tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31651375.post3992868149060023363..comments2023-10-29T03:57:49.474-04:00Comments on The Accidental Environmentalist: According to the energy widget we're screwedMistressmybaehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16040035582367431567noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31651375.post-63542248656894618432011-06-30T01:12:42.809-04:002011-06-30T01:12:42.809-04:00Just put that book and Eaarth: Making a Life on a ...Just put that book and Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill Mckibben on hold at the library - yay! More summer reading! <br /><br />I posted a little on <a href="http://theaccidentalenvironmentalist.blogspot.com/2010/06/mad-max-meme-and-peak-oil.html" rel="nofollow">Peak Oil</a> last year around this time and I'm really glad I got McKibben's podcast "Earth to Humans: Enough Already" to help bring me down from this frenzy about the issue of <em>when our fuel runs out</em>. Because, at this point, it's not a matter of "if" but "when" and we just have to face the fact that we're going to be living a lot smaller than we have in the previous two generations. And that's okay. It's not okay for our world community to be completely dependent on fossil fuels, and we will, once again, learn our lessons the hard way. <br /><br />Besides, in reference to your comment about "1850's lifestyle," I've learned a lot from working at the 1870's Living History Farm at Morninside! Things like, "it takes all morning to make lunch," and then, "it takes all afternoon to make dinner" (I'm extrapolating because I only stay in the 1870's until lunchtime). <br /><br />My hope is it won't be as bad as the Peak Oilers are thinking; we'll just be a lot less mobile and will be more local of necessity.Mistressmybaehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16040035582367431567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31651375.post-63264834979306869112011-06-29T06:56:56.833-04:002011-06-29T06:56:56.833-04:00Have you ever read "Twilight in the Desert&qu...Have you ever read <a href="http://www.twilightinthedesert.com/" rel="nofollow">"Twilight in the Desert" by Matt Simmons,</a> an expert in oil finance? It was one of the early Peak Oil books. He makes a good case that Saudi Arabia doesn't have the capacity to produce enough to bail out the West (and he put out the book in 2005, before communist China had reached the energy ascendancy it has today.) We're all screwed. Get ready for an "energy descent." Back to the future -- 1850s lifestyle, here we come! Unfortunately, that means 1850s human population numbers, too. Long way to fall, and the scary part is how we arrive at those numbers from the numbers we have today...Bukko Boomerangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02424677168216647964noreply@blogger.com