'We can survive – but we must change`

…Human population has been on overdrive since the Civil War, he said, and a sustainable level of human population may be no more than 1 billion people. That has created quite a predicament — the long emergency. A group of 500 scientists gathered for an energy conference in Denver last fall agreed that the global rate of oil production peaked in July of 2008. From that point on, oil will be increasingly expensive and harder to pump.

“Our governments are not prepared for peak oil any more than they were for the recent recession,” Brownlee said.

The experts are telling us we need a 20-year crash program to prepare for and avoid the coming devastating consequences, but “it`s not even being considered yet. We`re likely to be caught short. Local communities will feel the pain.”

Using 25 percent of the world`s oil supply, as supplies decline, the United States will be in “for a world of hurt,” he said. “It will seriously impact Estes Park and other small mountain towns.”

These are facts with which we all have to come to grips, Brownlee said.

“It`s no use complaining or blaming or dodging this bullet. But we can adapt and begin now,” he said.

Estes Park Trail-Gazette