anyone got Peak Oil concerns?

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  • mannybolone said:
    I'm holding hope for a Dyson sphere.

    dope!

    b/w

    dyson ring
    dyson swarm



  • rey....for once i agree with you almost entirely. gotta find me that curvy sherrifs daughter.
    for real tho, i realized early on when i was working around food system issues in high schools that i was just trying to build community and awareness around local resilience in case something like this comes along. same now with sustainable housing. still...jesus, philly is so not ready for something big. there are a lot of peeps who are, whole neighborhoods even, but they are still surrounded by the majority of folks who are dealing with a much more immediate reality.

    biggest drawback of a doomstead is youd probably go batshit crazy and kill yourself.
    im leaning toward working hard on the communty level in philly but nurturing ties to a rural high elevation safe haven with ample water. global warming is the wild card in the whole game...we have little idea how its gonna change regional climates.

    day...with you completely. who knows how the internet will hold up...but right now, people are so completely tied into it its scary. i know nothing about hacking, but id imagine a savvy high school kid could take over my identity pretty smoothely with a couple days of computer work...bank,email,facebook,paypal,etc

  • okem,
    i wasnt ignoring the overarching systemic reliance on oil at all...just was trying to have less of a political discussion and more of a "are any of yall planning" discussion.

    i agree with you completely. but its going to get harder and harder for american power brokers to ensure american economies. they can barely do it now. national economies are almost secondary to multinational economics anyway in certain respects.

    theres a lot of activity in small town UK around grass roots preparations for power down transitions. its not doom and gloom at all but basically community revitalization (very influenced by Heinberg and Rob Hopkins). Transition Towns. some are even introducing their own currencies. its mostly small towns, but i think Bristol started one too.its basically assuming that gov is not going to plan, so people might as well get on with it...and in many cases they end up getting local government blessing and support.


  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts


    I'm this guy.

    I look at it much like I look at the changes in the music biz that happening.

    Everything is going to change. We will be fine.

    Doomsday scenarios of people fighting in the street for a scrap of food, or a pint of oil is not the future I imagine.

    Things will change. The availability of easy oil is ending. Prices will go up.

    China and India will surpass the USA and EU (and Russia) as the dominate economic AND military powers in the world.

    Wheat and beef will become harder to obtain.

    The results of these coming changes is we will make changes to accommodate.

    When oil is no longer a viable energy source, we will use less energy.
    We will make changes to the grid to make it function better with less dependable sources, such as wind and solar.
    It will become economically feasible to run transmission lines from places like East Texas and the Dakotas to population centers.

    It's fun to pretend that because of the demand for electricity private companies invested in power plants and transmission lines so they could make a profit.
    Rural electrification is paid for by taxes, government run power companies like the bonneville power administration, the Tennessee Valley Authority provide much of the nations power at low (highly subsidized) rates.
    Today oil and nuclear are highly subsidized by the government.

    There are lots of energy sources on the horizon. None will pack the energy per gallon of oil, but they will keep us from becoming Mad Max.

    There are 2 major technological hurdles for wind and solar. Storage and adopting the grid and our habits so that energy is used when it is being created and conserved when it is not.

    There is one major hurdle for hydrogen fuel cells. How to get hydrogen with out using more energy in production than you will get from the hydrogen.

    There are multiple wave energy projects going now.
    The hurdle there, is how do you create a turbine that the surf doesn't destroy.

    These are not perpetual motion type problems. They are straight forward engineering problems.

    As for food production. Rural Renewal. Get some chickens.

    My bil predicts we will soon be subsisting on, squirrel, rat and cat.

  • LaserWolf said:


    My bil predicts we will soon be subsisting on, squirrel, rat and cat.

    RABBIT!!!!! dont forget rabbits!!!!
    they taste as good as they look.


    dan, i hope the average american is ready to be more resourceful and less energy reliant, but anecdotal evidence does not bode well for their adaptability

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    tripledouble said:
    LaserWolf said:


    My bil predicts we will soon be subsisting on, squirrel, rat and cat.

    RABBIT!!!!! dont forget rabbits!!!!
    they taste as good as they look.


    dan, i hope the average american is ready to be more resourceful and less energy reliant, but anecdotal evidence does not bode well for their adaptability

    I don't have the dates and numbers in front of me, but...

    In the 70s it was predicted that the number of people relying on the Bull Run Watershed (one of the cleanest in the nation) would double in a few decades. Thus twice as much water would need to be found.

    By the late 90s the number of people had doubled but water usage was flat.
    Why, low flow toilets, shower heads and changing peoples lawn watering habits.

    We can do this folks!

  • LaserWolfLaserWolf Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
    tripledouble said:
    LaserWolf said:


    My bil predicts we will soon be subsisting on, squirrel, rat and cat.

    RABBIT!!!!! dont forget rabbits!!!!
    they taste as good as they look.


    dan, i hope the average american is ready to be more resourceful and less energy reliant, but anecdotal evidence does not bode well for their adaptability

    Rabbits are few and far between in my neighborhood, but cats are plentiful.

