[coyote]

I got this one back in '05:
Me: But attempts to conserve will be swamped by increased demand from China as they industrialize.
Co-worker: Then we'll just bomb China.
I kid you not.

That was my first big "Oh crap , this subject doesn't go over very well does it?" moment. It's been lesser variations of the same since. Lately people will at least allow you finish a couple of sentences before cutting you off and blaming the speculators or the environmentalists for blocking offshore drilling. Improvement?

[kevinr]

My wife doesn't want to talk about it at all. It's extremely hard for me not to preach to people everytime I hear someone say, "How 'bout those gas prices?"
As far as being prepared goes. I do not have stockpiled food, at least I don't yet. Something tells me that even if I did hoard supplies it wouldn't do me any good when masses of starving people are roaming the streets.
It might be better to be one of the "zombies" and just steal what you need from others?

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kevinr', 'I')t might be better to be one of the "zombies" and just steal what you need from others?

[VMarcHart]

Good thread.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AlexdeLarge', 'W')hen I expain what it is and what it implies for our way of life, they are skeptical at best.

[AlexdeLarge]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kevinr', 'I')t might be better to be one of the "zombies"

[kevinr]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'D')epends on your moral compass. Will you be able to live with the guilt? I wouldn't.

[VMarcHart]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'D')epends on your moral compass. Will you be able to live with the guilt? I wouldn't. Raising the ramparts around your little sanctuary is more morally defensible than turning into Atilla the Hun.

[jlw61]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Mack12345', 'A')s a new commer here to Peakoil.com and a new comer to the idea of PO . "I started getting it after a link apeared on yahoo a while back ..."
I can totaly relate to the "Nothing I can do about it . So why worry ?" Mentality ..
I am a 32 year ould out of shape man with very few skills .
Nothing I can do about it, so why worry .
I have started loseing weight/exercising .
I have started stockpileing food ...

[jlw61]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kevinr', 'I')t might be better to be one of the "zombies" and just steal what you need from others?

[mgibbons19]

I don't talk to people about it anymore. But I used to present it in class when I was still teaching. Kids probably thought I was a nutjob.

Anyway, my wife buys it, and is prepared mentally that there will be changes ahead. I told my little brother, who went out and started an organic garden in his whole yard for food, and now is selling at a farmer's market where he is. I don't know how all my dad got into it, but between us somebody mentioned it, and he's always game to talk strategies.

The hard part is who knows how it will play out, and how extremely it will play out. Best we have are our own educated guesses. I'm kind of impressed that my wife, my dad, and my brother are all on board one way or another.

[darwinsdog]

There truly is nothing that can be done about it. Hence, worrying about it is stupid.
May as well fret over the fact that we're all going to die, PO or no, someday anyway.
Organisms die, species go extinct. Species that overshoot the carrying capacity (K) of their environments go extinct sooner rather than later. Anthropus ecocidus has exceeded K by > a full order of magnitude. Probably closer to two full orders. We have managed to pull off this cunning feat by fueling our population growth with reduced carbon. As we all know in this forum, cheap, easily obtainable reduced carbon resources are rapidly being depleted. And as they're depleted their oxidized residues, wantonly dumped into the atmosphere, is drastically reducing K. These are the simple facts of the situation. Just as none of us is going to live forever, neither has our species any future.

The cannibal ape will go the way of the countless other species our profligate gluttony has driven extinct. There is a very real possibility that human extinction will occur within the lifetimes of those already born. Certainly it will occur within the next century or two.
Why should we care? We will be dead & know nothing. Perhaps it's rational to care about the fate of our children & grandchildren but beyond that, it's really none of our business what happens after we die. Once dead we "have no longer any part in the things done under the sun." So relax & enjoy the collapse. It's going to be quite a trip!