Forgetting about peak oil?

by **pea-jay** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 04:33:15

No I am not suggesting we forget about this subject matter. What I am referring to is a reaction/response of other when told about the subject matter. I have a few collegues and friends that I have discussed this subject matter with and they thought about it contemplatively and more or less agreed that, gee we have a serious problem and we probably should do something about it.

But yet, when I run into them at a later time and they start talking about a new car or the next piece of real estate they are going to try to acquire and I ask them why they would do that in light of our looming energy crisis, they get quiet and either shrug and don't answer or come up with some lame excuse. Now remember, I am not talking about those that openly reject Peak Oil. Just those that consider it, accept it, then go on with their lives without any change.

Did they forget about it? Unlearn it?
Or did it never sink in past a superficial level to begin with? Is it that they don't expect any impacts soon or will happen to them personally?

Do you think this just another coping strategy or do they legitemately for get about the subject?

This isnt even the first time for one of my collegues to learn about the demise of petrocivilization. A collegue told me that a professor in his college that told his students that civilization would begin to exceed its oil supply in about 15 years. I asked him when that was when he was told this about the lifespan of cheap oil. He said 1990.

by **MonteQuest** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 05:08:37

Cultural direction and asset inertia. I've said it many times here. It will be our major obstacle. We won't act until we are in a crisis.

by **Ardalla** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 05:17:43

We could react before an energy crisis happens, but people are not going to respond until the dogs start barking. That's the problem. We have highly-trained, expensive watchdogs that are howling at the moon and scratching fleas. They are not barking because ...

why in the hell are they not barking!?

by **Kaare_Mai** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 05:38:11

Another reason for so many not to worry is that they have this attitude to things: "Oh well, i'll take it as it comes.. I don't wan't to worry about it now."

They KNOW its true but just don't wan't to worry!

Thank god im not one of them.

by **killJOY** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 07:27:47

It's just so unprecedented, and people react according to what they see happening around them, which aside from gradually rising prices is not much.

In case you haven't heard of the Riddle of the Lily Pond yet:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('E.O.Wilson', ' ')"The importance of long term thinking is illustrated by this French riddle . . . consider a pond, that is implanted with one lily pad, and each day, the lily pads in the pond double. The pond becomes completely full and there's no more room for lily pads to multiply on the thirtieth day. When is the pond half full and half empty? On the twenty-ninth day. And the environmentalist looks at the human population and grants that there's still empty parts of the world that can be converted to agriculture, and we can still squeeze in another billion or two, and maybe keep on going a little bit more. But the real environmentalist says "hey, looks like we're on the twenty-ninth day. Let's pull it short right now before we go all the way."

by **aldente** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 11:29:05

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pea-jay', '
')Or did it never sink in past a superficial level to begin with?
Do you think this just another coping strategy or do they legitemately for get about the subject?

by **Aaron** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 11:41:00

Keep in mid that peak oil is exactly as the name implies...

We are producing more oil than our world has ever produced.

This may very well be our golden age.

And you're surprised that people living in these resource abundant times have trouble actually integrating depletion into their daily lives?

As Monte said... herein lies the problem.

by **oiless** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 14:41:38

When you discuss things with people that they don't want to hear they agree with you to shut you up.

by **bobeau** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 16:17:46

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('oiless', 'W')hen you discuss things with people that they don't want to hear they agree with you to shut you up.

by **nero** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 18:47:38

You're expecting people to rationally restrict their consumption. You might as well ask an unreformed alcoholic with a beer sitting infront of him to not drink it. Most of us are born consumer addicts. It is so pervasive that we are hardly aware that there is an alternative.

People are alot less rational than we think. Often even our "rational decisions" are just rationalizations.

by **smiley** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 19:12:45

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'K')ING ARNULF Now, I know what some of you must be thinking... the day has come.... we're all going down, etc. etc. But let's get away from the fantasy and look at the FACTS.

CITIZEN We... er... do seem to be going down quite fast, Your Majesty - not trying to contradict you, course.

KING ARNULF No, of course you're not, citizen. But let's stick to the facts. There has NEVER been a safer, more certain way of keeping the peace. So whatever's happening, you can rest assured, Hy-Brasil is NOT sinking. Repeat, NOT sinking.

....

ERIK What are you all doing?

CITIZEN AT THE BACK (cheerfully) It's all right. It's not happening.

ERIK (urgently) The place is sinking!

CITIZEN AT THE BACK Yes... I thought it was too, but the King's just pointed out that it can't be.

ERIK Save yourselves! Hy-Brasil... is sinking.

CITIZEN FROM MIDDLE Look, you don't know our safety regulations.

KING ARNULF It can't happen.

ERIK But it IS! Look!

KING ARNULF (ignoring Erik) The important thing is not to panic.

CITIZENS Quite... yes... we understand....

KING ARNULF I've already appointed the Chancellor as Chairman of a committee to find out exactly what IS going on, and meantime I suggest we have a sing-song!

CITIZENS Good idea!

by **Jdelagado** » Sat 16 Jul 2005, 20:20:28

I forgot about peakoil once I heard Alex Jones stating that it is a scam from the IMF.....

I think peakoil.com is OWNED by the IMF since I haven't been able to find who owns it from register.com and others....

jdelagado

by **Hawkcreek** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 01:25:01

by **Bedevere** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 03:51:20

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'w')hen I think about it, I just buy another gun, or more ammo

by **aldente** » Sun 17 Jul 2005, 12:31:51

The old mantra is, you "buy the rumor, sell the news". This is the reason you'll never see "Peak Oil" covered by a respected media outlet.
There's an aspect to the concept of "Peak Oil" which I don't believe is sufficiently grasped by people following the subject. It's the understanding that the most dangerous aspect we face is not really the state of the resource itself--the actual "Peak" dates or depletion rates, or any of the physical realities of oil supply/demand--but rather....

read the rest of the article here:
deconsumption

Forgetting about peak oil?

Forgetting about peak oil?

Re: Forgetting about peak oil?

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