Gas: The good 'ol days 2223

Rod Speed

I sure hope you're right, Rod.

I think the issue is that none of these alternatives - even a combination of all of them - will enable the world to continue on its current path of continued growth.

Even buttuming we could switch over to alternatives in a heartbeat once the peak hits, without causing major serious disruption to the economy, we'll all be forced to have to scale way back down on our expectations and our lifestyle. Permanently.

It's something you probably don't fret about all that much, because you already live your life frugally. But what about the rest of the world? Are they ready for a major shift backwards to a lifestyle that would be sustainable in a post-petroleum world? Are they ready for permanently slowed growth - or even reversed growth? I think it will be a rude awakening for most people, particularly here in the U.S., where nobody seems to plan for a rainy day and everyone seems to expect the economy will just keep growing and expanding.

While places like Sweden have already learned the prudence of living with less - constructing energy-efficient houses, driving a lot less, and being content with a slower growth economy - the US has instead viewed that as "goody! that means there's more oil for us to waste" and gotten more and more reliant on oil, getting us closer and closer to the peak. Who knows when that will happen, but it *will* happen someday. I do hope you're right and it doesn't happen in our lifetime.

If it does, even though you and I already live frugally and can adjust more easily to the new reality, the poor slobs who don't aren't going to make it easy for us. None of us live on an island. When they start suffering, I think we'll start suffering too.

The first thing that will happen is that they'll look for someone to blame. They won't look at their surburban McMansion, three SUVs, and expanding waistline and blame themselves. Nope. They may blame China or the middle east, and campaign for war, fighting battles when a better use of our tax $ is to get those alternatives you list up and running.

Or they will blame the politicians they elected, and cause a gov't uprising or pebreastion for them to "fix" things. All this does is deflect our energies in the wrong direction. Politicians are dumb so they'll probably give $ to the wrong alternative energy source, instead of the market sorting it out. And we'll lose precious time getting those alternatives online.

Or they will blame their neighbors and nobody will be safe. You can bet that there'll be a great divide between Red and Blue, with the Reds getting in our face and telling us that it's all our fault that God's abandoned us. Perhaps end and b.c. will become illegal overnight, which will only increase the overpopulation burden, making the situation that much worse.

Maybe your neighbors will look at you, Rod, living comfortably and sustainably, having already made those lifestyle adjustments, and they'll come after the $ stuffed under your bed or the veggies you've grown in your garden. And since you're not always the nicest person with the most charming personality, they probably won't think twice about blowing your head off to take what they want.

But you can sure bet they won't blame themselves, they won't see the connection with their unrestrained greed and rampant sense of enbreastlement. It's human nature.

jen