10 Ways To Prepare For A Post-Oil Society

In the public arena, essayists often are criticized for not offering solutions to our looming energy crisis. Here are some suggestions for those tired of the hand-wringing and ready to do something useful.

1) Expand your view beyond simply finding fuels other than gasoline to power vehicles. The obsession with keeping cars running at all costs could prove fatal, especially because so many self-proclaimed "greens" and political "progressives" are hung up on this monomaniacal theme. Cars are not part of the solution, no matter what fuel they use. They are at the heart of the problem. Trying to salvage the entire Happy Motoring system by shifting from gasoline to other fuels will only make things worse. Think beyond the car.
Read the full list here.

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Comments

[cmilburn]

i see this as an apoplyptic scenario. Certainly numbers one and two would do a lot of good for all of us if we changed over, but this is a doomsday prediction. No way will some of these things happen. The transition to a world run on energy produced without fossil fuels is definitely coming, but he's making this seem like it's the end of the world as we know it. Nope. Things change, sure. But this is a scenario meant to scare people, not to give advice. No way will this stuff happen.

[KeepYourHeartOpen]

"No way this stuff will happen."

Strange, because unless you are entirely selfish and benefit inordinately from the rapidly decaying status quo, there's a lot to like about the overall thesis presented. What's not to like?

[jetphixer]

I agree this is fear mongering !! We need to use things more wisely First of all. I grow most of my fresh veggies.. The Article was written on NEWSMAX which is great at fear mongering and spreading hate !!!Its A Republican publication DDAAAAA

[MissElaineous]

You can have cities. You just need density and good transit. NYC is the best city in the US for energy use because their subway system totally rocks. Check out London,Paris, and Tokyo, too. I hear people say they need a lot of yard to raise their children. So, they buy a tract house out in the 'burbs and never see the kids because they spend 3-4 hours commuting. The kids never see that big yard because they're in daycare and all of those activities to keep them busy until their exhausted parents get home from work. In the city, kids raise Cain in schoolyards and playgrounds and parks and so on, until mom and dad are home from work at 5:30 PM. And anyone who thinks you cannot raise kids in a city are full of beans. For Petesake, the Obamas are in Chicago and their kids are great kids. Lots of wonderful people have been raised in large, compact cities.

Small towns are a cute idea, but not nearly as efficient as a city. You live in one small town and your job is in another small town 45 miles away, you basically have a suburb. Suburbs do not work.

[SangZe]

Now that gas is cheap again, there's no need to worry about a post-oil society. Maybe we'll make some real progress with the next oil crisis, maybe, but right now, if I read the highway traffic correctly, the gas guzzlers are on their way back in force and the signs are they'll be here for another generation or two.

[KillTheMessenger]

Looks like your definition of "a generation" is on the order of six months to a year.

Gas won't be cheap for long. Oil producers and peak oil will make sure of that.

[bluejay10027]

lol. thanks.

[sheila]

how about pushing for energy policies that will FREE UP our energy production so that WE can all afford solar panels and microwind on our own properties, that the utilities can buy and re-sell? the current, totally destructive model, is to permanently slaughter MILLIONS of acres more of our wilderness and emit huge amounts of GHGs for so-called "green" power. what crap!

it would be EASY, for example, for every property owner in CA to retrofit with efficiency, PV, solar thermal and/or microwind, depending on their siting - for NO money up front, and with annual, tax-deductible repayments through their property taxes (AB 811). Cities and Counties have the purchasing power to contract for BULK installations that will save us 50% or more on PV installation, and they have access to our property tax system so we can repay them - guaranteed.

So, why aren't we all signing up with LADWP, Riverside County, San Bernardino County and other sun-and-wi­nd-drenche­d areas for our own OVERSIZED PV systems and selling our power back into the grid? Because the utilities want to maintain a monopoly and kill our public lands, and force us from our homes.

Is that cool with you?

if not, get on the point of use bandwagon and demand better incentives for US, rather than all our taxpayer, ratepayer and other resources flowing back into Big Energy in a sun, wind, and efficiency era!

[KingBatguano]

Screw Oil. Prepare by cheering , doing a dance & shooting off Fireworks. Oil has meant War, horror, air pollution, road rage, greed, congested urban decay ,obnoxious Saudi Billionaires enslaving the masses while stuffing caviar down their fat bellies & Fascist Neocons torturing zealots in a mad effort to create an Oil dependent Police State. Alternative fuels have been available for decades but the greed mongers in Washington , Detroit & Dubai wouldn't let it happen. They would rather poison their grandchildren's air. They have done a good job. So let it come. I won't be here, their grandchildren will. Happy Toxic Atmosphere, Junior .

[Thermodynamics]

This is about the best thing I have seen since Small is Beautiful. It resonates in so many ways.

I don't want to have to maintain anything complex. A small car is easier than a big car and a bicycle is easier than any car. All those mac mansions we produced in the housing bubble - they are hummer houses. Even with 2x6 super insulated walls they can be energy hogs .

Marginal Utility-- That is an economics term for unused material or labor that is already bought. Home schoolers use marginal utility (mom and dad in the living room) to give their kids a private school education for the cost of books and field trips. They probably do the whole deal for the per student cost of transport in a belching yellow school bus. Public school could be done that way, on a small scale, if the public was supportive.

