That is an excellent synapse of what we face. I thought I was pretty smart to be DOING something but it turns out the really smart folks can see that nothing will work. I'll still keep preparing if you don't mind. I am pessimistic for the world, but cautiously optimistic for my own children.

The question remains, why aren't you a doomer? Oh, right. Enlightened people are in the now. We're all going to die, no sense worrying about it. I'm not being sarcastic. I still worry.

Cold Camel

I'm not a doomer because peak oil is not the end of oil, it is the end of cheap oil. I think our standard of living will decline because we won't have access to as much energy to do magic things for us, but I don't think it will decline to the point where everyone hunts and farms with sticks and carved antler bits. Government will have to shed some bloat (I hope) due to a lower tax base. I think the third world will be hell because the first world will look out for itself first and foremost -- nothing actually new there. Lastly, while I don't think we'll see much short-term benefit from alternative energies, it doesn't seem overly optimistic to think that forty or fifty years hence, world technology will look quite different than now, and some real options may exist.