I guess it was bound to take place, but here it is just the same; somebody wants to play at being the steely-eyed realist who is sane through the apparent hysteria of PO. Check out some of these gems:
127. PEAK OIL: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
In my opinion, this is the best argument against peak oil causing the collapse of modern civilization: it's too good to be true. The idea that we could be magically released from the stifling, inane rat race which governs our lives is appealing -- so appealing in fact, that we should be very suspicious of it.
The post-peak utopia is not going to arrive for the simple reason that it is a utopia...
Here's a case study, killJOY from peakoil.com:
"I don't hate America, but I do hate the government. I can't wait for it to collapse."
Naturally, killJOY is damn sure that peak oil will collapse the government. By an amazing coincidence, reality is going to obey his wishes.
Yeah, we want a post-peak utopia. That must be it.
Yeah, he's smarter than Matt Simmons and Dr. Hersh of the fucking US DOE's official report. Or the US GAO study. Right. I hope he's right, we DO come through still kickin' on the other side, but the ride to the substitutes and alternatives is not going to be quick or easy or fun.
"You know what the problem with Hollywood is. They make shit. Unbelievable. Unremarkable. Shit." - Gabriel Shear, Swordfish
"This statement, in its utterly clueless hubristic stupidity, cannot be improved upon. I merely quote it in admiration of its perfection." - Garibaldi in reply to an incredibly stupid post.
The Fifth Illuminatus Primus | Warsie | Skeptical Empiricist | Florida Gator | Sustainability Advocate | LibertarianSocialist |
Because while he has a point laughing at some stupidly wasteful decisions Americans make with their energy, it's not going to be as funny when the US fails to convert it's agriculture to non-oil dependant products.
Look, a moron! The idiot thinks people actually wish for economic collapse and the increase of poverty and mass starvation. What a fucking douche with too much time on hands.
Lì ci sono chiese, macerie, moschee e questure, lì frontiere, prezzi inaccessibile e freddure
Lì paludi, minacce, cecchini coi fucili, documenti, file notturne e clandestini
Qui incontri, lotte, passi sincronizzati, colori, capannelli non autorizzati,
Uccelli migratori, reti, informazioni, piazze di Tutti i like pazze di passioni...
...La tranquillità è importante ma la libertà è tutto!
I think this guy might be misunderstanding the definition of peak oil. Maybe he hasn't heard of the second part, the bit where oil production declines?
That Blog wrote:To sum up, the vast majority of people on the earth today live life with negligible oil inputs. For instance, the people in Afghanistan are living on about 2 tablespoons of oil per day. Subsaharan Africa is subsisting on virtually no oil at all. So these people are living with almost no oil, and the amount they are using is so small that it can be substituted with non-oil alternatives.
Apparently this guy completely misses the fact that the people in Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa have a standard of living most of us would kindly describe as "shit". He just proved the god dammed point he's arguing against and is too thick to realize it.
Adrian Laguna wrote:
Apparently this guy completely misses the fact that the people in Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa have a standard of living most of us would kindly describe as "shit". He just proved the god dammed point he's arguing against and is too thick to realize it.
Heh...it's obvious humans don't need oil to survive. I mean, for millions of years we did just fine without it.
...and had a life expectancy of 20 years.
But we DON'T NEED OIL!
And if I write in in REALLY BIG LETTERS then it gains weight as an argument
Because while he has a point laughing at some stupidly wasteful decisions Americans make with their energy, it's not going to be as funny when the US fails to convert it's agriculture to non-oil dependant products.
Starvation ahoy!
I'm pretty sure renewable energy and oil substitutes could keep the food coming in North America, even if everything else is total shit. At worst you bar use of petrochemicals or energy for anything other than the major means of production and government functions.
"You know what the problem with Hollywood is. They make shit. Unbelievable. Unremarkable. Shit." - Gabriel Shear, Swordfish
"This statement, in its utterly clueless hubristic stupidity, cannot be improved upon. I merely quote it in admiration of its perfection." - Garibaldi in reply to an incredibly stupid post.
The Fifth Illuminatus Primus | Warsie | Skeptical Empiricist | Florida Gator | Sustainability Advocate | LibertarianSocialist |
Zablorg wrote:Hang on, I'm confused, how is oil related to life-expectancy?
