[weirdo27]

I believe we have just passed peak oil and its all downhill from here and everything is just slowly gonna keep going downhill until a complete collapse within the next five years. Its a little depressing that I have no future, i dont even know why im going to college.

[savethehumans]

Guess what? Refugees from New Orleans at a Houston hotel were evicted, though willing to pay to stay, cuz they were making way more OTHER refugees! And the hotel rooms in Houston are full. Heck, DALLAS is getting calls!

Watching how the nation copes with all these displaced Gulf Coasters should give us a good idea of what's gonna happen when the entire socio-economic house of cards comes tumbling down.

In short, you ain't seen NOTHING, yet!

[MicroHydro]

The unwinding of the oil age does not mean that there is no point in education. Sucessful ancient Greeks and Romans were highly educated.

Also, there are oil wells in Pennsylvania that have produced (slowly) for 144 years. For the rest of the century there will still be a some oil, and the rich will control it. College is a good place to learn skills to be useful to the rich and powerful. Consider Air Force ROTC if you are in the USA. The elites will always need military, and the Air Force is a relatively safe service, especially for non-flying officers. There is also a great need for skilled engineers, geologists, and chemists for the oil industry worldwide, the old generation is dying off.

[GreyGhost]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'w')hy im going to college

[benanderson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MicroHydro', 'F')or the rest of the century there will still be a some oil, and the rich will control it. The elites will always need military, and the Air Force is a relatively safe service, especially for non-flying officers.

[weirdo27]

Yea but i was thinking about going int computers but i dont think that will be a growing industry. I always use to think this oil crisis i would be long dead by the time i would ever begin to see the effects of it. And if the oil disaster is inevitable I will probably be One of teh countless millions that will die... This is one doomsday scenario that i actually i believe is going to happen and their is nothing that can be done to stop it.

[gg3]

Weirdo, I'm a PBX engineer and I can tell you there'll be plenty of work for geeks of all stripes, building telecommute infrastructure and local delivery-logistics systems and other stuff to replace much of our needless driving as the price incentives continue to increase.

That feeling that the system is going to crash overnight, is an artifact of the human fight-or-flight response in combination with our capacity to anticipate and plan ahead. We look ahead and see various population/resource crash curves, and we can see where that's getting us, and then the fight/flight response kicks in with a big dose of adrenalin, which produces the feeling that the demise we foresee is as immediate as a tiger about to pounce.

But it ain't so. The really serious danger is not tomorrow, it's at least a few years out. You have time. Make the most of it.

Read (or re-read) Azimov's original Foundation trilogy, it has a very interesting and I think highly relevant premise: Even when a major societal collapse can't be avoided, its degree and duration can be reduced via the preservation and promulgation of useful knowledge, and via carefully crafted inputs to change mass behavior in subtle ways. That's the strategy I'm pursuing right now. Seek like-minded people, buy land, go sustainable, and preserve whatever you can of civilized ways of living.

And keep in mind that the core of civilization is a) continued increase in knowledge over time, and b) continued decrease in violence over time (defensive warfare against outside attackers doesn't count against the latter). These points apply at the "micro" scale of small groups of friends & families, as much as they do at the macro scale of the larger society.

[Dukat_Reloaded]

Hi, this comment doesn't have much to do with this thread but I just thought I would mention it instead of creating a new thread.

Y2K was media hype and lots of media attention to get people to buy crap.

Peakoil there is no media hype trying to get people to buy crap/supplies.

Weird hey? Ghostly Weird.....

[rogerhb]

There's this chap called George in Crawford who would be more than happy to put up with a few thousand people camping on his ranch. He has been hosting a smaller camp for a couple of weeks now.

[NEOPO]

Me thinks GG is an optomist

(grabs the podium, turns up the doomerosity amplifier and begins to rant)

My new motto is "GOT VILLAGE?" which replaces the old school "GOT OIL?" and the even older "GOT AMMO?".

Society - one of those "flexible" terms...
I think we have seen how "flexible" society really is over the past few days ...............not very..................... and hurricane season ends November 30th!!! pow! bam! boom!!! and then theres next year !!!! and the next......like the immigrants ....they will keep coming.......whew ... is it hot in here or is it just me? .... global warming...... anyone?

