You Know You're a Peak Oil Doomer When.....

...you are seriously considering dandelion greens as a side for your
supper because you can't stand the fact that the plastic wrapped
lettuce in your supermarket has traveled over 2,000 miles and the
local Farmer's Market hasn't opened up for business yet.

...you observe cicadas for the propective protein they might deliver
to your body in a fast crash scenario.

...you start using your dishwater to water the container plants on
the deck.

...you travel long distances only out of necessity, observe the
suburban sprawl development and visualize the chaos that will ensue
in those neighborhoods for lack of transportation, electricity, heat,
and water.

...it's a windy day and you contemplate whether or not a wind turbine
would be feasible in the area, and you wonder why nobody has any
erected yet.

...you're on a trip, you're spending the night in a hotel, and you're
the only one in the group to notice that they've switched to CFLs in
all of their lighting.

...you hope and pray for consistent temperatures between 60-80
degrees Farenheight throughout the year so that you don't have to use
any heating or cooling of which you haven't had the ability to
convince the rest of the family to switch to alternative forms of
energy such as wind, solar, or geothermal yet.

...you're in a supermarket shopping and you will only buy items grown
and produced within your state or within 200 miles at the most.

...you go to garage sales and collect every hand tool you can find
(and you're a female).

...you go to a mall with your friends or family, and you're upset and
depressed that there isn't a locally-owned store with locally-made
items in sight.

...you happen to have a trip calculator on your vehicle, so you
obsess over the mileage by constantly looking at the instant
miles/gallon at different speeds.

...you are upset that you can't ride your bicycle to work and back in
order to cut your oil consumption because it's not safe for a female
to ride through dark trails at 1:30 in the morning.

...you wonder if the river birch tree in your front yard is useful
for something besides shade.

...you can't understand why nobody else in the family is as
enthusastic as you are about solar cooking or using baking soda as a
toothpaste (or another of it's many uses).

...you're depressed because bubble wrap is losing its popularity as a
filler in packages because you could use it as insulation on your
windows for the winter.

...you scoff at your neighbors selection of inedible landscaping plants.

...you seriously consider building an in-floor vent system to provide
cold winter air to your refrigerator so you can eliminate another 500
watt hours per day of electric power consumption.

...when you have friends over during the winter they ask when you're
going to get the heater fixed.

...you consider a 200 square foot garden 'practice'.

...you consider "Cookin' with Home Storage" one of your most valuable
cookbooks

...you've ever ordered from Walton Foods.

...you have more than 20 pounds of honey, but no bees.

...people who see your pantry ask if you are preparing for the Tribulation.

...you choose stone wheels with a lifetime guarantee for your grain
mill, then buy two extra sets, just in case.

...you choose a half-ton 5hp stationary diesel engine from 1940 over the
brand new 15kw natural gas powered backup generator because the newer
model is too 'high tech'.

...you see a large Coi pond and immediately wonder how many calories per
year it would produce.

...you have livestock in your garage

...you skip right over "energy efficient" and research "hand-powered" .

...you wonder about the grazing potential of abandoned cornfields.

...you take your compass out to stake out a new outbuilding, to make
sure it's facing true south.

...you consider investing in draft harnesses - for your neighbor's horse.

...you suggest to your parents that they use your old toys in their
attic/basement as holiday gifts for your kids.

...you put a thermometer in your car on a sunny day, to see if it gets
hot enough for cooking.

...you buy antiques on eBay, and actually use them

...you can use words like Ghawar and Cantarell in conversation.

...you see animal traps in the store and think "potential food source!"

...you become more interested in vermiculture instead of vermicelli.

...the dandelions and chickweed in your lawn are healthier-looking than
the grass.

...you seriously consider turning your swimming pool into a fish pond.

...you wonder if the pet donkey you've had for 10 years can be trained to
pack :)

...you read about a massive leap in some energy technology and chuckle
to yourself "Go ahead SUCKERS - see how far it gets ya..."

