The Oil Drum

There have been a couple of comments this past week that lead me from the question of my last post – “what if it doesn’t get better?” into the sequel “how is it going to get worse?” Because if the presupposition is that there will be some cataclysmic event that will carry us into the next phase of our evolving reality, I am not sure that this will happen. And yet, without this impetus, and a focus for public and political attention, it becomes more difficult to get action, or recognition, of the urgency of the problem.

I can perhaps simplify a picture of this evolution by a simple example. You are a farmer in the less populated parts of the country, and you drive over to your local gas station, after noticing that you have less than three gallons of gas in your tank. You get there to find that the station has closed, and there is a note on the door that says that the nearest station is now 50 miles away. If you can make it to the station, and if your car gets 20 miles per gallon, you will now use a third of your tank of gas, each time you fill up, just in filling up your 15-gallon tank. (Until you also start filling gas cans).