    We also have coyotes, which will have to be eradicated because they will be competing with us for meat.

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    The one thing that has not been mentioned in this thread that will keep Mad Max from our door is nuclear power. There is no real shortage of the necessary materials and it contributes relatively little to global warming.

    The drawbacks are obvious, but it can serve as a stop-gap if it's needed. France gets 78% of it's power from nuclear as of 2010.

  • i read that at current levels of usage the world has 60 more years of uranium. if a lot of new reactors are built to compensate for fossil fuels, the 60 year supply would decrease

    and as good as it is for generating electric. you cant put that shit in cars. unless youre talking about switching over to a fleet of electric cars and creating the infrastructure to support it.

    plus it takes a while (and a lot of energy) to build reactors, so the longer we keep dithering, the harder/more expensive its going to become to build more

  • DuderonomyDuderonomy Haut de la Garenne 7,784 Posts
    God help America...


  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Duderonomy said:
    God help America...


    Please to explain to us poor Yanks how you guys get such a good handle on your drunks, fuckwits and morons becauase it seems you just don't have any of these in the UK!!

  • DuderonomyDuderonomy Haut de la Garenne 7,784 Posts
    Rockadelic said:
    Duderonomy said:
    God help America...


    Please to explain to us poor Yanks how you guys get such a good handle on your drunks, fuckwits and morons becauase it seems you just don't have any of these in the UK!!

    Chicken nuggets available for breakfast.

    Nah, if the vid had been in England I would've posted the same thing, just thought it was amusing that people are discussing the breakdown of society 'Mad Max' as if it's something a loooong way off in the future.

    b/w

    watched The Road for the first time a few days ago. That's a nasty picture.

  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    Rockadelic said:

    Please to explain to us poor Yanks how you guys get such a good handle on your drunks, fuckwits and morons becauase it seems you just don't have any of these in the UK!!

    We fast track them into the government.

  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    Horseleech said:
    The one thing that has not been mentioned in this thread that will keep Mad Max from our door is nuclear power. There is no real shortage of the necessary materials and it contributes relatively little to global warming.

    The drawbacks are obvious, but it can serve as a stop-gap if it's needed. France gets 78% of it's power from nuclear as of 2010.

    I mentioned it, apparently nobody reads my posts.
    Nuclear energy
    Fusion with Tritium and helium 3
    tidal energy

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    Duderonomy said:
    Rockadelic said:
    Duderonomy said:
    God help America...


    Please to explain to us poor Yanks how you guys get such a good handle on your drunks, fuckwits and morons becauase it seems you just don't have any of these in the UK!!

    Chicken nuggets available for breakfast.


    Really.....if God is to help America, Chicken Nuggets for Breakfast is near the top of the list??




  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    The_Non said:
    Horseleech said:
    The one thing that has not been mentioned in this thread that will keep Mad Max from our door is nuclear power. There is no real shortage of the necessary materials and it contributes relatively little to global warming.

    The drawbacks are obvious, but it can serve as a stop-gap if it's needed. France gets 78% of it's power from nuclear as of 2010.

    I mentioned it, apparently nobody reads my posts.
    Nuclear energy
    Fusion with Tritium and helium 3
    tidal energy

    Nuclear energy is a no brainer....we have Nuclear Power Plants that have been built and never opened (Suffolk County, NY) and others that run at less than 50% capacity.

    A 40 year cushion to develop a new sustainable source could be all we need.

    Tidal energy is probably the least likely of that trio.

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    Rockadelic said:
    Nuclear energy is a no brainer....we have Nuclear Power Plants that have been built and never opened (Suffolk County, NY) and others that run at less than 50% capacity.

    A 40 year cushion to develop a new sustainable source could be all we need.

    Tidal energy is probably the least likely of that trio.

    I've been following tidal since it comes up in Cape Cod a lot, but it doesn't look particularly promising except for a few local applications. The grocery store on Roosevelt Island in NYC uses it, but the East River is an unusual body of water.

    There are two main problems. One is that while tides are massively powerful, they're power is rarely concentrated in a small location. The other is that anything designed to harness them has to be immersed in salt water, and things in salt water don't last very long unless they are incredibly (and expensively) well made.

    I didn't know that we only had 60 years or so of uranium left - time to recycle some nukes?

  • DuderonomyDuderonomy Haut de la Garenne 7,784 Posts
    Horseleech said:

    I didn't know that we only had 60 years or so of uranium left - time to recycle some nukes?


    Apparently there's a lot of uranium in Iraq. You might have to dig up bodies to get to it, though I'm sure Rumsfeld would be more than happy to initiate such a plan.

  • the iraqi uranium is probably from the spent uranium tiped bullets we so graciously sprayed across the country in our noble mission.

  • PunditPundit 438 Posts
    just watched all of these yesterday, found the whole thing to be extremely informative..







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