Hi, i am 38, live in a village close to munich, bavaria. We have a cute little daughter, 8 months, who i hope to educate in a responsible way, regarding natural resources, ethics and all.
Running my diesel car by rape oil for several years now, some months ago i entered the world of peak oil awareness just by stumbling over the word itself and looking it up in the net.
I do not foresee a new dark age, but am sure that a lot of things, habits, ways of living will be overthrown in the near future. And having read today that now heli-mounteneering (they fly you to the top) is offered in the canadian mountains, i think it is about time. The forced transition of lifestyle, economics, technology and political powersystems will be fierce, accompanied by a recession and lots of people will loose their investments. The timescale will be less than ten years, maybe hardly five years, thats my guess.
Yet, thanks to my wife who is accepting only thoroughly justified scenarios and proposals, i am not an extremist doomer, assembling survival gear in the basement. ((But after September 11, living solitary then, i went into a shopping spree for durable food, partly to explore the eerie feeling, partly it really carried me away. We ate years from this stuff later

). Live will go on and still much better than that of our grandparents. We have a biography of the grandfather of my wife, telling of his rural childhood of hardship, getting up to milk the cattle, school (only 4 years i guess), again heavy work in the afternoon ... Its up to every one to move himself out of the most vulnerable positions. So in my vilion we might get high-tech and low tech (i.e. keeping hens) side to side, Energy being the currency.
No, our plans are to live secure and without debt in our own property, close to public transport, (though i prefer the car), in commuting distance to the city. Then we plan to become further independent to fossil fuel, insulation of the house, use of solar heating, while i dream of storing solar power from the summer in the earth an to extract it in winter. In the meantime we hope to fill up our big Oil-tank in the basement before hurricane season arrives and the gap to 100$/bbl narrows to a slit in 2006.
I have some irrational hopes about PO to cure or burn out lots of maladies of the economy, the society and detrimental effects of globalisation. And there is the irrational fear that some babarians will overrun us when our hollowed out shell of culture, nation, state is collapsing. By a vague feeling i percieve the entire western civilisation since the ancient times as a big lie, maybe exept the ancient greek artists, writers and philosophers. These Lies, self-denial and delusion seem to engulf every individual, TV being the perfect symbol for it. Western individuals are compelled to expand and destroy, grab things of material value, get rich, admired and make a lot of fuzz about themselves. Therefore i admire cultures and religions (i.e. of the far east, though little do i know of them) that have their roots in the deep, thoughtful, humble and quiet existence of the individual.
There are lotsa things too, that i absolutely don't understand. Among them is the fact, that people often behave the opposite way they would, if they would give a deep thougt to it. In Germany, the Government is about to impose a tax on biofuels, to make them less competitive to fossile fuels. Nuts. The Bush Administration is ruining the economic, moral und jurisdictional foundations of their country. To what good are they acting so destructive? These people have everything they need for the rest of their life, as far as power and money is concerned. Why aren't they giving a thougt to the bettering of their mind (i'm pathetic, ain't i?). Just saying “Yes, i didn't tell the truth, i'm really sorry and just step down” or “Yes, i am too fed up with rep. corruption, the names and sums are ... “ or sth. Their names would be written in stone. Why can't a lie be called a lie and a military desaster a desaster these times? I cannot discern self-esteem, proudness or moral from their sayings, just greed. (Hardly better in Germany, politicians, mangers a bunch of uninspired, greedy earthlings). Seems that people who are ruminating about staying honest and not letting corrupting themselves just are stuck in low-level jobs today and are kept carefully from responsible positions. Well, as Platon said, there will be no peace on earth, unless philosophers become kings or kings philosophers.
Other ???'s: How globalisation is interfering with local economics: Onions from New Zealand are cheaper than the ones grown here. Some programming tasks can be mailed to the country where they can be solved cheapest. But i cant have a haircut in New Zealand so my haircutter must somehow interact economically with some sheepshaver in NZ though i refuse to by the 12.000-mile traveled onions of his neighbour farmer and still use indian-bug-fixed software which all puzzles me.
Maybe You can help me sort it out.
that's it for today,
see you about various topics,
anthrobus
The mouse, i`ve been sure for years, limps home from the site of the burning ferris wheel with a brand new, airtight plan for killing the cat.
J. D. Salinger