Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Are we at a tipping point?
But change is in the air. I walked by the bulletin board at work a few minutes ago and saw the first car pooling request from someone who lives at a large development about 20 miles away. To me that indicates a fairly dramatic shift in attitude.
I read a couple of weeks ago that SUVs have virtually no trade-in value. That represents a fairly dramatic change.
Meanwhile, over the weekend Drudge linked to an article entitled Energy fears looming, new survivalists prepare.
If you're on the fringe like me, you'll note there is nothing in this article that isn't discussed regularly over at survivalblog or on the boards at Life After the Oil Crash. The "new survivalism," if you want to call it that, has been active and growing for a couple of years now. In these circles, The Rainwater Prophecy has achieved near mythic status since it appeared in Fortune in 2005.
But the vast majority seems to have believed the line that new technology would solve our fuel problems, be it wind, solar, hydrogen cars, hybrid SUVs or whatever, and this view has not been discouraged by the oil industry or the media. It is interesting to see all this suddenly getting play in the MSM.
If you're just getting your wake up call about the oil situation, I imagine it could be pretty disheartening. All those alternatives you may have been hanging your hat on? They don't yet exist, are years away, and will cost a lot more than oil does even now. We are way past the time when we should have started thinking about this problem. I have been and am still surprised at the degree to which energy has been ignored as a serious campaign issue this election year.
13 Comments:
By 
Cardinalpark, at
Tue May 27, 12:48:00 PM:
How did you find traffic this weekend?
By Charlottesvillain, at
Tue May 27, 12:54:00 PM:
I was at my rural homestead, and it was pretty light. I did hear a fair amount of distant gunfire, however.
By TigerHawk, at
Tue May 27, 01:30:00 PM:
On conservation: I have noticed no changes in central New Jersey. I just drove up the NJTP to Newark airport and pegged my speed at 68 to conserve gas. My doors were blown off by virtually every car on the road. I think I passed three cars, and I was passed at least 100 times. Nobody was willing to trade gasoline for time saved, which tells me that gas is still a great value (my thesis all along). Also, I have yet to hear anybody start up his car after a long stoplight (as you frequently heard in the 1970s). That tells me that people are not turning off their engines even at 3-4 minute lights; again, gasoline remains such a good value that people are not willing to go without the radio for even a few minutes in order to conserve it.
I suspect that some tendency to conserve is showing up in some decisions that people make, but none that cause any discomfort. Indeed, I continue to think that American suburbanites could cut 10-20% off their gasoline consumption with no meaningful change in quality of life; all they have to do is plan their day a bit better, inflate their tires (especially on the SUVs, which have grossly underinflated tires to ride smoothly), and drive with care (watch the acceleration, coast into lights, and brake as little as possible).
By 
, at
Tue May 27, 02:04:00 PM:
Looking for somebody to blame? Look no farther than the GOP.
With the current mean I.Q. levels present in the “average” GOP voter at an all time low, it’s not surprising that they’ll bang the bed pans and don the white sheets in order to frighten and otherwise pathetically manipulate their less than stellar intellectual base. And they always have some inbred ditto-head “preacher” of some bent stripe playing the Satan or hellfire card, although the deck is always loaded. This stimulated dread of a hellfire is so enormous and so unsettling of common sense and normal thinking, that any scheme to elude it becomes suitable. Blind horror perverts, bends and transforms time-honored balanced ethical deliberations. A self-centered mind-set is produced resulting from hysterical longing for private escape from perdition. Defective assessments by conservative or backward individuals can and often are prejudiced by a saving-from-hell doctrine as a replacement for levelheaded analysis. The penalty of politicians making edicts or granting funding whilst beneath the hex of GOP hell-phobic-delusion are obvious.
It is not recognized how many inhabitants are ensnared within any number of antiquated and quite frankly, retarded religions because of the apprehension of a hell, as dishonesty to oneself and to others on this topic is understandable, if not pathetic. To candidly or even subconsciously own up to a dread of a hell reveals to others and an alleged god, a intense failing of faith. Far healthier to frantically pretend that the god who is to blame for this imagined place of after-life dismay, is a deity who should be loved. Explicitly professing worship for the monster god harbors the expectation that others will not distinguish your private trepidation of hell.
The remedy to hell, so the faithful are told, is kowtowing to a exacting religious modus operandi. In essence, religions are self-renewing and self-serving because of a ubiquitous teaching scheme with dependence on a routine that is nothing short of mental child abuse.
Many people thus affected, when reading this, will believe that escaping these awful feelings of hell, is not feasible. Not factual, and many Atheists and normal people will vouch for that. The first step is recognizing the dread of hell is an arousing circumstance that has been entrenched and not chosen. The anxiety can be countered by replacing it with a incessant re-evaluation of human propensity to believe the unbelievable if the right buttons are pushed in the seminal years. Following generations and planetary continued existence depend on this crucial step being lucratively achieved.
By , at
Tue May 27, 02:34:00 PM:
Carl Gordon, why do you cross-post this mindless word salad? Do you think you're profound, or is this some form of google-bombing?
http://tinyurl.com/5kc6dx
By , at
Tue May 27, 02:42:00 PM:
Carl Gordon, I believe you have been owned.
By , at
Tue May 27, 03:55:00 PM:
I did a round trip Chicago to Atlanta via Nashville and Knoxville TN this weekend. Heaviest traffic between 200 hundred destinations Knoxville to Nashville. Coming home Monday on I57 (southern Illinois to Chicago) very light traffic, less than on a normal Sunday evening rather than the 3rd or fourth night of a 3-4 day weekend.
By Cardinalpark, at
Tue May 27, 05:16:00 PM:
I agree that the value is great, TH, but we aren't the right crowd.
The person making 50k pretax is feeling the gas bill at $100 per week. I suspect we are going to see noticeable declines in consumption in the coming few months driven by changes in behavior -- all of the ones you would predict.
By joe, at
Tue May 27, 05:25:00 PM:
I was in Noank, Ct (on the coast north of New London) this past weekend and there is no sign of a recession.
Lots of traffic at speeds of 70-80 MPH, and lots and lots NYers putting their cabin cruisers in the water...
I was blown away by the price of gas in CT. I live in "Taxachusetts" and paid 3.85 for regular..I didn't see any regulare less than 4.19/gallon....WOW
Peace
Joe E O
By Mystery Meat, at
Tue May 27, 06:39:00 PM:
Not to worry. A scientist has developed a process for using sea water as fuel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf4gOS8aoFk
All is well.
By TigerHawk, at
Tue May 27, 06:47:00 PM:
CP, agreed on the "crowd" point, but my observation was the New Jersey Turnpike, which I am fairly sure is not an exclusive institution. My doors were getting blown off by pretty much everybody -- point is, even the average Joe is willing to spend money on gas rather than get where he is going a few minutes later.
By , at
Tue May 27, 07:01:00 PM:
Actually, there are a significant number of really important issues that politicians and the MSM have been ignoring for years. For example, illegal immigration and it's impact on our schools, hospitals, water, oil, electricity and natural gas supplies. Now we are in a "crisis" and everyone is looking at me to cut back. Ask the 30 million illegal immigrants to cut back at the same time, please, I've been recycling aluminum cans since 1970.
By , at
Thu May 29, 10:51:00 AM:
We should have started a new fleet of nuclear power plants a decade ago. Now, the earliest one won't startup until 2016. That's after 42 months of government review for a previously certified design.
The next big national addiction (after imported oil) will be imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Here in California, in a few years we will need a LNG tanker every few days to arrive from Russia. If Putin decides not, the lights go out.
Let's think ahead, please!
