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130 comments on Peak Oil Planning: What Should We Do Now?
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130 comments on Peak Oil Planning: What Should We Do Now?
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Gail, thanks for the thought-provoking post and the excellent links.
Don't take it wrong if I start out with some critical questions:
On your number one question--what will the first few years after peak oil be like: Aren't we are already in that world--certainly we have passed the peak of energy available from oil.
[edit--Oops, I jumped to reading the main post and overlooked your italicized intro where you explained that this was first posted some time ago...never mind.]
It seems to me that what we will see for a while is greater and greater volatility, with oil prices rising fast as they did last summer then crashing low as they did shortly thereafter as "demand destruction" kicked in. Shortages of oil and also of food happened all over the world last year. This will certainly continues and spread, though when it will hit the US hard is anyone's guess. Of course, food is getting hard for more and more people to afford as the depression continues to sweep more and more people out of their houses and out of their jobs...
"• Visit family and friends now, especially those at a distance. This may be more difficult to do in the future.
• Learn to know your neighbors. It is likely that you will need each other's help more in the future."
Are these two responses somewhat at odds with each other? Are we going to spend precious time rushing around the country and the world making last visits to family and friends? Or are we to spent that precious time getting to know our neighbors? I know we boomers think that we can always do everything, but it might be time to realize that there really isn't time enough (or planet enough) to do everything.
(I won't get into the ethical problems of "love miles" (G. Monbiot's term), where we love our families and friends so much that we fly around, thereby increasing greatly our contributions to global warming and further insuring that the children of those beloved ones live in a catastrophically altered greenhouse world.)
In spite of these initial queries, I really do appreciate your bringing up these important issues.
Regarding seeing family and friends, maybe what I should say is, "If you would normally go on a vacation, maybe you should go visit relatives or friends instead." As people get laid off work, and have more financial problems, this is becoming possible for fewer and fewer people. I know in the past couple of years, we have gone out of our way to visit some relatives that we might not otherwise have seen. If the relatives are fairly close by, and you can stay with them, the trip need not be terribly expensive.
Don't get me wrong. I think it's great to visit loved ones, in general. But we have a rather skewed idea now about what expectations are reasonable as far as how far and how often we travel.
If everyone who could, even in this economy, took a flight or two or three...in the next year, we would also be using up a lot of increasingly precious oil that could not then be used for growing food, emergency vehicles, and other less discretionary purposes.
There are no happy ways of pointing out that our habits of popping across the country or around the world when we want a vacation or to visit those we love are totally out of whack with the limited world in which we live.
If everyone everywhere did take this advice, then yes, there would be lots of additional flights. Given the number of people who read this blog, the number of additional flights would be close to zero, especially in this time of many empty seats on most flights now.
Building community relations is very good advice, as the coming times of stress will test these neighborly bonds, so strengthening them now indicates insightful proactive planning on the part of the author.
One aspect that will undoubtedly grow will be webcam 'calls' between family members who will no longer be able to meet face to face as often as in the past.
with peak oil i have come to think in a very different way about neighbors; not totally different from marriage.
not easily changed & better work on the relationship for we are in this together; & there will be togetherness like it or not.
Well, yeah, but I think we should try to apply the categorical imperative once in a while. If it's not ok for everyone in the world to do it, what right do we have to do it?
Americans in particular have long since rationalized away any such ethical restrictions, of course. This is because we are pariahs and vermin on the earth, oops, I mean, this is because we are a superior form of life who have the God-given right to consume all things far beyond sustainable levels and far beyond global average. And if you disagree, we will simply invade you two-bit country.
Sorry--haven't got much sleep in the last 72 hours and am starting to channel scary voices.
I think the advice is good and something we chose to do - we live in South Tasmania eg Southern Most part of Australia and next stop is the Antartic [South Pole]. So a last trip home to England and Holland to affectively bid farewell to family and friends unless they make time for a visit over the next 3- 5 years which is about the limit before prices start really jumping through the roof if not sooner. We have stopped flying completely now.
My kid brother who sort of gets the peak oil idea has taken the other extreme and is jetting all over the planet to see it whilst he can still afford it and has a job so last year he was in India, Cuba and Vietnam and this year is is Syria/ Jordan [Bad idea in my opinion] for an Indiana Jones Crusade, then Nepal mid year and Antartica for Christmas with a side visit to see us on the way. He has a good job and lots of leave owing.
Unfortuantley, his reaction is an all too common reaction from people when they become a little peak aware, they want to get their share of the energy before it is too late, be it drive a fast car or fly everywhere. This majority self obsession with satisfing internal selfish needs will unfortunately be our downfall.
This is relly interesting to read and observe...
I am unable to give any negative comment for this issue...
Thanks for valuable info...
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alex45
MLS