Who do you talk to?

[Chip Haynes]

In the words of the Chinese take out clerk in "Dude, Where's My Car?":

AND THEN???

You might not want to wait until the happy pills are gone and the TV goes dark before you start to formulate a viable Plan B. Now would be a spiffy keen-o time to maybe arrange to live close to work- close enough to walk or ride a bicycle. (You DO have a bicycle, don't you?) Of course, having an oil-proof job is a bit of a plus. Get your long-temr act together now, while you have the energy- and meds- to do so.

It will make you happy later.

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

About the original question of who you can talk to, I've been lucky in that I've found a couple of people, one 8 years younger than me and one 17 years older who really take this stuff seriously. That, plus 20mg of celexa a day, and a good dose of tv sports and I'm sufficiently content enough to continue my suburban existence until the whole thing collapses. 

I'm not one to take corporate pharmaceuticals unless absolutely necessary but if that works for you great. I've found a combination of SAM-e and Rhodiola along with a consistent fish oil intake keep me in a reletively stable mindset. 

[Michelle in Ga]

Sam-e doesn't do much for me. I like st john's wort.

[suburban_junkscape]

As for preparations, my preparations to date are more psychological as in getting comfortable with a brutal future. My plan is to just work as a serf on some guys farm. The lord of the farm will provide the protection which will be invaluable. There is no solution for suburbia. Even if you live right next door to your job you still have all that other travel you have to do like seeing relatives, friends, the doctor, the dentist, the grocery store. Even if you get rid of your car, all the stuff you need has to be flown or trucked in to your local stores. Stuff is just spread so far apart that bicycling in the rain or in the heat of summer doesn't appeal much especially with people driving their trucks 10 mph above the speed limit talking on their cell phones. As for my mental state, in a few months I plan to boost it naturally with some of the above mentioned supplements and/or some regular jogging. I found out about PO in 2003 but it was kind of more of a novelty item, not something that would really happen. Then watching the price of oil in 2004 and 2005, not to mention all the books that came out, pretty much threw me into a messed up state of mind; so I needed something a little more powerful to tide me over until I could come to terms with this stuff.

[SabreKai]

I had another go at talking to my brother about the PO problem about a week ago, suggesting that a farm in the country might be a great idea......


He's all for it, so long as I help him buy and pay for it. Unfortunately he has no money. In other words, I get to buy it and he gets to use it.

Sigh.

Sabre.

[haveeight]

The original question as to who we talk to seems not just an emotional need, but a moral one as well.  The first person I talked to, naturally was my husband.  I had just finished the Long Emergency and insisted he read it too.  He got it, but he's a man that has been worried about the country's finances for years. It all made sense to him. The next person I talked to was our best friend.  She's read Kunstler's book and also clearly understood what will soon happen to the world.  She pasted the information on to her husband, only his response was there was bound to be a new invention to help us when the oil ran out. Sadly it's also the response I've gotten from other people I've talked to. Our near history here in the US has clouded alot of peoples thinking.  The saying is usually, 'We put a man on the moon, we can do anything.'  Point out that we put that man on the moon with oil, and that there will be dramatically less of that to go around just doesn't seem to sink in with them.  They are people with their head in the sand.  My brother in law is like that, he didn't want to hear it, he was sure the problem would be invented away.  Yet I feel a moral obligation to keep trying to talk to people about this coming crash.  People I love espically. It's like knowing a cliff is up ahead of you and your family and friends.  Do you keep that information to yourself hoping they'll see it too before they get to the edge? Or do you try to warn them what lays ahead?  I know I'd want someone to tell me if I was in danger.  That's why people like Kunstler are still writing and talking about PO.  I guess I believe it's up to the people that know about this 'oil cliff' to keep trying to tell others about, even if they don't chose to listen. 

[Chip Haynes]

Yeah, that's pretty much the response we've all gotten at one time or another. A few people get it and understand, but the vast bulk (no pun intended) seem to think that "technology will save us!" I don't see that happening, seeing as how technology got us into this mess in the first place. Get enough eye roll/smirks and you stop trying.

Let 'em find out the hard way.

[Michelle in Ga]

Ive talked to one actual real-life person who got it. But he didn't say much. The rest of you are mere
figments of my imagination

[Nicole]

It's funny, but almost everyone I talk to "gets" it.  They just don't do anything about it.

This may be a symptom of living in a mass urban area.  Everyone here understands how much comes IN to the city and how little goes OUT, and yet people are too paralyzed and numb about the subject to get anywhere... like traffic.

[Chip Haynes]

I guess as long as the stuff keeps coming in, there's no worries.

And by the time it stops, it's too late.

[suburban_junkscape]

As far as people getting it...reading the news today they were talking about a possible al qaeda attack on the huge Ras Tanura loading terminal in Saudi Arabia. If that happens, people might not get the geologic aspects of peak oil, but they will realize instantly how dependent we are on oil and how alternative energy is too little too late. Such an attack would put the price of a barrel into the hundreds for months according to an article I read a couple of years ago.

[Chip Haynes]

   Ah, but that's just exactly what it's going to take to get our attention, isn't it? Hubbert's Curve has been around for fifty years now. The idea that it might be applied to global oil supplies has been around for about that long minus one day. It's not like SOMEONE didn't see it coming, as we keep rushing head long towards it (or past it, as the case may very well be). Those of us that have been looking have to wonder: What's it gonna take to wake these suckers up?
   A successful attack on the main Saudi oil terminal might just do it, even though we get very little of our oil from them. Whatever it might be (the tip over event), it's going to have to do more than simply raise gas prices- it's going to have to cause serious, rationing-inducing shortages right here in River City. It's going to have to totally disrupt our "non-negotiable" American lifestyle. Maybe then we'll get our heads out of the sand, fold up our cell phones, put down that latte and deal with it.

Or not. We'll see.

[7 Billion people]

Nobody I know wants hear anymore of it.......so I dont say shit anymore, I play lots of golf and anything else that I want to be able to think back on while I fight others for a dumpster in the future

[Calles]

There was a show on CNN called "We were warned." It totally broke everything down, although it pointed out Brazil as the best case scenerio as it is oil independant and uses a lot of ethanol.

The problem with comparing brazil with US is that they use sugar cane on soil ripped from the amazon forest. so they have a way warmer climate and helped further global warming by growing more cane that needs oil based fertilizer to keep up yields on crappy soil to repeat the circle.

but it was nice seeing peak oil discussed on national CNN...even if it was 3 am

[suburban_junkscape]

Yea, I saw the same show on CNN. They neglected to mention that Brazil only uses a fraction of the oil that america does, that their biofuel program is causing food prices to rise, or that they have tons of cheap labor so they don't have to mechanize the harvesting of the sugarcane.