Peak Oil News and Message Boards

Newfie wrote: And, as a Hail Mary we have our 168 acres on Cape Breton. Far from prime land, but it would heat us. And in the meantime it is a carbon trap.

Wow. Just so happens I've got a trip scheduled to the vicinity of Cape Breton Highlands in late September, any tips on interesting places to stay, places to eat? I'm just there for the natural beauty of the place, but I'll have others along interested in the more mundane chores of travel.

vtsnowedin wrote:I used to drive 45,000 miles a year making my living. I don't miss that one bit. As I live five miles from the nearest paved road I have seen my fill of back roads. Especially during this springs Mud season.

I've heard about mud season in Vermont. I've driven 20 mile long lease roads with dozers spaced regularly for the less prepared oilfield folk, heavy equipment on dirt roads at the wrong time makes its own mud season after any rain.

Retirement for me is going to be an RV towing a motorcycle or Jeep, carrying the dog, picking up the wife at the local airport, seeing some of the places she wants to see, then putting her back on the plane and then me wandering back on my own. With the dog. And in a month or two (the normal frequency where I start getting jumpy) do it all over again. Until my health forces a stop anyway.

Vtsnowedin wrote:Recently I have spent a lot of time monitoring the war in Ukraine along with my usual participation here on Peak oil. That counts as a hobby I guess.

I'm hitting every local twisty (or so claimed) sportbike road in North America. Or Jeeping every back road. Haven't decided yet. Can always read the news at a campground on WiFi. As far from the cesspools that are American cities as possible.

I used to work for New Hampshire DOT and spent a lot of time monitoring paving crews resurfacing roads. We would get a lot of Motorcycle traffic mid summer for the Loudan classic races, but then come late September, leaf peeper season, have a lot come back again to ride on the miles of secondary roads we had smoothed up that summer. 350 to 800 miles statewide a year depending on the budget. You could literally ride from Canada to the sea and be on new pavement at least 60% of the distance. Plenty of camp grounds along the way along with all the other types of accommodations. B&B's etc. It was not unusual to have a group of fifty plus bikes come through our late construction work packages with many giving us a thumbs up for the smooth ride.

AdamB wrote:

Newfie wrote: And, as a Hail Mary we have our 168 acres on Cape Breton. Far from prime land, but it would heat us. And in the meantime it is a carbon trap.

Wow. Just so happens I've got a trip scheduled to the vicinity of Cape Breton Highlands in late September, any tips on interesting places to stay, places to eat? I'm just there for the natural beauty of the place, but I'll have others along interested in the more mundane chores of travel.

The highlands are a nice ride. Going clockwise is one switchback very roughly 85% of the way around that is marked 20kph, with good reason.

Cape Breton is a whole lot of not much, which is good. Near Sydney there is a miners museum and a retired miner w take you down a demonstration tunnel. That is interesting.

In North Sydney is a fossil museum worth a few hours.

Baddeck is a nice small picturesque tourist town. A couple of resturants ice cream joint.

Do take the Little Narrows cable ferry to Iona to see the open air museum which traces how housing developed on the island starting with a replica “Black House.” There is a decent motel just there. Make reservations.

Camping: Some friends sold their boat and bought a small camper. They stick to state camp grounds. Their story is states open reservations 11 to 13 months in advance and are sold out almost instantly. No personal experience.

Japan is continuing along the degrowth path, pulling manufacturing and services back home.

https://gcaptain.com/shipping-chaos-jap ... alization/

In a recent interview, World Economic Forum (WEF) advisor and Israeli-born homosexual Yuval Noah Harari made the bold statement that “We just don’t need the vast majority of the population” in light of technologies that make humans “redundant” in military and economic terms.

Link

That of course begs the question:

What are humans “for”? What is our purpose, our use?

Do I need 3 vehicles?
Maybe: a pickup, EV, long range ICE.
Maybe not: 3 corvettes.
Depends upon the use case.

So what is humans “use case”?
Who gets to decide?

Well certainly the planet could get along just fine without any humans on it.
I do think we humans do have a purpose but for humanity itself so completely self serving.
At the same time I think we need to take care to not destroy the ecology of the planet trying to put three cars in every garage because a diminished ecology would diminish the quality of life for us humans.
That said the current proposals from jet setting ecologists will not do anything to save the ecology and more then likely make things worse.
Show me a plan that actually works and I'll support it .

