[Ibon]

Some of us have known for years the greater forces that have converged causing the worsening consequences we can today witness whether it be climate change, the global financial disaster, rising costs of energy and food.

We are all individual units of the collective that we accuse of being entrenched. So I guess it is fair to ask the question how far each of us has closed the gap between what we know of the greater forces at hand and what we have done or are actually doing to adapt and adjust.

I witness in myself a cognitive dissonance between what I know and what I do. My income stream is totally dependent on the discretionary spending of others. In fact since I learned about peak oil I committed myself to two additional projects that are totally dependent on a functioning global economy. I don't want to change this because I love what I do? How bad do the consequences have to get for me to abandon this lifestyle? I guess like most I will continue to do what I am doing as long as it continues to be sustainable economically.

Knowledge of the worsening consequences of overshoot has not really altered my life plans.....and yet I am constantly aware of how fragile indeed is this global house of cards.

What action can one really take I often ask myself. Sell off everything, buy guns and bury gold in the ground and grow porcupine spines on your back?

I am grateful until now that I have not had to psychologically crawl into a hole.

[vision-master]

No one knows what the World will be like in another 5 years. I say, light up a big splif, set back with a nice cold one, put on your favorite tunes and think real hard about what really matters, what's really important. lsol

[Pops]

It's really hard to find a path forward, I can't tell if there is a cliff or a rough slope or a pot of gold. On most days I think not a cliff or gold but the roughness of the slope still presents lots of toecatchers.

I've done the thing that I suppose most do: what I wanted to do anyway, perhaps a little sooner than I would have otherwise but relatively the same:

I exited the hamster wheel more or less successfully and created a smaller life, the biggest change that I made purposefully was reduce my income. Consequently:
I buy less stuff,
I owe nothing,
I "diversified" my income sources,
I'm somewhat less dependent on local and global infrastructure than I once was, less than the average American but still much more than the average earthling.

None of which means I'm prepared for anything that might happen or that I'm more prepared than someone else. It does mean that I weathered the last economic leg down without the total dislocation that I certainly would have experienced had I not changed. I feel and I am much more in control of my destiny, if you will, than when my entire life was on credit and hung by a paycheck. No need to get stoned to figure that out or escape from it either.

[vision-master]

Thing is, in the end we become maggot food and all is forgotten.

[Pops]

No argument vm, what's your point, preemptive forgetting?

[dinopello]

The future's so bright, gotta wear shades. The future's uncertain and the end is always near. This is an excellent question. For me, there is a modest gap between what I know and what I do, mostly due to laziness and procrastination. But, I feel on the issue that is probably the subject of this thread, I really know almost nothing (vm's point). Risk mitigation and opportunity cost analysis is never cut and dry.

I just watched the Bucket List. Perhaps more relevant questions are

‘Have you found joy in your life?’ 'Has your life brought joy to others?’”

[SeaGypsy]

I haven't touched any of the sacred herb for over a month, cut my beer intake to one bottle on Friday nights; so I can pass the tests required to work for a company supplying support services to the mining sector. Part of the job is heavy truck and bus driving; so it would be really irresponsible to not quit, besides likely precluding my getting into this industry at all. It's nice to be seriously straight after a bender. The last few years probably had more smoky months than non. Finding my creative juices really flowing now that the suppressed emotions are coming through in a controlled manner; writing a book I've wanted to write for years.

More to Ibon's post. If you told me 20 years ago that now I would be holding a bunch of tickets to work in heavy industry and off to 'The Blue Sky Mine'; I would have said you are friggin crazy. But that's what I'm doing.

Reason: maximum income in reasonable time. Totally different concurrent lives; one out at work in the middle of nowhere, the other with my family with plenty of choice about where we spend that time. The roster is 2 weeks on one week off, with 6 weeks annual leave, which suits me much better than an ordinary roster. My wife being Asian with friends all over the place and us both having places to show each other; we can meet up in Singapore and go wherever takes our fancy every few weeks.

