Made the Cover Story of my local Alt-Weekly on Peak Oil, Economic Collapse

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

This week's North Bay Bohemian, you can see the cover here:

http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/06.17.09/

Excerpts:

But the worst-case predictions of post-oil society come from Santa Rosa attorney Matt Savinar, a controversial figure in peak oil premonitions. His website, Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash (www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net), offers an informational survivor's guide for what he is certain is an impending disaster. While other peak oil thinkers frequently talk about "when" the shit hits the fan, Savinar says it already has.

"The shit is hitting the fan now," he says unequivocally. "It's just happening in slow motion, and it's not hitting equally in all places."

Asked what individuals can do to ease their way into life after the oil crash, the 30-year-old advises people to "learn basic camping skills." Wilderness survival tactics will also be handy in the world that's dawning. He urges Americans to relocate geographically to within miles of their families, as social support networks will be crucial in the coming age. For himself, Savinar hopes to marry into a large family.

While Transitionists see the coming change as one of potential enrichment—community gardens, cycling, skilled artisans at every corner—Savinar's outlook is a bleak and shadowy contrast. He warns that in the foreseeable future the world will experience "staggering horror." While life in remembered times has been about "the pursuit of victory and money," life in the near future, he predicts, "will be about tragedy. We've been able to externalize this reality to the future and to other places only because we had access to this incredibly dense source of energy," he says.

No longer. Savinar can't say when, but he believes that a time will come well within just one generation when even supermarkets must close their doors. Then, unless the goal of Transition—to build resilience into communities—takes effect soon, chaos could only ensue in a culture so spoiled by excess and mass consumption as ours. In the North Bay, says the Post Carbon Institute's Miller, residents have the open space, the soil, the sun, the water and the resources to hit the ground running when peak oil arrives. What the community doesn't have, he says, is a full collective understanding of how much people need to cut back on individual consumption and how quickly they need to do it.

Savinar says too many people's happiness depends dearly on external items and flimsy concepts of wealth. These people must reprioritize their value systems now and quit "waddling through Wal-Mart." They must wean themselves from the comforts of supermarkets, leisure time and television. They—we—must forfeit luxuries; instead of feasting on steak, one may have to give thanks to a plate of beans and rice. Instead of vacations to Europe, we might have to settle for camping weekends at Salt Point State Park.

Because, if the predictions are true, we will not always have Paris.

A bit later in the article:

Savinar has been trying for years to invite government participation in peak oil preparation. In 2005, he sent a letter of warning to each member of the Santa Rosa City Council, advising that they begin aggressively readying the community for peak oil and its aftermath. The letter was articulate and "lawyerly," he says, and included a copy of Heinberg's Party's Over in each package, yet not one councilperson responded.

"And I guarantee that if I was a car manufacturer and I scribbled out a letter with crayons, they would have answered me," he says with a short laugh.

Full article: http://www.bohemian.com/bohemian/06.17.09/feature-0924.html

[anarchist]

how popular is the bohemian?

[DoomNymph]

Good job, Matt!

[731]

Why are you cited as a 'controversial figure'?

[Domscott66]

I think he's controversial hahahahah

[Six Gun Jim]

Congrats chief, unfortunately for the future of America you still rank lower in popularity than such American icons like the hulkster and Emannuel Lewis.  I can't see much chance of you getting a reality show either, the dead contestants might become a bit unnerving to the audience. But, we all know the truth anway, you're the man.  -James

[anarchist]

great article btw matt. you were a little too optimistic though.

[JohnLudi]

"Staggering Horror"...now THERE is a snappy catchphrase if ever I heard one!

[DarthBruder]

As a reporter, I was extremely impressed with the article.

It wasn't "balanced" with quotes from Cornucopians, because an article like this shouldn't be.

It was "balanced" instead with differing views on the severity of doom.

Perfectly appropriate.

Matt, you're lucky you have such a reporter in your community who also has an editor willing to consider such ideas.

Also, you didn't come off as a nut.

Lastly, the article was well-written (exceptionally well for a weekly) and, undoubtedly, well-edited (unheard of for a weekly).

Thanks for sharing.

[shankland_the_dog]

I figured, "whew boy..OK...another peak oil newspaper article where they'll try and trash the study of peak oil and those who believe in it"

BUT OMG...it was actually well presented. I'm impressed. The cover is a hoot, are you going to have it framed?

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

As a reporter, I was extremely impressed with the article.

It wasn't "balanced" with quotes from Cornucopians, because an article like this shouldn't be.

It was "balanced" instead with differing views on the severity of doom.

Perfectly appropriate.

Matt, you're lucky you have such a reporter in your community who also has an editor willing to consider such ideas.

Also, you didn't come off as a nut.

Lastly, the article was well-written (exceptionally well for a weekly) and, undoubtedly, well-edited (unheard of for a weekly).

My feelings precisely. The guy is my age (29-30), had just come across LATOC and was floored by it. (And this is from somebody who was far from uninformed even prior to coming across LATOC) I directed him to Dmitry's articles as a way to get his head around what he just uncovered.

I had read a bunch of his articles dating back several years so I already knew who he was when he contacted me.

[DarthBruder]

That's good work on your part prior-to, then.

Hey, those reporters are out there. We are, man, and we're trying.

[lilboyblue]

Really well done.  It's nice to see.

[Bruce]

 At times we all have been dismayed at the opinions of those we try to help by giving them the strait skinny. At least Matt's article is sure to wake some readers up, even if it's only one or two. The more the future is revealed by mass media the more numbers we might actually convince. The ones that have had it in their faces over and over and chose to live in a state of denial are the very ones that will try to steal your stuff when it all comes down.................................Bruce

[Deckard1973]

"The shit is hitting the fan now," he says unequivocally. "It's just happening in slow motion, and it's not hitting equally in all places."

Now that is a great line! 

Congrats Matt!