I will believe the Saudis don't see any upcoming problems with Ghawar when they cancel one of their projects due to low oil prices. If they continue to be full steam ahead with increasing their capacity then I think they are aware that Ghawar may not be as robust in 5 years time as they would like us to believe.
Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 2:27 pm Post subject: If money was no object, how would you survive?
Let's assume that money was no object, and you would be able to find the exact parcel of land you would need. What type of post-peak lifestyle would you lead? What type of tools would you have? Where would you live? How would you eat? Etc etc...
I'm still ruminating on how I'd do it... so I'll probably have an answer to my own question in a bit...
I drew up plans for a mediterranean styled home mounted into the face of a hefty hill...
designed to withstand anything...be comfortable, and self supporting, plus aesthetically pleasing and capable of being changed around.
It would cost a few million easy.
Imagine a marble car stereo mounted into a hill with a large outdoor plaza and plant life, wading pools, concealable garden and lots of open living and storage.
Joined: Aug 14, 2004 Posts: 2068 Location: San Diego, Ca.
Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 4:30 pm Post subject:
I would build a small community in an isolated location complete with natural recourses. I would recruit people who were diversified in skill. Of course I would include different race, religion, etc. Different races may even be good for the future gene pool.
Within my community I would have living quarters (houses), farmland, various fabrication facilities (tools, clothing, mills), farms animals, weapons cache, food cache, a hardened shelter for emergencies, bartering items (gold, silver, etc). That is for starters. Maybe more later... _________________ "Peak oil isn't more than an interesting industry factoid and doesn't have anything to do with the hysterics speculated on ad nauseum around here!" ReserveGrowthRulz
I don't know, people. I still find it painful that I may have to leave my city...I love it here. But obviously, finding the right suitable location and a small, trustworthy, skilled group of people, and starting up a self-sufficient community would be on the top of my list!
Unfortunately, money IS an object, though one that will be of little use soon. People with it should start their community planning NOW. Me, I'm just working on developing useful and barterable skills, and getting out of debt. All of this is overwhelming when you think about it for more than a few minutes at a time (to say the very least!); I'm alone here, though glad to have the company of you on this forum.
That's the catch for a lot of us, I think: just WHO and WHERE do we start? The suggestions on this board are great, but you've pretty much got to have a team and a place lined up before you can do much of anything. Hope and pray this problem will start getting solved soon....
I'd like northern New England, possibly Maine, as a location. I think it has a number of good qualities:
1st, I think if everything does crash, the average person will think "head south" not "head north". Mostly because of temperature; people won't want to have to deal with cold winters. However, with plenty of wood to burn, heat isn't such an issue.
You can grow a lot of food in the summer in New England, and do a lot of hunting in the fall. Bear, moose and deer are plentiful. There are also fresh and saltwater fish, shellfish and lobster. Most farm animals do fine as long as they have shelter, so there would be a source of milk, eggs, wool, leather and meat.
There are fewer problems with disease and insects. No fire ants! Many animal diseases and parasites don't exist in Maine. The original Jamestown settlement in Virginia lost like 50% of colonists to diseases in the first few years. Jamestown's sister site, in Maine, lost no one to disease (it failed because of problems with its investors). In a world with little to no access to modern antibiotics and vaccines, disease will be a big problem. There are also no poisonous snakes or insects in Maine.
Because of proximity to the ocean, coastal Maine often gets less snow than, say, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The area doesn't get many problems with hurricanes, droughts, floods, earthquakes.
There is a lot of available land in Maine (you can literally buy your own township!).
Less problem with pollution in many areas -- you can still drink the water.
I would like to get a group of people together to form a sustainable community. I think a group of people would be much better than just a few people off on their own. Most people nowadays don't have the skills necessary to provide for themselves; in a group it would be easier to pool skills and teach each other. I think the people who will survive an event like PO will be the people who have found a way to make a living, not necessarily the people with the biggest stockpiles (which could attract "unwanted visitors").
I envision a community that grows some crops, raises some animals (cows for beef/milk/leather; sheep, alpacas, and/or goats for hair/wool/hide; goats can also provide milk; chickens for eggs and meat; possibly pigs for meat; and horse for transportation/work) and does some hunting and/or fishing. I see working hard in the summer and fall obtaining and preserving food, and then a winter with a little less work and time to read and learn more. I think having a community like that could actually be a very fulfilling way to live.
For me, it is the money that is the stumbling block. I'm currently a poor college student; I'd love to join a community like that, and can work hard, but there's no way I'll be able to afford to start something like that anytime soon. : (
Joined: Oct 10, 2004 Posts: 476 Location: Chicago, IL
Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:17 am Post subject:
I'd buy off some influential world leaders and organizations. I'd convice them to admit to peak oil and start preparing the people. _________________ "Abortion doctors aren't baby killers. They're life un-ruiners"
Ummm...buy the state of Montana. Kick everybody out. Set loose a couple million buffalo. Get a teepe and some horses. Learn to make my own arrows. If it was good enough for Crazy Horse, it's good enough for me.
Joined: May 24, 2004 Posts: 3429 Location: California, USA
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2004 4:19 am Post subject:
Basically similar to Jato's posting. Plans currently underway to proceed. Oh yes, and we'll have dialtone and plenty of bandwidth.
Jrob gets the prize for thinking outside the box. If $ is no object, buy eartime and airtime for those politicians who are going to do something realistic about all of this.
Heck, if $ is no object, let's have a nice energy park right next door to the community, with two 500-MW reactors and sixty 4-MW wind turbines (total is about $1.5 to $2.0 billion, if my arithmetic is reasonably correct). That combination is good for about 600 MW continuous duty, allowing ample room for maintenance downtime on both the nuclear and wind infrastructure, and allowing all of it to run at below rated capacity, further extending its lifespan.
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2004 5:37 am Post subject: maine and other areas
i think maine is a great idea
ive been thinking about good places to set up shop and some of my limiting factors are:
-possible targets for nukes by other digruntled countries and the resulting fallout,
assuming current trends in climate change continue which areas will be the least affected by a rise in temperature and sea level,
proximity to population centers and the current/future level of police/army presence in the area
a higher remote agrarian coastal area with access to lots of fresh water would be ideal
being canadian first thoughts were
Newfoundland ...more game, lower population than most areas, not as good as coastal maine for farming, very far from any sizable population center (have to check proximity to any oil wells or other valuable resources that may be seized by americans during wartime)
northern coastal British Columbia ...nicer climate, salmon runs, possibly less hunting closer to population centers , bad thing is its close to the alberta tar sands and its in between alaska and wash state so any oil pipeline will be fairly close also
New Zealand is also really good, it exports about 20 times the amount of food it needs, coastal, remote, low population, not really a target for anyone
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2004 7:10 am Post subject: Re: If money was no object, how would you survive?
slacker wrote:
Let's assume that money was no object, and you would be able to find the exact parcel of land you would need. What type of post-peak lifestyle would you lead? What type of tools would you have? Where would you live? How would you eat? Etc etc...
I'm still ruminating on how I'd do it... so I'll probably have an answer to my own question in a bit...
-scott
Migrate to New Zealand. Eat mutton and drink cow milk.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
News
Discussions
Resources
Members
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