Some say we have a double whammy coming yet I see a triple or 4-5 whammy orgy type scenario
I mean its simply useless to watch the screen and try to time the whammies.....they are gonna get us and we are going to lose all of our money!!!!
1. peak oil
2. peak natural gas
3. current and possibly not-so-temporary gasoline/distilates shortage
4. global warming - needs repeating - GLOBAL F#$%^& WARMING!!!!
5. the high probability of an economic meltdown post PO
6. ramping up in nuclear - not good in my opinion
7. resource wars or simply the never ending Iraq-Olypse now scenario.
Need I go further???I think not yet one could.
I bet somewhere in space there is a large rock headed our way as well

Words - I personally enjoy the words "Normal" and "average".

I also like how people say "Alcohol and drugs" and I laugh inside when it happens yet I dont smile and I think the person who said it is stupid

We dont know what me mean anymore.
We dont know what we want.
We want to try everything first and have an open ended deal so we can get out of whatever it is we no longer want... so convenient...
We still havent found what we are looking for yet 50% of the juice that made it all possible is gone.....

Do people really believe we would have the same technology and all that comes with it TODAY if not for cheap oil/energy?????

ah screw it - 90% of you are the choir!!! and I am starting to give a shit less about the other 9%....... sinners and blasphemers !!!! REPENT !! REPENT!!!!

Isamov yes..... I am going to go now and make "recordings" that future generations will listen to for guidance.
Add a little "thus spoke zarathustra" and walla the next evolutionary step for mankind........
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you ....the OVERMAN!

"WHAT MANKIND KNOWS CANNOT COMPARE TO THAT WHICH MANKIND KNOWS NOT"

"we are fuh uh uh uh errrr ahhh uhhh cked!! " comedian Lewis Black

[Macsporan]

(slow clapping) That was one of the most awesome rants ever.

I'm speechless.

Can I be like you when I grow up?

[MD]

it was a good rant, for sure!

As for the topic, the "End of Society" began some time ago. This hurricane won't be noted as the cusp event.

[backstop]

MD -

you may be both right and wrong I think.

We had a storm across UK one night in '87. It contributed, massively, to the crash of the global stock markets 4 days later (will detail if you're interested).

That crash required the launch of an immediate inflationary boom, which of course decayed into a long recession -

Even at the time few saw that storm's significance, but it was none the less pivotal in its effect.

So other events now in the pipeline may well obscure the significance of Katrina, yet her shock coming onto an already well-stressed system may well be a pivotal event that destabilizes the global economy.

The best analogy is that of stamping on a stick, which doesn't break. Now stand on it with one foot, and stamp on it with the other . . .

regards,

Backstop

[retiredguy]

Katrina simply emphasized the point, that, like it or not, humans are still part of nature and subject to its whims. The further we remove ourselves (levees, for example), the harder the eventual fall.

Should be a humbling experience for those who think our technology will save us. Looks pretty ineffective at this point.

[weirdo27]

I think we have reached the breaking point and like i said its all downhill from here. This is another topic but global warming is a scam i dont remember wherei got my facts from but i can refind them if u want. O zone hole is closing again and with global warming it willl just cut warm current off to the poles and then kicking us back into an ice age.

[backstop]

Weirdo -

First - you haven't explained why the measurement of last winter's Antarctic Ozone hole (one of the largest on record) was incorrect, nor why your assessment of Climate Destabilization should be given more credence than the National Science Academies of the US, Europe, India, China and other states.

Second, if you'd like to list your credentials on these issues please do so on a relevant thread, rather than meandering off topic here.

Regards,

Backstop

[dunewalker]

Backstop,

please give weirdo a break! After all, he started this thread, mainly it seems to ask for support... mightn't it be at least partly for him to determine what is "off-topic"?

[backstop]

Woodcutter -

You're dead right -thanks for the heads up.

Weirdo - My oops! Thought it was started by another. What's on topic is indeed your decision.

Regards,

Backstop

[SupplyConcerns]

Little exchanges like the above, which are common on this forum, are part of why I think the peak oil-prepared like us will be useful in keeping together social cohesion and the preservation of civilized ways, if it has to come to that. Our state of mental preparation alone will put us at an advantage and make us somewhat more useful as this thing unfolds. In the Katrina analogy, we would not be the people who were paralyzed by confusion and ignorance... we would be some of the first on the freeway. We'd be able to change our lifestyle instead of hanging on to the old consumerism in vain.

[FairMaiden]

I couldn't agree more with you Supply. Its not the end of "society" but the end of a "lifestyle" where more is better and better is never enough. We always knew it was unsustainable but with cheap oil we were insulated from that reality. Some of us saw beyong that. And its up to us to do everything we can before and after to "help".