[FarmCat]

It started because of my interest in alternative building methods (straw bale, etc.), and in sustainable living. Three years ago that interest drew me to attend the annual Energy Fair that the Midwest Renewable Energy Association holds in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. There I saw a presentation about peak oil. It was interesting, but the speaker really downplayed the effects and I was left with the belief that we would figure something out in time.

Two years ago I went back to the Fair--and Richard Heinberg was a keynote speaker. Wow, did I sit up and take notice! But I really didn't know what to do, or how to get more information. Then, about 8 months ago, I finally read The Party's Over, started exploring other resources, and found this site. I have been keeping up with the news and trying to spread the word ever since.

[sparkylab]

Looking for information on another sunny topic - abrupt global climate change, just over 14 months ago now. Searches led me to LATOC.com, and a few days later, as we say at home, bob's yer uncle, a shifted worldview.

The speed of it all was frightening, really.

[MicroHydro]

Trying to figure out why TPTB enabled the mass murder of people in the WTC on 9/11, led me to conclude that the long anticipated PO had arrived, right on the schedule scientists expected in the 1970s but over three decades before the absurd USGS disinformation date.

At this point, it is pretty clear that the peak plateau started in 1999, peak regular oil was 2004 and as early as 2006, no later than 2008, we begin the plunge off the plateau. The extreme political events from 2000 on have been heavy handed attempts by TPTB to prepare to manage the imminent crisis.

[I_Like_Plants]

I guess what really opened my mind was thinking, "Where does all the energy to do everything we (in the US) do and live with all this manmade stuff come from?" I wanted to know where the apparently massive inputs came from, to get such massive outputs. At first I thought, "Wow, everything comes from sunlight, and farms" then I had to look at this more deeply because as effecient as the US farmer is, that's just not possible. Where do all the THINGS we own (or are owned by) ceme from, how about our completely manmade environment (folks, we're not living in neat little huts made in an evening or two out of branches and leaves like the M'buti) and all the junk like Salad Shooters, etc., the TV we watch ads for the Salad Shooter on, etc.?

Kind of like little Marie Antoinette realizing cake doesn't grow on trees, but most people (and as an American by "people" I mean Americans of course) go on believing cake does grow on trees.*
-----------------------------
* Of course the bread date and a certain pastry-like banana do grow on trees, but you get the idea.

[Specop_007]

I was trying to figure out how to refine cocaine to a more pure, water resistant state. Its hard doing lines of blow off a sweaty hookers ass.
Dont ask me how refining cocaine leads to peak oil.
But after reading about peak oil, I've decided it best to just stay high.

[doufus]

A friend who is an international airline pilot in asia mentioned it cos
they were shit scared on fuel costs. I dismissed it with the usual
excuses but after research i found that the data behind those
defending business as usual just wasn't there. i.e. i needed more
than blanket reassurances.

This tied in with what i knew about the gulf wars as oil escapades with
nothing to do with terror. Indeed, some stirred up terrorism is v. handy
as a cover story.

[sol]

learning about bit torrents, and downloading "the end of suburbia" because it had the most seeds

1 week later totaly changed world view plus during that week of intensive study the asian tsunami hit, that made it a little more tangible than i would have liked

but i'm glad i'm aware and now try to make other people aware

[Beagle]

Two years ago, I was taking an upgrading course at university and surfing the net - trying to find information on oil refining practices, specifically, how impurities like vanadium are dealt with etc. for an exam I had to write. On ships we burn mostly the left-overs from the refining process, heavy residual fuels and the like. Recently, the quality of this stuff has been getting a lot worse. High sulphur and other impurities are more common and the incidence of catalytic fines in our fuels is becoming more of a problem. And costs are increasing very quickly. I wanted to know why and how this was happening.


Anyway, This research lead me to the sales and distribution of marine fuels and other oil related topics and all of that somehow lead to peak oil. It was kinda like getting sucker punched out of nowhere.

[sjn]

I read a report by a climatologist about how he believed global warming wasn't going to be nearly as serious as the IPCC predicted because there won't be enough oil to meet even the lowest of the predicted carbon emissions for the climate models. I already knew that the control of the flow of oil was a top priority of the US and British governments from the two "Gulf Wars". This peaked my curiosity so searched on Google for oil production/depletion rates, found very little data, then I found LATOC, dieoff.com...

I wasn't really surprised by what I found, I've never been convinced about the sustainability of our way of life and have always found it impossible to fit in to our modern society.

As it happens, for years I've been terrified of vCJD and to this day it is a far bigger concern to me. Peak Oil will mean having to use your wits fighting to survive, with vCJD your wits are one of the first things to go!

[Roy]

I saw a post on Rec.Autos.Driving that linked the National Geographic article last summer called "The End of Cheap Oil", read that, and looked at the discussion forum there. I found a link in a comment to LATOC.com. Read Matt's book and sat there in dumbfounded silence.

I thought " no way he could be right". After a good while spent trying to debunk PO, with no success I might add.