Many of these changes can be instituted on a personal level, not from eco--guilt, but as a way to save money immediately.

[KillTheMessenger]

"I don't want to have to maintain anything complex."

Then you need to stop typing on that computer of yours. It's the result of millions of man-years of engineering and the technology to produce it uses almost every trick in the toolbox of science and engineering. Not to mention that it contains billions of electronic switching elements.

You want complexity? A PC is about as one of the most complex designs man has ever come up with.

:-)

[Tatiana]

HOW did we survive without PC's and the net?!

[Tatiana]

And some day, no oil.

[pokemon]

This is one of those arguments you cannot convince the other side, it boils down to this:

Peak oil non-believers will get it later.
Peak oil freaks need to relearn the true definition.

Understanding what peak oil means, thats the trick. There will still be internet, transportation, etc. Sure we will see more local farming as we already are, and for the most part your life will not change much and may get better. no the issue here is quality of life, if you chose to ignore the problem and have plenty of cash then you just pay more for the same quality of life, but if you do not you adjust your lifestyle to maintain or increase you quality of life.

I would equate this to people not preparing for a disaster because they believe it will never happen to them.

[BSERIUS]

Post OIL Society???? And when the climatephobes think the sun is the problem what then?

[pokemon]

supply and demand, thats all this is.

[pokemon]

Already working on it, and frankly it saves you money. I moved to a smaller city, have a 2 minute commute to work.. on bike, becoming a locavoure, growing my own meat animals, etc. No for everyone, but again I have seen the cost savings and they are mothing to laugh at. My standard of living has gone UP even though most people are hurting.

[Semaj51]

Well, looks like the author is calling for the U.S. to turn back to early 1800's social/economical living standards.

[HillbillyBob]

Too bad most folks are so easily distracted.
We started doin what we could to go green/ fossil fuel free a few years ago.
Making the insulation in the house better, way more efficient appliances and cutting the power use of the house all around to the point where we can afford solar panels one of these days.
Americans want it all now and want it all easy without having to think about what they are doing.
We stopped all junk mail, do our bills online, make every trip to town as effective as possible by combining numerous errands , at least 3 or more things done per trip.
Keeping the cars tuned, and replaced the minivan when it died of old age with a car that gets 37 mpg.
We replace the appliances as the old ones kick off are are recycled. Yes costs more other wise we would replace all at once.

[curiousasheck]

We won't make progress until we stop referring to this planet and all it's various activities as an "Arena".

Stop thinking of everything as competition that would be a giant leap for humanity.

[NeverADullMoment]

When the pain that is the result of this entire trajectory gets intense enough, then it may occur to the many that our accepted belief in the Arena -- life-as-sp­orts-activ­ity -- is costly, perhaps dangerous, hype driven by corporations, media, and lying politicians.

Most people remain asleep, but some are waking up.

[KillTheMessenger]

We are far from post-oil. The world has just used up HALF of its conventional oil reserves and hasn't even tapped into non-conventional oil (shale and sands), yet.

What the hell are people talking about? We are 50 years away from post-oil.

Now, keep in mind, that's the opinion of someone who will argue that with all likelihood peak oil happened in 2007...

[ibsteve2u]

You have to take into consideration the fact that all of the low-hanging fruit has been picked...so regardless of what is left, its price can only increase due to the increase in the cost of harvesting it.

Even if everybody in China or America starves, reducing demand....

Which means dwindling supplies AND simple economics drive us ever faster to post-oil.

[KillTheMessenger]

Jut because the low hanging fruit has been picked does not mean there is no fruit. There is more than enough to do significant harm.

Did you see someone starve in America who had to because there wasn't enough food to go around? Even the people in China are going obese now. That won't change with or without oil. People are reading too much into this thing without looking at the reality of it.

[mouselion]

Oh yeah. With absolute certainty, 50 years away. We're so smart!
So, don't do today what you can do can put off for half a century.

[KillTheMessenger]

I didn't say you should put it off, or did I?

And you have to understand that by "50 years from post oil" I mean there will still be oil producers and significant oil consumers on the Mbarrel per day scale many decades from now. It just won't be 85Mbarrel/day and it probably won't even be 30Mbarrel/day. But it will be significant enough.

If we wanted to make the mitigation of peak oil cheap and easy, we had to get started when Jimmy Carter told us to. We didn't listen. But even if we had, we would still have a large oil economy 50 years from now.

The world is not black and white. It's not "now we do it and now we don't". Instead these things take generations to build and generations to get rid of.

[JuniorNorman]

Dont forget Coal Power is sticking it to us with scrubber cost overruns! Coal Power isnt cheap. In New Hampster it was gonna be 150 MILLION for Bow Station Scrubbers then 250 then 280 now its up to 400 MILLION! (for a plant that can be replaced by two wood burning plants!)

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/429.html

[bluejay10027]

Wow! That's a thought. Wood burning electric power plants.

You haven't seen expensive. Wait until the new admin hits us with carbon taxes on everything.

[SailFree]

Preparing for a post-oil society? Building mud huts seems one method. Walking to school. Wearing really heavy clothes in the winter.