Are we better off in Australia?

Dukat_Reloaded · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 1005

I think Australia is an excellent place to be for peak oil. I have no idea where these predictions of water shortages come from, but Australia always has a multi year drought, and I remember thinking afew months ago, gee....everyone has brought a home water tank and the government has begun building a desalination plant for Sydney, well what do you know, the entire month so far has been non stop rain, as what always happens in the past, droughts always end. I don't forsee any water problems in Australia although we will still have droughts, just like we always have.

Australia has an excellent rail system, from Sydney you can travel by train anywhere, right across the middle of Australia to Perth. Government is also commited to increasing track lines, they have been building underground track work in sydney.

Farming is highly sustainable in my opinion, we export the bulk of our produce, if we have 21 million people and produce enough food to feed a billion people, I don't think there will be food shortages.

Plenty of Gas, Coal, Oil, minerals you name it, we have plenty. We have plenty of raw materials, one problem is we don't have much of a value adding industry so the raw materials are shipped to china and we buy it back in the form of goods, but then what other country hasn't destroyed their value adding businesses and relied on china to provide themselves with end products?

There may be some multicultural issues, the whites and the chinese which make up the majority of the population are very timid and perhaps the whites being lesser so. I think in a crisis these groups will remain calm and get along. Some of the smaller segments, the minorities such as Muslims (population segment growing fast) would present a problem and in a crisis would become opportunists. In a Crysis the Indigenous population would contract, most live in remote communities and are heavily reliant on government subsidies and help, and we all know in a crisis, thats when governments perform at their worst.

I think Australia is an excellent place to be during the peak oil period.
_________________

Man's like a candle in a candlestick,
Made up of tallow and a little wick;

ohanian · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Oct 17, 2004 Posts: 1063

timbo

timbo

Dukat_Reloaded · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jul 31, 2005 Posts: 1005

What are you worried about timbo? Were are both aussies I see no danger. I think the worst place to be will be England, I would avoid that place.
_________________

Man's like a candle in a candlestick,
Made up of tallow and a little wick;

timbo

kokoda · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 24, 2006 Posts: 420

We would have to move out of the cities. Without modern technology I don't know as these sorts of large communities would be supportable.

Mind you I don't think large cities anywhere will be supportable.

It would probably be best if a large percentage of the population moved north to where there was more water.

Obviously rail would become a lot more important. While our rail system has become somewhat run down over the years it still provides nationwide coverage ... which will be vital in a post PO world.

I would probably rate Australia, NZ, and parts of South America as being the best places to be when PO hits the fan.

Judgie

Cabrone

If I could choose any country to go to then Australia would be way down the list (no offence).

Firstly it's already a tough place to live, yes there is lots of land but as already discussed most of it is poor. There's no quick fix to poor soil.

Secondly it's going to go 10 rounds with climate change. If you think that what happened last summer was bad just wait and see what is in store.

Thirdly water. You can dream all you like that a few desalination plants will rescue you but if you don't get rain your ecosystems will die. It's going to be a tragedy for the many unique species that inhabit Australia and a massive issue for your farmers.

I'd be much more inclined to move to NZ, small population, temperate marine climate, smaller and easier to get around and most importantly - reliable rainfall. I wouldn't be atall surprised if a lot of Australians will make the trip across the Tasman.

As for UK, well we have virtually the opposite problems to Australia. We have rain and fertile soils, we may get off relativley lightly with climate change but we have too little land and too many people. Also (unlike Australia) I can see millions of displaced people from southern europe and Africa washing up on our shores, hungry and angry.

This is going to be interesting, no doubt.

timbo

solarpoweredlasers · Tar Sands Joined: Oct 24, 2007 Posts: 35

Every place has it's good and bad points. We have some of the most fertile soil in Australia around here thanks to Mt Warning so thats less of a concern but water certainly is.
As good as New Zealand is, i'm not sure how happy I would be living on top of a super volcano Wink

sparky · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 119

.
I've traveled around Parkes last month ,
at the pub ,I asked the locals about the large number of " for sale " signs I could see on the road ,
The locals told me the banks extended minimum credit to the farmers during the drought to keep them struggling on the farm ,
keeping the paddocks clean and the fences mended
as soon as there was good rain , they cut the credits and repossessed :twisted:

.

alokin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 24, 2007 Posts: 692

Which place would be safe from wars? None. Europe, definitively not US, they like beginning wars Asia?
From this standpoint all countries are the same and lots of military does not help as your country might win but your family is dead meanwhile.

NZ is better but is likely to have earthquakes.

If I am reading all the articles about the US and knowing about population density in Europe and the lack of Energy, the sheer amount of people in Asia, I think that Australia is the place to be. Or NZ.

Maybe South America won't be bad either, but they have destroyed societies, lots of crime and a low social cohesity.

kiwiduncan · Coal Joined: Jun 13, 2008 Posts: 16

One to keep in mind is that just north of China is Russia's Siberia. Low population density, huge natural resources and much easier to invade than Aussie.

vilemerchant · Tar Sands Joined: Jul 07, 2008 Posts: 69