Presto/chango -- no more drag racing, car building... I saw where that was headed and got out.... New world view and taking action to prepare for a lower energy future.

[panzer]

I was sent a link to the dieoff website back in 2001 and was quite shocked by it. At the time, I reassured myself that coal resources and nuclear energy would keep mankind going for a long time anyways - but I still wasn't quite secure in my optimism.

However, the idea of peak oil was like a seed that grew inside my mind, and when I came across Matt Savinar's page over a year ago, I was ready to believe.

I think it was much easier to be optimistic four years ago. Now it seems like a black cloud has settled over the world and that there is no way science or the market can avert some sort of traumatic, dare I say catastrophic, correction.

[Geology_Guy]

Read about Hubbert in an energy textbook in 1999. Wondered for a few years why nobody cared about the issue. I guess $10 a barrel oil will do that to people. Was amazed to find peakoil.com when it came out. Now more people do care at least.

My Dad died in 1989 of cancer, but he was always telling me that this way of life would not last-that everybody would go back to small farms. Did not believe him then really, but Dad was right.

As it was said in T2-It is in your nature to destroy yourselves. We just need to evolve beyond that.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Geology_Guy', ' ')
My Dad died in 1989 of cancer, but he was always telling me that this way of life would not last-that everybody would go back to small farms. Did not believe him then really, but Dad was right.

As it was said in T2-It is in your nature to destroy yourselves. We just need to evolve beyond that.

[Liamj]

First surfed past dieoff.org 2001?, dismissed it as scare mongering, basically on the font/style
then rediscovered in 02? and thought 'well its about time i got a better understanding of energy anyway, get stuck in and falsify this peak oil nonsense'. Within a week it was consuming all my spare time and then some, wasn't till 04 that i could admit that this wasn't some phantasm contrived by artful language and a few dodgy stats. 'Reluctant' isn't the word!
I still think dieoff.org is not easy to read, but the dieoff Q&A elist rocked and i learnt more via that (and EnergyResources) than from 95% of the ppl i've ever met. so thanks Jay, thanks Tom R.

[turmoil]

i think my random google search for 'oil' last summer was an attempt to figure out why three very strange things were happening simultaneously: oil prices were getting higher, george bush was basically tied with john kerry in the polls, and random influential people who are normally moderates or left of center were in full agreement with the Iraq War.

My search yielded Matt Savinar's site/book and I found PO.com from there.

The red pill has a bitter aftertaste.

Also, my suspicions about 9/11 and the Iraq war to begin with fit with my overall assumption that there was a substantial global undertow driving policy.

I figured stupid was the only adjective that was fully qualified to descibe us. And monkeys, well, you be the judge.



Source

[eric_b]

Been aware that oil will run out for some time.

I remember I wrote a paper while in High school.

At that time I thought we'd have until at least 2030 before problems (then 1985).

Discovered this peakoil site a year or two ago. Really liked (and like) the forums. Great to find other
people to talk to about these things.

Do you have any specific details from your peakoil dreams you'd care to share?
What's the mood of the dreams like?

[UIUCstudent01]

Many of you are mentioning dieoff.org... I remember going to that site a couple of times and pretty much thinking it was garbage on the 'net. (C'mon! It looks like it!) I really haven't taken that seriously until I 'got' PO.

I discovered PO when research climate change for a paper when I was in Highschool. But I didn't really grasp anything - just kinda passed it off. I rediscovered it in college when doing another paper for climate change for another rhetoric class... LATOC really got me - I even added a little section on about declining oil reserves and something about how this might be the only reason to not act on climate change and such... (But, since then, I've changed my mind that the world is going to hell because of climate change - we'll burn everything possible then we'll take our garbage turn into oil and burn that too. So, I'm a realist so what? )

And that's how I became a PO cultist...

(I guess I was kinda a slow learner..)

[NevadaGhosts]

I accidentally found out about peak oil by doing a search on Google for predicting future gasoline prices. I ran across Matt`s site. Sometimes I wish I hadn`t done that search. One click changed my life forever.

[Palkerss]

Founding this site was like a 'sign from God', finding an unwanted treasure on the end of the rainbow. I was looking for lyrics of "Archive" band, link to your forum appeared (its still here, somewhere) and well.. It was only a matter of seconds till I started reading other posts, forum sections and silmultaneously, heavily crapping my pants
Now I'm doing my best to convince parents who I live with to pay bigger attention to the price of Crude oil (it's not that important here in Poland as we already pay 4,5$/b). I'm now downloading "the End of Suburbia" and going to shock everybody at the incoming garden party (oh yeah, they're asking for it - i mean, putting effort to place tv in garden just to watch some stupid old videos of myself in bath in front of all these people ). That's about it.
Oh, and I just lurk on the forum, for fear of saying something stupid (like this post IMO).

[Doly]

The war in Iraq.

It made me think: wait a moment, what about all that 70s hippie stuff that there was only enough oil to last until about 2020? Maybe this war has something to do with it? I started googling for oil reserves, and I got a lot of peak oil sites.