...you walk past a playground and burst into tears, knowing in your
heart all those sweet little kids playing in the grass and swings and
monkey bars will all grow up and die of starvation and disease in a
dusty desert transit camp somewhere in Eastern Oregon.

...you consider a rapid and miserable global die-off an indisputable
and inevitable fact, rather than a horrible and unwanted contingency.

...you keep a "bug out bag" in your closet freshly stocked with bare
survival materials, imagining that you could actually survive in the
wilderness without help from other humans, as if any wilderness
actually existed within a walkable distance of your domicile, and as if
other people won't have the same idea in such circumstances and be
vastly better armed than yourself.

...you think survival is living big.

...you get busted for burglary for stealing oil from MickeyD's to power
your camoflaged diesel Rabbit pickup.

...you sell the diesel Rabbit pick up, figuring it'll only attract
attention from the roving hordes, anyway.

...you spit at people who drive SUVs, and when they complain, tell them
they're "lucky it wasn't a FREAKIN' BULLET YOU GAS GUZZLING MORON!!!"

...you engage ideas of the glass half full or half empty, when in point
of fact,the glass is simply too big.


Okay...these are a few liners we on the RunningOnEmpty3 discussion group have come up with! I've been invited to post some content on Groovy Green's website but I wasn't sure if this would be appropriate enough since the website focuses more on Green living than on peak oil. Just because one is "green", per se, or environmentally aware, doesn't always mean the same people are aware of peak oil, although they are closely interlinked when looking at the bigger picture.

Overall, I thought it would be fun to poke fun at ourselves (peak oil believers) with a little humor concerning a sometimes very serious subject. Those on ROE3 did a superb job of adding to this conglomeration of one liners! I'm sure we have all had some unorthodox thoughts transpire by and through our transcendance of learning more about resource depletion. If Groovy will take it, I might transfer it over there. Anybody have any other experiences with which they could provide additional funnies? I'm sure many could relate some strange thoughts they've had concerning the need to power down for the betterment of mankind!

CNN Money: $80 a barrel oil for this year--investor T. Boone Pickens

Another prediction, click here. Anyone else also hear that Warren Buffet is pouring his investments into the railroad system? Hmmm...what does he know that we don't?

The Nation: The Establishment Rethinks Globalization

Important article to spread and give to congress people, click here. After reading this, compare to Wendell Berry's "The Idea of a Local Economy" essay if you can get a hold of it. He has some great and promising ideas.

PBS's NOVA alert: Saved by the Sun

Look for times it will be aired in your area this week.

Africa: Next US Oil War Venue

From Black Star News (New York) here.

Think globally, eat locally

Click here for guest column article in Seattle Post Intelligencer.

World Without Oil

Click here for website.

CNBC Addendum: Oil Supply Shock

Here's is a video version of CNBC's coverage of the peak oil issue after the GAO report.

CNBC Acknowledges Peak Oil is a Huge Problem

I believe and hope that this GOA report will bring some credibility to the peak oil problem so that more people will stand up and take notice and act. I've been busy personally but I'm very sure the GOA report on peak oil and excerpts of it are floating around the blogworld like crazy by now. I particularly liked this article from CNBC:

As crude oil prices surge on rising political tensions with Iran, a new government report released Thursday said that the U.S. is unprepared to face an oil supply crisis and urged U.S. policymakers to develop a strategy in order to reduce potential risks related to an oil shock.

The report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office concluded that the U.S. has no plans in place to address "peak oil," the future point in history of maximum oil production, which would be followed by irreversible declines in oil fields around the world.

"While the consequences of a peak would be felt globally, the United States, as the largest consumer of oil and one of the nations most heavily dependent on oil for transportation, may be particularly vulnerable," the GAO report said.

An expert told CNBC on Thursday that peak oil is the "the single biggest issue to threaten sustainable society" in the United States.

