Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box

The bottom line about declining oil reserves:
a) There is definitely a coming energy crisis that's going to severely impact modern life as we know it. Watch out for geopolitical instability to get a whole lot worse.
b) Renewables, biomass, hydrogen, and improved drilling technologies are not going to save our ass. They simply cannot be scaled up to the current level of consumption.
c) What is going to save us is shifting to localized economies-of-scale and foodsheds and dramatically reduced levels of consumerism.

In March, the Department of Energy released a report that officially acknowledges for the first time that peak oil is for real and states plainly that "the world has never faced a problem like this. Without massive mitigation more than a decade before the fact, the problem will be pervasive and will not be temporary."

Yes, yes, it's an exciting time to be alive (assign your own value label to "exciting").

If there is any positive side to stark changes coming our way, it may be in the benefits of close communal relations, of having to really work intimately (and physically) with our neighbors, to be part of an enterprise that really matters and to be fully engaged in meaningful social enactments instead of being merely entertained to avoid boredom.

Get involved! There's plenty to brainstorm and work on. To get you going, there are 221 Meetup groups all over the country around oil awareness - people just coming together to discuss this. I'll be attending one in Portland next Wed. night (4/13) at 7pm.