Note that In order to just maintain flat imports, our oil consumption has to decline at the same volumetric rate that our domestic production declines.

Hello Gail the Actuary,

Obviously, this is not directed at you personally, but I hope the following is illustrative:

Imagine everyone self-whittling away at their body at 3%/year Forever. Would you start off Year One by cutting off both ears + your pinky fingers + your pinky toes, or is it better to just start off by carving out your gall-bladder? What is the plan for Year Two--> one hand + one foot, or is it better to just whack off one hand + half a forearm, or lose a kidney? Year Three, Year Four, etc, as this unstoppable depletion process inexorably continues?

At what point does this whittling process make the loss of mobility and dexterity impossible for you to feed yourself? Or, would you choose to not whittle away at yourself, but instead, carve away large hunks of flesh with a machete' from your neighbor?

The numerous Societal Blowback newslinks, that we see all time here on TOD, can be expected to exponentially grow.

My hope is that Peakoil Outreach, combined with positive biosolar habitat ERoEI alternatives [PV,wind,tidal,etc], whatever they may ultimately prove to be, can be the new societal 'limbs + ribs + organs' for future generations.

A long ago posting of mine suggested: making it obviously clear to everyone the importance of the maximum #'s of other lifeforms making it through the Bottleneck Squeeze with us; a direct linkage of us to the Extinction Rate.

Briefly, for every 10% extinction rate greater than the normal and natural background extinction rate--> we All lop off a finger. As we start losing more digits: we quickly become highly incentivized to protect the remaining species. Alternatively, if we really start to fail at ecological mitigation: the final loss of our thumbs will bring us into true harmony with our severely-amputated environmental state.

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

Could GW really be the non-panic method of getting populations to power down?

If one thinks that addressing overpopulation, mis-management of energy, arguments over taxes/fiat money/blowback over the way oil has been handled in a political manner - and the endpoints on these would be 'lower energy use' which is gonna be the less messy sell: Fix any/all of the various energy related problems *OR* blame everyones use of fossil fuels and powerdown because of GW?

GW might be the 'not as panic-y' way to power down. Other alternatives like the oil nations not accepting American Dollars strikes me as the more messy options. :-(

"You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created." Albert Einstein

Here's another Einstein quote that also fits the discussion:

"The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution” - Albert Einstein