[AirlinePilot]

This afternoon, around 430pm my daughter goes whooping through the house yelling "No school on monday and tuesday!!!! No School!!!!!

She was on the phone with her buddy whose mom is a teacher and she said the Governor of Georgia was going to shut down schools to conserve oil and gas by not driving buses for a few days. I called and confirmed it with the school board.

I was flabbergasted!!! Anyone ever have anything like this happen to thier kids?? I know I have never heard of it before and don't hope to hear it again anytime soon.

There is worry about a shortage according to the school board when I called. I have not seen nor heard about any shortages except for a day or two after Katrina hit and that was short lived. Very interesting it wasnt in local or Atlanta news.

I guess we need to come up with something different, can't use "snow day" need to come up with a "Peak Oil day

[lotrfan55345]

LOL.

Are you serious? I wish Minnesota would do that... I have a ton of homework to do this weekend...

[anthem]

Count any day that your children do not spend in public school as one more day toward real freedom of thought.

[Carrie]

The school board in Jackson County, Kentucky has just approved a 4-day school week to reduce gas costs.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')cross Kentucky, school districts are cutting field trips, redrawing bus routes or curtailing athletic events to cope with rising fuel costs. But no one's making quite as dramatic a change as Jackson County.

Starting the week of Oct. 17, students will get every Friday off. Teachers will work half a day.

With the move, approved by the school board Sept. 5, Jackson becomes the fourth school district in the state to implement a four-day week, and the first to do so primarily for financial reasons.

[jaws]

I thought Kunstler was a just a nut when he said the south would be worst affected by oil issues because of their poor social priorities, but damn, have I been proven wrong.

[aldente]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leaf', 'N')othing amazes me anymore of teh plain stupidity of Americans. I'll bet even in a fule shortgage they will have NASCAR going 500 miles around a circle track.

[DesertBear2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('I_Like_Plants', '
')Coincidentally, the South may or may not do well depending on how squarely they face reality. I suspect they'll do all right.

[ozkrenske]

DesertBear,
Why would the following not work;
I ride my bike on public property/thoroughfare, dog attacks, I shoot dog. Please explain problem.

I mean really why is this not a legitimate solution, followed by lawsuit against owner for non control of obviously dangerous animal.

The US south seems to so strong on firearm posession, so why not use it. If anyone tries to use the why are you on a bike/walking argument ask them seriously if they are suggesting that is an unsafe activity due to wild animal attack.

Here in Aus, no guns and I have killed two dogs that have attacked me and my dog while walking. I walk long distances(25 miles) through semi Rural areas most weekends and have been attacked by a pig dog and pitbull/staffy cross on public lands. Both were dispatched with my staff/walking stick after they attacked. I called the police both times and both times that was the end of it. No discussion about the possibility that walking is dangerous. In fact both times the owners were prosecuted. Of course this sort of dog has killed four local citizens (two seniors and two children) in the last 5 years so you are unlikely to get into trouble.

Just in case I'm about to be flamed massively for horrible actions against dogs. I was hospitalised by one of these attacks and own/ed three dogs(Fox terrier for rats/mice, Schnauzer cause I like em, Wolfhound lost to snake), all well trained and correctly contained on my property or on leashes while off property. I actually like animals, more than some people, so I did not like doing what I had to do, but I am not going to allow myself to be mauled. It was principally the owners fault.

[BabyPeanut]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leaf', 'D')id you note, the schools canceled but they still are allowing extra activities...ie Football!

[MrPC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shannymara', 'I') am a Yankee/Texan hybrid, and I can understand Kunstler's point of view. But I think he is stereotyping too much with respect to the south. It's a huge area, after all.

[ozkrenske]

A question,

Here in Aus you are not allowed to abandon children at home during work hours if they are under a certain age. What exactly are working families meant to do if all of a sudden they will have young children at home on Monday/Tuesday or possibly all mondays?

As to keeping children out of trouble, that appears to be a lot of what School is these days. Unpaid childcare with some educational effect. In fact without school there would probably be a labour shortage across the US as 30 million plus low paid employees would stay home to care for children. Of course this would also massively decrease consumer spending, further hurting the economy.

By the way no dog attacks on my walk today.

[Specop_007]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ozkrenske', '
')
Here in Aus, no guns and I have killed two dogs that have attacked me and my dog while walking. I walk long distances(25 miles) through semi Rural areas most weekends and have been attacked by a pig dog and pitbull/staffy cross on public lands.

[EnemyCombatant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')ut anyplace that has a big black population "50% of the south" will be chaotic!

[Hawkcreek]

--

[pup55]

Macon Telegraph

So let's get this straight....

When Katrina hit, the GA gas tax was revoked for one month, effectively reducing the price, encouraging people to not conserve.

Now, a couple of days off of school, supposedly encouraging people to conserve.

Rather than take the snow days during the winter, when it actually snows and people more or less are forced to stay home, the snow days are taken when the weather is good, thus encouraging people to head to the mall. Presumably they will be "made up" later, so maybe the fuel consumption was actually only deferred, rather than reduced, and nothing will be accomplished except putting out a lot of parents.

What happens if another three months rolls around, and the refineries can't get caught up? More days off?

Also, what signal is this sending to the kids about how high of a priority education is? It's obviously less important than shopping, because the mall is open, and the school is shut.

[AirlinePilot]

pup,

Very astute observations. I would bet that most of the savings in the form of the deisel for the busses was consumed by extra driving due to school being out and families going to do stuff they might not otherwise be doing on a normal wekend.

I think most folks on this thread are missing the point of my original post!

WHEN THE HELL DID ANYONE EVER HEAR OF ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE?? This absolutely SCREAMS Peak Oil to me. This is just the beginning, as supply problems crop up its going to get worse over time.

The Governor is doing it to CONSERVE, and we all know its probably too little too late, but at least the problem is becoming mainstream. As far as making up days, here in GA we wont be doing that. They allow a certain amount of this before we have to go more days at the end of the year. So for now this IS conserving these two days of Bus Diesel.

CNN did a short piece on this today and I think they missed another opportunity to delve into the root causes. It also is a signal to me that things may get worse a lot faster than I originally thought. The timeline seems very compressed all of a sudden and this does not bode well for
any kind of "soft" landing.

[pup55]

I agree with you, airline pilot....

This is evidently a lot bigger deal than is being openly talked about, or this guy would not have gone out on any kind of a limb like this. The typical politician would have been to go on TV and do a few sound bites, and this would have passed for leadership.

It will be interesting to see if the situation gets bad enough for them to do something that actually causes pain for any of the cherished groups: small businessmen, commuters, consumers of various types, used car dealers and construction people. Once those people are inconvenienced, we will know it is a true crisis.

[FireJack]

The more I looks at whats happening the more it seems like we are heading toward a hardcore crash. I am going to start looking into survival gear, in case roving gangs become a problem. Better to hide and survive while the die off begins.