Educating others about Peak Oil

sameu

It certainly is not easy. So far I managed to convince one friend of me. But that wasn't to hard, he kind of levels with me on many different subjects so I gave him a few essential links and told him to do the reading. Practically, he convinced himself after I've given him a push in the right direction.
My mother is somewhat convinced, but she keeps refering to the subject as 'ow yes when the oil has ran out' Rolling Eyes

The most frustrating discussion was with another friend of me, an engineer who btw works in the oil, gas and chemicals departement of a really big company. He's a 'business developer' but is totally out of touch with this market and believes in the growth of this business (and the growth of his paycheck and lease car) Rolling Eyes

Also when I first learned about PO, I posted articles, interviews and links on my favorite studentforum (It's a rather big forum where many university student pass by) in my PO-topic. (first post: november 2003; last post: august 2005)
Practicly no responses whatsoever, really sad, these people are supposed to be intelligent, young and willing to make a change, but aside from some classical denial or minimizing arguments, no serious reactions...

They're not even listening

I do my best, but I'm afraid that in the end, not many people will get convinced

whiteknight · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 09, 2005 Posts: 281

I realy dont get the problem you folks are having... maybe its the crowd I hang with but we discuss this stuff, our imedieate families are online and our extended families are spotty, but overall are along with this. We do have some disagreement internaly on which level it will go to but overall we get along on this.

People I talk to about this get the idea and while they may not run right out and change their lifestyle at least dont call me a kook or ignore me.

I gotta ask do you start off with a "The END is NEAR, REPENT" kinda attitude or do oyu slowly lead people into the haunted house of DOoom and then show them the path out so they listen? Do you wrap it up in your own wishes for how things shoudl be or do you admit that it could be an unpredictable shitstorm that can have both positive and negative effects on us?

Methinks it is all in how you present it, and from what I read here many folks are doing a poor job of presenting it. They sound somewhere between conspiracy theorists and religious fanatics. Thats not a good recipie for conversion.

Tyler_JC