Paul's latest rant

[Mister Obvious]

While Mr. P from Ball Lake has often directed us to subjects that deserve our attention, even if we don't aggree with him, his latest plee of a " a nueclear wakeup call " quit pssibley goes beyon the pale.

[hideaway70]

Do you have a link?

[Mr Douglas]

http://www.kpcnews.com/index.php?opt...-to-the-editor
Something about fat people and junk food and pop ruining our economy or some such thing. Nevermind that the US middle class is now underemployed and has already 'tightened its belt' a dozen times in the past forty years. Hey, but at least there's Socialism- The government has recently 'issued' the middle class it's butt.

[Blazer81]

The scary part is that he is serious and thinks that he speaks for a majority of people in Steuben County!!

[Mr Douglas]

I can't say as I disagree with all that. A majority of people ARE unconcerned or oblivious to what might happen if the dollar fails, or if there were an infrastucture failure, 'terrorist' attack or natural disaster. Perhaps they think the government will take care of them, but what if it can't? Does anyone even know anymore how to store, cook or keep food cool without electricity? How will they stay warm? Pump water? Will the water be drinkable? Where will they get food?
In reality, many (most) people are ridiculously unprepared for what has become a very unsure future.

[Todd Ianuzzi]

I can't say as I disagree with all that. A majority of people ARE unconcerned or oblivious to what might happen if the dollar fails, or if there were an infrastucture failure, 'terrorist' attack or natural disaster. Perhaps they think the government will take care of them, but what if it can't? Does anyone even know anymore how to store, cook or keep food cool without electricity? How will they stay warm? Pump water? Will the water be drinkable? Where will they get food?
In reality, many (most) people are ridiculously unprepared for what has become a very unsure future.

Mr. Douglas, you make some very good points. If civilization would quickly collapse, the homeless dudes would be better equipped for the future than hedge fund managers.

Harrison Brown was a geochemist that wrote about the end of petro power and what if there is nothing to replace it. Below is a blog post from my blog where I wrote about the end of days. Sorry if the HTML tags do not work.

the Author postulated upon the post-petrochemical future.

Would this future be a nice road traversed by energy-efficient machines or a dirt path trudged by half-starved peasants? Would it be an efficient post-industrial society or a neo-dark age where blade servers must be beaten into plowshares?

Would men pull dog sleds while dogs aspire to the culture and comfort of wolfery?

<strong>ENGINES WITHOUT ENERGY. FLYWHEELS AND COBWEBS.</strong>

The “Last Day of June, 2008” quoted heavily from Kurt Cobb of <a href="http://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/">Resource Insights</a>. Cobb recalled the writings of Harrison Brown, an American geochemist that wrote in 1954 about the end of the carbon energy.

A post entitled “Which Future Should We Prepare for, Industrial or Agrarian” on the weblog Resource Insights contains a good discussion of Brown’s insight’s into the future of humankind.

In 1954 Brown published “The Challenge of Man’s Future”. In that book Brown outlined two futures of humans. One was the industrial future, the machine future, the future that we inhabit. The other future is an agrarian future, a far less comfortable future where life will be more troubled and tenuous.

Brown describes the problem this way:

<em>Once a machine civilization has been in operation for some time, the lives of the people within the society become dependent upon the machines. The vast interlocking industrial network provides them with food, vaccines, antibiotics, and hospitals. If such a population should suddenly be deprived of a substantial fraction of its machines and forced to revert to an agrarian society, the resultant havoc would be enormous. Indeed, it is quite possible that a society within which there has been little natural selection based upon disease resistance for several generations, a society in which the people have come to depend increasingly upon surgery for repairs during early life and where there is little natural selection operating among women, relative to the ability to bear children--such a society could easily become extinct in a relatively short time following the disruption of the machine network.</em>

<strong>YOUR FUTURE PHASED OUT...</strong>?

Browns’ future offered two trails. Post-industrial (post energy) or subsistence agricultural (masses of muscles). But can things go either way? Can carbon energy be replaced before humanity slides back into subsistence enslavement? What if cheap energy runs out and post-industrial becomes post-civilization?

Cobb writes in a recent post entitled “<a href="http://resourceinsights.blogspot.com/2008/09/its-just-phase.html">It’s Just a Phase</a>”:

<em>[L]ike other organisms humans can experience periods of riotous growth in their numbers followed by periods of decline and retrenchment. This "pulsing" is completely consistent with observed natural patterns. And, while we certainly should not abandon moral thinking, we need to be careful when we apply it to something as vast as the evolution of the human species.

In saying this, I do not mean to minimize the human suffering that may be in store for us in a future that is energy-constrained--one in which fossil fuel supplies decline, but nothing of comparable scale takes their place. I am only trying to point out what Howard Odum suggests in his book, The Prosperous Way Down, namely, that human societies are not immune to the expansions and contractions which apply to other creatures. To be more precise, industrial civilization is not a path of continuous expansion, but simply a phase of expansion that will inevitably lead one day to a phase of contraction.</em>

<strong>THE CONCIET OF CONTINUING IMPROVEMENT? THE DENIAL OF DECLINE?</strong>

A lot has been written about the future. Nearly all of it wrong. Lots of reasons are proffered. Predictions are merely bigger and better projections of the present. Projections represent wishes yet to be realized. Otherwise rational linear projections unpredictably accelerate geometrically or are disrupted and disfigured.

Or asked more pointedly, could the future get worse and not get better? Or better for at least a few generations. The answer, evasively enough, is maybe.

