivation? Unless, that is, you count not having an SUV as deprivation.

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b3NDZ3La on March 31, 2007 - 7:41am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

If you wait till the shortage, then it's not conservation. Why is that so hard to understand?

We had the chance to conserve. IT's now too late to do anything but prepare to adapt.

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Aniya on March 31, 2007 - 8:37pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hi b,

Thanks and

re: "IT's now too late to do anything but prepare to adapt."

When you say "it's too late", I hear an echo of Prof. Hatfield, and in that I take it to be a sign of respect for him and his views.

My q is, do you see better and worse ways of "preparing to adapt?" If so, could you perhaps share some of those "better" ones?

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b3NDZ3La on April 1, 2007 - 7:17am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I would say it depends on one's current situation. If I were a doctor making a coupla hundred thou a year, I'd be less worried than, say ... me.

I never offer advice or suggestions. There seems to be something about that that offends people, yet ironically enough if you talk about the effects of peak oil, people invariably say, "What should we do?" My answer: YOU figure it out.

"How would you answer these questions?" would be my response:

1. What would you do if gasoline were 5, 6, 7 dollars a gallon and/or only intermittently available?

2. What would you do if food costs tripled?

3. What if you or your partner lost a job? Is your job related to necessities or luxuries?

Westexas's ELP program says it all, really.

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Aniya on April 1, 2007 - 11:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hi b,

Thanks for your response, which makes sense. What I was wondering, though, (now that I think about it) is - what about on a larger scale? US? World? For eg., if you were the next President - or, were in some other position to put forward, say, an energy policy...or anything else for that matter...

That's kind of what I was trying to get at (without saying it as well as I could have). So, I'm interested in this aspect (of the community, national, international) as well. Including possible unilateral moves on the part of say, the US. (In the ideal case, I realize, still...)

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62 comments on Three Pieces of Peak Oil Media: Simmons/Kilduff and Pickens on CNBC on GAO/Peak Oil and Kunstler on Peak Oil and the Car Culture

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