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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Triffin who wrote (4184)	5/23/2006 11:23:45 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 24210

Couldn't find the book I had in mind,so it must be a library book. Moon was revolting, and attacking earth by sending cannisters of rocks down the gravity well. Anyway, energy from the moon must be "1 shot johnny" technospeak... Peak Oil Taxonomy: the Doombat [Insert David Suzuki's voiceover from "The Nature of Things"] The Doomatinus Howlsatmoonicus, known by the colloquial name 'Doombat'. A newly discovered species, the doombat is an offspring of the `net denziens peak oil doomer and moonbat. The moonbat's habitat is almost exclusively located in the contential USA due to their unique dietary requirements. Doombats sustain themselves through a unique combination of SUV exhaust, electronic emissions from omnipresent NSA wiretaps, and the stench of decaying Republicans. Doombats are well known in the blogosphere for their fetish for tinfoil hats. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's become pretty clear to me that technology is not the limiting factor in determining how civilization deals with peak oil as a phenomenon. How culture adapts to the increasing rarity of its favourite fungible energy resource has more to due with sociology than technology or geology. While we can't say anything about the reactions of the vast majority of citizens that aren't even aware of the concept, I think it would be interesting to build a graph of the taxonomy of peak oil blogosphere denizens. After all, what better way to offend a bushel of people than to arbitrarily histogram them and make specious claims about the composition of each bin? There are four major sub-denizen groups in the peak oil blogosphere: Corncucopians Traditionalists Technopeakers Doomers entropyproduction.blogspot.com

To: Triffin who wrote (4184)	5/23/2006 1:38:36 PM
From: Triffin	Respond to of 24210

Peak Oil Agnostic .. that's me .. I put myself in the "Other" category and I would call my species "Agnostics". Here are the basic Agnostic tenets: It is obvious that oil production will eventually peak. It is not obvious when it will happen and what consequences it will have. The systems are complex, the experts have agendas, a lot of data is being obfuscated. All predictions are dubious. The likelihoods of various scenarios are not well defined by any means. Having said that, some measures promoted as responses to various possible Peak Oil scenarios have clear intrinsic benefits regardless of oil depletion. These include: -investing in one's physical fitness -learning practical survival skills (CPR, etc.) -cutting one's energy consumption -cutting other dependecies on the overall economy -investing in assets that would provide some form of value in the event of an economic collapse -getting to know one's neighbors (see the previous point) -dispensing with superficial status symbols such as houses & cars -truly appreciating civilization's conveniences and cherishing them without over-indulgence -learning about the energy industry and various technologies -learning about political candidates' energy proposals -spreading awareness - even if Peak Oil turns out to be nothing but alarmist hype, energy issues are too important not to be talked about Doing these things makes one better off no matter what. Peak Oil is simply an additional motivator and for some people it can prove incredibly effective. Similar measures are possible on a society-wide scale but the typical Agnostic sees little opportunity to influence society-wide responses. He/she does pursue what opportunity there is, mainly by spreading awareness of the issue among friends and family, as well as doing the right thing at the ballot box. An Agnostic follows the Peak Oil debates to get additional ideas and information - one can never know enough about a complex topic like this. Triff ..