"If you're alive in a decade, it will be because you've figured out how to forage locally."

[Naomi]

In 1956, Hubbert predicted the continental United States would peak in 1970. He was correct, and the 1970s gave us a small, temporary taste of the sociopolitical and economic consequences of expensive oil.

We passed the world oil peak in 2005, and we've been easing down the other side by acquiring oil at the point of a gun - actually, guns are the smallest of the many weapons we're using - paying more for oil and destroying one culture after another as the high price of crude oil forces supply disruptions and power outages in Third World countries.

The world peaked at 74.3 million barrels per day in May 2005. The two-year decline to 73.2 million barrels per day produced a doubling of the price of crude. Later this year, we fall off the oil-supply cliff, with global supply plummeting below 70 million barrels/day. Oil at merely $100 per barrel will seem like the good old days.

Within a decade, we'll be staring down the barrel of a crisis: Oil at $400 per barrel brings down the American Empire, the project of globalization and water coming through the taps. Never mind happy motoring through the never-ending suburbs in the Valley of the Sun. In a decade, unemployment will be approaching 100 percent, inflation will be running at 1,000 percent and central heating will be a pipe dream.

In short, this country will be well on its way to the post-industrial Stone Age.


http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/0406vip-mcpherson0406.html

Guy Mcpherson is a professor of biology at the University of Arizona.

That bug out bag (http://zombiehunters.org/zss/?p=15) is looking pretty good right now. :laugh:

[Darin Hamel]

Wishful thinking by the hate America crowd I think. We have huge oil reserves that become viable at $100+ a barrel because of processing. We have other reserves viable now except for their protected status as part of land reserves.

Long before we become a post-industrial stone age culture, I think the powers that be will cull the useless feeders and force us into mega-cities and we'll become part of a fascist super state wishing we were post-industrial stoners.

[m1thr0s]

they've been kicking out fuel efficient engines like this (or better) for years:
http://www.100mpgplus.com/

Car and Oil companies are sitting on dozens of patents like these. If people would just pull their heads out of their asses and demand their just deserves from their own government, we could force the (shelved) technology we already have to be serving our needs...

The 1st 100+mpg car was invented over 20 years ago, the patent of which was immediately bought up by Ford (I think)...and quashed. It was all over the headlines coast-to-coast since the inventor drove from LA to Washington DC on a single tank of gas...

100mpg doesn't impress you? What about 7,150mpg?
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/french_car_gets_7150_mpg.php

not immediately practical but within range for commercial applications...

It's all about the will folks...

m1

[Naomi]

I get 15 mpg :(

55 when I'm coasting.... ;P

So what am I supposed to do write letters to congress?

[m1thr0s]

individual letters don't do squat...petitions fare better and petitions linked to organized groups who can mobilize others fare even better...

get a few lawyers on board and class action lawsuits sometimes become doable...media blitzes...fundraisers...networking projects...

activism is like anything else...you start by researching things...find some group or groups you want to hang with and take things from there...

m1

[frater luciferi]

yeah..oil is a outdated fuel source..they've designed motors that can run off of water..i shit you not. and complain as much as you want but we got the cheapest gas prices in the world..in europe the price of a gallon of "petrol" is like nine dollars a gallon. but statistically that all makes sense because we in amorica consume close to 60 percent of the worlds resources..that sounds a little high but im pretty sure thats right.

[frater luciferi]

I get 15 mpg :(

55 when I'm coasting.... ;P

So what am I supposed to do write letters to congress?

sell your suv!!!

[frater luciferi]

Wishful thinking by the hate America crowd I think. We have huge oil reserves that become viable at $100+ a barrel because of processing. We have other reserves viable now except for their protected status as part of land reserves.

Long before we become a post-industrial stone age culture, I think the powers that be will cull the useless feeders and force us into mega-cities and we'll become part of a fascist super state wishing we were post-industrial stoners.

you sound like a republican.. :P

[Naomi]

I need it right now, and I just purchased it, but I also have a hybrid from Honda that gets 40 mpg.

I have to attend to what I can attend to and joining another group project isn't really doable.

I mean, abrahadabra.com is my hobby and that takes up all of my free time, literally...not that I can complain because I enjoy it.

I think for something to be really effective you must enjoy doing it or it won't work. Everything in life should be effortless and enjoyable...

[m1thr0s]

I mean, abrahadabra.com is my hobby and that takes up all of my free time, literally...not that I can complain because I enjoy it.you have to work with your strengths and you have to invest your time and energy where you feel it counts the most...sometimes this turns out to be internal stuff since there's a huge gap in this realm world-wide...

