[FossilFool]

I almost bought a gas mask after 9-11. I went to work on the subway early too to work because I thought the terrorists would gas the people at the peak time. I was kind of scared of bird flu. I wasn't scared of Y2K. I went in an actual fallout shelter under a house. It was pretty cool. It still had the canned goods and stuff.

[hoplite]

Are you kidding? Most of the hardcore peakoilers here are just pissed off y2k boobs... Ask how many of them actually bought huge rice cakes, water purifiers, weapons, etc... thanks to google you can directly link right back to the sillyness of the 1999 era forums- you'll see many familiar handles...

[markam]

My sole prep for y2k was to download the windows 98 patch from microsoft.

I never once thought about the collapse of civilization, even while growing up during the cold war. Now I am trying to decide if civilization will collapse this year or next.

[Ayoob]

I never for a moment considered preparing for any disaster before. Peak oil popped my cherry. All of a sudden, there are several things to confront. The soundness of the dollar. Our economy as a whole. The availability of liquid transportation fuel.

The integrity of our elected officials.

[coyote]

I'm sort of prepared for bird flu, cans, water, etc. Makes sense here in earthquake country anyway. Otherwise no.

[ChicknLittle]

I thought the Y2K panic was funny... I thought the anthrax spores/ bioterrorism scare was overblown... I think that bird flue talk is overblown (yes, birds and monkeys and fleas carry nasty things and one day they will spread... eventually but it is no more urgent this year than last year, we are just tracking and reporting it more closely). I accept the fact that a meteor may hit and wipe life out on earth but do not worry about it. I have never jumped on a worry bandwagon.... until I heard about PeakOil. Either this is different in some way or I'm clinically depressed. Hard to tell.

[Wolfeyes]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FossilFool', 'I') almost bought a gas mask after 9-11. I went to work on the subway early too to work because I thought the terrorists would gas the people at the peak time. I was kind of scared of bird flu. I wasn't scared of Y2K. I went in an actual fallout shelter under a house. It was pretty cool. It still had the canned goods and stuff.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Wolfeyes', '
')I'm not prepared at all - and I don't care but I will tell you it doesn't matter how you will prepare you will not survive without civilization until you are some Amazon indian.

[MD]

No, I haven't. I am not "prepping" for peak oil either.
I am generally prepared for short and long term crises that look possible, which means a small amount of food to carry us through a blizzard and enough other supplies to handle a 3-5 day power failure.

Long term preparedness means keeping my house well maintained, staying debt free, and developing a long and practical skill set list in order to survive severe recession.

If you want to call that "prepping for peak oil", then ok fine.

That's it. I don't worry about the "big one", which means any event beyond my planning capacity. If it gets that bad I might grab a rifle and go on a lawyer hunt or maybe just sit in lotus and wait. It all depends on just how the situation plays out.

In other words, be flexible.

[linlithgowoil]

you cant prepare for peak oil in the sense that you can prepare for the collapse of civilsation, as some people see it.

a few weeks of food etc. and a gun arent going to protect you.

what you should always have though, not really for peak oil but for general emergencies, are a few days of food (which most people have anyway), a little spare drinking water, depending on where you live, and some batteries for torches, some candles etc. maybe a first aid kit just in case.

apart from that, what else can you do? surely people who are talking about being peak oil prepared by stacking canned goods are delusional?

i can see having a long term plan of being debt free, consuming less and getting out of the rat race being a thing to do, but it is long term and wouldnt work if a crisis happened overnight.

thankfully, peak oil will be the 'long emergency' as kunstler puts it. so, that means its good to have a long term plan to help you avoid things like bankruptcy etc.

my long term plan for the next 5-10 years is to be debt free and to be able to work less. i couldnt afford to own land or property so ill just take my chances where i am.

[Pops]

Not really for crises like Y2k or Global Thermonuclear War. More for long spells of little or no work when I was in construction. But I admit, 9/11 did shake me up.