I pretty much knew what I know now when I was about 15, that's 30 years ago. Only big difference has been grasping the ramifications of peak oil over the last 6 years. This hit me pretty hard and still does, but I am a slow crash convert since the last few years on this site. Being a slow crasher is very different to a doom and gloomer. I still have the sense of doom, but not of gloom. Glooming over the unavoidable strikes me as futile. So I have invested myself in staying ahead of the axeman. So far every choice I have made in this direction has worked out to put me well ahead of where I would have been not having grokked peak oil.

I am enjoying life a lot, which is more important than knowing anything or even doing anything. On the knowing front; I feel it is most important to know myself, rather than a stream of 'facts'. On the doing front it's mostly about having maximum flexibility and minimum attachment to perceived possessions.

My question back to the OP: How wide is the gap between what you are and how you are being? (My perception of Ibon is that his gap in this sense is very narrow. I sense he suffers from a sense of guilt at being successful; whether by luck of birth or hard work or a combination of factors. I can't personally see the point in thinking like that. May as well just give it all away and become a vagabond of some sort, or try to join the last wild folk of the jungles of South America or PNG. Probably just to find another reason to feel guilty)

[FairMaiden]

I've done things that weren't "smart" when you consider everything we know about climate change, overpopulation, peak oil, etc....I had 2 beautiful babies. But it was one of those "I'll regret it if I don't and the world doesn't end" kind of decisions. Pretty much everything else doesn't matter.

What we do is keep emergency provisions and plenty of food. We both have essential service jobs. We pay down debt instead of buying junk we don't need. (our only debt is a car loan & mortgage) I am learning about gardening - I already know about herbs and healing. We have kept ourselves in great condition and only eat wholesome foods to avoid illness (working for us so far).

We are considering moving to a smaller community so we could have some land and grow food. We would also be away from the "masses" in the city. We would need 2-3 yrs to reach this goal tho as we'd need that to get good paying jobs there.

All you can do is make small decisions every day and live life to the fullest. I certainly don't have the time and energy to worry about things I can't control though.

[Ibon]

If you told me 20 years ago that now I would be holding a bunch of tickets to work in heavy industry and off to 'The Blue Sky Mine'; I would have said you are friggin crazy. But that's what I'm doing.

Reason: maximum income in reasonable time. Totally different concurrent lives; one out at work in the middle of nowhere, the other with my family with plenty of choice about where we spend that time. The roster is 2 weeks on one week off, with 6 weeks annual leave, which suits me much better than an ordinary roster. My wife being Asian with friends all over the place and us both having places to show each other; we can meet up in Singapore and go wherever takes our fancy every few weeks.

Wealth is maximizing free time with family along with maximizing earnings. Good choice.

I pretty much knew what I know now when I was about 15, that's 30 years ago. Only big difference has been grasping the ramifications of peak oil over the last 6 years. This hit me pretty hard and still does, but I am a slow crash convert since the last few years on this site. So I have invested myself in staying ahead of the axeman. So far every choice I have made in this direction has worked out to put me well ahead of where I would have been not having grokked peak oil.

I am also definitely a slow crasher as well with one caveat. Slow crashing is not a gentle slow linear decline but will rather happen with some punctuated events that really can throw us into quite a severe depression. Discretionary spending is the first to go out the door in such an event.

My question back to the OP: How wide is the gap between what you are and how you are being? (My perception of Ibon is that his gap in this sense is very narrow. I sense he suffers from a sense of guilt at being successful; whether by luck of birth or hard work or a combination of factors. I can't personally see the point in thinking like that. May as well just give it all away and become a vagabond of some sort, or try to join the last wild folk of the jungles of South America or PNG. Probably just to find another reason to feel guilty)

I don't really feel guilty about the success or good fortune that came my way. I gave up a successful business in 2004 and could have easily kept in the harness for years accumulating more wealth but as you say, you need to maximize income along with maximizing time with family.

We continue to all be dependent on a system that we know is fragile. For some of us that have a choice you really see that beyond the examples made by FairMaiden we just continue on relying on the existing global economic system to feed us.