But other forms of activism are valid too in my view...the important thing is to be doing something...it doesn't have to make perfect sense to everybody else...

m1

[Naomi]

yeah....welll, I guess I should be thinking about how to afford a full sized SUV hybrid at least, but for now it's just going to have to wait for a minute....

I wouldn't be here if I didn't think it made a big difference in the world. It's true....and it really does NOT make sense to very many other people as a matter of fact.

:\

[Darin Hamel]

I am a conservative but not republican. I wanted Ron Paul first, then Obama but now that I see Obama better I dont know who I want. They all suck.

I just took this photo this morning. I actually do want to live in the woods like a caveman without the modern stuff with this happy fellow. Post industrial stone age living is okay for me. I am a survivalist in the sense that I can live off the land year round. I cant starve in the woods and I can always find or purify good water. My dad started me off when I was a kid teaching me what to eat and then I just kept learning. Now I can make nearly anything at a bronze age level from scratch.... including bronze. If civilization does fall, you want to hang out with me.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b189/DairnHamel/stoney001.jpg

[Naomi]

Can you make a shelter safe from zombies?

or repair your watch to so you can remember what time the zombies come out?!?!!

rawwwwwr!11!!!

YouTube - Scene from I am Legend 2007 Will Smith

[m1thr0s]

I wanted Ron Paul first, then Obama but now that I see Obama better I dont know who I want. They all suck.I hear that. They are all braindead on Iraq as near as I can tell...which means they are also braindead regarding economics in the real world. Ron Paul was our last best hope of repairing the healthcare situation. Clinton would be a possible in that area but she's already on their payroll and has been for years...

So yeah...suck is what is does. Time to pick up wildcrafting I think...although it's no real solution in itself, it might buy a little time at least.

m1

[Amur]

Hmm, I've had many friends telling me about perendev or magnet motors that have actually worked so I wonder if it's a reality. Would be quite neat to have free energy running around as we could make a huge base on the moon for whatever purposes and so forth, would be easy to grow vegetables and fruits up in the north tundran areas(not to mention antarktis could be used also :D )

[Darin Hamel]

I think I have mentioned before that I am saving for a hermitage. I have enough to have a decent passive income but now I need to find a nice remote cabin. I can see myself as a Taoist cultivator living all alone in the woods. I just want a cool looking heated Dojo to practice taijiquan in the wintertime.

I've read The Zombie Survival Guide and seen many documentary's on it like Night of the Living Dead and I think I would do pretty good against them too. I have a talent for woodland booby traps and anti-Zombie traps would be a nice challange. Neck level machete trap..... pits.... oh yeah, lots of pits, catch 'em and burn 'em in the pits......

Naomi.... thats quite a jump from post industrial foraging to zombie survival techniques. Or maybe it isn't.....

[Naomi]

Shit, regular humans would be bad enough to deal with...

the deer reminded me of that scene from I Am Legend...

[frater luciferi]

i live pretty simply myself..i own a car but i dont drive it right now..its solely for transportation for when i do my odd temp jobs that tend to be in industrial areas in the farther outstretch of town. otherwise i dont really mine using public transit that much..you can get a bus pass in my town for $15. I Live pretty close to downtown as well right across from some new lofts as such..its nice because the whole centralized downtown has pretty much every thing i need within walking distance...and especially biking distance..

as far as surviving a economic breakdown i am a very adept forager and am good at picking huckleberrys..a decent fisherman and a marginally adept hunter...all i really need to learn now is gardening and i will have my own supply of fresh vegetables and herbs to suppliment my diet..they have a few nice communal gardens in brownes addition over by cour de lane park..

and i didnt mean to be an asshole in any form..i have no real tact. lol even with typed words.

[frater luciferi]

I hear that. They are all braindead on Iraq as near as I can tell...which means they are also braindead regarding economics in the real world. Ron Paul was our last best hope of repairing the healthcare situation. Clinton would be a possible in that area but she's already on their payroll and has been for years...

So yeah...suck is what is does. Time to pick up wildcrafting I think...although it's no real solution in itself, it might buy a little time at least.

m1

for sure..iraq is the one million ton elephant in the corner no one wants to talk about..(did i get that right?). and the healthcare situation in this country is horrible for sure..shit cuba has better health care then we do....funny thing about socialist countries though ..not cuba exactly persae but countrys like germany or norway..hell britain even where the whole governments mentality about those who are "less fortunate" actually deserve decent standards of health and such..the irony being our economy would probably stumble a little bit from the hefty pork the medical industry takes from gouging their patients.

maybe we can run neo-tribal collectives in the remains of the cities and allow nature to creep in a bit more...

[Naomi]

No offense taken at all I see your point, my mind is on something completely different right now so don't worry about it...

We actually don't have a real bus system here in Memphis, if we did I wouldn't be driving. The buses here are good places to get mugged.