[slick50]

I'm an INTP, learned about oil running out by the year 2000, when I was in high school back in 1975. Got married, had 3 kids, now with 2 grandkids, was distracted for 20 years, got divorced, life went on, then a few years ago saw a write-up on Deffeyes book caught my eye, I thought, OMG, I thought the Saudi's have unlimited oil for at least 100 years. If Deffeyes is right this will mean the end of our world as we know it. Found Matt's site a year ago.

Sometimes I'm in denial, even tonight, maybe the new Mexican fields will save us, and maybe there is more undiscovered fields like it elsewhere. But my heart tells me no, and that more oil discovered only delays and excacerbates the coming trouble. My friends say I think too much, but that's what we INTP's do. Cheers.

[Dromescape]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '*')Pan to webcam showing archaen in a dark room surrounded by three computers, a fridge full of soda, and thirty tabs open on his firefox browser*

[NordicThora]

I first found out about peak oil back in 2001, through reading a book from 1997 called "Geodestinies" by a retired geology professor, Walter Youngquist. Soon afterward, I began researching the topic further (I'm a freelance writer and former academic, and I practically *live* in the library). Around the same time, I found Richard Heinberg's MuseLetter website, which I was originally referred to because of his political writings. That led me to William Catton's book "Overshoot" which taught me about carrying capacity, and it just snowballed from there.

When I read Geodestinies, I was stunned and alarmed, but it all made perfect sense. I couldn't believe that this information wasn't widely publicized. I knew the implications would be enormous, and I kept thinking, "someone has GOT to get this information out to the general public!"

I kept on researching. Next I read Thom Hartmann's book "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," and got copies for whoever I thought would read it. Since I had been following Heinberg's work, I was eagerly awaiting the publication of his book "The Party's Over" in April 2002, and I went to the bookstore the day it was released to get a copy, then devoured it in a single day.

I subscribed to the RunningOnEmpty e-mail lists for a short time, read through dieoff.org., etc. I was obsessed with finding every tidbit of information I could find.

For the first year or two, I felt like one in a million. Few people took me seriously when I mentioned PO, yet it seemed to me that it should be the foremost topic on everyone's minds!

Fortunately, the folks in my little tribe all seem to be on pretty much the same page now, and we're now in the midst of forming a small homestead and learning all we can about gardening, rainwater collection, greywater treatment, defense, etc.

Thora

[venky]

I guess I always knew that fossil fuels would not last the 21st century. I remember my Grandad, a geologist, telling me when I was a kid in the early 90's that known supplies of oil only last 20-40 years. I kinda understood even then that without oil we would have a hell lot of trouble when it came to transportation, cars etc. I remember talking to my friends sometimes about how as oil supplies were depleted, we would gradually have to ration oil for more essential purposes and phase out the personal automobile.

Regarding peak oil as such, I probably heard about I think in 2003, cant remember exactly when. Read Jay Hanson's website and some newsletters by Campbell and also some stuff by skeptics such as Michael Lynch. But back then I used to think of Peak oil somewhat as say global warming, not immediate, but rather something that might happen say 15 - 20 years down the line and not probably a catastrophic event. But I spent a lot of time studying peak oil in the summer of 2004, mainly I think because of the spike in prices, and realized that the situation might be more serious than I originally thought. I still dont think that Peak Oil is necessarily a catastrophie, although we humans are quite capable of making it one.

[Frontierenergy1]

The first time that I remember being impressed by what the loss of fossil fuels would bring was in a college course in 1977. At that time energy issues were in the forefront following the embargo and resulting stagflation. Upon graduating into an economy that was still in trouble in 1979 I was pretty much forced into the South Louisiana oilfields. Otherwise I would be homeless and indeed you can say that I was at the time. As a mudlogger (read Cambells book if you want to know what a mudlogger is) I knew pretty much what the discovery ratio of the wells that I was working on. I decided that the future was alternative energy. To save you a long story 25 years later my life has been a series of working in alternative energy when I can and oil exploration/drilling when I have to.

I first read of the concept of "peak oil" as is discussed on this board was in a Scientific American article authored by Colin Cambell in 1998. Although I was not familiar with the concept of Hubberts Peak, I was more than familiar with the concept of depletion. I was to meet Mr. Cambell later that year at a seminar in Denver. I expressed to him that what he had written had confirmed my beliefs that I had had for almost 2 decades.

