How did you find out about PO?

Ippoippo · Post by **Ippoippo** » 22 Jun 2005, 04:46

Just found this site today... with lots of like minded Brits (came here via http://www.vitaltrivia.co.uk/, because the creator of that site posts on another forum I read).

Me. Hmmm, about two or three months ago started looking into building a home in Ireland. I am currently in Japan (moved here in July 2004), and was talking about the future with my wife. Do we stay here, go back to UK, or somewhere else? We thought Ireland may be kind of nice.

During my research of building a home, I started to find info about Geo-thermic heating etc etc. And somehow, and I can't remember how I found myself looking at http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ (going by my entry in my own blog, it must have been May 18th this year.... http://www.ippoippo.net/blog/archives/2 ... ut-of-oil/ ,an entry inspired by an article on Japanese news the day before about oil price increases).

Well, like a lot of people here, I went through some pretty serious depression for a couple of weeks.
I tried explaining to my wife what was wrong, and and one point she sort of got it! That pretty much depressed her too, BIG TIME! (Japanese ladies are such bigtime capitalist's!!

)

Now, I'm planning on what on earth to do. Somehow, I've got to get out of the country I'm in. But, I can't just return to the UK without a plan of action. Do I even want to go back to UK?
How do a gradually coax my wife into accepting what we need to do survive a big crash if that were to occur? Questions, questions.

Guess I'm a bit of a newbie to it all. However, that food I'm learning to grow on the veranda of our apartment has taken on a whole new meaning

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 22 Jun 2005, 12:24

I thought I'd buy some light reading for my summer holiday last year (2004) and a visit to DODGY TAX AVOIDERS led me to the 'The Party's Over....' by good old Mr Heinberg. I was actually after an entirely different book on a different subject so I'm not quite sure how I came to find the one I did. Needless to say it changed my life and I've found it hard to view things in the same way ever since.

'The Party's Over' is slightly out of date with regard to the timing of Peak Oil and so it wasn't until I started to read every other available book on the subject that the issues regarding our future really started to become worrisome. I think I hit rock bottom at about Christmas time when I read Matt Savinars book, 'The Oil Age is Over' which is the extreme view. I don't feel so depressed about the issue now. I feel I've taken control of things and my wife now understands me even if she doesn't want to read the books herself.

My concern is for my daughter who is 3 and my son who is 19 months. It is for them that I am raising awareness of PO. I worry for the little things, like will we still be able to get hold of inhalers to control my daughters asthma. I'm definitely glad that I know about PO. I don't feel I need to keep up with the Jones' anymore because what matters is my family and the future of the planet, not material things and social status. In a way it is exciting and in another it is terrifying.

tim · Post by **tim** » 21 Jul 2005, 23:16

I have been aware of resource depletion as a hot issue since reading the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth, back in the late seventies, and I moved from there towards a social ecology perspective on politics and culture.

The oil issue came to the fore for me, along with certain rare metals, in 1991 when I read Dennis Pirages' Global Technopolitics.

Six weeks before 9/11 I began to work as web editor (and etc) for BlueGreenEarth and we began to run pieces by Jan Lundberg in the States from his 7th culture change newletter onwards. Several dealt with oil (eg 11th May 2003 - "The Cost of Oil Security" / 22nd June 2003 - "Petroleum Culture vs Earth Living").

In fact the first time I recall PO being explicitly described was that June 2003 piece, when he wrote:

"To learn about the imminent global peak in oil extraction, attend a gathering of experts at the meeting of The Association for the Study of Peak Oil meeting: "Second International Workshop on Oil Depletion" Paris, on 26th and 27th May 2003"

He also used the idea in his July 2003 piece "Blowback!" and his August 2003 piece "Industrial Society has Polluted Enough - Shutting Down the WTO Economy?" Then - the breakthrough - the first use I saw of the actual term? Culture Change letter 31, on Blue in August 2003, where Jan says "Peak Oil is beginning to be commonly spoken of".

