[AirlinePilot]

This place is getting to me. I have been here now over two years and it seems things during the last few months have taken a decidedly uglier tune than late last year. I do not dispute PO and embrace what is happening fully.

I am still in the "I don't really know what to do" stage with planning. I am way past the denial, anger, frozen with fear stage.
I am now actually beginning to think forward about what I am going to do If I lose my piloting job. I do think this is going to happen within the next 5-10 years. I do acknowledge it could happen much sooner also.

I would love to hear some good news though for a change. Maybe a few hundred billion bbl field found in our backyard? Or a few large exploration success anywhere. It sure seems like the problems are slowly worsening and while we all appear to know about it, the rest of society, the industry, and government run around like the three blind mice. Its like watching a wreck in slow motion.

Is there any good news? Is it possible we push the peak out a few more years with MRC and "reserves growth"?

Somewhow I doubt it, it seems we are on some roller coaster ride and we wont be allowed to get off. The ride doesnt get any funner, just more fatiguing and scary each time we go around the track. Its fun at first, but its starting to get tough to hold on, and personally I'd like to get off.

I know where we are potentially headed, I dont have any illusions about being saved. I think I just needed a rant. This may not be the right place for it so mods can do what you want with it. I wonder how many others still have that tiny shred of hope that we can continue on a bit longer as we are?

I know I'll get some crap for that, but trust me I don't believe it. My brain was so well trained and tuned to the current flawed paradigm of "growth", I guess its just those last vestiges of hope letting go.

And it sucks, it truly sucks.

[scienceteacher]

The good news is that the price of WTI is DOWN again today!

[mmasters]

I agree it sucks.

IMO we have a few more years before the real roller coaster. This is just the warmup.

[SevenTen]

The good news is you're going to die.

Now for the bad news ... you cannot rely on the system to create your good news anymore. Peak Oil, Peak Gas, Peak Technology, Peak iPods, Peak Bees, Peak Wheat, Peak Water, Peak Good News.

Seriously, you want some good news? Here is the good news: from now on you will need to make all your good news all yourself.

{thread moved from Current Energy News by Shannymara}

[Gazzatrone]

Well hopefully this should cheer you up.

Gasoline prices have risen for the last 10 weeks straight and are now 20 percent higher since the start of the year.

Strong demand, refinery problems, the looming summer driving season, and declining supplies as refiners switch to cleaner burning summer blends have all been cited as reasons for the runup......

But every cloud has a silver lining.

.......In 1980, the average American had to work 105 minutes to buy enough gas to drive the average car 100 miles, David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, said in a study last year. By 2006, the average American needed to work only 52 minutes, thanks in part to better fuel efficiency but mostly due to higher wages.

Will the real Prof. Bartlett please stand up
Please stand up.
Please stand up.

[Eli]

The good news is that your understanding of PO will be proven correct over the summer and in the coming years. The bad news is your understanding of PO will be proven correct over the summer and the coming years.

Yeah Masters this is only the warm up. But the undulating plateau is going to be bad enough.

With the noise coming out of KSA and Russia I would have to say that we have 80% of growing ourselves right over the cliff. The most likely scenario I see is uneasiness and herky jerky global markets followed by a complete collapse of the current system and overall panic in many quarters of the world.

[simontay78]

Hey...try to fly something that does not use fossil fuel...or try to encourage someone to invent one...if possible...

Hopefully...serious alternative rocket engines can replace current fossil fuel engines!

If there are serious contender to such flying options...then it will be good news...otherwise...decide to invest into other skills that make similar income...

seek and you shall find!

[IanC]

Dear Pilot,

Sometimes I can't help but feel that the bad news IS the good news. I have a morbid fascination with watching the facade crumble. I want us to be forced back into a more realistic way of living on the planet. I fully realize that I speak from a position of privilage - white guy in a stable country and that the rest of the world will be suffering much more and much sooner than me. Ever since I became PO aware though, I've found the waiting painful. Knowing that the runaway train bringing your doom is just around the corner, out of sight is almost as bad as seeing it hurtle toward you.

-IanC

[frankthetank]

Airline~

Last night i was watching PBS and caught 2 programs that just support the case that humans fuck up everything they touch. The first was about a Loggerhead turtle who had to swim from Mexico to Japan to lay some eggs. These turtles use to come to these beaches in huge numbers, now only a few due to man.

The next program was about the Tall Grass Prairies that stretched from Canada to the Gulf Coast. White man fixed that in one with one crop....Corn.