I still work in the oil field in fact I am at a location as I type this. I dont work in alternatives as much as I would like to, although I still have a few contacts that let me know how things are going. We are so far behind the eight ball in energy that it is difficult to see how we are going to get through it.

[MacG]

First of all, it was wonderful to read this thread. Thanks for resurrecting it. It remind quite a lot about an AA meeting when people tell how they discovered that they were addicts. Well, lets join the circle:

I was 16 in 1973 and understood then that we were acting like madmen in relation to oil. I got hold of an old DC wind turbine and put it up at our off grid summer house charging two lead-acid accs powering a couple of reading lamps. Remained a dissident for long, but society finally chewed and swallowed me when I got kids. All the usual memes got the better part of me for some 20 years, and it was terribly lonly to be a dissident in those days.

About two years ago I was either spit out or crawled out and quickly started to regain my old shape, and made this absolutely wonderful discovery that I was not alone anymore! Thanks all of you!

[rockdoc123]

I first learned of the concept as an undergrad in the early seventies. My Petroleum Geology prof was in the audience when King Hubbert presented his findings to the AAPG. He noted that everyone in the audience thought Hubbert was nuts, but gradually all came around to figuring out he was right. One of my grad thesis supervisors worked for Hubbert at the Shell research center and had some interesting stories to tell about his insight. By the way most who know of Hubbert don't realize that his greater contributions in science were in the fields of rock mechanics and the understanding of pore pressure phenomena. I think at the time the Houston Shell Research center was the earth science equivalent of Princeton's Center for Advanced Learning (home of Einstein, Openheimer, Goedel, Mandelbrot etc.).
Anyways back to topic.....I found the whole concept of depleting resources quite interesting and over the next 30 years began to think more and more about it as I noted that the exploration discoveries and new exploration areas available were gradually dwindling. Over the past 5 or so years I've spent some time trying to understand Yet to be Found numbers for many basins around the world. When Simmons started to make public his proclaimations about Aramco and then the others came out of the woodwork I was relieved to think I wasn't insane and that many of the patterns I had noted were recognized by others.
Given my scientific background I am more interested in the concept of Peak Oil....when it will hit in various places etc. than I am in what will happen after. Like Simmons I expect that somehow we will muddle along. If I'm wrong....well so be it.

[Aaron]

Bumpity bump bump bump

[loadedbeat]

I found out about Peak Oil when i was browsing the Totse Forum's.

I liken it to the choice of taking the red pill or the blue pill. Am i happier that i'm aware of Peak Oil?

This is also my first post here. I once tried to get a peak oil discussion in another forum to no real avail. Here's the link anyway.... http://www.kitta.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2036

[bjj]

The Hirsch report.

[loadedbeat]

I've just started another thread in another forum to check out what (if any) response it will get.

The website is Queenstown.com and this is the link to the thread.

Will be interesting to see how it goes.

[wxman]

Just like a few others on the thread, I found Matt's site through Fark.com. Seems like Peak Oil is brought up in some form weekly there.

[Chaparral]

Knew it was going to happen 25 years ago at the age of 10. My grandfather and I used to discuss history, philosophy, economics, politics' ecology and whatever while sitting by the fireplace up in the desert. Paul Ehrlich's book and the Club of Rome's pronouncements were still recent history then.

Went to school. Travelled the continent. Went to grad school. Travelled the world. Travelled it again. Started buying rental properties & getting a reason to read the business section instead of the comics. Saw the twin towers fall & got Chomsky's version, Dubbya's version & everyone elses version- pipelines were mentioned quite a bit-made a mental note "sumpthin's not right here". Never forgot Paul Ehrlich. Made a fortune in real estate. Taught "Man & Env't" classes in local colleges for a few years & fed the students the standard textbook and USGS crap about 2030. Wondered why real estate was so overpriced in coastal So Cal. Did research as to why- ran across Oil shocks, 1973, Volker, Inflation, Greenspan, 9-11, recession, treasuries etc etc etc. Stumbled across Mi ke Ru pper t's book in early '05 courtesy of a conspiracy nut on a Ferrari forum. Read it cover to cover. Said "holy sheeeeyit!" and "EUREKA!" and found fromthe wilderness.com & po.com from there. Spent a year doing research & read most of the books that Kunstler and everyone else here read & said "holy sheeeeyit!" a whole lot while lurking on PO.com and hunting for all those organic gardening books that my grandmother had from the 1970s.

