<Open ThreadThe Oil DrumUnderstanding the oil patch>

31 comments on Julian Darley and The Relocalization Movement

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copperweaver on November 19, 2005 - 4:56pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I just don't see the world economy will ajusting to an increase in oil price and shortage of supply.  At least not in  the United States.  I think when folks in this county are nolonger able to live the glutonous lifestyle we have become addicted to there will be extreme social chaos.  Remember guns are very available in the US and lots of people have them. We also have to contend with global climate change etc...  Look at how we handled the crisis in New Orleans.  Thin Food production and distribution are so heavily dependent on cheep fossil fuels.  I see most of the remaining oil being horded and used by millitaries to secure and protect  what is available regionally.  I wish I were more of an  optimist, but we are talking about to human beings here... and there are no easy solutions.  Time will tell............
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LevinK on November 21, 2005 - 4:30pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
<quote>..At least not in  the United States...</quote>

Yeah sometimes I tend to think to Peak Oil as "Peak USA".
We are the only country in the world that has planned its entire life around plentiful fossil fuels. Most other countries have or at least work hard on their plan "B" - in Germany or France you can very easily live without a car of your own; governments stimulate renewables and nuclear energy (soon to come back in Germany) and people generally like to live closer to each other. And maybe more importantly - people has not forgotten where they came from. It is the rich history of wars, crisises and suffering that made people learn that sticking together is the only chance for long-term survival.

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Southsider1 on November 22, 2005 - 3:18am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Well, isn't it ironic that Henry Ford, the man who created the modern automobile industry, is also credited with the assertion that "history is bunk": a very American belief. It would appear that the United States is about to have its own nasty encounter with History.
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LevinK on November 22, 2005 - 11:01am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Well this is pretty arrogantic thought. When you look at the past you see times and times in which people make the same mistakes. What makes us so special? We would be special indeed if we could identify these patterns and avoid them, but denying the existence of history obviously leads in the opposite way.
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Donal on November 22, 2005 - 12:47pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
"History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we made today."
Henry Ford, Interview in Chicago Tribune, May 25th, 1916

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/24950.html

I wonder what the question was?

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