Yup... Mankind is truly fucked. No way in hell that this planet supports 6 billion humans with declining oil and all of its population boosting benefits.

[Dopamine]

As an airline pilot you have a bird's eye view of the fungus that grows and spreads out beneath you. More roads, houses and businesses. Growth is good, right? Not really. Whenever I took a flight I just couldn't imagine the amount of natural gas, electricity and oil that all of those structures devoured on a daily basis. My greatest fear is being stuck in the cold. Here in Kentucky from November to May can be dank and cold. I wouldn't want to live here with the thermostat set at 50F. Where was paradise before the industrial age? Maybe the Hawaiian islands. It's 80 degrees year round with good soil, coffee and fruit, lots of wind for a turbine, lots of sun for PV. If I were financially able I would pick out 5 prime acres on the big island. Even if you don't move there others with deep pockets will be looking to get out of Dodge and while real estate elsewhere is going to depreciate, yours will appreciate. And if Pearl Harbor is nuked the prevailing tradewinds are from the notheast and will push fallout in the other direction. Also the big island gets 30% of its electricity from geothermal. Up here in the temperate zone I just see a lot of dirty people grubbing in the mud stealing from each other and trying but failing to keep warm and without any hope of something better. I think you have to create your own good news or have a dream and try to make it happen before its too late.

[MattSavinar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AirlinePilot', 'T')his place is getting to me. I have been here now over two years and it seems things during the last few months have taken a decidedly uglier tune than late last year. I do not dispute PO and embrace what is happening fully.

I am still in the "I don't really know what to do" stage with planning. I am way past the denial, anger, frozen with fear stage.
I am now actually beginning to think forward about what I am going to do If I lose my piloting job. I do think this is going to happen within the next 5-10 years. I do acknowledge it could happen much sooner also.

I would love to hear some good news though for a change. Maybe a few hundred billion bbl field found in our backyard? Or a few large exploration success anywhere. It sure seems like the problems are slowly worsening and while we all appear to know about it, the rest of society, the industry, and government run around like the three blind mice. Its like watching a wreck in slow motion.

Is there any good news? Is it possible we push the peak out a few more years with MRC and "reserves growth"?

Somewhow I doubt it, it seems we are on some roller coaster ride and we wont be allowed to get off. The ride doesnt get any funner, just more fatiguing and scary each time we go around the track. Its fun at first, but its starting to get tough to hold on, and personally I'd like to get off.

I know where we are potentially headed, I dont have any illusions about being saved. I think I just needed a rant. This may not be the right place for it so mods can do what you want with it. I wonder how many others still have that tiny shred of hope that we can continue on a bit longer as we are?

I know I'll get some crap for that, but trust me I don't believe it. My brain was so well trained and tuned to the current flawed paradigm of "growth", I guess its just those last vestiges of hope letting go.

And it sucks, it truly sucks.

[benzoil]

Good news...hmmm...sorry. All out.

Historically, if you look at the last 100 years of history it has almost all been bad news.
1900 - Gay 90's end with recession; US frontier officially closed
1910 - Flight/automobile make news. Good news then. Now?
1914- WWI
1918 - War ends; recession in U.S.
1920's - Business bounces back; automobile/tractor depress farm prices
1930s- Depression/rearmament
1940s - WW2, cold war, brief recession in U.S.
1950s - More Cold War
1960s - More Cold War + Vietnam
1970s - Energy Crisis, closing of gold window, stagflation
1980s - US becomes debtor nation; manufacturing base erodes.
1990s - recession to start; tech bubble to end
2000s - housing bubble; energy crisis 2.

Interspersed in stuff like this we put a man on the moon, cured polio, invented penicillin and created the green revolution and rock n roll music.

Whenever the bad news piles up, I go to poultry and gardening sites (or those threads on this site). Even if PO ends up canceled due to some miracle cure and we dodge the population/climate change bullets, there's something to be said for learning about things like raising chickens or how to prune an apple tree.

The other thing I try to remember is that people tend to compress future predictions into a much tighter window than they actually occur. This is going to be a long, drawn out affair. You can afford to take a vacation from it when you need to.

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MattSavinar', 'S')ounds to me like somebody needs to take up drinking.

[Pops]

I agree with Seven; you already are making your own news:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AirlinePilot', 'I') do not dispute PO and embrace what is happening fully.

[AirlinePilot]

Yup, misery loves company!

