Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
For one year we would only buy food and drink for home consumption that was produced within 100 miles of our home [in British Columbia]… This may sound like a lunatic Luddite scheme, but we had our reasons. The short form would be: fossil fuels bad. [A delightful series on local food]
By the time the two of us got it together, installing solar panels became a significant milestone to celebrate in our journey to partnership….We would not go to our graves knowing that we simply shrugged and said what could we do, the problem was too overwhelming.
With gasoline nearly $3 gallon, there needs to be a mainstream discussion of the alternatives.
One simple rule of thumb regarding Peak Oil is to view it as a film of society running backwards. The cheap air flights all reverse forever into their hangars and the large hotel complexes of inexpensive Mediterranean resorts are unbuilt to the ground. Meantime, the local resorts within a few hundred miles [teem] with activity…
Upon first hearing about Peak Oil, a few years ago, I doubted it. “Just Big Oil propaganda to raise gas prices,” I initially thought. But the more I read about how our natural petroleum supply will reach its mid-point and then dwindle, the more convinced I became. So I got angry — at Big Oil for not informing us and at Americans for over-consuming a limited, non-renewable resource.
On August 14th 2003, New York City lost power citywide for the first time since 1977. To everyone’s collective surprise, nothing happened. No looting, rioting, arson or massive destruction of private property. On July 13th 1977, a different story emerged.
In the case of peak oil, we can intellectually accept the evidence, but we find it extremely hard to accept individual or collective responsibility for a problem of such enormity. Indeed, the most powerful evidence of our denial is the failure to even recognize that there is a moral dimension with identifiable perpetrators and victims of the crisis. We know who is at fault here, we see what they are trying to do, and we lack the efficacy and the will to do anything about it.
Using the Trans Canada Railroad as an analogy, King recounts the timeline of geologic history up to the present. Within the span of the last few inches of a 4,500 mile timeline, humankind will have consumed all of the Earth’s oil heritage.
Peak Oil is a real phenomenon, based on hard science. Ignore it at your peril. At root, the Peak Oil guys are right. How can I emphasize it properly? OK, they are “right, right, right.” Everybody else is “wrong, wrong, wrong.”
Writer Steven Lagavulin argues that the comprehensive nature of the problems our society faces in the coming years will not be met by either political or technological means. Instead, we need to face that humankind has reached a critical turning point in which everything that defines modern civilization is about to be washed away. As such, the best response may be to break away from the sinking ship and begin rebuilding now, even before the crisis is upon us.
Politely framed and important challenge to the peak oil argument, questioning why oil suppliers would willingly for-go the massive potential profits:
"…So how could it be that there are billions and billions of easy dollars to be made, and nobody can be bothered to collect them? Unless you have a clear answer for that question, an economist at that point is going to ask whether you’re sure that you’ve got all the facts straight, that oil really is going to sell for $200 a barrel in just two years."
Can two fossil fuel addicts wean themselves from their consumptive habits without their lives falling apart? A NYC bouncer and an events coordinator are transported to Dancing Rabbit eco-village in Missouri for 30 days. From the creator of “Super Size Me.” To air Wed, July 13.
