How did you find out about peak oil?

lightsweetcrude10000 · Coal Joined: Nov 21, 2007 Posts: 1

Hi I'm new boy of the day from across the pond.

I came across this site when I googled 'chavez basket of currencies reasoning'. I would like to know the significance of his recent suggestion about associating oil with a bunch of currencies. Actually the iranians suggested it. What does it mean or can anyone refer me to a thread where I can find a discussion on this?

thanks

TamaraC · Coal Joined: Oct 19, 2007 Posts: 11

I'm sure I heard about peak oil for the first time in middle childhood, but at the time I was so panicked about nuclear war and volcanoes (no, we didn't live near any) that it kind of just simmered.

Peak oil came to my attention again a couple of months ago when I read Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, which is more about peak soil than about peak oil, but does mention PO. It had been in the back of my mind all along, but I had thought I would have more time to plan. I was expecting another 5 or 10 years to get my life together.

Now it looks like 2 years is pushing my luck.

I'm at the read and read and read stage right now. I haven't placed myself yet on the pessimism scale, though I've definitely ruled out "Business as Usual" and "Humanity Goes Extinct"*. A lot in between those two extremes, I'll admit.

* Humanity goes extinct goes back on the table if we use enough nontraditional fossil fuels to trigger methane clathrate catastrophe. If the oceans die and the oxygen level drops to 10%, we can't breathe.

Tamara in Maryland

elman · Coal Joined: Nov 26, 2007 Posts: 1

Hi. Good to see you all.
Google helped me to find you.

Rogozhin

I grew up in an apple orchard (40 acres planted by my grandfather and family). I then graduated to commercial agriculture. Wheat, Beans, and Corn were our primary crops. I also worked mint stills for a few years.

I have many horror stories. I knew then that what was happening wasn't sustainable. I chose not to invest my life in such an endeavor.

My father (roughly a year ago) told me to look into 'peak oil'. What I found was the thought I'd not made manifest for 14 years.

Rogo

Lumpy

My husband "discovered" peak oil for himself doing some online research in 2004. (Probably during the days when we both used to post to the Yahoo boards -- there was still some intelligent discussion on them then. And also probably related to someone on those boards talking about the war in Iraq as being a war for oil, etc.) He came across this site, joined up, and started educating himself intensely.

I was doing my post grad work for my medical degree at the time, and didn't have time to check all this out first hand. So he distilled the info for me, gave me things to read - a chapter here, a paragraph there - and ordered a video or two, which we watched together.

The whole thing has always hung together for me. I "got it" from the get-go. And I'd say anyone who has even the slightest exposure to the facts and doesn't start taking personal action to prepare for post peak oil times is ... well ... in for some big time hardships, to say the least.

I joined the boards myself last month, and now post on occasion. For the most part, I am interested in learning new ways to prepare for life in a peak oil economy -- practical stuff, like how to make one's own soap, etc.

Also, being in the medical field, I look for info here related to that, and being in psychiatry, I am interested in the psychology threads.

Glad to be here. Thanks for all the great info that is shared in this community.
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Dean Karnazes : "Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up." --- Jackie Joyner-Kersee: "It is better to look forward & prepare, than to look back & regret."

Keith_McClary

I grew up in an oil producing region. The industry was always spoken of as going on indefinitely, nobody mentioned that oil was a finite resource.

synthetik · Coal Joined: Dec 30, 2007 Posts: 4 Location: Seattle

I became interested in Economics back in 2004 and started reading as many books on the subject I could find.

I believe the first book that set my mind on this path was Jared Diamond's "Collapse". Even though he doens't specifically mention PO, you start to understand that collapse has always been a resource issue.

Then maybe a year later I read "The Long Emergency" and "The Coming Economic Collapse".

There was no real shock or panic on my part, it all made sense to me. In early 2006 I found a local Peak Oil Awareness group here in Seattle and have been active ever since. [url=www.seattleoil.com[/url]

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1521

My daughter in SoCal emailed a link, during an email discussion about economics. Googled and got LATOC, The Oil Drum, and Peakoil, which seemed to suit me best as a current news and discussion group.

Finally noticed this thread after joining a few days back.... Yeah, I'm slow, but I'm old.

Karlos4 · Tar Sands Joined: May 22, 2008 Posts: 28

I work in the publishing industry. A month ago, I got a copy of Alex Scarrow's Last Light. After the last page, I just could not avoid googling Peak Oil.

Bman4k1

Crossing the Rubicon, started the process of reading everything there is to know about PO after that. Im an environmental scientist (global warming etc), so it really much related to my field.

Vee

It's been a few years since I heard about Peak Oil and all the what if's... Some guy had a web site, he ended up leaving the country after his offices were broken into (Oregon) and his computers and stuff wrecked. I think he lives in Venezuela now Laughing

Can't remember his name.... oh well. I live in the country and have my whole life. I'm about as ready as i will ever be. so bring it on.... Exclamation

I have a small farm and grow food for local consumption. all seems to working well.

rahl

I came across this site from a yahoo article.

As for peak oil, Ive known about this for quite a while.

BTW I'm new here, Hi everyone *waves*
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