How did you find out about peak oil?

jupiters_release · Intermediate Crude Joined: Oct 10, 2005 Posts: 716

Saw a post on a music forum about the Oil Storm doc right after Katrina and a quick google led me here, never heard peak oil before. Living in NYC for 7 years and now entirely too spoiled to consider any survivalist strategy nor have any desire to live without electricity. Currently compiling an online discography of 6ts, 7ts, and 8ts independent black gospel music or what I consider the cultural peak of western history albeit mostly undocumented. Also starting a soul record label issuing purely analogue vinyl hoping to have at least three years before economic collapse.

Beat · Coal Joined: Mar 13, 2006 Posts: 11 Location: Italy

I've read couple of years ago the "THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY" by Jeremy Rifkin, and wipe off from my minds all the info over there since 6 months ago.

I start to investigate about peak oil and I came here thru another website (I don't remember wich one at the moment).

I've already found some useful informations here, in the future I hope to share more info with you.

Ciao,

Vito

oilshock05 · Coal Joined: Mar 14, 2006 Posts: 1

The journey that lead me to peak oil started with housing bubble. I live in SF bay area and the 2001 recession hit us the worst. So I was surprised to find a boom in housing in 2003. Then I stumbled across sites like patrick.net and housebubble.com. These sites lead me to a lot of financial websites that were based on the austrian school of economics. I was lead to books like "Dollar crisis". Then I realized the problem was fed incessantly inflating the dollars. This lead me into exploring possibilities of investing in Gold/Silver and other commodities and eventually to energy.

Then I started studying the oil industry which ultimately brought me to Peak Oil and now I run my own website at http://www.theviewfromthepeak.com

-Oil Shock

gwmss15

I Found out in Early October 2004 and just read everything i could about it

the topic came up via a railways forum site similar to this www.railpage.com.au and there was a post with 3 links in it something like lifeaftertheoilcrash.com

aspo's site and peakoil.com i visted lifeaftertheoilcrash.com 1st at this time they had a book you could download so i download it and read it for days and got freaked out abit so much that i cried to my self on the metro train the next afternoon. That soon passed and i took it on board as fact and tryed to tell my family about it they ignored it. after that i didnt bother spreading the news of peak oil beyond a few close friend most didnt take it on board. even though there childhoods were from poor subsistance farming life in rural asia in the late 1970's.

however in recent times my family has found out about peakoil after i ask them to send me a book on peak oil from australia to thailand. ie it made them look around about the topic and go an buy the book which ment my dad would look at it as he likes to read. he took it on board but felt the world will overcome this and life will go on.

for me i believe in the slow long decline and transistion to a lower enegry future. but it will be hard and some people will die along the way and everyone will have less money and face some discomfort because of peak oil but it will not be the end of the world anytime in the next 30years. unless theres a nuclear war etc

gwmss15

I Found out in Early October 2004 and just read everything i could about it

the topic came up via a railways forum site similar to this www.railpage.com.au and there was a post with 3 links in it something like lifeaftertheoilcrash.com

aspo's site and peakoil.com i visted lifeaftertheoilcrash.com 1st at this time they had a book you could download so i download it and read it for days and got freaked out abit so much that i cried to my self on the metro train the next afternoon. That soon passed and i took it on board as fact and tryed to tell my family about it they ignored it. after that i didnt bother spreading the news of peak oil beyond a few close friend most didnt take it on board. even though there childhoods were from poor subsistance farming life in rural asia in the late 1970's.

however in recent times my family has found out about peakoil after i ask them to send me a book on peak oil from australia to thailand. ie it made them look around about the topic and go an buy the book which ment my dad would look at it as he likes to read. he took it on board but felt the world will overcome this and life will go on.

for me i believe in the slow long decline and transistion to a lower enegry future. but it will be hard and some people will die along the way and everyone will have less money and face some discomfort because of peak oil but it will not be the end of the world anytime in the next 30years. unless theres a nuclear war etc

kodgetts · Coal Joined: Apr 19, 2006 Posts: 1

I work as a graphic designer on a local community newspaper in the UK and was introduced to the concept of Peak Oil by my environmentally-aware editor. We've included articles about this and related subjects in our last two issues, but whether the public take a blind bit of notice or not is another question...

