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

[Ferretlover]

I've "got to do something" about Peak Oil, and being a poor student, at least until I finish school I've cast my die on starting to inform as many people as I can about the issue, for whatever good that can do. Drum up some dialogue, hopefully political pressure, maybe even get hit back with a convincing arguement against PO. At the least, maybe a few people close to me will be watching the news a bit more, and have an easier time swallowing it when sh!% hits the fan.

I've purchased Matt Savinar's book (http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net or course) because I think he makes an excellent case of how dire the situation is, but it's hard to get family, friends etc. to take the interest to read it because it's so easy to ignore the PO issue and the book is so long. And I'm sure if someone were to skip ahead to the US Government inditements without reading the first part, they'd quickly and easily dismiss the issue as paranoia. It's hard to get someone to sit down and give it an honest attempt, and it's hard to tell people yourself with them going LALALA and brushing it off.

So, to help build a case, I've started leading with some news articles from well-known, respected media:

BBC: link
National Geographic: link
The Washington Post: link (article copied at link if you do not want to register for WP)
Let me know if I missed any good ones.

This seems like a good way to approach the problem to my mind: use some shot and sweet stories from well-known news sources to open the case, and Matt's book, http://www.hubbertpeak.com/youngquist/chapter27.htm, and my own arguements to try to hit home how ridiculously serious an issue this is.

However, I'm finding 3 common outs people use to plug their ears and avoid the issue:
1. "Yeah but what can I do about it? What can you do about it? Nothing, so just relax."
This is the most common response I get from my family, and the most irritating. They're ceding this is a huge problem with no obvious solution, and they just go "oh well things'll cost more and you can't do anything about it so who cares?" AGGGGHH. I know this is just a veiled "can't be bothered."

2. Faith in technology
I have family who were/are in the oil industry, and go "oh instead of getting 20-30% from a well, soon we can get 30-50%!" Or point out some other sources. Yes, I can shoot all those down (double oil reserves = only less then 25 years spare time, gas hydrates are 6x natural gas costs, Alberta can't slake world thirst fast enough even if the reserves are there, etc. etc.) but when having a half dozen "there are still fossil sources" excuses seems to insulate people, even if you shatter each one individually. Surely one or two will come through, right?

3. This is like the end of the world, and I don't like to talk about that stuff.


Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get through to people? Critiques of my idea? Even stories to tell of your attempts? I'm planning to badger my friends, e-mail elected officials, the dean of engineering at my school, the school papers, do low-key poster campaigns, etc. And I'm really, really not an activist kinda guy, but got to try something.

[MadScientist]

"No one cares about how much you know until they know how much you care"

Strategies to show how much you care:

#1: Spend more time on the person than tv, fast food, sports, anything else which is basically fluff.

#2 repeat daily

#3 think about love and showing that person how much you love them.

#4 invite them over for a cocktail


"It's not about me"

[MattSavinar]

My site didn't get much in the way of traffic until it got linked at:

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.rense.com
http://www.fark.com (they won't link the same site twice)

You may want to try contacting the webmasters of those sites and ask them to link to more Peak Oil related articles.

You may also want to try:

http://www.guerrillanews.com
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
http://www.alternet.org
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.michaelmoore.com

I do not necessarily endorse the poltical views espoused by any of these sites. I only mention them because:

1. They have demonstrated a willingness to speak about Peak Oil.
2. They get a good deal of traffic.

Just make sure that you spend at least as much time acquiring skills/resources that will help your own personal well-being as you spend getting the word out.

The fact is, most people (including our families) aren't going to make it through this. We all need to start accepting that.

Matt

[MattSavinar]

One more thing:

As far as my charges against the government:

print out the Northwoods Document and have them read it.

Doesn't get any more black and white than that.

Matt

[Onyered]

Whitecrab, What are you studying in school? Something that will be of benefit to you post Peak Oil? If you believe Peak Oil is a reality are your actions speaking as loudly as your words?

I would ask you to consider of what benefit it is to inform people of Peak Oil? Consider the person you are trying to inform. Are they able to take any action that might benefit them or will it make their life miserable in anticipation of events that they can’t prepare for or mitigate. Maybe they are better off with what time they have to enjoy a “normal” life. If your only reason is that “I just have to do something” then you might stop and consider. Do you feel better or worse with the knowledge you have about Peak Oil and the possible (if not probable) repercussions?

[Barbara]

onyered,
I think this philosophy of "protecting people from bad news" is getting us to big troubles. Ignorance is never a good thing. I'm pretty sure nobody will suicide because of informations on peak oil... just quite the opposite: enjoying what is left of our paradise and prepare (psychologically) for the bad times to come.
A well informed person won't be catched in surprise; won't go out cutting your throat in desperation; won't rebel against govt when they say "we have to ration oil and electricity". A well informed person will add his skills to the community, will help others, will calm others.
We are in troubles because many govts thinks people are stupid and it's better not to tell them the truth... our democracies are going too far this way and this is neither democracy nor freedom.

[OilBurner]

If anyone can find a simple way to persuade the masses of the truth of bad news then they will have acheived something of a miracle. People generally only hear what they want to hear and they want to hear good news.
Present peak oil in a positive light (!!!!) and you might have a reasonable chance!!