I like what Pops said about reducing exposure by reducing spending by reducing income. I sold a successful business in 2004 and could have still been harnessed with running a business compensating my lack of freedom by spending money on expensive stuff etc. I don't regret having pulled the plug even though I am looking at a couple of decades of no real income stream except living off my net worth and barely covering the operating costs of my land holdings with the rentals that this brings in.....rentals that depend on discretionary spending.

My current consumption habits are pretty bare bones, just putting money in infrastructure and nothing else.

I just find the difference of what we know and what we do to illustrate that many of us are neither here nor there. No longer here in believing in the resilience of the current economic system but not there either in the sense that there is no viable economic option yet in place.

And yet many of us have made decisions to lesson the vulnerability . That is all really one can do.

We are at a point in being in a holding pattern waiting for a new normal to adjust to........

This is a strange time.......

[vision-master]

No argument vm, what's your point, preemptive forgetting?

Give HEALTH #1 and add 0's to everything else.........

As one ages, what's really important should come to light.



Do things that bring more love.......

[SeaGypsy]

Ibon,
Yeah, I was pushing a small button, not a big one.
Personally I think what you are doing is totally awesome. I also believe in a primitive magical aspect to life, which only happens when there is room for it. When push comes to shove you have some choices open to you many others can only dream of. To my way of thinking that is the key to good living; having choices.

There are many posters here doing really positive things with their lives, becoming independent, setting great examples for sustainable living. There are many more who would like to shift more in that direction, but for one reason or another can't do it now or won't. The only view which brings me dread of these is the one where nothing is going to fundamentally change; BAU forever anon. I think these people will find out the hard way that it's better to jump than be pushed.

I have multiple 'escape plans'. These include many friends in diverse and remote locations, with plenty of natural resources. I made this 'investment' over a 25 year period of my life, travelling and living and working with these people in these places.
I don't feel the need to go out bush and wait for cataclysm. Not saying that is what you or others have done, just putting the end point in my own words.

With 2 young children, like FairMaiden, I have opted to have a very solid reason to have faith in some kind of liveable future. On a global overall scale I think things are going to keep getting bleaker over time, but I have no ability to match my inclination to 'save the world'. Just have to keep going in some way which feels sane and allows my family to survive and live well. I don't buy anything new except food and laptop computers.

[Loki]

I started posting on this board more than 6 years ago, shortly after I became aware of peak oil. I feel like I've made really good progress in that time, given my financial limitations, in not only preparing for a post-peak world, but, more importantly, in operationalizing my greenie weenie values.

In the last six years I've tried to focus on gaining as many practical skills as possible, both in terms of employability and self-sufficiency. I've learned the essentials of organic farming (still lots to learn, of course) and experimented quite a bit with subsistence gardening; gotten a degree in horticulture (debt free); worked as an arborist and learned a lot about fruit trees; learned food preservation techniques and canned tons of food; gotten control of my finances and learned how to live poor; expanded my cooking skills and the percentage of local and organic foods in my diet; learned how to make cheese; taught myself how to play acoustic guitar; learned how to brew beer and hard cider; learned some basic carpentry and mechanics (still ignorant as hell); learned primitive archery; experimented with off-grid/emergency power; accumulated a fairly large collection of practical reference books (farming, mechanics, solar power, etc.); studied first aid and read a fair bit about herbalism; maintained my firearms skills; accumulated the basic tools for the above activities (gardening stuff, canning equipment and supplies, brewing equipment, etc.).

Also been through two semi-unexpected, somewhat wrenching job changes in the last 6 years. After those I feel much better prepared, psychologically speaking, for economic uncertainty and dislocation.

Three years ago I was physically in the worst shape of my life, now I'm as fit and strong as I've ever been despite some gray in my beard and a prodigious appetite for cheese and beer. Amazing how farm work takes the pounds off.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still lacking in a LOT of areas and there's plenty more to learn and do, but I'm happy with the rate of my progress overall. It'd be really nice to share the journey with a like-minded woman, or at least get a couple divorces under my belt, but I seem to be fated for bachelorhood. Also be nice to have my own little bought-and-paid-for doomstead in an idylic Cascadian valley, but given my semi-voluntary poverty I don't see that happening any time soon. C'est la vie.

