are we really just three hot meals away from barbarism?

[snugglekitty]

My friend rednikki posted a very thought-provoking response to a Wall Street Journal article on peak oil. I found both pieces very interesting and maybe you will, too.

Comments

[kahoki.livejournal.com]

The problem with focusing on oil and water is that they are big tangibles, but are over the horizon as far as happening in our lifetime goes. The effects of global warming are happening now, and there is no way to reverse that. Industry is slow to react, first with the Industrial revolution fueled by coal, and again with fugitive emissions of refrigerants - Dupont only hit on that one when they realized that they were selling more excess than went into equipment over the years - great for profits that we sell more, but where is the excess going . . .

The earth has a great abundance of energy that has yet to be untapped since utilizing domestic sourece of fossil fuels and paying for foriegn supplies was less expensive than implenenting new technologies to take advantage of them.

The main problem with policies and consequences is human culture's inclination to go with the simplist solutions as opposed to making investments in long term sustainability. The electrical grid and power generation in general has not been upgraded since the 1970s, and today there is a derth of electrical engineers in generation/transmission of power since the design of computers, software, and systems administration as end users was a more lucritive and sexier option than working in a brick and mortar industry.

[kahoki.livejournal.com]

Hmmm - in reading the article, it come across as a combination of knowing that there is trouble ahead, but not having a definative plan of action for dealing with it. Mormon's have a plan to stock two years worth of supplies for the pre-secondcoming times when civilization collapses, but it seems that a decline of North America/Western civilization would be more from armed conflict on a global level, with our present squandering of resources in Iraq doing nothing more than drawing down on reserves that may be needed for more critical options in the near future.

[pink-pet.livejournal.com]

Wired had a huge spread on this issue. As oil prices rise the cost of getting energy from other sources becomes more attractive.

Oil was around since the beginning of people, but it was never cost effective until a couple hundred years ago when other sources, like whale oil, became too expensive to obtain.

Here is a link one of the articles, with links on the side too...

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.12/energy.html

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Thanks for weighing in - interesting link.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting. I agree the grid needs updating - not to mention maintenance, eek. In terms of my major concerns, with global travel being so quick and easy these days, I tend to worry about disease more than most other things. Something lethal could be almost everywhere in the world, and certainly where I am, before we even knew it was there...