Thoughts of a suburban mother

wildsparrow · Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 5:20 am Post subject: Thoughts of a suburban mother

So I discovered the Peak Oil issue about 4-5 months ago. Freaky. I don't know if I'm posting in the right forum here. This is my first time on the website.

The Peak Oil issue has, it seems, been simmering around the fringes of Western society for quite a few years now. Incredibly, it is still only simmering, and making only gradual inroads into the mentalities of suburban middle class Western people. I say incredibly because you would think that such an important and potentially life-changing issue would be given the time of day by any intelligent person. But it isn't so.

People don't want to think about the Peak Oil issue, I've discovered. The changes implied simply by acknowledging the problem entail such vast and frightening changes to our cherished way of life that it seems 95% of people are literally burying their heads in the sand and hoping the politicians and scientists will make it go away.

I cannot get over the foolishness of this attitude but it seems it is likely to continue. The Sydney Morning Herald can publish data (and did, about a year ago I believe) stating that the ecological footprint of Sydney meant that if every person in the world lived like a Sydney-sider it would take around 12 planets to sustain us. Yet no-one changes a thing. Perhaps people used less plastic bags and tried to get more conscientious about their recycling efforts.

Big effing whoop.

For myself, I struggle with the whole issue. To me the central problem is that for reasons I have no intention of delving into here, reasons most likely stemming from the heart of capitalism, our society is structured in such a way that flings each person onto their own solitary resources and erodes community. We are all, to use a terribly pop-journalistic sounding phrase, too busy keeping up with the Joneses to realise we should be building communities with the Joneses.

(I have no community to help me raise my two babies and so I save all the personal energy and sanity I can by belting the hell out of my dishwasher, tumbledryer, electric blankets, TV and bathtub. Fabulous. Sooooo good for the environment, to be doing that.)

Keeping up with the Joneses is, as we all know, a terribly materialistic and consumeristic way to live, and no good-hearted, thinking, modern person of conscience would seriously be that shallow. But DING, you're wrong. We all are. Our whole mentality, our idea of aesthetics and living standards, cleanliness, art, technology and beauty, is founded on such principles and we don't even realise it. BA-BOW, thank you for playing.

Just the fact that when you hear of a new kind of appliance, TV or car, you think 'Hmmm, that sounds great! I wonder how soon I could afford that!' rather than 'Oh, that's nice, but I don't need it.' It spells out that even the most well-meaning and good hearted regular person is innately consumerist.

(Jumping ahead far too quickly, and not spelling things out very well), it all makes me sick. The havoc I personally have wreaked on the environment through my irresponsible living, and the fact that I was brought up to not know any better and so were my parents, also makes me sick.

And now look at the mess we are in. I feel as if it is all going to come crashing down upon our heads. This slow, creeping illness of capitalism and consumerism is going to turn around and bite us all in the bum so hard that many of us won't survive the haemorrhage.

I want to survive. I am a survivor at heart, I believe. I'm vocal, and good and whingeing, and so some might think I'm a bit of a drama-queen wimp, but at heart, I do not give up without a damn good fight. I have guts. And dammit, I will survive, and make sure my family, and my little children survive, peak oil and whatever crisis looms beyond it.

The question is, how, and what to do about it now!

Peepers · Heavy Crude Joined: Jan 01, 2005 Posts: 212

Well said, and well written. I think the part that hit the nail on the head the hardest was the following....

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2471 Location: ^NNE^

evilmonkeyspanker · Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 7:25 am Post subject: Re: Thoughts of a suburban mother

I honestly don't know what to tell you other than to be happy that you have today. Live today as if it were your last, because the degradation of society may happen tomorrow or it may not happen for 20 years.

And killjoy is right, you are very articulate

Dukat_Reloaded · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 1007

auctionmonster, thats what I don't get.

EnergySpin · Fission Joined: Jun 25, 2005 Posts: 2381

Dukat_Reloaded · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 1007

HAHA, your little smiley, it's looking up to right, in human psychology, when someone does that they are lying. I'm not a loser, you are Razz

foodnotlawns · permanently banned Joined: Apr 07, 2005 Posts: 264

Dear Suburban Mother,

I think you need some helpful posts and not this meanding discussion.

Find a CSA farm in your area here:

http://wsare.usu.edu/pub/index.cfm?sub=csa

I will try to come back to this thread if I remember to do so. You can IM me on this board. Otherwise go to "prepare" section." Also, join the Running on empty2 list, Robert Waldrop of Oklahoma manages it. Find it on Yahoo and ask to join. When I'm home I'll post his e-mail address.

Don't worry, plenty of people are serious and preparing, and don't have much time for message boards. Most important, find or start a Peak Oil group in your area, seee www.postcarbon.org

Pops · Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2005 9:02 am Post subject: Re: Thoughts of a suburban mother

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2471 Location: ^NNE^

MicroHydro · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Apr 10, 2005 Posts: 1286

NeoPeasant

Countless large fortunes have been built by spending small fortunes to persuade us to live exactly the way we do, and spending more small fortunes on our "leaders" to be cheerleaders and promoters of this lifestyle rather than the critics of it. Relatively speaking, pennies have been spent to make us aware of the concept of living in a low ecological footprint sustainable way.
There are no great fortunes to be made in educating the masses about sustainability or promoting voluntary simplicity as a way of life, so hardly anyone has heard of the idea.

Less than 2 years ago I was mostly concerning myself with what cars to buy, what home improvements to make, what vacations to take, and strategies to assure a fairly wealthy and comfortable retirement. Because I was a "well informed" consumer of main stream media and conservation was just some fringe downer hippie crap they talked about on NPR. But eventually my curiosity led me to some information that gave me a much clearer picture of the state of the world.

The point is the peak oil and evironmental situations are well below the radar of the masses and no one is spending the big media dollars to change that. Why should they, where's the return on investment in that?

killJOY · Fission Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 2471 Location: ^NNE^

Tyler_JC

Welcome to Peak Oil Wildsparrow!

If you don't mind, I will be moving this thread to the Psychology forum now. (It fits better there).

It's a very complex problem with some difficult solutions.

The worst part about Peak Oil is that we don't know the rate of production decline or the amount of oil left.

If you could tell me those two things, I could probably come up with a personal plan. But since we don't know (and won't know until it happens) we are forced to guess.

Most of this site is dedicated to those guessing games.

The best preperation is getting out of debt, decreasing one's car dependence, and getting ready mentally.

The hardest part for many people is finally accepting the very real possibilities that stem from Peak Oil. We may have an economic crash. We could have more wars over the remaining oil.

What we all must do is overcome our own fears and learn to accept whatever happens. Not everyone can do this. Many members of this site still refuse to grasp the basic concepts.
_________________
"www.peakoil.com is the Myspace of the Apocalypse."

kochevnik · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 20, 2004 Posts: 881