[glaucus]

Great thread. I feel pretty far out of line with what 'I know', but I'm doing my best to shrink the gap. One thing I've noticed about me personally is my willingness to make changes to lessen my vulnerability but unwillingness to do things 'for the common good'. Of course there are some changes I've made that have positive side effects for the world at large, but my interest is not in 'saving the world'. It's in positioning me and my family in such a way that our exposure to the most likely culprits is lessened as things devolve.

There are a few core strategies I'm employing which I feel pretty good about, including:
-keeping a good strong social network (in meatspace) with friends and family all over the map
-seeking employment with a predicable schedule and income (with a modicum of job security) to maximize time with my family
-spending as little as possible on marginal, discretionary stuff (both physical and experiencial)
-pay down debt like crazy (on track to be debt free in about 2 years) and diversify savings
-ear to the ground on current events (when pre-set canaries in the coal mine bite it, I'll be the first out the door)
-getting in shape (on track to be my goal weight in 1 year)
-practicing the Stoic outlook (whenever disturbed by something, I ask myself if I have control over it or not. If I don't, I (try to) let it be. If I do, I take steps to improve things.)
-getting psychologically comfortable with the idea that the future will not be as easy as today, and that I may have to do things outside of what's socially acceptable in order to ensure the well-being of myself and my family

One of the themes I focus on is spending my time and energy doing things that will be useful no matter what the future holds.

One thing I need to work on is income diversification. I'm still dependent upon a single paycheck which makes me nervous. But I'm through with torturing myself about not being 'sustainable'. The situation is so complex and deep at this point that anyone who thinks they are or could ever be insulated from what's unfolding is utterly deluded.

I see a 'slow crash' unfolding, but I recognize that all that means is that I need to make sure to fight for a chair each time the music stops going forward. I firmly believe that those who can stay in the 'real' economy for as long as possible will fare descent best. Trying to stake out a 'new way of living' during these tumultuous times is way too risky for me to take on at the moment. Those who pursue such a path earn my respect and I wish them luck.

[JohnRM]

What I know is that the point of life is to be happy. I have very little control over the course of events, world wide. I will exercise what little control I do have and balance that out with being happy. I could easily see things falling apart rapidly. I could easily see things slowly decay. I could easily see us get through this. In that sense, I know nothing. When it comes to what I do, in that regard, I just live small and don't ask for much. That just happens to help me protect myself from economic trouble, it serves my environmental interests, and it leaves me with the time to do what I truly want to do with my life, which makes me happy. Its a win-win!

[Ibon]

With 2 young children, like FairMaiden, I have opted to have a very solid reason to have faith in some kind of liveable future. On a global overall scale I think things are going to keep getting bleaker over time, but I have no ability to match my inclination to 'save the world'. Just have to keep going in some way which feels sane and allows my family to survive and live well. I don't buy anything new except food and laptop computers.

My two daughters are adult women now, one living in Manila and graduating next March and the other one living in Manhattan and working. Here I am with 1.5 million acres of wilderness around me and my two daughters are living in two cities whose combined population is around 30 million..... Go figure!

Our project here in Panama does fill the empty nest. We are mentoring to a 17 year old volunteer this month, a couple of herpetologists are doing a survey of frog species and next month two entomological groups are setting up their mercury vapor lights collecting bugs.

[Ibon]

Three years ago I was physically in the worst shape of my life, now I'm as fit and strong as I've ever been despite some gray in my beard and a prodigious appetite for cheese and beer. Amazing how farm work takes the pounds off.

I can relate to this

[SeaGypsy]

My two daughters are adult women now, one living in Manila and graduating next March and the other one living in Manhattan and working. Here I am with 1.5 million acres of wilderness around me and my two daughters are living in two cities whose combined population is around 30 million..... Go figure!

