I don't get it.

Pablo2079 · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:05 pm Post subject: I don't get it.

I thought everyone knew this was going to be an issue from way back in the 70's. I was born in '68 and I seriously questioned whether or not I'd even have the opportunity to drive a car!

From a young age, I either thought:

a) We were going to suffer through a nuclear war any day.
b) Die from overpopulation and pollution.
c) Run out of oil and suffer an economic melt down.

This was all from about the age of 5 on. Why is this such an epiphany to everyone? Granted, I was an odd kid. (At the age of 7 I was making gas masks and stashing food.)

Any intelligent person can look at the Earth and know we're in trouble. We've got finite resources, a closed system and an economy built on constant growth (and population to match it). It's a house of cards.

Should be an interesting ride.

MD · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:15 pm Post subject:

I understand. When I was a kid and saw population chart for the first time I said to myself, "It's approaching a limit! It's gonna crash!"
_________________
"Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events."
Robert A. Heinlein

md@peakoil.com

RonMN · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:36 pm Post subject:

I don't think it's that people "can't" see it...i think they "don't want to" see it.

and my best guess as to why (IMHO) is that TV told them to.

I'll talk to people about the L.A. (rodney king) riots and they tell me it's IMPOSSIBLE for that to happen again...i say "why?"

and they look at me as if i'm a fool Mad

ArimoDave · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:46 pm Post subject:

ArimoDave · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:46 pm Post subject:

Roop · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 1:19 pm Post subject:

Pablo2079, you are so right on in your observations. If there's one thing that I've realized in my Peak Oil awareness is that one of humanity's biggest flaws is our absolute short-sightedness.

I was born in 1980, so by the time I came up the Cold War paranoia was beginning to dissipate. However, I remember in my mid-teens (the Clinton/cheap gas/dot-com boom years) feeling this vague dread about the world, like that it was just too big and complicated and could just fall apart under its own weight so easily. And now a decade later, here is Peak Oil breathing down our necks and it feels like my fears are being confirmed. But I digress...

Back to the short-sightedness, I find it incredibly tragic how we did know all of this stuff back in the '70s and before, it was especially evident during the gas crises of '73 and '79. Just think where we'd be today if real action was taken during that time to confront to problem of limited fossil fuel resources. I was recently thumbing through some old National Geographics and found this special energy issue from '81 and all of these experts had hope such hope for the future, like we'd be energy independent by the mid '90s, etc. Remember when fuel economy was actually used as a selling point for cars and trucks? Oh well, so much for that.

My job involves watching hell of a lot TV news for this video newsclipping service, it's just an in-between thing until I go to grad school next year. Sometimes it really wears my sanity down. If you want to see how distracted the American public is, just turn on the TV. Michael Jackson, American Idol, Terri Schiavo, etc., etc. those are the big stories. The mainstream media's coverage of energy issues and gas prices is a joke. Same thing always: interviews of people filling up their SUVs and bitching about how gas is so expensive, where to drive to to find the cheapest gas in town. Never any mention of conservation or long term planning. People are more clueless than ever, they can't see beyond the next fill-up.

"Oh what, gas is slightly cheaper this week than last, see there's no problem!"

I try not to get bogged down by pessimism but it is so hard feel any other way given the fact that we as a society are so complacent and unprepared. To paraphrase is Jim Kunstler, we truly are sleepwalking into the future and we're in for a real shitstorm.
_________________
"Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows"
-Leonard Cohen

EdF · Heavy Crude Joined: May 08, 2005 Posts: 189

Roop · Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:01 pm Post subject:

Yeah, didn't Jimmy Carter have solar panels installed on the roof of the White House which Reagan had promptly removed? Ah, Morning in America...
_________________
"Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows"
-Leonard Cohen

accept_death · Tar Sands Joined: May 02, 2005 Posts: 36

The oft-repeated story of Reagan removing Carter's solar panels is one of the best pieces of evidence to me that we human's are a scummy speices. The act itself was not so bad, there was just no reason for it. Sort of an "FU" to reality and those who tried to solve problems rather than ignore them.

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

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