Terran, even in times of population decline, some people thrive. Have you considered a career in geology or mining engineering? The world is going to have to devote increasing fractions of the global economy to resource extraction. There is a severe shortage of exploration geologists and mining engineers.

Biotechnology/Big Pharma has been booming for 40 years due to middle aged/old people with good health insurance. Peak middle class drug money is probably behind us. The only certain biotech growth fields are in antiaging treatments for the wealthy elite and bioweapons.

Yes, your friends might think you are evil if you end up working for BHP Billiton or Rio Tinto. F*** them. Your personal survival is your own business.
Cheers

I've said this elsewhere, so quickly:

I'm 45, though I still [oops, what was I thinking?]

1974: I take "Earth Science" is high school. I want to be a geologist and get paid to climb volcanoes. We learn about global warming and finite resources, and the year 2000 is the cutoff date to do something about them.

1982: OK, so I major in geology for awhile, but keep failing math and chemistry. My farewell to geology is a course called "Geology and Human Affairs." It's really a course in energy. It's a standout course, because I leave thinking: holy shit. We have twenty years to get our act together.

1984: Graduate school in (yuck) English. I've deluded myself into thinking I can become a writer. I'm also trying to come out of the closet, which is the real reason I've gone away to major in English. My life is, quite simply, a mess.

1985: I move to a wooded state, and meet my current partner, a farmer. Twenty years of Reagan, Bush, Clinton and huge vehicles pass. We just shake our heads at the world. the "gay" culture seems just as frivolous as the rest.

2001: Several fanatics from the largest oil-bearing country in the world hijack several planes filled with oil products and crash them (with the tacit approval of the government of the largest oil-consuming country in the world) into several buildings. I think: this is the beginning of the end of the age of oil.

2003: Jay Hanson's dieoff.com crosses my screen. I stumble across an article written by a favorite professor of mine. Oh, yeah. Now I remember. And life has not been the same since.

I'm lucky enough to have a partner, family and friends who listen to me. I teach peak oil/ energy as a writing project to my students at the small U. where I work (so, in a sense, I'm back to my old geological interests). I've written several columns for the local newspaper and have been interviewed on the radio about peak oil. Nothing happened.

So now I'm just holed up, growing food, waiting for the plastic exploding inevitable.*




*Andy Warhol reference

In the seventies, I was raising my two children and was aware of the long lines at the gasoline stations. However, when cheap oil came back into our lives, I thought the political problems had been fixed and everything would be all right from then on. In the late eighties and the nineties I became quite environmentally aware, and it was from this perspective that I picked up a book by Thom Hartman called "the last hours of ancient sunlight'. This got my attention, but the date I remember 'internalizing' from that book was 2035 for the first signs of oil shocks. So I thought "phew thank goodness, when Al Gore becomes President he'll fix things and we'll get solar panels installed and drive neat Star Trek type cars and live to 150 years." (okay that's an exaggeration! but I was definitely an optimist looking forward to the turning of the Millennium and all the wonders that would follow.) But the Election came, and then the repudiation of the Kyoto Protocol, and then 911. In my disillusionment I had turned to the Internet to get my news (didn't quite trust the networks anymore), and one of the sites I used to read was 'Commondreams". It was there that I read an article that had a link to LATOC. I read that site from top to bottom, ordered the book, then read 'the party's over" and went into a complete tailspin. After about a month of surreality, I decided that I must stop mourning and start warning - which I did- family, both in US and in England, and people at work. Since then I'm trying to do the best I can to prepare and make up for the thirty odd years that I spent in a waking dream. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I'd rather know than still be sleepwalking.

regards,

L.

Good on you! We must live in the world we have, and make the best of it.
Cheers

I had a kind dark humor moment today. As a kid I thought I would most likely die before I saw 30 years old. Well being a Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan I just realised the answer is 42. When I turn 42 it will be 2012 and we will have (pobably) just passed the peak of all liquid fossil fuels. Coincidently this is also when the Mayans predicted the end of time.

.

And surely there is something as well deeply meaningful about 2012 in the Bible, or number pi.

What exactely do you refer to ?

This looks like a nice cozy thread. I'm 54. So, so what?

I'll say the old geezers have had some lifetime experience. They have read much more than the Internet would provide for the last few years. Don't get me wrong, current events are reveling. But to be reviling, these events have to be put into context. They have to be measured against human history.

I don't know, and I say that often. But anybody with any ability to think can see that things aren't what most think they are.