Of course, we were taught in school that fossil fuels are a finite resource and that there are better alternative sources of energy (I remember watching an old video in Science class that predicted fossil fuels would run out by the 1990s!), so I always assumed that the 'people in charge' would be working on switching. 15 years later, this doesn't appear to be the case - we are even more dependant on oil, gas and coal than ever - and now our government have stupidly decided that nuclear power is the way forward. [facetious]Hey, let's just ignore the issues of radioactive waste disposal and the difficulty of decomissioning nuclear power stations. Let's also ignore the potential of encouraging citizens to provide some of their own power using small scale hydro and solar.[/facetious] Rolling Eyes

cr0bar · Coal Joined: Apr 19, 2006 Posts: 10 Location: UK

I'm an undergraduate electrical engineer at Edinburgh University, and just completed a short dissertation on the supply of carbon based fossil fuels. I didn't really expect my dissertation to be as interesting or as alarming as it turned out to be, luckily I'm already doing my masters project on optomising a type of permanent magnet wave generator, so maybe I can contribute to the solution! I'll try and do a good job for your sakes icon_wink

simontay78 · Heavy Crude Joined: May 01, 2006 Posts: 183 Location: SG

My first post !!

I came across the subject of Peak Oil just 1 month ago...it all happened too fast....I cannot remember which website I went!

I used to work for a License Electricity Retailer in Singapore and I had many concerns about the energy crisis...the inflation is going to be very harsh...especially in the resource poor country like mine.

Great job on this forum!

I had make this a permanent home page for my research on future planning......

Spartan2 · Tar Sands Joined: May 03, 2006 Posts: 45 Location: Europa

I found out about PO about 18 months ago. Before that, the idea of having 40 years left of oil already sounded a little strange to me. Wouldn't demand increase? Would we be swimming in oil for 40 years and then suddenly we wouldn't have a drop of it left?

So, when the barrel of oil passed $40 I decided to make an investigation on the subject in the internet and I came across Savinar's site. I was immediately convinced from what I read that the world's oil production would peak. Finding out that the alternatives can't replace oil was a small step and now here I am.

mullen112280 · Coal Joined: May 20, 2006 Posts: 9 Location: Indiana

I found out about peak oil during Hurricane Katrina, when the price of gasoline shot up. I was doing internet research, and the subject of peak oil kept popping up. I have been watching the oil market since then.
_________________
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
-- George Orwell

chukar · Tar Sands Joined: May 06, 2006 Posts: 57

Last September, from the LATOC site. I remember first thinking how screwed Hawaii was and how I needed to relocate. In school, all we've been taught is that fossil fuels won't run out until 2040 or so. I had never considered that the halfway point would be a problem. My family thinks I'm obsessed and I've stopped trying to convey the message to the public. I didn't come here until a few months ago, but I'm extremely grateful for the community here. The boards are very well maintained and the members here seem very insightful.

Weatherman25

I read about it in the paper after Katrina.

Wanderer · Coal Joined: Aug 04, 2006 Posts: 3

I always believed our culture was unsustainable but I did not have the vocabulary and was not able to make all the connections my self. What finally made all the pieces come together was an article on Slashdot that directed me to http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ and I have been lurking web sites and news groups ever since.

I believed it immediately, but it took me some time to start acting on it.

I am naturally inclined to be a doomer for two resigns.

I don’t have much in the way of assets and I rely on the modern drug industry to provide a synthetic thyroid hormone because my thyroid was removed. Easy to obtain and store now but guessing the future could be interesting.

At this point I am trying to learn what I can, make what preparations I can afford and enjoy life in the here and now.

Cornelian

My first post here, too.

I have known about the concept for a long time, and have been aware of the frightening susceptibility of modern western society for at least 10 years.

I just had no idea about the name 'Peak Oil' until last weekend when a national newspaper ran an article on it. Thank God! At last I had a phrase to google! LOL So I discovered that my concept had a name and then I discovered these forums.

I have been 'powering down' and altering my lifestyle very gradually over the last 6 or 7 years - not so much because of Peak Oil (or any other possible disaster) but because I vastly prefer a simpler life and living closer to the land (greatly influenced by the fact that I was a) born on the land and b) spent much of my working life as a medieval historian researching and teaching the medieval agricultural life.

I think these forums have a great deal to teach me - thank you to the two who started them up.

Twilight · Expert Joined: Mar 02, 2007 Posts: 2971 Location: UK

I found out around 1996/1997 when a teacher told the class about natural resources running out in various numbers of years and I thought it was a bit too simplistic and started wondering about rates, growth, limits, etc. Basically all the stuff Bartlett was going on about, which is supposed to be what you learn in school, only it seems you don't any more. My epiphany encouraged me to do my own reading, and so I did.