[Chocky]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'m not alone, I know there are plenty others who are not doing anything. I hate that its true, but it is.

[Guest]

yeah once a man just started talking to me. ( like you did to those kids im 15 years old) except his theory was about the evil jews and how they were taking over the world.
I think that makes an interesting comparison to what you did

p.s. i am pretty sure he was german

[PenultimateManStanding]

I work two jobs: substitute teacher (high school) and Italian Restaraunt delivery driver. Everybody knows about peak oil at the restaraunt because I told them. It helps to have a mordant, dark sense of humor, Sencha. We make jokes about cannibals coming. If you knew that you were going to die in six months it would be one thing, but if you knew we WERE ALL going to die in six months, wow, that's pretty heavy stuff. I tell some of the high school kids about peak oil and they pick up on it quick. I think through the years the collective mind has begun to accept the end of times idea without really knowing how or what it means. Peak oil is going mainstream soon. Awareness is rising fast.

[Whitecrab]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sencha', 'T')here's nothing responsible about force feeding peak oil down someone's throat. Give them their blissful ignorance while it lasts. Think about it, how many people that become aware, are actually equipped to do anything about it?

[PenultimateManStanding]

For those of you who have kids as I do, check out The Ballad Of Hollis Brown by Bob Dylan:

Way out in the wilderness a cold coyote calls
Way out in the wilderness a cold coyote caallls
Your eyes fix on the shotgun thats a-hangin' on your wall

[0mar]

Learning about peak oil has been one of the biggest events in my life. I went from fairly cautious about my energy use to totally neurotic Because of peak oil, I am keen to follow current events, have a greater apperciation for just how far we have come (and how high the cliff is ), knowledge of the alternatives' strengths and shortcomings, just how disasterous peak oil will be and how/why the government can't help us. I have tried spreading the word, but I think it's because I am an avowed communist (before knowing about PO, I knew that growth can't continue forever, but never saw the catalyst like PO will be) I don't think very many people take me seriously. I give them every single tidbit of pertitant information, but meh, they always counter with one of the illogical points like infinite oil, nukes, etc etc. Few know how crucial oil is to our industrial society.

Peak oil is the only reason I am doing biofuel/biomass research programs now instead of neuroscience/neurocognitive. I know I can't solve the problem, but if someone in the next stage of human society can benefit from my work, then it'd be all worth it. Hell, if I can kill enough people and force families to harvest my crops, I think I may be able to see the next stage :D

[PenultimateManStanding]

Your baby's eyes are a pleading now its a pounding on your brain
Your baby's eyes are a pleading now its a pounding on your brain
Your wife's screams stab you like a dirty driving rain

[tokyo_to_motueka]

i'm not sure why sencha-kun is on such a downer about knowing about peak oil and telling other people.

of course, ranting on to people who just aren't interested is just a waste of time, but if someone shows some curiosity, why not at least tell them where to go and find out the facts for themself?

if they then think it's bs, that's their choice, if they gather information useful to them, good luck to them.

just because you know our crappy consumption-based society is heading for the garbage can doesn't mean you'll wake up in 1, 3 or 5 years time and life will be over. believe it or not, life without WALMART and Taco Bell will still be fun.

our lives will cease to be based on exploiting cheap resources and cheap labour from the other side of the world. we will have to rely more on our own practical abilities, building strong relationships in our own local communities and linking up with other communities in a non-exploitative way.

[mgibbons19]

OTOH, you took a kid who had a chance at not being a gang-banger, robbed him of hope, and probably turned him right back towards where he was coming from.

If the oil apocalypse comes tomorrow, no prob.

If it comes thirty years from now, you may have taken the possibility of a drug free, incarceration free shot at the middle class away. Next time you see some random blaxican kid on the news, it might be him, instead of the tinkly feel-good news story about the kid from the ghetto who made good.

[ailrickson73]

Na, you are not a jerk for revealing to them the concept of peak oil. Truth hurts, but its needed.

Smiles all around!

[Coolman]

I think we need to tell people about Peak Oil. They are going to have to figure out sooner or later, everyone will. So you might as well tell them now, before the crisis.

But there will always be those people who don't accept it, even after the fact. Those people scare me. I personally think we will see people like that. Mainly because of demand destruction. If oil prices start to rise a lot then suddenly people start consuming a lot less and the oil prices go down they will be like SEE, THERE IS NO PROBLEM. Then they will start consuming agian and the prices will shoot up. Until one day we are so deep into the shit hole everything just goes crazy.

