other aspects of peak oil

[undergroundpanther]

The end of oil will cause many changes not just in transportation but in many other areas of industry that have a direct impact on our lives stuff like electricity service,water service ,like food shortages..Peak oil won't just mess up the delivery of food but growing food..Do the math...we are a helluva wasteful civilization..energy wise


Much of our food system is staggeringly inefficient: overall – including energy costs for farm machinery, transportation, processing and feed stocks for agricultural chemicals – the modern food system consumes roughly ten calories of fossil-fuel energy for every calorie of food energy produced.6 Processing is particularly energy-dependent. Next time you reach for a typical 450 gram box of breakfast cereal, for example, you might pause to consider that it could have required over 7000 kilocalories of energy for processing, while the cereal itself provides only 1,100 kilocalories of food energy.

159 threats to us caused by peak oil..
http://www.richardheinberg.com/museletter/159
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2007/10/22/after-peak-oil-peak-food/
http://www.energybulletin.net/5045.html
http://www.energybulletin.net/24319.html

Here are some intensive sites on this issue
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
http://dieoff.org/
http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/survivng.htm

How in the hell do we survive this shit?
People ARE thinking and finding ways to take the changes without becoming a basket case. Learn from them while the web is here.Print out the useful stuff and make a reference book of it,get those index tabs to organize the information, and a big ass 3 ring notebook and a hole punch You will be really glad you have it when you need it.

Learn as many low tech skills as you can. Take a horticulture class, a survival class,or primitive tech,learn to forage wild weeds that are really food,build a backyard forge/kiln,how to use weapons like arrows or an atlatl,raise chickens,or how to raise a cow,composting,installing solar on houses ,how to use a planting stick,build a shelter from junk and such to survive in the cold,how to endure heat and humidity without killing yourself,build solar ovens,how to filter water without commercial filters ,how to share things and other people skills, home medicine & first aid,what to do with empty time on your hands besides being bored or anxious, how to do holds and restrain freaking out people without hurting them and self defense,how to detox from toxins or bio-weapons or chemical weapons,how to sew with a treadle machine, how to be part of a community without pissing everyone in it with you just as stressed out as you are,off,(a.k.a. civility& social skills,under pressure, being a leader without being a bully,)etc etc.

I myself have some of these skills,some more refined than others.
Some I am quite rusty with.Some I only know by reading about how,The sooner you know as much of this stuff you can cram in your head and do it the more you will be able to survive and help others to survive.It's all good stuff to know.Whether the crash comes sudden or slow it chances are will eventually happen.Denial runs deep here.

Maybe it might be useful to try to invite your neighbors to join in with a skill sharing class, or host one every two weeks.Like organize a pot luck dinner weekend get together & survival skills sharing class. The community will become more cohesive and you will make allies.All good stuff too.

Send the invites by hand to everyone's house you can walk to in one day where you live. (usually in a ten mile radius in the suburbs if you are a slow creaky walker like me)Plus walking gives you an appreciation of how things might be like for you living without a car.Pool money and try to outfit each others houses with solar.Doing things like this helps everyone involved survive.
And it can be fun thing before the shit hits the fan to practice together too.

I think it is important that kids can learn this stuff too .Some kids are really fascinated by learning stuff that they can do and they sometimes lighten the mood of the group,and a side benefit you might be giving the kids skills that will save their life and many others lives too..

No video games at these gatherings people have to learn what it is like to fill up time without entertainment from civilization,so when the grids do go dark,they are not going through 'withdrawal'. I found there really is a sort of emotional withdrawal that happens with electronic distractions are not there suddenly.My mom showed me it DOES exist,when her net was cut off awhile.She got irritable and depressed telling me she missed it.It was only down 4 days because the phone company was fixing the phone lines that got knocked down by a tree in a storm.It scared me how dependant I was on electronic distractions. I have been limiting TV and such now it is off most the time.I use my computer more to type or do photo shop now..


It might be a good idea for working folks to prepare for a cut off from work and stuff by spending a weekend in "sudden retirement". Try a weekend, getting by all that time with no car and spending no money.Keeping it local as in walking distance.. After that spend another weekend at home.No going out in the car and buying anything,walking around or a pedal bike is your transportation.Than try doing again it with using no electronic entertainments,
as in the internet,the teevee, no ipods,or anything electronic that you entertain yourself with ,if you got a crank radio use that.(except for fridge and hot water heater going and other currently necessary life preserving devices as in don't go cutting off grandpas' oxygen device!If you want to see how 'addicted' to 'civilized life' you really are.
Keep a diary of how you feel and your thoughts during these hiatus from civilized life .Than you know what it will be like for you emotionally and you may be more prepared when the grid goes out forever.
http://www.sacredlands.org/empire.htm
http://ranprieur.com/essays/saveearth.html
http://aftermathblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/22/surviving-the-first-week-winter/
http://survivingwithincivilization.blogspot.com/
http://www.primitive.org/
http://anthropik.com/fabulousforager/2007/09/confessions-of-a-prissy-primitivist/

[villager]

1. gonna K&R here...

n/t

[brystheguy]

2. Some good links there. Thanks.

I'm trying to convince my wife that we should sell out suburban house and buy a small bungalow on 1.4 acres. (1.4 acres is better than nothing!) For some reason, it's not flying. :(

[TalkingDog]

3. Converting our well to solar is # 1 on our list.

We are okay on our little farmlet. 300 acres of woods behind us, a river and a lake. But absolutely no desire to hump water up a very steep hill for 1/4 mile.

-Wood stove soon to be no problem.
-Garden: check
-Usable "primitive" skill sets in spades: check
-The Spousal Unit has all the cool social skills. Is good at game theory type long range planning (pros, cons, potential outcomes)
-Need a few things for smallish greenhouses so we can have some green stuff overwinter and to start seedlings in late winter.
-Chicken breeder and supplier right down the road. Just need a couple of lots for them and a little house. For our family size we only need 3 or 4 hens to have too many eggs.
-Already can food. Know how to dry and salt preserve.
-Know how to make a primitive still.
-A wrist rocket sling shot might be worth looking into for small game. Though I'd use a .22 rifle as long as possible. More humane way to kill.
-Goin' nekked in summer is good enough, but I do know the procedure for tanning hides for winter-wear.

Also for city dwelling lostlings, look into biointensive farming and drip irrigation. These are easy to do on tiny bits of dirt (like large planters) as long as you keep the soil happy and healthy.

Let's hope some foward thinking moral capitalist (yes, they do exist) dumps some money in to developing affordable alternative energy. I'm already tired just talking about it and we aren't even there yet!


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