UK Doomers - Lets meet

dorlomin · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Aug 05, 2007 Posts: 1151

Well I have a rather different experiance to most of you. I am pretty used to having lucid and intelligent conversations about peak oil in the UK. In part I guess because I have convinced many of my friends and in part because I hang around with hippies through the summer. The general awareness is very poor in the UK though.

If you are looking for other UK\ Ireland based peakers Urban 75's forum has had a peak oil thread running since 2003, so it actualy predates PO.com. The thread is called "A petroleum geologist explains US war policy " and is in the World Politics section. They also have all the regular doomer-lite stuff about the credit crunch and the arctic. You could spin over there and just start a thread about peak oil on there main page, just for the change of pace, instead of "what is this divilish witchcraft and communism about oil running out" you tend to get in the UK you are more likely to be encountered with a "oh great another peak oil thread" Smile

makes a change maybe.

As for a meet up, well dunno about that I dont tend to do them on the net. But I do live in london and my bike puts me 40 minutes from the center any time of the day.

Quinny · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jul 03, 2008 Posts: 610

Hi

New to forum - and Peak Oil scenario, but nice to meet people who are considering issues that have concerned me for a long time. I actully thought I was fairly much alone and feel to a certain effect vindicated by the existence of this forum and other similar websites. As a student in the late 70's and early 80's I was seen as unusual as being a Mathematician/Physicist interested in Politics and I recall reading a book called 'Fuel's Paradise' which greatly influenced my outlook on life.

I became a local politician as a young man and rose to a relatively senior position in local government at a very young age. I had intentions of aiming for Parliament, before a spell working in Westminster lead to me becoming disillusioned with the need for compromise and the overwhelming power of patronage.

During my time as Chair of the Regional Environment committee we produced the first overall Agenda 21/ Green report on Sustainability. There were many people involved in Politics were concerned about Green issues, but my concerns about the critical nature of the problem were seen as the over exuberance of youth. I'd done the maths and the sums didn't add up especially when Thatcher spent our oil revenues destroying the unions. (Not the they'd make a significant difference, but with a low growth and technical fix scenario, who knows). Whenever I tried to steer discussion onto global energy issues, the discussion inevitably switched to current local govt issues such as waste management.

I retired from politics about 7 years ago partly in frustration at the lack of urgency and attention paid to long term global issues.

Since then I've been trying to 'do my bit' on a personal level; Re-using, Recycling etc (my car runs on re-cycled vegetable oil), but most of my colleagues and friends think I'm slightly insane.
I haven't actually done much research into the Peak Oil scenario because I'd come to dismiss most of the nonsense peddled as news today, so I haven't been keeping abreast of things.

It's great to find a group that takes the situation seriously. The UK's high dependence on imported food is a situation that worries me greatly as simply taking an environmentalist approach of sustainability won't help in the short term, and I fear that there is major risk of social unrest in the next few years.

As an alternative to meeting physically (costs, environmental issues etc) has anyone thought about an online meeting using VOIP or something similar. If anyones interested I might be able to help setup a conference.

gigacannon · Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 4:45 am Post subject: Re: UK Doomers - Lets meet

People are always willing to moan about the price of petrol. British people, in general, hate discussing about the future. It seems vague and fanciful to them. People have their own idea about why petrol is expensive, and though it will be wrong, they will take any explanation of the real reason by yourself to be a personal insult. Because, of course, if you tell them about peak oil, it will differ from what they believe already, which means that you're telling them that they're wrong, which means that they will simply think that you're wrong (because your beliefs differ from their own), and also that you're arrogant for having the self-confidence to try to tell them what's what.

I could go on about why talking about peak oil doesn't work, but suffice it to say that is for the same reason why talking about politics and religion is banned in pubs. Complain, yes; explain, no.

Madpaddy · Expert Joined: Jun 25, 2004 Posts: 2130

What_went_wrong wrote,

Kaj · Heavy Crude Joined: Dec 06, 2006 Posts: 397

Hey guys, have any of you got 'transition towns' going on in your area?

Here's what Norwich is doing:
http://www.transitionnorwich.org/

Werdna · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:12 am Post subject: Re: UK Doomers - Lets meet

the nearest to me is in Brixton, London (i live in greenwich, London) and is about 8 miles away

i did want to go to a meeting they were holding there this month with the guest speaker Rob Hopkins.
i read his book (and like the cut of his jib) but unfortantely like mosty things in my life i completely forgot about it and its come and gone!!!

i would love to hear from other board members if they've been to any meeting regarding this or are in a town that operates a transition approach.

EndOfGrowth · Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:53 am Post subject: Re: UK Doomers - Lets meet

Wouldn't mind meeting up, but don't fancy discussing doom much. I'm all doomed out Crying or Very sad

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