The rest of the story is here

1976 Hubbert Clip

In honor of M King Hubbert....the YouTube Video. More on this site www.mkinghubbert.com

Are there too many peak oil blogs?

I haven't blogged a personally-derived post in awhile. I don't know. There are just so many peak oil blogs and websites in cyberspace now that mine is probably just a blip on the radar. Anything I might want to say has probably been said. The multitude of information out in books and on the web about peak oil is so vast that it is almost impossible for me to keep up. It wasn't this way when I first started!

I've also been having trouble keeping up with all of the little tools one can use to gain readership. I tried to add Feedburner last week and now I don't know if my Atom works or not. I don't quite understand diggit and all of the other little icons I see on other blogs. I've joined them but it has been hard for me to figure out how they work.

I noted once how some like my blog because it remains almost totally related to peak oil but sometimes there are so many sustainable-related issues that surround peak oil but aren't directly related to peak oil that I don't know whether to blog about them or not. Since peak oil isn't such a new thing to me anymore, it's hard to stay on topic. Everything is just a given for me now. I've been into reading books like "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn and essays by Wendell Berry. I've joined some Foraging lists and a cooking group that encourages eating local, in-season foods as much as possible. I'm preparing my third garden this year. I'm excited about that and I'm sure you'll be seeing pictures again as they so inspire me. I also have plans to have a rabbit for composting needs. I'm still wishing for a water filter, a worm bin, a decent bicycle, and for more people to understand why I'm doing what I am.

I just got through watching some very gruesome things about our human history's past on the History Channel about the Dark Ages. I always knew there have been periods of time in human history that were particularly barbaric. The devil is in the details, and that's what has been touching me of late. Life after cheap abundant energy may not be so different than in times past. There seem to be no periods of human civilization that weren't barbaric unless the time period was one of resourceful prosperity. And that prosperity is/was many times attained through barbaric means! It makes me feel as if I've (we've) been living in some anomaly (is this the right word?). I am ever so thankful in this time that as a female I am educated, I have the freedoms I so cherish, and the peaceful surroundings with which to attain these things in. I am truly blessed which makes me feel guilty to a degree because I know others haven't had these opportunities. My descendants may not, either. I hope so much that as we slide down the cliff of energy decline that we don't revert back to our barbaric past. I'm afraid that history will repeat itself, though, as much as I wish it weren't so.

There are many, many positive things I can foresee coming out of a decline of civilization but I can also see some horrific things that could develop if we're not careful as a species.

Helpful Post Peak Oil Book: The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook

Click here for Raise the Hammer's article by Ryan McGreal

I've ordered WAYYY too many books recently to justify buying this right away but this one will be at the top of my list of energy "depletive" living books to buy in the near future. Hat tip to Pat on ROE3!

Groovy Green: Groovy Indiana!

Wow! I wasn't aware that a factory near where I live is environmentally responsible. Groovy Green has taken a tour of the Subaru car manufacturing plant in Lafayette, Indiana, highlighting its ecologically responsible behaviors.

Steve Balogh! You didn't tell me you were going to be near me on this trip to the Subaru-Isuzu plant in Lafayette! I would've loved to have met you! Maybe we could've eaten salmonella-tainted peanut butter together! lol

Click here for full article

'No easy way out' by Thomas P.M. Barnett

I found this article tonight written by a military strategist who awestruck me in a presentation I saw on C-Span a year or two ago. Not that I agreed with him about the U.S. military strategy planned for the Mideast and for globalism (imperialism as some say-including me) but this article clearly indicates he does not understand the issues surrounding peak oil. I'm disappointed in his views on peak oil. The comments after the article are interesting. Please feel free to add to their comments!

Click here for article.

Matt Simmons (Bloomberg): Peak Oil Now, Oil Perhaps to $300

Tried to post this last week but Google wouldn't accept my new Blogger Beta status. This is too important not to post, especially for people who aren't as peak oil aware.