Personally, I think we in the US – anyone younger than 65 anyway, have something of a false sense of security and perhaps a little detachment from how fast life can get pretty tough. Not in the sense of whole civilizations collapsing, as is frequently talked about here, but in the way your cozy little life can take an abrupt turn with a pink slip, health problem or natural disaster.

The confidence that food will always be on the shelves, the check will be in the mail, the hot water ready in the tank and the TV all warmed-up and waiting is quite a lullaby.

I don’t expect, much less hope to see that entire infrastructure disappear overnight. But by the same token, I’m not sure what the harm is in a few cans of pork and beans and a couple of jugs of water in the closet - just in case the check doesn’t arrive.

[aldente]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hoplite', 'A')re you kidding? Most of the hardcore peakoilers here are just pissed off y2k boobs...

[IslandCrow]

Well for 7 years I lived in an underdeveloped country, which was subject to earthquakes (only two roads into the city where I lived), and which while I lived there suffered a trade embargo by its largest trading partner/neighbour. In this situation we had a good stock of food, but it was more triggered by the mentality of "if you think you might need it - buy it today - because it might not be in the shops when you really want it" [This speaks more of erratic flow of goods than overall shortages]. We were aware of possible disasters (and lived through some) but did not make any special preparations as some of the PO doomers are calling for.

I have tended to follow this pattern of a having small back up stock of items that I regularly use even here in the West. this helped me get through last years paper strike without having to panic stock up on toilet paper. (It was a six week strike followed by several weeks before supplies were back and running)

Regarding Y2K - yes I had some plans, but only for minor disruption (say a day or two). As a programmer I knew that there could easily be problems but I knew we were talking about it in one firm I worked in before 1985 (when I left that firm), so I guessed the fear of a total collapse was overblown (as it later proved to be true).

Regarding PO, I am not sure how one plans - I am not going to stockpile 3 years worth of tins - I would be better off learning gardening and how to bottle/can or otherwise preserve the produce. I suppose my main goals at this time are 1) to be able to survive a week in mid winter without electricity and 2) to contain the rising energy costs of my home. Both these goals I believe are sensible in their own right regardless of PO.

[LadyRuby]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', 'I') never for a moment considered preparing for any disaster before. Peak oil popped my cherry. All of a sudden, there are several things to confront. The soundness of the dollar. Our economy as a whole. The availability of liquid transportation fuel.

The integrity of our elected officials.

[PrairieMule]

I keep a 72 hr Go bag of food, water, and other essentials. Just like our goverment recomends.

I also am a "Avid Backpacker" with a tatse for collecting sporting goods, which means I can habitate in my house with my wife and 2 children for at least a week with no power heat, ac, sewage, or water. I guess if things get worse I could go camping at or go visit Dad at the ranch. I also belong to to active Men's ministry at church that occasionally goes to the gun range and we blow off steam with a few guns. I'm not a survival nut, I'm just a taxpaying, mortgage toting, church going, registered voting, average joe. What's that you say? FEMA?Superdome? That's Terrible! I'm sure the goverment will fix that next time. Surley those reports were exagerated.

[Ludi]

Nope. Never prepared before for anything more unusual than the local natural disaster (earthquake in CA, flood and tornado and ice storm in TX).

[jato]

No.

[Liamj]

I giggled abut y2k, flew acoss the country on the eve. My only preparations for pandemics/terrorism are to stay off the trains when the governments approval ratings drop. We've always had at least a few weeks food, just cos organic food is more affordable when bought in bulk.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('albente', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hoplite', 'A')re you kidding? Most of the hardcore peakoilers here are just pissed off y2k boobs...

[sameu]

nope

Y2K is the only one I can recall as being a potential 'civilisation as we know it ender'
but I knew this was a 'bug' in software which could be repaired
the problem was well known and with all the fuss about it corporations put enough people on it to make sure it would be fixed, even had a bunch of it-nerds on location and standing by on new year's eve etc
the only thing i did was download de win98 patch from microsoft, and that was about it

[aldente]

I was not affected by it at all, in so far my spreading this thesis might be completely off