It seems that peak oil is like a tripping point, and almost inconsequential as far as the economical/political implications go. The real issues are what the world does in reaction to peak oil. Well, we certainly are not addressing it rationally. What does that leave? A fight?

That is what scares the hell out of me most if I, and my children, are to live.

Something I had learned a long time ago, is that I will die. If I understand that so well, why I'm I doing what I do on the Internet??????

Best, Dan.

It's 1970. Crapattack is 7, blond, dreaming, lying in a field waiting for the bombs. Reading about Hiroshima and skin melting off from radiation burns, slanty-eyed people running to the steaming river to put out their faces on fire, heads bobbing in the bloody water, not deserving it. The good old human race is a surprising, nasty and loving piece of work. The rules of this world are ridiculous and strange, why do people doing the most labour get paid the least? Crapattack wears black and rescues birds that the cat attacks. Try to be good, understand, avoid the blows.

It's 1980. Crapattack has written a play about a killer. A smart boy whose mother doesn't understand him. They ski and never touch. The end of the world is everywhere any moment. Hormones are a b*tch, avoid the blows.

It's 1990. Crapattack has found love and never expected to live that long, everything afterwards is a bonus.

It's 2000. Crapattack knew the world wasn't going to fizzle in Y2K because the world never does here in the 'nice places'. Crapattack made no preparations but observations - something is very wrong.

2006. Eyes open from the dream. My life has come to mean something to me. Regardless of our niceness or because of it the world is dying. I'm not angry, I'm profoundly sad and it's hard to shake. it's our own fault. 3 months ago oil would run out in 100 years, but I had plans. Sure, but some guy'd think of something to keep us sliding along, I had other things people want. Now. Well now, I don't know how the h*ll to farm but I'm gonna try. I'll most likely die. So. This is what my life is going to be. Farmer at the end of the world, defender of land, hoarder, sower of seeds, milker of goats, protector of friends, energy catcher and grower, tide watcher. Ok. So be it. That's fine then, it takes some retuning. If I can get some land to build my nice place. The doors have opened and the bomb is falling and it's not a dream afterall.

Very visual and darkly descriptive stuff Crapattack. It conjures images of something like Pink Floyd's "The Wall".


.

I have been a peakoiler for a couple of months now. I remember the first few days were really bad. Week for week however I have gradually psychologically adjusted to it all. It is a paradigm shift personally. I used to believe in basic business/economic tenets of growth and technology although my view of science had dwindled long before with my adoption of esoteric/new age religious viewpoints. The problem with a complete paradigm shift is to take everything you knew before and to reread it in a different light(every history book or novel or belief or occurrence or theory or relationship). It is like when people write a critique of Shakespeare or something based on feminist lesbian radicalism from the 60s. I have to do this new Peak oil rewriting or rewiring for every part of my life, tearing it all down and building it all back up bit for bit until the foundation is again stable. Since I have a habit of absorbing new paradigms occasionally this is not completely unknown to me and even sometimes a relief to the old drudge of life.

I heard about peak oil sometime last year but did not read up on it so did not "get it". I had heard before that oil was running out in 30-40 years but a friend told me when I mentioned it (10 years ago or more) that he had always heard that too but that they always found exactly that much again so there was no real problem. I could not dispute that really.

I think the critical thing in my life ( I am 40) was access to internet in late 90's. I can check things infinitely faster for truth than before. I can communicate with people and develop interrests and hobbies which would have been closed to me.

