Haven't posted recently but I have been thinking about our predicament just the same. Oil has nearly reached $100/barrel and gas is creeping up towards $4/gallen hereabouts. I am still convinced that we are heading inexorably towards a showdown with finite Earth. We don't seem to be aware except on the fringes. Really big things happen slowly enough, and so overwhelmingly, that we don't notice them I guess.
I am working on an idea that I am now thinking of as Enlightened Primitivism. Putting aside the divisive questions of "when the peak will arrive?" and "can alternative fuels make up the difference?" I think we can all agree that we live in a finite world and, if we continue to consume its bounty, we will eventually use it up. When that time arrives we will be returned to a state of lower expectations because without cheap, abundant, dense energy sources, todays technology does not happen. Many fear that we will then digress to a primitive, pre-industrial agrarian society. But that doesn't have to be the case. If we are careful we should be able to take, if not our technology, our knowledge with us. Much of what we know about the world around us has been gained with the help of industrial technology and abundant energy. If our cultures are to return to a lower energy, lower technology state then let us do so benefiting from the knowledge that we have gained. Primitive maybe, but hopefully not ignorant. I have not thought through all of the implications of this yet. As I do, I will share it here.
Have a good new year.
