Preparing for Peak Oil

Eulogy · Post by **Eulogy** » 2007-04-30 02:41pm

With all this talk lately about the end of oil and millions of people dying off, why not have a thread dedicated solely for tips and advice for surviving when TSHTF? Or in other words, what are we going to do about Peak Oil?

If you have advice for preparing for Peak Oil, now would be a good time to hear it.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2007-04-30 02:45pm

Id be more interested in the cultural/technological remifications, but I definitly want this topic to keep going. I think its going to be The issue for a long time.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2007-04-30 02:47pm

I'm buying a hobby farm. I plan on growing my own veggies, raising my own meat and installing a solar power system. And a wind turbine if I can. As well as putting in wood stoves and a wood over oil furnace.

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2007-04-30 02:48pm

I think being somewhere with abundant arable land or just somewhere with population levels in line with its farming capacity would be a good start. Britain, for example, is going to be a very bad place to be if/when the shit really hits the fan.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2007-04-30 02:50pm

What Im currently doing is getting as educated/wealthy as I can, so Im ok if the system continues to work. Im also (ideally) going to have an off the grid house that can sustain itself.

Just in case.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2007-04-30 02:58pm

If I were still living in Oregon things might not be so bad off, but as it is I'd be thoroughly fucked. I live in a major metropolitan area, make just enough to be considered middle-class, and my job's well being depends on the well being of the clients we work for, in a sense. So if anything were to happen to them as a result of the oil crunch, which it almost assuredly would, I'd be pretty much screwed.

Lisa · Post by **Lisa** » 2007-04-30 03:10pm

I'm working on similar situation as Cpl Kendall, have some land (i've got an acre), my own electricity generation (wind and if i ever afford it solar), and some small animals (chickens and probably sheep or goats) and a wood stove for heat/cooking.

Zed Snardbody · Post by **Zed Snardbody** » 2007-04-30 03:33pm

My class 4 zombie outbreak procedures can be easily adapted for peak oil. I'm prepared to relocate at anytime......

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2007-04-30 03:40pm

Yeah, most emergency planning tends to crosscarry.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-04-30 04:30pm

I'm considering making a dedicated thread to this problem along with ways people can limit damage to their own lives when the going gets tough. I'll let you know how it goes.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2007-04-30 05:05pm

Ive asked Duchess to start thinking about a Forum for it.

I honestly think we'll need one soon.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-04-30 05:07pm

Agreed. With all the minds we have here, I hope we can come up with a few workable solutions.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-04-30 05:11pm

I'm floating the idea of a forum now too then. That should probably be more active than a single thread anyway given this ties in with a lot of other fields other than just oil abundance.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-04-30 05:13pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I'm floating the idea of a forum now too then. That should probably be more active than a single thread anyway given this ties in with a lot of other fields other than just oil abundance.

Far more than just the (non-)availability of oil, I would say. If you need or want another request to be willing to request this of the Senate, you may consider this a PM request, though I'll do so for real if necessary.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-04-30 05:14pm

I've brought it up with the staff. If it is deemed worth putting before the Senate, then I shall do so.

Faqa · Post by **Faqa** » 2007-04-30 05:20pm

Israel seems to actually be not-that-badly situationed for Peak Oil, in the sense that we have good public transportation, a decent train station, and the ability to feed ourselves. Not to mention that manual labor in the fields is only a generation or so off for us, if it comes to that.

And we're sitting next to the Sinai, if we get the brains to compromise with Egypt on that score. We might be able to survive this intact.

There is the whole being-at-ground-zero-for-the-oil-wars bit, but hostile Arabs are not exactly a NEW threat to us, and I get the feeling they'll be feeling U.S pressure by then.....

What the hell else am I supposed to do? My only other citizenship is American, which is apparantly the worst place to be for this shitstorm. I could smuggle myself to Finland or Norway, but I doubt that'd work....

Y'know I used to have some vague plans of moving to the U.S after my IDF service? Now I doubt I'll ever see it again. Fucking curveballs of this life.....