Essentially reality is an agreement or a convention between people on what is to be believed and accepted. this changes over time slowly. Whoever controls the medium of information controls the current paradigm. Without internet and mobile telephones,etc. we would not have had sept. 11 or the antiglobalizing movement which were both subcultures trying to change the current paradigm by cheap information/commnication methods. This finally seems to be taking hold. I am into astrology(since beginning 2000 when I read an article describing basic personality of each sign and could not believe that they could fit me and my wife so clearly,me Psisces, wife-Leo). I had thought this was crap before for idiots. Previous to that in mid 90s I had started with yoga and meditation to relieve stress and stay fit generally. Well I mention Astrology as a lot of things fit here. I read a good article on Pluto going through sagitarrius(1995-2008), this happens every 248 years. the last times we had Pluto in Sagittarius were the high renaissance(1500) and the enlightenment(1750) in Europe. Information explosion was the word of the day in both eras(followed in succession by heavy government repression then revolution over about a 30 year period so watch out). Additionally the astrologically aware know that Uranus was together with Neptune in early 1990s in Aquarius(every 171 years). Now Uranus is high tech/Aquarius is communications. This was just the time of the internet boom. Now we always get a shot of reality from Saturn(real bastard that one). Every 20 years Saturn and Jupiter(party time/santa claus) meet ( in1940/1960/1980/200/2020). We know in early 1940s we got WWII and in early 1960s we got worst part of cold war and in 1980 it flamed up again after a long detente. 2000 stock market crash was therefore obvious and several years political tension(911,Irak war,etc.). The question is where are we now going. I have been worrying about this for awhile and read a 6 volume/2400 pages history of Europe as well as other history books(Mongols, chinese history, Jewish history, Middle Ages, ancient european,etc.) to get some feel for the Next Big Thing. I was aware from the standard horoscopes that Uranus met pluto in oppsotion to Saturn in 1965-1966 and that in 1968 Jupiter came around to meet up with Uranus to as it was still opposed to Saturn. Everyone knows we had a really big paradigm shift then. the next big paradigm shift was 1989(end ofEast bloc/bipolar world order). Saturn and Uranus were conjunct in 1988. No big surprise therefore when The shit hits the fan next time Saturn and Uranus meet or are in opposition. That happens on US election day 2008(surprise?). In 2010 they are still in similar position when Jupiter meets Uranus. Jupiter has a tendency to expand(read explode here) everything that is happening. So I expect the real impact of what we are talking about in this forum to hit the whole society open in the face between 2008 and 2010. After that point you would have to be brain dead to not see the writing on the wall for whatever is going on. By then everyone will have played their cards(EU,USA govts., big business,Arabs,etc.) and the direction will be set for the next act of the play(by 2020-Saturn/Jupiter conjunction).

Now for those of you who do not "believe" in astrology I would simply suggest that as biological beings we have electrical energy currents controlling our chemical processes. the planets have big magnetic fields. The interactions between our fields and the planetary fields cause our physical/emotional reactions(particularly if we are not aware) and this is were we get the question of peak oil being in and of itself unimportant. What is critical is our reaction to it. People are in the mass unaware. the planets meeting or opposing each othe directly brings awareness as their energy is so intense at hat point in time(like sticking your hand into an electrical socket or into a fire).

RacerJace, I didn't think of that the other night when I was writing this but you're right! The Wall was my era afterall - maybe I was channeling it a bit. I think I was starting to fall asleep and may have been dreaming. It's very odd to me though, how denial works, and how resistant we are to bad news, even when many of us have always known in our hearts this civilization was going to end and we talked ourselves out of it when the bombs didn't fall on us. Funny thing is it's just taking a long time to fall. I think there is a good cartoon in that.

I think we're all channeling here, and there we go. The poster before sure was born under the picies sign, so was I - we are the crazy folks, the intuitive ones.

I've never put much into Astrology although I'm pretty open to the idea. My partner is Pisces so I certainly know about that one! I'm Cancer with Gemini rising. I've never really felt like what they describe but I was 2 1/2 months preemie. Does that matter? I guess I should have been a Sagittarius.

Micro,

I'm kinda with Bob Cousins on this one, albeit in a less cruel manner.

I think it is simply one of those things that you do in the course of living and never consider. Being honest, it is quickly apparent that it is quite impossible to consider and thoroughly research everything you find yourself in touch with on a daily basis. Think about it. You wake up from sleeping, hop into the shower (where did this water come from? will it last? what about the energy heating the water?), get dressed (how many Tibetans died making my T shirt?), pour your coffee (free-trade? pesticide free?), put on your aftershave (any mice killed in the testing of this product?), grab your briefcase (enviro-polluting plastic or cruel killing leather?), hop into your car (will the oil peak next month? can I afford the gas?), get on the freeway (how will these roads be maintained if the deficit gets too high?) ...and on and on...

One person cannot be informed or an expert about everything. Therefore, you must depend to some extent on others to "take care of things". Every time I drive over a bridge I hope that there's enough money to inspect that bridge, that the bridge inspector knows what he or she is doing, and that the recommendations are followed. If they're not, I might be floating down the river. If I am, so be it. You can't exist in civilization without faith of some sort, in some things. I think this is largely true with peak oil. Most people never stopped to consider in their day-to-day living, and those that did had faith that the problem would be resolved.

Of course, there are those that are just ignorant and blissful - give 'em NASCAR and Budweiser and life is good.

PS: Being from the South, I noticed your post about being in a gifted program in public school. Without offending too many people, a gifted program in the South is akin to a normal program in the West and Northeast. I have the experience of kids who attended public schools in the Northeast and the South as personal proof.