Wow. You couldn't pick two more different English speaking cities (of course Manila is Tagalog but the legal/ higher educational systems are in English). I hope the daughter in Manila gets out of there asap, the air is filthy; every time I'm in Manila I get blocked up sinus and start wheezing within a few hours. I can't understand how people can live there really. I do find it a glimpse of where the median term future might be heading for many cities, the slums and overcrowding etc.

[Ibon]

I hope the daughter in Manila gets out of there asap, the air is filthy; every time I'm in Manila I get blocked up sinus and start wheezing within a few hours. I can't understand how people can live there really.

You know how many times my wife and I have talked about all the physical abuse one has to put up with living in Manila? There is a resilience to youth where you put up with it. I refuse to stay there more than 2 days when we visit family there. It's got to be one of the worst cities to live in the world. What keeps my daughter tolerating it is her social life.

Today we added a new snake species to the list of reptiles seen at Mount Totumas. Check it out on our most recent blog entry http://mounttotumas.com/wordpress/?p=556

[SeaGypsy]

Hilarious when Manila people speak in reverance or envy of Makati City. The place is horrible, worse than the worst suburbs in any city in Australia and most in the USA; but to Pinoy it's 'glamorous'. Stinking dangerous hell hole full of pick pockets and security gaurds with pump action shotguns, barely any public space, just a few tall buildings and a couple of gentrified leafy streets. A dive. My favorite part of Manila is right in the filth of EDSA, the nightclub district. Usually might see one other foreigner there in a whole evening, cheap beers, really grungy Asia, heaps of fun. But live there? No way known.

[ralfy]

Much of Metro Manila is terrible, but several parts resemble places like the outskirts of Sydney or even Brisbane, and some parts even look like old neighborhoods in Sydney or even Blacktown.

One reason why some of these areas are well-maintained is because of the high cost of living, something that most locals cannot afford. That is why even that which is meaner they consider above-average. For those who consider what is even better as ordinary, it has to do with their middle class background.

As I pointed out elsewhere, only around 15 pct of human beings earn between 10 and 20 dollars a day or more, and even when their income is adjusted to the cost of living in their area, they earn many times more than the average human being. Meanwhile, more than 60 pct of human beings earn only around 2 dollars day, but that's gone up from a dollar around three decades ago. Finally, the same 15 pct of human beings are responsible for more than 60 pct of personal consumption. This can be seen in very high ecological footprints for areas like the U.S., Australia, and Canada: around eight times more than that of the Philippines. It's no wonder then that even the most sophisticated parts of Metro Manila are not as good as that of other cities.

The catch is that this type of consumption and ecological footprint requires incredible amounts of credit and resources. For example, Australia has one of the highest levels of personal debt in the world, and the U.S. overall. The U.S. requires significant amounts of resources, including oil, to maintain a middle class lifestyle, such as up to a quarter of world oil production for less than 5 pct of the world's population.

In addition, a growing global middle class is appearing, leading to more resource consumption. That is because in a global capitalist economy, those who are part of the middle class can only maintain their lifestyle by selling more goods and services to those who are not. That is why even places like Metro Manila, if not the outskirts, are now radically different from what they were in the past, with more services that were not available in the past. The same goes for many other cities in the country, as well as other countries in the region.

How is this connected to the OP's point? Generally all forum members are part of the middle class, i.e., the top 15 pct of the world's population. They do not have to think about what the other 85 pct have to go through but just feel lucky that they won't be part of the same. And yet their own income and wealth are ultimately dependent on ensuring that the same 85 pct will join them (in short, laugh at those who are poorer, but find ways to make sure that they will no longer be poor, as one needs more customers). More important, the aspirations backing such views ironically involve the opposite of acknowledging peak oil.

In which case, insofar as one feels lucky not to have to "crawl into a hole" psychologically or literally, it may come to that. And when that happens, it won't be a case of more of the 85 pct joining the 15 pct but the other way round.