I am learning rapidly how to not miss the little things which make life and it's experiences rich and fulfilling. Sharing with my family and my kids, enjoying what we have now before its gone. I think thats an important one. If you have some things you want to do, you need to think about it soon. In the not too distant future I believe much of the free time we enjoy now will be taken up by neccessary things later.

Honestly I'm not a depressed sort of person. I only get like this every now and then. I snap out of it pretty darn quick really. I have always been like that, Im an artist, and enjoy working with my hands. I think it's why I'm such a good pilot and why I enjoy it so much. There has alawys been some romance for me about working amongst the clouds or spending time there.

A sunrise viewed from my cockpit is one of those "moments" which I really relish now. I'm one of few human beings who gets to see it like we do. I know lots of folks travel, but there is something awe inpsiring about viewing it from up front, with a big window, versus out of the passenger ones.

I think actually I will be fine, my knowledge and experience will stand with me once things start down the crapper. I really worry more and more though about the world my children will inherit. I wish I had known sooner, I truly do.

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AirlinePilot', ' ')I think actually I will be fine, my knowledge and experience will stand with me once things start down the crapper. I really worry more and more though about the world my children will inherit. I wish I had known sooner, I truly do.

[Retsel]

Here is some good news. GreenFuels has just started up a demonstration plant that demonstrates a technology that converts CO2 from a power plant to algae. The algae produces a lipid which can be used to make biodiesel or it can be hydrotreated to make a more conventional diesel fuel. Unlike soybeans or rapeseed, which can only produce about 100 gallons of oil per acre, algae can produce around 10,000 gallons per acre. Thus this technology is promising for replacing liquid fuels sourced from petroleum sources.

See: http://www.greenfuelonline.com/gf_files ... jun_PR.pdf

Retsel

[mgibbons19]

Hey Man,

You need to put PO on the back burner and read something else for a while. I suggest Strauss and Howe (1997) The Fourth Turning.

[syrac818]

Hmmmm....when are you going to hear the good news?

You sure as hell aren't going to find it here.

I mean, were you serious when you asked that on this site? This place has been depressing from the beginning. Some excerpts from the responses you got:

- The good news is you're going to die.
- I have a morbid fascination with watching the facade crumble.
- Knowing that the runaway train bringing your doom is just around the corner
- And if Pearl Harbor is nuked the prevailing tradewinds are from the notheast and will push fallout in the other direction



WTF?? You came here searching for uplifting news. Dude, it doesn't exist here. I'm pretty sure you know that already. If you like, you can find all sorts of fatalistic, doomsday forums on the web for all sorts of subjects: bird flu, nuclear war, islamism, christian facism, bioterror, this gigantic meteor thing that's supposed to hit in 2020, etc...

You either make the choice to live in constant fear, or you don't. In the grand scheme of things, our current situation isn't shit! You have kids, a wife, you seem like a happy guy.

Don't mess with it...

Nobody knows the future, and that certainly holds true for this site (the world should have collapsed by now, judging from a number of posts 3-4 years back). Keep moving forward. The only thing that's guaranteed is change, and the more rigid you become in your thinking, the less you will be able to adapt.

[Jack]

Good news depends, I think, upon perspective.

If I say: Oil is in a strong uptrend.

It's bad - gasoline costs more, energy costs more, the economy slows.

It's good - certain investments appreciate.

Now, let us suppose that the more dire forecasts are true. Our civilization - the world we live in - enters an era of crushing decline. Certainly it's bad; fewer amenities, fewer goods, a poorer lifestyle in every way. Probably a shorter life, too.

But...it's good too. Yes. I, for one, am tired of globalization. Peak Oil should end that. I find ever more intrusive government, more homogenized mass media, and more aggressive political correctness annoying. I think Peak Oil will change that, too.

I remember a time when I could only receive three channels of television - but I found more to enjoy than I do on the 500+ channels I have now.

I think we are so buried in the effluvia of our affluence that we are deprived of the enjoyment of the things we acquired. We cannot stir the abundance with a stick. Perhaps you remember a time when you had to save to get something. The purchase was deferred for weeks, perhaps months, as the anticipation grew. Now, we grab something, put it on the plastic, attend to it for 30 minutes (or less), and toss it aside to gather dust.

When was the last time any of us really savored a strawberry? No, I don't mean gulping it down, followed up with a chaser, after which we say "yeah, whatever" and make two calls on the cell phone. I mean eating small bites and really tasting it. Can anyone even remember the last time? I thought not.

How much time do any of us have to get to know...anyone? No, we're much too busy.

So, you see, it's really all in the perspective.