[PenultimateManStanding]

Your brain is a bleedin' and your legs can't seem to stand
Your brain is a bleedin' and your legs can't seem to stand
Your eyes fix on the shotgun that you're holdin' in your hand

[PenultimateManStanding]

The rats have got your flour, bad blood it got your mare
The rats have got your flour, bad blood it got your mare
Is there anyone that knows is there anyone that cares?

You look for work and money and you walk a ragged mile
You look for work and money and you walk a ragged mile
You spent your last long dollar on seven shotgun shells

You pray to the Lord above oh please send you a friend
You pray to the Lord above oh please send you a friend
Your empty pockets tell that you aint got no friend

[Riddick]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sencha', 'T')here's nothing responsible about force feeding peak oil down someone's throat. Give them their blissful ignorance while it lasts. Think about it, how many people that become aware, are actually equipped to do anything about it?

I'm not alone, I know there are plenty others who are not doing anything. I hate that its true, but it is. I am cornered into my mundane life, and since there is no set date for the crash, even if I wanted to break out of it, it would be a risk too big to take.

Doesn't anybody remember life just being a little bit better before they found out? Sure, I take almost nothing for granted, but that doesn't help. All it does it remind me of what I have to lose someday.

I use the inevitable, impacting asteroid as an example. If you knew an asteroid was going to impact the earth, and there was nothing anyone could do about it, I wouldn't say a damn thing. I'd rather spend my last days with peace of mind, then counting down the end of the world to its last seconds.

[Sencha]

I agree with you, once someone critically analyzes U.S. culture, well I'm sure some level of revulsion is necessary. It is disgusting the way we are as a society.

I just don't know that the majority of the American people, which naturally propagate the materialistic and vein world of ours, are equipped mentally to soften P.O.'s blow. I mean, practically since we learn to walk, we learn how to be consumers, not conservationists.

I'd love to see what would happen if some government official got up in front of national television and said something to the effect of:

"Ok, from now on all gas will be rationed. Luxury items will be scaled back. Everyone will drive specially approved cars that are fuel efficient. A spending cap will be enforced. Oil will be sold on a case-by-case basis. You shall use no power, water or heating beyond X amount of time. blah, blah blah..."

Ok maybe that's a little extreme, but how would the public react? I don't think they'd take it sitting down.

[KiddieKorral]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')k maybe that's a little extreme, but how would the public react?

[Madpaddy]

You did the right thing Ayoob but I wonder what the knowledge of PO combined with weed did to his head later on in the evening.

Colin Campbell is giving a talk in a place nearby next week. I am telling people to go. He is showing the End Of Suburbia film. The people I work with start off by looking at me as if I have 2 heads but when I am finished they generally say " well I reckon you're right". I think a lot of them say that so I will go away or else they just don't care - we Irish can be like that you know. PO is nothing compared to 8 hundred years of occupation by a hostile neighbour.

My inlaws now just think I am a conspiracy theorist, they ring me up whenever there is some bullshit programme on like how the Titanic was never sunk (it was the Olympic) or that Hitler went to South America on a U-Boat.

I don't care anymore either. I am sorting my own shit out and hope to do a good line in Home Brew post peak. Contrary to popular belief, I know that alcohol can sort out most of my problems

[TWilliam]

Bumper Sticker:

"Support Our Troops: Scrap Your SUV"

Ok, so maybe it's not about PO directly. But at least it opens the door for the "resource wars" approach...

[jesus_of_suburbia_old]

Get a peak oiler on the Daily Show.

[brobak]

You know, I work only about two and a half blocks from W.'s front door here in DC.

I admit, I've been entertaining quite a few "conspiracy" websites, as they've caught my interest lately. Especially since so many people consider Peak Oil just a conspiracy.

I've stumbled onto several articles talking about a "nuclear august". There are several ideas tossed around about what might happen, or where, ranging from Al Queda encourages MS-13 gangs exploding old Russian munitions, to a false flag attack on an american city so that we can invade Iran.

Now, being skeptical is definetly a good thing, and I try to be whenever I can. But, to be honest, now that W. is out "vacationing" in Texas (yet again), I don't really like sitting just two blocks from the White House. I mean, if you were gonna strike with something, its either here or NY. And what better target is left than the White House in DC?

Anyways, I know you guys are an understanding bunch when it comes to rational (or irrational) fears. So I just thought I'd get this off my chest. I dont know that I feel any better, but at least its out there.