Hello to all here on the Peak Oil dot com site. New member, just wanted to introduce myself and say howdy. My Name's Lou and I currently live in San Diego. I've been lurking here for some months, gathering news stories, articles and opinions. I just became a member this week when I saw a posting I wanted to respond to. This is a great website, and the only Peak Oil website I make sure to check every day.
I first learned about Peak Oil back in May I think it was. I was casually perusing a semi-amusing web site about using veggie oil to run our cars... something I linked to from ei2025.org, I think. Anyway, there was a very self-congratulatory message board talking about energy independence – and in the midst of all the happy optimists, there was a single voice talking about something called 'Peak Oil' and calling us all lemmings. There was a link to one of the Peak Oil sites, From The Wilderness I think it was. Needless to say, like all of you I was blown away.

Since then I have created about 500 PDFs from various websites, including pundit articles but attempting to focus on solid news sources. I'm trying to gather as much solid research as I can. I guess I've really been trying to disprove it to myself. I've failed completely. In the last few months there seem to be more and more related stories in the news, and things are looking grimmer.
Denial is everywhere; intelligent, thoughtful people I know reject the idea of Peak Oil out of hand, teasing me for being a news junkie and doomsayer. When I asked a stock market analyst and broker in my family if he was certain the world economy would always continue to grow, he looked at me as if I'd grown an extra head. When I mention resource depletion, I get blank stares followed by an abrupt change in conversation. In my profession, I research the design colors forecast for the next year; the colors for 2006 are warm, fuzzy and 'happy happy happy.' I call them the 'denial colors.'
A common discussion on this website is whether one is a 'soft-lander,' a 'hard-lander,' or a 'doomer.' Like most, I think, I've gone back and forth on this issue. Once in a while there's an article about a promising energy solution, such as yesterday's article on Engineuity, that makes me feel more optimistic. But ever since i watched the Dr Albert Bartlett video on population arithmetic, I've been pretty solidly somewhere between hard landing and doomer. I have always felt that overpopulation was one of our biggest problems, but the good doctor has really clarified the issue for me. I believe we are in overshoot, allowed by fossil fuels; and after oil peaks we are in for a very rough ride, unimaginable to most in this country. I don't think civilization will end, and I'm pretty certain humans will not become extinct. But I do believe that an awful lot of people may die, and that the next few decades could be pretty miserable for us all. Even without Peak Oil, population can't keep growing forever. Peak Oil will simply be the catalyst for a necessary population rebalance; and if it isn't that (and I'm now pretty convinced that it will be), then soon after there will be topsoil and water table depletion and scarcity, desertification etc. One way or another, the world population is untenable. Biology teaches us that nature always deals with this. Anyway, that's my current view. I welcome responses and rebuttals and send a cheerful greeting to all POers here. Hello!
Lou
“Oil is not the problem.” - Charlie.
bartlett video