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353 comments on The Expected Economic Impact of an Energy Downturn

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pi on March 26, 2008 - 2:16pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Governments downsizing is something that I hadn't really thought much about until I read Kunstler's new book "World Made By Hand", where the State government in Albany is down to one guy working alone in the Capitol building (He has no authority, everything is really run by a warlord). As for medical care, it's just a GP in the little town (Union Grove) which is the main setting. He has to brew up his own pain-killers and other medicines. Most awfully, there aren't any antibiotics to be had. (I personally hope Kunstler is wrong about the antibiotics. )

I think your presentation is good, but I wonder if many young people will be able to fully understand its implications. A few more concrete examples might be helpful: little by little we'll have a tough time getting and affording plastic; we won't be able to fix roads, so people will have a harder time to simply VISIT a doctor, etc.

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Gail the Actuary on March 26, 2008 - 2:39pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I'll see if I can add an example or two.

If I give the talk to other audiences later, when I am not constrained to 20 minutes, I can add some more.

I've discovered when you say, "There may not be medications", I get a lot of arguments that this is the highest use, so of course we would have medications, even if we had nothing else. Also, if I say there may not be plastics, someone believes that since they take such a small share of the petroleum, surely they will be spared. And so on.

If this is a part of a group of talks, it is hard to know how much foundation the other speakers will have laid.

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jewishfarmer on March 26, 2008 - 2:42pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Gail, what a great way of expressing the problems of medications or any usage - somehow they end up broken down and we're still using as much oil as ever! That's very helpful to me when I run into these same questions.

Sharon

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The Dude on March 26, 2008 - 3:11pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hey! Make with the Spoiler Alert! Some of us are still checking the mailbox for our copy of WMBH.

Thought about buying it locally, yes.

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darwinsdog on March 27, 2008 - 11:31am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

(I personally hope Kunstler is wrong about the antibiotics.)

Our grandparents' generation, our parents', our own, and perhaps our childrens', have had the great good fortune to have existed during the extremely narrow window in human history when fossil fuels were cheap and antibiotics actually worked.

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353 comments on The Expected Economic Impact of an Energy Downturn

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