by KaiserJeep » Mon 17 Apr 2017, 06:16:14
The only thing most of us got wrong was the scale. Recall that the area under the peak oil curve is just as large after peak as before peak, and contains half the oil. The demand for oil is much higher today than for the roughly 150 years before peak, but there are decades of oil not pumped and burned yet, and we will keep on pumping oil and burning fuel as long as it is profitable to do so with ever increasing energy prices.
I believe we will be in REAL TROUBLE in 50-100 years. Nor am I talking about nonsense like AGW or CC either, I'm still talking about the exhaustion of fossil fuels. When the oil is effectively gone (meaning less and less available at higher and higher prices), we have enough coal and fracked natural gas for a century after that, and if we have not changed our infrastructure by then, the decline will continue. There will NEVER be an event you would call collapse - there will be stock market crashes, brushfire wars, epidemics, refugee crisies, ideological battles at the polls, and all the other things you have seen your entire lives. In other words, BAU for decades to come. The great decline has already begun - great numbers of Boomers are retiring and cutting back on their lifestyles, while the individual economies see efficiencies enabled by digital electronic computers and an omnipresent network.
Get with the program. Quit holding your breath for an event that will never come. Teach your kids and grandkids the skills they need to cope with the decline of our economy. Teach yourself first. Make a plan. Execute the plan. Ensure the survival of your genes in the Darwinian drama to come, which will be playing for a long, long, long time.
It means for me that I will play the role of the crazy old Grandpa, who was prepping for the end of the world, that never came. Meanwhile I'll have a comfortable rural homestead and have endless numbers of fun things for grandkids and maybe great grandkids to see and do.
Today we are canning cherries, Grandkids. Today we are catching and eating fresh trout. Today we are spending a Winter day planning the first planting outside the greenhouse, including what we do if it rains too little or too much. Today we grind flour, and tomorrow we bake bread. Today we make blueberry pancakes in the shape of whales. Today we learn to strip, clean, and reassemble a pump shotgun. Today we are learning how to get your car to start after it runs out of fuel and sucks air. Today Grandpa will share his favorite menu for meatloaf. Today we are pruning apple trees to maximize fruit production. Today we learn how mathematics is used for everything.
They don't have to be wealthy or geniuses. They just need the skills to survive and the desire for a good life. You can do that.
Last edited by
KaiserJeep on Mon 17 Apr 2017, 07:05:02, edited 3 times in total.
KaiserJeep 2.0, Neural Subnode 0010 0000 0001 0110 - 1001 0011 0011, Tertiary Adjunct to Unimatrix 0000 0000 0001
Resistance is Futile, YOU will be Assimilated.
Warning: Messages timestamped before April 1, 2016, 06:00 PST were posted by the unmodified human KaiserJeep 1.0