Residents of public housing in the South Side of Chicago, IL., work on the community vegetable ga...
Credit: Ken Hammond | ©USDA
If you’ve heard the term “Peak Oil” and understand what it could really mean for you and your family, you may be a bit worried. How are you going to get to work? How are the kids getting to school and other events? Will food get more expensive? How high will the price of gas go?
As James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency is fond of saying, “we have to make other arrangements.” Gas will become increasingly expensive as world demand outstrips the supply and refining capacity. Food will also get more expensive as petrochemical-based pesticides and fertilizers increase in price, and of course the fuel to manufacture processed foods and ship everything in our stores will cost more too, driving up prices.
All these factors will directly impact everyone. Virtually all of us drive or use public transportation, and certainly everyone eats food. We all send and receive mail, use electricity, have indoor plumbing with hot water and generally participate in society at large.
As we have recently seen in the cases of the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, any disaster causes disruption, and disruption causes prices to rise. In the case of Katrina, some of America’s oil production was damaged, and prices at the pump shot up that same week.
Even if you don’t believe the most dire post-oil predictions of the pessimists, it’s clear that we are at or near the peak production of oil in the world, so it’s high time that we all start to think about what a post-oil world might be like. It’s also time to start preparing to walk the talk and live in such a world, one that could become reality in just a few years.
If you have children, especially young children, be careful how you approach the subject. They see the world in black and white terms as well as in a simplistic way, so a parent that jokingly says “the world is going to end” may cause the kiddies to have terrifying nightmares. There are a couple of ways to ease them into the idea of living a more simple life, and which technique you use depends on your child’s temperament and age.
As James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency is fond of saying, “we have to make other arrangements.” Gas will become increasingly expensive as world demand outstrips the supply and refining capacity. Food will also get more expensive as petrochemical-based pesticides and fertilizers increase in price, and of course the fuel to manufacture processed foods and ship everything in our stores will cost more too, driving up prices.
All these factors will directly impact everyone. Virtually all of us drive or use public transportation, and certainly everyone eats food. We all send and receive mail, use electricity, have indoor plumbing with hot water and generally participate in society at large.
As we have recently seen in the cases of the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, any disaster causes disruption, and disruption causes prices to rise. In the case of Katrina, some of America’s oil production was damaged, and prices at the pump shot up that same week.
Even if you don’t believe the most dire post-oil predictions of the pessimists, it’s clear that we are at or near the peak production of oil in the world, so it’s high time that we all start to think about what a post-oil world might be like. It’s also time to start preparing to walk the talk and live in such a world, one that could become reality in just a few years.
If you have children, especially young children, be careful how you approach the subject. They see the world in black and white terms as well as in a simplistic way, so a parent that jokingly says “the world is going to end” may cause the kiddies to have terrifying nightmares. There are a couple of ways to ease them into the idea of living a more simple life, and which technique you use depends on your child’s temperament and age.
- For more information about peak oil, visit: www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.com
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