Worried about peak oil & catastrophic climate change

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My thinking on these matters is terminally Malthusian. Thomas Malthus postulated that population growth would always and ultimately outstrip the available resources. As humans discover new technologies for harnessing resources, so the population simply grows to the new limits that the new technology affords. This has happened numerous times in the history of humans. The big question is whether humanity can do it endlessly into the future. The stakes are so much higher now because the old energy sources are largely exhausted. We could not (for example) return to wood as a source of fuel. As oil becomes scarce and harder to extract, so we will need to move to a new energy source. The trouble this time is that most of the alternative energy sources are less energy-dense and harder to come by. There are all the urban myths about engines that can run on water etc. If you dig deep enough, you will find that all these technology hopes have significant issues and are not going to answer our energy needs any time soon. The issue is that even if humans do their inventive Houdini trick once again, it will still simply delay the inevitable Malthusian scenario where the population grows until the resources cannot sustain the population levels concerned.

To break out of the Malthusian peril, we humans have to adopt a radically different pilosophy of life. We need to embrace a zero growth policy globally (as a start). This would require zero population growth and zrro economic growth (on balance). Positive economic growth should be feared and not celebrated. This is so far removed from the way human society works at present that I can't see it coming to pass without a major conflagration of some sort.

Thus, I focus on shoring up my own little patch of earthly existence with a view to surviving that conflagration when it comes. How soon? I reckon its virtually upon us. In the next ten years we will definitely see economic collapse on a global scale wth significant hunger and poverty in many First World countries, including the USA and Europe. The collapse of the Soviet Union is a good example of what is likely to happen.

Well, I know that peak oil is a topic often speculated on for the last few decades. Several books have been written about the idea. I recall reading one of them. But it seems the idea of peak oil happening soon has been pushed back by century or two by recent energy discoveries in the west, and elsewhere in the world. The oil discoveries are good news. They will help to create much needed jobs, and some will find our leaving the troubled middle east a positive step. Additionally, with more burning of natural gas, Co2 levels have dropped considerably in the US of late.

"Energy Independence Around the Corner?"

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/ ... he-corner/

sample from the article:

Worrying about Global Warming is nothing but tribal group-think.

We should welcome Global Warming. It is likely to be extremely beneficial to mankind.

Plants grow better in warmer weather. Add in a higher CO2 level and they grow even better. Global Warming means that we will be able to produce more food and be able to feed the greater number of people who will be on the Earth in the future.

It's no accident that civilization emerged at a time when the Northern Hemisphere was substantially warmer than today -- the Holocene Climatic Optimum about 8,000 years ago.

The real disaster would be Global Cooling. Cool the Earth down a bit and starvation will become the rule. Once the next ice age begins, the human population of the Earth will implode as death by starvation kills enormous numbers of humans.

Also, we are now about 15,000 years into the current interglacial warm period. As I understand it, interglacial warm periods tend to last between 10,000 and 20,000 years and then the next ice age arrives. 20,000 years is a really long interglacial warm period.

I've seen two different figures for recent interglacial warm periods. One set of figures was that the last interglacial warm period lasted 12,000 years. The other was that the last three interglacial warm periods lasted from 6,000 to 9,000 years each.

We are extremely lucky that the current interglacial warm period has lasted as long as it has. If Global Warming helps delay the next ice age or eliminates it completely, mankind will really be major beneficiaries.

The scary thing about Global Warming is not that it might be happening, but that it might not be happening.

Climate change is a scam, invented by governments as an excuse to increase taxes.
Anybody who can't see that needs to open their eyes to what's going on in the world.