(all these are on BlueGreenEarth, in it's archive of articles, as well as on Culture Change - all graphics on Blue are either by me or made web friendly by me, and some of them have been used by Jan in the States, too)

I don't know who coined the term, I doubt Jan, I only mention his work a lot because I was very aware of it.

Personally, I regard the PO jargon as an overdue media friendly peg to further advance post-resource loss social ideas and 'earth is finite' ecological philosophies. I don't see it a new thing as such, but certainly it is a new thing in effect. Let's hope that it raises the profile enough for change to occur this time (by which I mean positive change before the doo-dah hits the fan)!

Tim

Sam172 · Post by **Sam172** » 22 Jul 2005, 09:38

greenbean wrote:I found out a couple of months ago, probably on livejournal, but I can't remember exactly where.

Same here, though I know where it was that I found out.

I was searching the communities for ones with the interest 'Wind Power' and I stumbled across the 'powerswitch' community...bummed about there for a while before reading more material.

Then I ended on the actual website ^_^

Winged Energy of Delight · Post by **Winged Energy of Delight** » 22 Jul 2005, 10:06

I first heard about it from my boyfriend.

Until then, it was something I'd never even really thought about, so intertwined was I with the daily minutiae of life.

Seriously, there is nothing more convincing than having somebody you trust and who you know is intelligent and rational telling you about this and looking at you and telling you that this is going to be serious and may well happen not just in our lifetime but fairly early on in our lifetime.

It really does help to tell people about peak oil and not just shy away from it for fear of looking crazy and alienating yourself or depressing people.

Saying that, seeing the issue infiltrate all news mediums also serves as corroboration. Even though nobody should regard media as containing gospel truth, there is a sense that when the media starts reporting something, it really strikes home that this is an issue that is becoming more pertinent than ever and is something to really take seriously. An admixture of the two - seeing the issue pop up in various forums such as TV programmes and newspapers and also having it explained to you by a friend or loved one - is a cocktail that you will get you drunk on this issue and see you reaching for further heady facts.

RogerCO · Post by **RogerCO** » 22 Jul 2005, 11:38

Post subject: How did you found out about PO?

Was at GP conference in Derbyshire - I had noticed a fringe entitled "Peak Oil" and though "Oh, we're in the peak district; I expect a local group want to talk about a planned oil facility or something in the National Park" - not really interesting to me so gave it a miss.
But it happen that the room for the meeting was moved and I was in there doing something else and started to pick up on what Stephen Watson (he's in here somewhere) was saying and the light bulb above my head went on...

peaky · Post by **peaky** » 22 Jul 2005, 13:37

RogerCO wrote:But it happen that the room for the meeting was moved and I was in there doing something else and started to pick up on what Stephen Watson (he's in here somewhere) was saying and the light bulb above my head went on...

Aaaah Roger - I never knew - it gives me a warm glow.

It's very inspiring reading the items in this thread. Reading others people's experience which mirror my own gives me a connection with you all even though I've only met a few of you. Particularly to know that others have followed that obsession, despair, stop and then finally "actually this could be quite benefical in many ways".

I found out about this by trawling around the web, probably in connection with some Green Party subject thread. Like many, I found LATOC and shortly after that, Matt Savinar made the entire book available online as a PDF until the US elections. I downloaded it and read it all and got very down. (Contact me if you'd like a copy) After that I read other sites and bought TPO and eventually decided that Peak Oil is an "enema for Western civilisation". That made me feel a lot better.