Thus goes my trace of Ariadne's thread.

[artiko]

Hi. I'm new here and I know about peakoil.com from http://www.oilpeak.pl I'm from Poland

[wildilocks]

December 13, 2005: I found out about Peak oil from reading this post on Metafilter about Richard Rainwater. The article in Fortune is no longer accessible via that link, but it very pointedly mentioned LATOC, which I had to c&p to go and look at - so my curiosity was definitely piqued. After reading LATOC, I was shellshocked and mentioned it on my blog - and it got a handful of not particularly worried responses, along the lines of "oh dear, I didn't realise... oh well, I'm off to do something else now"...

I however, can't stop thinking about it, and have continued researching and thus find myself - here!

[an_amok_canuck]

A vague awareness from one of the many scientific web sites I read somewhere around 2k.

As a software engineer I was to busy to pursue it, with the advent of the Bush** era, I have had a lot of time on my hands... more reading and more investigation has lead to the conclusion that King Hubbards theory is quite accurate... in the absence of accurate data on the world reserves I would have to say if we aren't already on the plateau, we are damn close.

The economics are what will change... we obviously can't go back to an agrarian economy... we will but it won't be voluntary, perhaps thats a better way of putting it. The US is the fat kid on a really skinny block and hence will feel the pain first and most.... why the denial... if you were the erstwhile leader AND a former 'oilman', would you tell your constituency that not only did your second in command ( Dickus Chenious ) know about it, he kept it a secret?

If we get some of the best minds we have working on it, we may mitigate some of the consequences... a 'space program' for energy... but that would take a leader... .like JFK for instance.... sadly lacking at the moment. It will catch up with him shortly... mathematics has a 'tyranny' all its own... kind of like fighting gravity... you will lose... it's only a question of time... but the loss is a foregone conclusion. The only question is how hard are you going to hit.

[thylacine]

The initial spark of thought on the subject were memories of the 70's and predictions, way back then, that oil would be running out by 2000. A later career as a geologist has opened my eyes to the fact that the earth won't endlessly provide the resources we demand of it. Finally, news articles about Shell revising their reserves sharply downward made me have a look on the internet about 6 months ago. What a revelatory hour's Googling that was!

In 30 or 40 years time will we be regaling youngsters with wondrous tales of what life was like back in the Oil Age: personal transporation, climate controlled environments, luxury goods, international travel etc. etc?

Also, why the lack of action by our politicians? Too many hard decisions to make? Heads stuck in the sand like nearly everyone else? Where are the leaders of vision?

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('thylacine', '
')In 30 or 40 years time will we be regaling youngsters with wondrous tales of what life was like back in the Oil Age: personal transporation, climate controlled environments, luxury goods, international travel etc. etc?

[lsu2001]

I found Matt's site while researching for material to use in teaching my high school environmental science class. I have known about the end of oil for years but really never gave it much thought. I was much more concerned about weather and the population bomb. (biology major) After reading the site I have come to the conclusion that it makes perfect sense and I am currently thinking and planning my actions if depression hits. I am lucky that I have a place to go and resources already in place. Now I am concentrating on provisions and long-term survival. oh yeah ENTP here

[spitz]

I'm pretty new to the whole "Peak Oil" scene. I am a freshman at Stanford, and was writing an environmental paper on a picture of an oil rig that I had found on the internet. About a week ago, I came across Matt Savinar's "www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net", and was astonished (to say the least). It seems as though I have discovered this problem at a very crucial time, as so many influential economic leaders in the US and abroad are finally coming around. I fear there is so much to be done, and so little time. My main concern right now is planning for the future. I have alerted my father and close friends, and have prompted them to do their own research (I find that this inductive approach to the problem can be much more powerful). From all that I have seen, I must expect the worst. We as people who actually know of the problems of our age only make up a small percentage of the population. For this reason, a central goal in my opinion should be to educate the public, in the largest scales that we possibly can. To think that the leaders of ExxonMobil, Chevron/Texaco and Shell are all admitting to this reality sends shivers down my spine.