I have seen the future, and I doesn't like it.

[green-man-2010.livejournal.com]

Life after the oil crash.
Ok, last time, I went and pinned it on a vid that most people cannot read at work.
So I am letting y'all boot up something you can read quitely when you oght to be working :)

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

In case you have trouble reading graphs, this one has a Blue Peter style 'talk you through the implications' - complete with original sources, for those who wanna check.

It might seem like I am doom mongering , but I just want to say -
Let's put more into Planned Parenthood, make it optional, but make it a damned sight easier at home and abroad.

Let's have oil rationing, sooner rather than later. Let's also have everything rationed if it's made with oil.

let's try to be civilised about the few resources left and share them out among ourselves.

Let's start reducing consumption , reusing things and recycling more.

let's remember that civilisation as we know it will be over by 2050, if it lasts that long.

Comments

[jerseycajun.livejournal.com]

The potency of uranium makes up greatly for it's nature as a limited resource, even moreso if one is allowed to 'squeeze' the most out of it as breeder reactors do (which are banned in the U.S., but not in countries like France or Japan), and which leaves waste which is significantly less hazardous to dispose of.

The blunt fact is, that in order to sustain energy levels in order to keep society functioning, one would have to carpet the entire country with wind farms and solar panels, leaving little room for, well, much anything else.

By the by, all those solar and wind power generating devices require resources to be mined and used as well in their production and maintenance, if we're going to get that picky.

The only way to accommodate a switch and not carpet bomb the country with wind and solar farms, would be to turn the clock back on our standard of living (many things which are not simply mere conveniences or matters of choosing more efficient appliances, but critical systems we have come to rely upon), which I think is what gunslinger is alluding to, but he can correct me if I'm off base. Simply walking/biking more won't do it.

Wind and solar might do very well in niche energy markets supplying energy locally to less demanding regions, but as a complete changeover? Not gonna happen. There's where your riots and upheavals lay, and I wouldn't want to be a politician who successfully could be traced to such a changeover in the times that followed.

"let's remember that civilization as we know it will be over by 2050, if it lasts that long."

It's really pointless to make these predictions, given that making predictions like this is nothing new to mankind, and they have been one of the things we get wrong with the most consistency. You would think we would have learned by now.

Besides, we all know this is how and when civilization ends: