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Topic: Peak Oil: What to do? part 2
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CMOT Dibbler
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4117
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posted 26 April 2004 02:20 PM
It will be interesting to see how democracy will be affected by the oil crisis. A couple of weeks ago I was listing to the Enright files on ideas. He was interviewing a fairly liberal minded economist about globalization. She said that a growing number of young people are becoming a political. That they refuse to vote because they are disenchanted with the current system. The lady, (sorry I can't remember her last name) told Michael that the industrialized democracies are sliding rather quickly towards fascism.I believe her belief was confirmed in a conversation I had over a year ago on the spacecast message boards. I was having a jovial chat with a guy who said he was from Calgary. He jokingly said that all politicians were the same and that they were all going to hell. I said that he must have voted for Stockwell day during the last election. He flamed me with the following response: quote: Oh man those are war words. There is no way I would ever vote for him but I am not thrilled with Jean either. All of them are pursuing their own agendas for their own aggrandizement. To think a left winger is doing it for any less of a personal reason than a right winger is naive. I've dealt with all stripes of politicians over the years and this comes from my personal experience.What needs to happen is that the whole works need to be lined up against a wall and shot. Then we need to start over and keep doing that until it gets done right.
Dnuttal said that extremist survivalist organizations weren't likely to to take hold in Canada during the crisis. After reading this, I'm not sure whether he judged the Canadian character correctly.
From: Just outside Fernie, British Columbia | Registered: May 2003
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Ranger03
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5302
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posted 26 April 2004 09:09 PM
quote: Nazism is usually considered as a kind of fascism, but it should be understood that Nazism sought the state's purpose in serving an ideal to valuing what its content should be: its people, race, and the social engineering of these aspects of culture to the ends of the greatest possible prosperity for them (the party not the people) at the expense of all else.
Ralph has:
worked completely for the betterment of the partyMade Alberta an almost "right to work" province. Something only seen so far in Southern states Has dictated to Nurses what their contract will consist of plus removing certain pensions and refusing them the right to strike Decided that "Easten Bastards" should freeze in the dark Decided the homeless should just get a job
I think, with all due respect the lady to be correct. He has slid a long way down that right wing at the end of which lives the beast
From: bed | Registered: Mar 2004
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CMOT Dibbler
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 4117
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posted 27 April 2004 10:49 PM
quote: Anybody else tried talking about this with friends & neighbours? One doesn't have to scare monger; just suggest that oil production may be peaking soon and see what kind of reactions you get.
I spoke to my mom and sister about it. Neither of them seem to be worried. Mom did answer my Numorus questions about how prepared we are for the crunch. Our vehicle is old, we have a garden and our spending habits aren't that lavish, so we'll probably survive the initial price increases. The problem with sites like after the oil crash.com is that they get you so upset you can't think straight. What good is a warning when you can't think of any solutions to the problem? quote: Oh, oh...looks like only China and the US are going to have oil.
We are going to attack China!? quote: I think it is necessary now for the goverment to do an assessment of what is left. It is impossible to believe reserve figures given by private enterprise for the simple reason that there is no incentive for them to provide an accurate accounting.
yeah, but how are you going to convince people to march for a cause like that. It doesn't really have any catchy slogans attached to it like " give peace a chance" or "LBJ! LBJ! How many kids did you kill today!"
From: Just outside Fernie, British Columbia | Registered: May 2003
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dnuttall
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5258
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posted 28 April 2004 12:32 PM
The governments have no interest in giving out real numbers, any more than industry. Governments will be in trouble when it becomes clear that they are helping to create the problems.There is a lot one can do. Pay off debts, use energy efficiency to decrease your demand on the system, and use energy conservation if that's not enough. There's a fellow in eastern Ontario that has a 3000 sq.ft house, high efficiency appliances (everything - DVD, home theatre, hot tub, the whole bit), and practices no conservation. He generates his own electricity, and would use the equivelent of $18 of electricity per month. Consider what you pay per month. The difference is what energy inefficiency is costing you. Educate yourself, and make appropriate changes for yourself, and you'll weather things better than everyone else. My projections (for what it's worth) show the amount of energy consumed in Canada will be 20% lower in 20 years from now. The cost of energy will be about 3 times higher. Energy intensive industries will be hurting. Energy producing industries will be rich. It's the change from one to another that hurts.
From: Kanata | Registered: Mar 2004
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RickW
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2868
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posted 02 May 2004 12:03 AM
http://www.discover.com/issues/nov-01/features/featlovin/"The future is simple, says Amory Lovins. The future is nonpolluting, inexhaustible, nontoxic, and so basic that even a liberal arts major can understand its chemical structure. The future is hydrogen: H, one proton, one electron. The first, lightest, and most common element in the universe. The stuff that turns oil into margarine. The stuff that made the Hindenburg float. The stuff that combines with oxygen to make water and with carbon to make methane. The stuff that sends the space shuttle skyward and could someday power your car, office building, house, cell phone, even your hearing aid. The stuff that could clean up the planet. "
From: Victoria, BC | Registered: Jul 2002
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RickW
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2868
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posted 02 May 2004 12:14 AM
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/wp98001.html "From the dawn of mankind to the turn of the nineteenth century world population grew to a total of one billion people. During the 1800s, human numbers increased at increasingly higher rates, reaching a total of about 1.7 billion people by 1900. World population has grown even more rapidly during the present century, with the greatest gains occurring in the post-World War II period, and stands at over three times its size in 1900 -- some 5.9 billion people -- today."The simple answer to Peak Oil is that virtually "free" energy from 1900 to the present day, has allowed the world's population to just about quadruple. So it would make "sense" to conjecture that, when our "free" energy is no longer free, we will experience a rapid decrease in population. And as we fight over the scraps of energy that are left, democrcies will go the way of the dodo. PS We use oil at about a 15% efficiency, brought about because it is (vitually) free - a "throw away" commodity. We have been doing this for the last 100 years, and it is ingrained in the North American collective psyche. Any substantive moves towards efficient use of oil is met with stubborn, irrational, resistance. Ther IS lots of oil......but perhaps just not for going to the corner store for smokes.
From: Victoria, BC | Registered: Jul 2002
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