NY Times: Imagining Life Without Oil, and Being Ready

[marmar]

By JOHN LELAND
Published: June 5, 2010


As oil continued to pour into the Gulf of Mexico on a recent Saturday, Jennifer Wilkerson spent three hours on the phone talking about life after petroleum.

For Mrs. Wilkerson, 33, a moderate Democrat from Oakton, Va., who designs computer interfaces, the spill reinforced what she had been obsessing over for more than a year — that oil use was outstripping the world’s supply. She worried about what would come after: maybe food shortages, a collapse of the economy, a breakdown of civil order. Her call was part of a telephone course about how to live through it all.

In bleak times, there is a boom in doom.

Americans have long been fascinated by disaster scenarios, from the population explosion to the cold war to global warming. These days the doomers, as Mrs. Wilkerson jokingly calls herself and likeminded others, have a new focus: peak oil. They argue that oil supplies peaked as early as 2008 and will decline rapidly, taking the economy with them.

Located somewhere between the environmental movement and the bunkered survivalists, the peak oil crowd is small but growing, reaching from health food stores to Congress, where a Democrat and a Republican formed a Congressional Peak Oil Caucus. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/us/06peak.html?hp

[endless october]

1. i'm all for a non-oil based solution.

we should stop all of the wars and spend that money on finding one.

until then, i have to drive to work. i bought a very efficient vehicle. but i still have to drive.

[ellie]

2. Welcome to the peak oil party lady

I have been obsessing about peak oil since the 80s, when, in college, I innocently walked through the halls where the geology department was located. Noticing a brightly colored map on the someone's door, I stopped to look at it. It was a map of where the oil was and oil-based projections for the future. It was a shock. I had never thought about it before.

[dgibby]

3. Thanks for posting.

I've been advocating "sustainable living" (Google the term for lots of good sites) for several years now.

I always buy extra non-perishables whenever I go the the grocery store. Rotate items by date, give anything I haven't used to the food bank before the expiration date, etc. I also stock up on items that could be used to barter with, have a garden, etc. I'm gathering up other things that would be useful, such as a solar oven, crank up radio, medical supplies, pet supplies.

The Sustainable Living sites have great info that is pertinent to other situations as well, camping, natural disasters, emergency preparedness, etc. I found them helpful and interesting. Another good source is "Mother Earth News" if you're interested in growing your own food, raising chickens, etc.

[bunny planet]

4. Wow, sure took them long enough to print an article like this

better late than never I guess

[Cresent City Kid]

5. Our borrowed time is running out

The technological advances of the 20th century were mostly at the demand side of energy. Once we had power coming out of wall outlets, all we did was to make more gadgets that used the power. The internet was a turn of the 21st century wonder that sucked even more power from a turn of the 20th century electrical infrastructure.

When the oil crisis of the 70's hit, all we did was hit the snooze button instead of waking up. One could argue that Jimmy Carter was run out of office for suggesting conservation as much as for the Iran hostage crisis. Reagan led the way backwards, and people followed. We sat around running the AC at full blast jerking off with Nintendo and PC's while those of us who pointed out the futility of an oil based lifestyle were branded as the lunatic fringe.

Now the alarm clock is going off again. We've been dismising wind and solar for 30+ years instead of working on them. More people are ready for a switch, but many want to drag it out because of the cost. I have a question. If wind and solar cost so much, who gets the money?

[Raster]

9. "Reagan led the way backwards..."

:rofl:

No truer words...

[Subdivisions]

6. Peak oil is already here. It's too late to stop what is coming. I have been the most vocal

peak oil messenger on this board since I joined and to date 99.99 percent of the people on this board don't care to hear it. And now, soon, those who have failed to heed the warning will pay for their apathy, denial, and stupidity. It's going to be worse than anything any of you have ever seen before it gets better. A lot of people are going to suffer. A lot of people are going to die. From famine, from war, and from disease.

As oil becomes less and less available in the United States, the more our government and military will use to secure more from soveriegn nations like Iraq. Civilization's systems will begin to deteriorate with the more severe consequences being a collapse of the global economy (currenly in progress), the loss of food production and delivery systems, the loss of modern medical and health systems, and at first a sporadic and then more severe loss of electricity due to prohibitive maintenance and operational costs, contingent on the price of fuel and integrity of supply vendors for parts and other services. The suburbs and those in them will become completely hositle and chaotic and insane upon the occurance of the above calamities.

What about natural gas? We have plenty of that. Well, yes we do. As long as there is enough oil available to fuel the final result of accessing that natgas. Imagine the oil it takes to get an drilling platform from the blueprint stage (an exercise that in itself requires huge amounts of oil to achieve - after all, there the fuel used to get the engineers and architects to the drawing boards every day. It takes oil to build the computers they use in CAD. Etc.) to something that can explode, gushing billions of gallons of oil into a vital ecosystem. Same goes for dry land drilling equipment and the network of pipelines and parts it takes to deliver that natgas to end users. Then imagine all the other things oil does that natgas cannot do. THERE IS NO TECHNOLOGY OR SUBSTANCE THAT CAN REPLACE OIL.

Oil is the feedstock of this modern civilization. It is already in delcine. And so is civilization. Jimmy Carter knew nearly 40 years ago when there was time to prepare. The time to prepare and avoid calamatous and deadly events has passed. And now we will ride the rollercoaster down the right side of Hubbert's Curve into a dry hole oblivion.

Perhaps now I have your attention.

[krabigirl]

7. I agree with you..been following this peak oil thing for a few years, not that long ro

But enough to be scared. I don't often talk about it though because people just say i am nuts or whatever, especially my husband.

[Subdivisions]

8. Every single one of them is going to find out rather unpleasantly that

you were right all along. And you've every right to be scared. I said people will die from famine, war, and disease. They will also die from violence. And that should scare not just you, but me (and it most certainly does scare me), but those whom you tried to warn and who chose to dismiss your warning.

Don't feel alone. You probably already know how many of us share your fears on this issue. I, too, have been at odds with my s/o over this issue because she just does not want to hear it. So, when I would rather spend money on preparing BOBs or on a case of Chef-Boyardee Ravioli or on a, god fordid(!) weapon of some sort, we have problems. And it's not the money. It's the reason I'm doing it.

But if it's any consolation, krabigirl, those who remain apathetic and in denial will soon find out, if they haven't already. I'm guessing those who have lost everything recently due to the peak oil-caused depression we are currently experiencing are sensing there's something very wrong with the world but just can't quite put their finger on it. My answer to them would be a sarcastic "Well, it can't possibly be about running out of oil because there's oil being made in the earth all the time." Accompanied with a mental roll of the eyes and shrug of the shoulders.

[Subdivisions]

10. delete wrong place. n/t

[Mojorabbit]

12. I agree totally

and slowly I have been trying to become as self sufficient as my circumstances allow. I wish there were a national mobilization to help prepare but it looks like everything else, it will be a clusterf**k.

[Subdivisions]

11. See how this topic is always treated here? No one gives a shit.

We're goingover the cliff like Thelma and Louise and no one gives a shit.