Vt;

Degrowth IS the plan.

Newfie wrote:Vt;

Degrowth IS the plan.

All the degrowth plans and threads I have seen are nonsense.
Do you have one in mind worth considering?

Newfie wrote:Vt;

Degrowth IS the plan.

Who's plan?

Newfie wrote:Japan is continuing along the degrowth path, pulling manufacturing and services back home.

https://gcaptain.com/shipping-chaos-jap ... alization/

I can't see this working. Capitalism is based on growth. Degrowth means another economic system and the wealthy won't allow that since it would threaten them. The wealthy will just keep importing people from high population growth nations and this will lead to ethnic conflict. Socialism or govt. planned economies are a disaster but these are the only alternative to capitalism. High population growth will run into energy depletion and lead to social breakdown and riots.

We are coming to a collision point no matter what road we take.

Agreed on collision point. And much more else.

The degrowth movement seems to have a very hard time articulating a way forward we can visualize.

Newfie wrote:Agreed on collision point. And much more else.

The degrowth movement seems to have a very hard time articulating a way forward we can visualize.

A statistic I had heard before came over the news again last night. " Over three billion people presently get all their energy by burning wood or dung. "
I don't know how accurate the figure is but the actuality is certainly significant. The future energy needs of these people is perhaps where the most progress can be made. As they are not yet addicted to cheap fossil fuels small scale solar and wind would be a leap forward for them. (I decline to call it a" Great leap forward" for historical reasons).
In the mean time China and India combined are building a new coal fired electric plant every week and intend ,need actually, to do so for the next two decades.
Best we can hope for on that is to get them to install state of the art stack scrubbers on them.

If I was in a very dark mood I would suggest hoping for a quick and deadly war between them.

But it is nice Sunday morning and I am happy.

Newfie wrote:If I was in a very dark mood I would suggest hoping for a quick and deadly war between them.

But it is nice Sunday morning and I am happy.

Yes I have a few dark thoughts about the future but it is a nice day and once I finish watching my favorite talking head Sunday shows I need to get outside and on the tractor.

I don't consider whether thoughts are dark or not but whether they are true. I believe that a person can have a happy and meaningful life in any circumstance- no matter how dire. Reading the stories of people who were in concentration camps I was lifted up by how many of them made a life that was truly worthwhile for what days they had left. In contrast, many people who have everything you could possibly want have lived lives that were basically a hell. My disconnection from a person's environment to how their life goes, frees me I think clearly about the future. When we think the environment is necessary for a happy life, then we tend to bend our thoughts about the future to create what we wish for rather than what we think will really happen. I try to get rid of this bias as much as possible. I just think clearly about what will happen, knowing that I always have the ability to make that future meaningful and good for me.

Regarding renewable energy and third world peoples, one of the biggest dangers is that renewable energy must be replenished. Solar panels and windmills do not last forever. The problem is that it is human nature to put things off or to try to wish away eventual responsibilities. The French have recently had to shut down many nuclear reactors because they failed to do necessary maintenance on them. What happened to the money for the maintenance? Well, it probably went to some other needs or some other wants that people had like pensions and things like that.

Humans will always put off doing things that are unpleasant and wish that they can find a way to get through without having to make hard sacrifices. The problem with renewable energy for third world people's isn't that it won't work for them. The problem is that human nature, being what it is, they will use it up until it is finally spent and not invest anything into replacement panels and windmills- leaving them at a zero energy situation. I wish this weren't true, but everything about human nature tells me that people will do this and therefore renewable energy will most certainly crash and burn wherever they are placed.

Along those lines, and to be frankly honest (and VERY dark) I consider humanity a failed species in its death throws. We have exterminated all competing genetic lines and now we are attempting to exterminate ourselves. A good chance we will succeed.

Newfie wrote:Along those lines, and to be frankly honest (and VERY dark) I consider humanity a failed species in its death throws. We have exterminated all competing genetic lines and now we are attempting to exterminate ourselves. A good chance we will succeed.

I completely agree.

Bloody cold lot here for a Sunday.