by MonteQuest » Tue 14 Sep 2004, 18:51:58
Grond quote:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') even saw one poster say something like 'and the windmills will require spare parts; all of these things will be irreplaceable'. Yeah? And since when is it that just because the electricity goes out for a while that the human collective conciousness loses the memory of how to machine parts? Will the loss of electricity also render all the libraries in the world obsolete? Will the loss of electricity cause hospitals to spontaneously turn to dust?
No, but the ability to meet demand for many manufactured will be impossible in most cases. The hospitals won't turn to dust, but the patients will. And while people are starving it will be hard to use up that oil to build nuclear power plants while people idly stand by.
Manufactured. Like it is a given. I, and many others who post these boards try in every way to make cogent, salient arguments based upon facts, not some prophecy from the Hall of Fools. We are a very complex, industrialized society that has always operated on the margins. Today, even without the advent of peak-oil, we find ourselves unable to sustain our present economic climate.
Since our economy at any given moment consists of sixty million people scurrying to the next ‘blue light special” to buy goods on credit made by people 12,000 miles away, we can expect some pretty far-reaching consequences.
Lastly, where will the capital come from to do all this? We are dealing with a mechanism of rate and magnitude beyond our ability to forestall. That is not doom and gloom, that is the hand we have been dealt. It is up to us to determine our hand and to place our bets. I hope you win.

A Saudi saying, "My father rode a camel. I drive a car. My son flies a jet-plane. His son will ride a camel."