THE "Telling Others About Peak Oil" Thread pt 1 (merged) Ar.

[Jogger]

Are Oprah, Dr. Phil, and all the other daytime talk show hosts aware of Peak Oil? What do you think?

[robski]

Strike me! Dr Phil could make a few quid out of peak oil couldn't he?

There's a thought...

[rogerhb]

The only reason I could possibly care is that there may be some voters who really do rely on these folk for all the important decisions in their lives.

[Doly]

OK, how do you get these people to get to know something? Any way of getting in touch with them?

[Ferretlover]

So I caught wind of peak oil and the possible impacts (everything from anarchy to authoritarianism, chaos to utopia) and have been reading and learning as much as I can.

I've even brought it into my work, making a case that its something we need to be aware of and planning for. I don't yet have a full green light to study it in detail, but I've been given the go-ahead to prepare a problematique type document that outlines the issue and its strategic interest to our work.

In the course of this, I've tried to explain it to my girlfriend and friends, and the family will be coming up next. In each case so far its been the same response of smirking and eye-rolling, or faith in technology. I hate being characterized as soom doomsayer shouting that the sky is falling, but its been really hard to get anyone to take me seriously. A few can see the simple logic that oil is finite and the price will go up long before we've tapped the last drop, and can sort of see the effect a doubling or quadrupling of the price of oil could have. Despite that, most still have this faith in alternative energies being able to preserve our current way of life, and don't believe that there is anything to prepare for other than swapping their gasoline engines for hydrogen engines, and plunking a solar panel on the roof of their house.

When I told my girlfriend I intend to learn as much as I can about basic agriculture, and to take up hunting (a past-time in my family that I skipped out on in my youth) she looked at me with some cross between fear and incredulity. She asked what we can do about it, and I said "nothing, just prepare for what might happen".

I don't believe we are helpless, but much like global warming we're at a stage that we cannot turn back what is coming, we can only prepare to handle a new reality.

But on the whole I've found so far that people:

a) don't believe there is a problem period.
b) have such unyielding faith in technology that they believe a solution will arrive without them doing anything differently.
c) Can see the problem but find it too terrifying or difficult to think about, so choose not to.

I know for my part everything I see looks different. I go to the 7/11 and buy a jug of milk and think to myself "this won't be here before long". The cars, the houses, everything just looks so temporary and doomed. The TV, the internet, the radio, video games - what will survive? It's tough, and the only consolation I really have is that we don't know the timeline exactly - altho from what I've read our best case scenario is 5 years till peak oil, altho we may manage to avoid the price shocks for some time after that. That's our window for setting up a transition strategy.

I'm dealing with it, but conveying the problem to others isn't going so hot.

[RonMN]

Welcome

How's it feel to be the family nutcase?

Seriously, I would consider that speak no more of it will be your safest bet. Otherwise you may end up with 100 friends & family & coworkers kicking your door in when TSHTF.

If you wont take that advice, the it really comes down to "all roads lead to an economic collapse" as bad or worse than the great depression.

Problem: Our economy is based on GROWTH...it must have it or it dies! There's no way around this one.

Next problem: Everything (and yes i do mean EVERYTHING) is created with, produced, or shipped by OIL. (this one took me a few months but i finally figured out it was true).

Next problem: As world oil production starts to decline, the economy will decline (contract). But not in proportion with eachother...in the jimmy carter era, we had 5% less oil then we wanted...that QUADRUPLED the price of gas...so what happens when we have 10% less than we want? 15% less than we want?

Good to have you on board!

[Carlhole]

Welcome, Veritas

Would you like a glass of Kool-Aid while you're waiting for the stock market to discover the impending oil cataclysm?

[coyote]

Welcome Veritas... I started a similar thread way back when, 'bout a year or so ago I guess. It's amazing to me that we're still getting the same reaction now as we were then, after all that has happened. But I think most of us have had similar experiences. People just don't want to believe this: it just sounds to big, too scary, too reminiscent of wrong scares in the past, y2k etc. It's incredible how quickly the entire idea is dismissed. People don't even hold it in their heads long enough to argue against it. Maybe they can't.

I understood peak oil pretty well the first night I read about it, and I suppose most others around here are the same. But my understanding has still deepened since then, and yours will too. My advice is the same that was given to me: choose carefully to whom you speak of this, and choose your opening words carefully too. If you let slip even the slightest hint of peak oil's true ramifications, then you'll suddenly be talking to a brick wall. For gods' sake don't mention population or food production. Gasoline prices and dependence on foreign oil are good, pretty safe places to start. People don't mind complaining about their wallet or national security. After that, if there's a decent response, you might mention that the resource is finite, or that 'someday there may be an issue.' If there's still no problem with that, then wait a while, and maybe next time mention that world oil discoveries peaked in the 1960s, or that US oil production peaked in 1970.

Or, if you really just want to knock the top of their head off, just say "A thousand barrels a second" and walk away.

I'm still not sure why it's such an extremely difficult concept for people to wrap their heads around. But it is.

Welcome and good luck.

[savethehumans]

I hear you all.

My brother cannot fathom why his intelligent sister with a college education cannot find a good paying job. He talks of IRAs and 401Ks and retirement and Social Security and savings. And if I opened my mouth and told him ANYTHING of why none of this matters, he'd see if he could get power of attorney and have me put in an asylum.

People are conditioned to this society and its structures. That the whole thing is about to collapse is something that simply cannot register in their minds. I remember years ago that the naysayers about the ozone hole pointed out that satellites recorded nothing out of the ordinary. Turns out that they were all programmed to reject any data outside of a certain range. Why? Because such data "wasn't possible." Guess what data got rejected? The data that proved the ozone hole problem!

It's the same with this society. Certain events/outcomes are simply "not possible," so any data proving otherwise is automatically rejected--by the system, by the powers that be, by our very minds. Guess which data is being rejected? Aw, you GUESSED!

People simply aren't conditioned to receive this information. And so many "authorities" who admit to problems frame it as a bumpy time ahead, and we'd better get moving on solutions cuz we only have 10/20/50 years left. Of course, we have nothing of the sort! But they don't want the people to "panic." Why they think that people WON'T "panic" when TSHTF is beyond me. Maybe they think they'll be in a safe haven by then. They delude themselves; there is no safe haven.

My advice? Frame useful preparations in some other context: "in case we're in severe depression, and money is tight," "in case there are temporary shortages," "because it's good for us to have a backup plan." ANYTHING that will get the preparations made. (Nice thing about these arguments: none of 'em are lies.) Then, when TSHTF, at least they will be prepared, whatever the motivations to get that way were!

Good luck and God bless!