Sunday, May 4, 2008

COLLAPSE, Global Warming, and Peak Oil

So as we have read Jared Diamond's Collapse, with its first part on the situation in Montana, we have come to do some real consideration of the economic, societal and environmental trajectory we seem to be on. But don't build your stockade in the woods, stock up on sacks of flour, and ammunition quite yet. There is a lot of info out there right now to consider in planning for your future, as well as that of your family and community. No one, I repeat no one, knows how it will all work out. Perhaps it will be apocalyptic, perhaps we will decline like Rome, perhaps everything will be fine for another 5, 10, 20 years. But this is life, and the reality is, life is about change. I don't know whether a future that looks like something out of "I am Legend" or "Soylent Green" is better or worse than one like out of "Silent Running" or "The Matrix." Or whether a future is coming that is more like "The Grapes of Wrath," or some GMO-nightmare where we must continue to consume our fair share at Wal-Mart and gauge the worth of our neighbor by how much he has in his bank account, what he drives or what he wears, rather than the character and morals he exemplifies in the worst of times. We'll see. The variables are too complex really. But in the meantime, here are some more thought-provoking sources for you to read and put in the ol' gray computer we were born with:

Growing up in Russia during its societal changes in the 1990s:
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/147683-Survival-in-Times-of-Uncertainty-Growing-Up-in-Russia-in-the-1990s

Causabon's Book, a blog from a modern homesteader and mother, trying to figure out her family's future:
http://sharonastyk.com/

Perspectives on Nature and Culture, Change, and possible future scenarios from a modern Druid:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
You can also check out his essay "How Civilizations Fall: A Theory of Catabolic Collapse" at http://www.xs4all.nl/~wtv/powerdown/greer.htm

Finally, "Life After the Oil Crash":
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

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