It's not, directly; Pezook's argument, if I understand it correctly, is like saying that we don't need sanitation because we got along without it for so many years. This is true, however, we also had a lower life expectancy because of it. Or, more simply, it is true that man does not need oil to live, only to maintain his current lifestyle.
This message approved by the sages Anon and Ibid.
Any views expressed herein are my own unless otherwise noted, and very likely wrong.
I shave with Occam's Razor.
Zablorg wrote:Hang on, I'm confused, how is oil related to life-expectancy?
It provides energy and works as a resource, and thus allows for:
- Heating
- Medicine
- Mechanized agriculture
- Emergency rescue systems
- Lighting
- Communications
- Police protection
- Education
- Modern construction
Humans got their energy from other sources (like animal labor) before oil, but it's amazingly efficient and convenient to use, so our current ways of doing the above depend on it.
We want Peak Oil? We want probably millions of people to die? How stupid can someone be?
Ah, but have you heard "It would be great if Peak Oil were about to happen, because we'd then have to switch away from oil and thus meet all the Kyoto carbon emission targets"?
"what huge and loathsome abnormality was the Sphinx originally carven to represent? Accursed is the sight, be it in dream or not, that revealed to me the supreme horror - the Unknown God of the Dead, which licks its colossal chops in the unsuspected abyss, fed hideous morsels by soulless absurdities that should not exist" - Harry Houdini "Under the Pyramids"
"The goal of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions" - John Ruskin, "Stones of Venice"
An old blog and a source of endless entertainment for those who follow the subject. The man is not too dissimilar to Daniel Yergin and his "$40 oil again soon" hilarity.
Stas Bush wrote:Look, a moron! The idiot thinks people actually wish for economic collapse and the increase of poverty and mass starvation. What a fucking douche with too much time on hands.
I honestly get the impression some of them want society to collapse just so they can play "lol outlaw". Since it's pretty popular amongst teens to, or course, be "rebellious" and "fight the man". And it is the dream of many self-obsessed teenagers to be muscular bad asses in a post apocalyptic world where they don't have to put up with things like working or thinking about people other than themselves.
TheKwas wrote:Well, that would be pretty cool. I'd join dune-buggy pirates.
So you'd sit around in your stationary dune buggy all day? I don't think you'd catch many people that way.
"..history has shown the best defense against heavy cavalry are pikemen, so aircraft should mount lances on their noses and fly in tight squares to fend off bombers". - RedImperator
"ha ha, raping puppies is FUN!" - Johonebesus
"It would just be Unicron with pew pew instead of nom nom". - Vendetta, explaining his justified disinterest in the idea of the movie Allspark affecting the Death Star
fusion wrote:Most people are fucking scared about what will happen and therefore deny the oil peak because it is too BIG for their puny heads to handle.
Absolutely. I had this happen last night, when talking to someone randomly who messaged me on a chat site and the conversation turned to climate change and optimism. She said it scared her and I was scary for saying such things, despite her opening statements on the topic of climate change being one of understanding the issues and alerting people to them.
I guess it's hard to comprehend and prepare for when you're an art student in London with a sunshine disposition who doesn't have someone kow tow the "It's okay, technology and human perseverance will get us through this" line of reasoning.
And this is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Well it is meaningful to say it doesn't help to say that its hopeless. People - especially masses - cannot digest that in a meaningful way. Someone will have to do something, so there will need to be a great myth even if the truth is most are fucked.
"You know what the problem with Hollywood is. They make shit. Unbelievable. Unremarkable. Shit." - Gabriel Shear, Swordfish
"This statement, in its utterly clueless hubristic stupidity, cannot be improved upon. I merely quote it in admiration of its perfection." - Garibaldi in reply to an incredibly stupid post.
The Fifth Illuminatus Primus | Warsie | Skeptical Empiricist | Florida Gator | Sustainability Advocate | LibertarianSocialist |
Apparently this guy completely misses the fact that the people in Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa have a standard of living most of us would kindly describe as "shit". He just proved the god dammed point he's arguing against and is too thick to realize it.