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-04-30 05:27pm

Countries like Brazil and Denmark are also better off given they've either helped fund the services needed to ween themselves off gross amounts of oil for cars and are trying to move away from fossil fuels. However, the economic effects will be felt by everyone still actively trading globally, so unless you're completely cut off and working under a zero growth economy now, you'll still run into problems somewhere. The potential for war is also there, especially in the ME which will be the battleground for many price wars first and possibly land grabs too. But first, Big Oil mergers and sly manipulation of stock will take place akin to Syriana.

TithonusSyndrome · Post by **TithonusSyndrome** » 2007-04-30 05:29pm

I'd be extremely interested myself, and I'd like to see some more closure brought to the "rural vs urban" question within the PO debate. I maintain that having a hobby farm as a supplement to living in a dense population center that receives produce is better than some corny hollywood survivalist response to Peak Oil.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2007-04-30 05:32pm

TithonusSyndrome wrote:I'd be extremely interested myself, and I'd like to see some more closure brought to the "rural vs urban" question within the PO debate. I maintain that having a hobby farm as a supplement to living in a dense population center that receives produce is better than some corny hollywood survivalist response to Peak Oil.

Rural areas are fine, dense urban areas are fine.

The die-off is going to happen in the suburbs, or more precisely in the massive refugee-camp like shanty-towns built by people from the surburbs in every empty space clustered as closely as possible around the dense urban cores.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-04-30 05:35pm

Of course, your chances are even greater if you live in an urban sprawl that is also vital to the economy and not a lesser city, as it were. Rural environments will have less problems adapting, though agriculture will be the worst affected given how it's the backbone of country industry, and by extension, the country itself.

Keep in mind there is only so much farm space now with far fewer people working the land than in 1900 or even 1950, so until the need for numan labour rises to off-set mechanical costs of farming, there may not be room for a mass exodus from the suburbs. This was pretty hard to do even in 1929.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2007-04-30 05:36pm

Governments also usually manage to pay their own employees even when everyone else is starving, so if you work for the Feds or a State government, you're sitting pretty good.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-04-30 05:39pm

It helps to be in an area of civil service that is needed too, not pork that only sucks down tax money. This is one reason why I am applying mainly for NHS jobs over here within the pathology departments, since the role of someone diagnosing infectious disease will always be there along with nurses and doctors.

The first to be hit hardest will be tourism, aerospace and logistics, but I'm sure that's pretty obvious anyway. Then it will be electronics, media and retail. The necessities of life will be last to get pruned back.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2007-04-30 06:32pm

I that case I may switch from a contractor to government position in a couple of years. Yeah, I'm a software engineer, but I can learn to do something else quickly. Honestly, I hope the oil companies are right and the peak oil date is farther out, because this scares me shitless.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2007-04-30 06:38pm

Of course, you can rely on what Big Oil tells you, afterall, they have a vested interest in keeping prices high.

To be frank, I think I know who organises their press releases and it doesn't leave a good image of them in my mind.

aerius · Post by **aerius** » 2007-04-30 06:40pm

In the short term I'm making as much money as I possibly can, oil & gasoline futures have been very nice to me in the past few months. We plan to cash out before things really go south and then use the cash to buy a home somewhere. In a best case scenario we'll still be in Toronto and working our usual jobs, except our car will probably be in storage and used only for summer vacations or when absolutely positively necessary. We'll get around on bicycles, public transit, and Vespa scooters, or possibly an electric scooter since most of our trips are pretty short. Otherwise, life goes on, and things will be rougher.

We've also thought about moving to Quebec since they have craploads of spare hydroelectric power, most of the homes there are heated by electricity already so we won't have to worry about oil & natural gas running out and/or becoming unaffordable. Once electricity prices get high enough, and it's only a matter of time, Quebec will complete Phase II of the James Bay project and bring another 12GW of power online. The Churchill Falls project also has about another 4GW or so of capacity which can be developed. That's a crapload of power for heating homes, charging electric vehicles, and running electric trains. Should be a nice place to live, but I'll have to learn how to speak French again.