<strong>A QUESTION DIFFERENTLY ASKED—A RESULT DIFFERENTLY CONSIDERED.</strong>

As Cobb reasons, maybe we should drop our present into a wider panorama.

<em>If we could come to accept that our current industrial age is just a phase, ephemeral like all ages, neither a triumph which must be defended in its entirety at all costs, nor a mistake which must be allowed to collapse, nor a system that can be redeemed with just a few adjustments, we could learn to let go of it as it recedes without rejecting aspects of it that might prove to be instructive or useful. We could then move on to our next task, creating a new phase of human existence on planet Earth within limits we can no longer ignore.</em>

[bigkneedgal]

I'll begin shopping for my "Road Warrior" outfit first thing in the morning....I don't think I can mutate fast enough to grow gills and web feet so I'll pray global warming will leave us some dry land. Only thing is: the only double barrell shotgun I own is a 410 which isn't exactly macho-Mel enough. You think I could get by with my Remington 12 Wingmaster and not be completely out of style?

[NurseRita]

I can't say as I disagree with all that. A majority of people ARE unconcerned or oblivious to what might happen if the dollar fails, or if there were an infrastucture failure, 'terrorist' attack or natural disaster. Perhaps they think the government will take care of them, but what if it can't? Does anyone even know anymore how to store, cook or keep food cool without electricity? How will they stay warm? Pump water? Will the water be drinkable? Where will they get food?
In reality, many (most) people are ridiculously unprepared for what has become a very unsure future.

I don't know about any one else, but I can cook, store and keep food without electricity, I can also obtain food as necessary from nature. My dad, (may he RIP) taught me how to surive without the *luxuries*. It's not an easy task but it is definitely do able. I've tried as well to pass this knowledge on to my children.

[Mr Douglas]

I'll begin shopping for my "Road Warrior" outfit first thing in the morning....I don't think I can mutate fast enough to grow gills and web feet so I'll pray global warming will leave us some dry land. Only thing is: the only double barrell shotgun I own is a 410 which isn't exactly macho-Mel enough. You think I could get by with my Remington 12 Wingmaster and not be completely out of style?

Who was talking about guns? I was talking about having 6 months or a year's food stored, or maybe a wind/solar setup to pump water, an RO system to clean it, maybe get some non genetically modified garden seeds so they'll keep more than a year, and the seeds they produce actually germinate new plants. A means of staying warm without a gas furnace or electric heaters.... You know, self sufficiency/hippie stuff like that.
If however you are planning to hijack gasoline tankers, say, to barter fuel for food, just saw off the double 410. It'll look more intimidating.

[blue adept]

Who was talking about guns? I was talking about having 6 months or a year's food stored, or maybe a wind/solar setup to pump water, an RO system to clean it, maybe get some non genetically modified garden seeds so they'll keep more than a year, and the seeds they produce actually germinate new plants. A means of staying warm without a gas furnace or electric heaters.... You know, self sufficiency/hippie stuff like that.
If however you are planning to hijack gasoline tankers, say, to barter fuel for food, just saw off the double 410. It'll look more intimidating.

I actually made a weight driven ceiling fan once[saw it in the movie "mosquitoe coast"] Most of my equipment is belt driven, so I could keep marching. As far as food goes, there are all kinds of edible plants around here, hillbillies will survive. I am included in that name James, so, it's not really name calling.

[Todd Ianuzzi]

I actually made a weight driven ceiling fan once[saw it in the movie "mosquitoe coast"] Most of my equipment is belt driven, so I could keep marching. As far as food goes, there are all kinds of edible plants around here, hillbillies will survive. I am included in that name James, so, it's not really name calling.

Good points. Rough times will favor people who have done a lot of roughing it.

[hairypumper]

Who was talking about guns? I was talking about having 6 months or a year's food stored, or maybe a wind/solar setup to pump water, an RO system to clean it, maybe get some non genetically modified garden seeds so they'll keep more than a year, and the seeds they produce actually germinate new plants. A means of staying warm without a gas furnace or electric heaters.... You know, self sufficiency/hippie stuff like that.
If however you are planning to hijack gasoline tankers, say, to barter fuel for food, just saw off the double 410. It'll look more intimidating.

How do you intend to protect your supplies from those who believe stealing is a means of self sufficiency?

[Mr Douglas]

How do you intend to protect your supplies from those who believe stealing is a means of self sufficiency?

Uhhh, I will taunt, insult and belittle them with my rapier wit?

[hairypumper]

Uhhh, I will taunt, insult and belittle them with my rapier wit?

Ahh yes, the ol' "Blind Them With Brilliance" ploy. Or is that "Baffle Them With ......"? No matter, the weak minded can't differentiate between the two.

[Mr Douglas]

Ahh yes, the ol' "Blind Them With Brilliance" ploy. Or is that "Baffle Them With ......"? No matter, the weak minded can't differentiate between the two.

A little Razzle-Dazzle, a little Soft-Shoe. I'll lay my Sammy Davis Junior impression on em'.-
(one eye closed, holding invisible martini with pinky up, Parkinson's head shake)- "No Babe,....No.....This just isn't groovy Babe......"

[Common-Tater]

The Discovery Channel had a brilliant "reality" show that placed the cast in a real world type disaster scenario. The cast was basically placed in an Urban environment with very little supplies and left to fend for themselves. They would stage violent theft scenarios, fires, etc. It lasted about 2 seasons, but was a very informative show. The cast created a water filtration system using sand and other elements... Anyone interested in that sort of things should check out the below link.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/colony/