Now, although I'm still a bit scared of what's to come, I'm essentially looking forward to the potential of us wreaking far less damage on the planet, joinging with the increasing number of people looking for a new way to live, and finally growing up into some kind of care and stewardship for this wonderful home of ours. And aint PowerSwitch great

dudley · Post by **dudley** » 22 Jul 2005, 16:29

I bought The End of Oil by Paul Roberts as a three for two book at Waterstones as some light reading. It was a mild shock to find that Roberts said we would need an entirely new energy economy by 2030 or so and there were no easy answers as to what should be done. I then started looking for oil depletion sites on the web and had a bigger shock when I found the dieoff website and the Olduvai Theory. Every morning after waking it comes to me that we are facing an energy crisis that will completely transform life as we know it. I'm ashamed to say that I pretty much ignored the Limits to Growth report when it came out in the seventies when I was in high school.

peaky · Post by **peaky** » 25 Jul 2005, 13:54

dudley wrote:I'm ashamed to say that I pretty much ignored the Limits to Growth report when it came out in the seventies when I was in high school.

Don't give yourself a hard time over it Dudley - loads of people 'running the world' (tm) are still ignoring it

newmac · Post by **newmac** » 09 Aug 2005, 08:30

I discovered Peak Oil around 2003 whilst reading international relations and politics info from non standard sources and eventually wanting to find out a bit more about Iraq. "The Party is Over" was my first book.

I have since read more and more, and hopefully got loads of people interested.

I wish I'd never found out about it though as my girlfriend finished with me partly because I've become a freak. Who said that the social consequences of Peak Oil haven't begun already?

fromthemiddleofnowhere · Post by **fromthemiddleofnowhere** » 10 Aug 2005, 22:00

PaulS wrote:
Anyway, by December I was convincing my wife that we should do something about it, in February we put our wonderful new house on the market and we expect to move in to a small farm in Cornwall on 1st July, although there may be a short delay.

Paul, I just read your post out to my husband who applauded you

My husband has been aware of peakoil since he was 21 (He's 36 now) and since I met him 5 years ago he slowly introduced me to the idea. He also mentioned 9/11 could be an inside job and to research it myself. I ridiculed his ideas at first but I must say, a lot of things he told me would happen have happened since... scary.

One day in december I happened to look up some stuff on the illuminati conspiracy theories when I saw a link to lifeaftertheoilcrash and that was it...

peaky · Post by **peaky** » 10 Aug 2005, 22:06

fromthemiddleofnowhere wrote: when I saw a link to lifeaftertheoilcrash and that was it...

Hmmm - that Matt Savinar has a lot to answer for

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 11 Aug 2005, 00:20

Yes, lifeaftertheoilcrash is what changed my life about 3 months ago. I am nearly over the shock of it all (but not quite). As for 9/11 and many other things being inside jobs, well let's just say, it might be easy to believe in these conspiracy theories, but I am afraid that is one that I ain't going to fall for.

peaky · Post by **peaky** » 11 Aug 2005, 00:38

snow hope wrote:As for 9/11 and many other things being inside jobs, well let's just say, it might be easy to believe in these conspiracy theories, but I am afraid that is one that I ain't going to fall for.

The thing is, when you read all the stuff about 9/11, it just dosn't add up. Something very odd happened there, I don't know what, but I'm certain that the official line is a fabrication.

And what's a conspiracy theory? Something the government doesn't support? Is believing that the Iraq invasion was not about WMD or restoring democracy a consipiracy theory? Seems to me that the government can lie all it wants and it's a 'mistake' but when we say something against the prevailing othordoxy then it's a consiparcy theory.

I'm afraid I don't buy it.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 11 Aug 2005, 11:27

Fair points Peaky.

We all make judgements. Just like I believe men DID land on the moon, I also believe that 9/11 WASN'T "arranged by the US Govt or elements within". Also that 7/7 and 21/7 weren't arranged by the UK Govt as some people on here think. I could be wrong, but those are my views. But we digress....

After reading about PO, I was convinced of the problem very quickly (after only a few minutes reading). Since then I have read and read, bought books and DVDs and tried to slowly (need to speed-up) change my lifestyle. But with a wife and three teenage boys to support, you have to tread a sensible line. I must admit my fear of the future still scares me to a degree, although not enough to make me panic any more. I just feel there is so much to do.

I must be a rather self-centred person, as I think of everything in terms of my own famaly's survival. I haven't yet got to the stage of thinking a lot about society's survival....I suspect this will come later.