[seldom_seen]

If we manage to slip through the resource wars without nuking each other to smithereens. My greatest fear is the devolution of industrial civilization in the form of the last great rape of nature.

I see the following:

-- Massive deforestation due to people using wood for heating and cooking.
-- Complete mountain ranges and landscapes reduced to rubble and pollution to get at oil shales and coal beds.
-- dark skies of soot and smoke.
-- fish and game wiped out on a massive scale as enforcement breaks down, and people take what they can get from the land.
-- a breakdown in waste disposal and sewage systems.

Some of these forces are well underway, but post peak I see them accelerating to a catastrophic level. Whereby the environmental degradation will make a die-off that much more likely and large scale due to the greatly reduced carrying capacity of the land.

Just trying to think positive today.

[EnergySpin]

Seldom_Seen this is why the "devolution" should not let happen (at least not in the sense you are alluding to).
Some industries have to go; but the ones that can help with survival i.e. energy, mass transit, agricutlutre and international transport have to survive at the expense of others. That might include heavy subsidies but so be it.
It is the third world that will inflict the last hit if left to their own devices. A wind turbine and a small hydrogen storage capacity SHOULD BE SPENT THERE and not here. If we left them to their own, then the scenario you descirbe will happen. We have to make choices ... choices that will help with human and environmental survival. It will be humans who will inflict the final rape that's why any proposal to let the system take the nosedive is crime against nature

[Ghog]

Unfortunately a real possibility. Which is why we need preparation, so the desperation factor isn't there. If humanity isn't at its end, then they probably won't burn, rape and pillage.

[EnergySpin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ghog', 'U')nfortunately a real possibility. Which is why we need preparation, so the desperation factor isn't there. If humanity isn't at its end, then they probably won't burn, rape and pillage.

[FireJack]

I wouldn't worry about doomsday scenerios too much. What will actually happen is impossible to predict, it really depends on how governemnts and people react. The best course of action (as far as I can tell) is to become as self sufficient as possible.
Mabey after the initial chaos subsides there will be complete environmental destruction but without cheap energy that will be difficult. I think adaptibilty will be the key. That and getting out of california.

[MicroHydro]

How was the world saved in H.G.Wells "War of the Worlds"?

Microbes

How will the planet save herself from the human infestation?

Microbes

I trust in mother nature to thin the human herd before we can cut the last tree and kill the last fish.

[gego]

I am not sure there will be a last great rape of the forrests. Where forrests are privately owned, there is not likely to be overuse. It will only be government owned or controlled lands that will be raped.

There is no way that an individual who intends to rely on his forrest to provide wood and game will do anything but manage his property to best provide for him and his family in the long run.

I think that people will dieoff much more quickly than can be defeated by the protection of private ownership of property.

[savethehumans]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t might even be advantageous to pay people NOT to work.

[EnergySpin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')Post-peak, if those things CAN get worse, they WILL get worse