[MattSavinar]

I did a radio appearance last Friday and this one guy called in to debunk Peak Oil.

Explained that a new carbeurator will be invented that will save us.

I said to the host, "That is the type of guy who is going to get drafted, shipped off to the Mid-East or West Africa, will be getting shot at as he is guarding an oil refinery and still claiming there is no oil crisis."

Matt

[Barbara]

What I find very very tiring is that when I say "Oil" most people think only of cars, cars, cars. They think it's a problem of transport only.
And they often leave you no time to explain agricolture, electricity, everything: they are used to get info in a very plain and simple way, don't want to listen when something needs to go a bit deeper.

PS Matt, may I PM you?

[Whitecrab]

Whitecrab, What are you studying in school? Something that will be of benefit to you post Peak Oil? If you believe Peak Oil is a reality are your actions speaking as loudly as your words?

I would ask you to consider of what benefit it is to inform people of Peak Oil? Consider the person you are trying to inform. Are they able to take any action that might benefit them or will it make their life miserable in anticipation of events that they can’t prepare for or mitigate. Maybe they are better off with what time they have to enjoy a “normal” life. If your only reason is that “I just have to do something” then you might stop and consider. Do you feel better or worse with the knowledge you have about Peak Oil and the possible (if not probable) repercussions?

1. I am studying Chemical Engineering (I almost went computers...thank goodness I didn't). As a student, I still have some flexibility where to take that career, I think I will steer my career to either nuclear, tar sands, or biofuels/bioprocessing. Obviously avoid petrochem or oil jobs that require middle east like the plague. I'm trying to pick the horse to bet on. I am also going to avoid post-secondary unless it will put me in a position to do research that's relevant post-peak.

2. If I inform people, there is a chance for political interest, some pressure, etc. If I can get a critical mass of informed students, or some of my professors in on this, I can't see that hurting the situation.

At the worst, if I can get people to at least consider the issue, and move on, they'll be less shocked when the problem does hit and perhaps a bit more willing to accept the severity of the situation and deal with it. I'm sure we're all more willing to cut back now that we know about the problem; wouldn't having the issue in the back of people's minds make the transition a bit easier?

And there's also the ethics of "giving people a chance."

[Rasmus2]

I have debated with local politicians about the different problems with higher priced oil - its easy for a politician to understand that if oil price rise, then its better to have a renewable source which more or less stay the same in price - no matter what happens in the world of oil... also the local job creation makes sense. The doomday talk is more or less a dicussion bloker, because it leaves no room for debate about what to do - the focus in on worst case, instead of the best case.

An oil price of $100/barrel makes alot of renewable as cheap or cheaper than oil - with current day technology, then add the advance in technology, and the price will only get closer and closer to the price of oil.

If you use a positive message, then the right people will listen, if you use a negativ message, then they will ignore you, because it does not fit into their world.

[MattSavinar]

Barbara,

Just email at matt@lifeaftertheoilcrash.net

As far as people only thinking about cars - that really, really, frustrates me too!

Matt

[Ferretlover]

Save your answer, because this is the answer. It has nothing to do with oil, or their lifestyles, or their economy, or their incompleteness as humans.

It's because of social reasons, peak oil does not have group approval, they act aggressively because you act to independent, and you interfere with the group. People need to have oil peak approved by their authority figures. This is often the newsreader on television. People are like cheep they follow their leaders, all of us do but to a varying degree, I’m pretty independent but I’m far more cheep than anything else.

The thing is that the peak oil guy and the other is not aware of this, they think it’s because of things they make up, the peak oil guy might think the other is stupid or a bad person and the other might think the peak guy is crazy, ridiculous or unbalanced. Hope this helps.

[Jakob]

Some people have expressed their depressive feelings; I think those are because they do not get group approval from peak oil.

The situation as such, is well sad, but develop a mental illness because of it? Nah

[Cool Hand Linc]

Ask a question and then answer it? Do you talk to yourself and answer too? Why ask us a question they answer it?

Lay down on this couch and lets talk about it.

[Whitecrab]

For these people, lead your peak oil discussions with references from main-stream media and books by PhDs. Give them the authority, the urgent timescale of the problem, and then lay out the details.

[Aaron]

Ummm....


I am so seldom without a response I feel unprepared to elaborate.

[Whitecrab]

Yes, it's working! I was driving to the cottage, so I handed my grandpa a binder of news print-outs and Matt's book to read on the drive up. After skimming through the articles and speed-reading the book, he saw "Only 90% of us are going to make it?!" and said "Oh, I'd probably better go back to the beginning..." He thought Matt was a 40-something PhD till I told him otherwise. This should make it easier to bring up PO with the rest of my family.

I don't think I'll ever get my them to do more then sell airplane stock, but my grandfather started suggesting I put together a power point of peak oil or start a formal debate or something. So this can't hurt.

[Pops]

Come on, the instruction was: “Save your answer”.

Can’t you people listen?

[EnviroEngr]

Okay.

I'm free associating, not answering, when I say "The problem is the solution."