Some toughts on "Aftermath: The World Without Oil"

  

Continuing on the previous post.

No big analysis here, just a few random thoughts and ideas...

1. The assumption in the video is that oil abruptly disappears completely from one day to another. Of course, this is unrealistic. Partially.

We all know by now that Peak Oil is *not* the end of oil but the decrease in its extraction/production due to increasing technical difficulties in access and financial cost of rarefaction, i.e. we do have some time to see it coming. So we shall expect a painful transition, a slowly unfolding scenario rather than a badaboum catastrophe.

That's for the people already cognisant in the issue, those *aware*. What about those who do not have the beginning of a fucking clue about anything? Those robots and zombies who go through the motions on a daily basis and never question anything?

Not only will it be violent for those, it WILL feel like badaboum, believe me.

2. It is incredible how people clung to the old schemes until the very last second. The scenes around gas pumps are soooo revealing. What's the point? Folks, oil disappeared, for good!! But no, they keep pulling up and engage in fist-fight for a gone resource. They hoard it even as it has become obsolete and irrelevant.

And what with the whole cooking oil thing?

The idea to just give it up and ride bicycles, which most people already own, only occurs to the occasional random fellow. This is both crazy and scary to me. My notion of common sense collides with this "reality" in a very brutal way and sends both shivers and cold sweat down my back. It means that behaviours will be unreliable and erratic with logic, reason and general life smarts counting for nothing.

*Scary shit*.

3. The folks behind this program have a not-so-discreet agenda of pushing for ethanol, biofuel, lithium and algae and what not. Basically let's see if we can transition to a new world... exactly like the old one!

The notion that this is the opportunity to finally transition to something radically different flies above their heads. Or maybe, it does not, it does perfectly register, and their approach is part of a strategy to reassure people that we will emerge on the other side of the shithole in a world that looks very much like this one... Don't be scared, do not worry too much, do not pay attention to those agitators pushing for change... Rather, ask for more of the same... comply... obey!

5. The issue of food availability and local food production is another one that is currently totally under the radar. The scenes of food distributions and food riots that we associate with developing countries are a thing of the close future for us.

There is a currently a petition pushing for urban agriculture to become public policy. If you happen to live in Montreal, please sign the petition so we can force the authorities to have an open debate on the place of food production in this city.

Initiatives like these are part of the solution. Will it be enough?

6. The issue, though, that *I* had  never considered is the garbage pick up and disposal. Ugh... I can't even begin to imagine...

7. The whole health care talk is misleading though. A lot more people get sick from modern medicine than the system cares to admit. Its collapse and scaling down will actually be a great service to public health. You need no rubber gloves or other plastics. Health practitioners can do and have done very fine with metal instruments. Just boil them. Re-discover herbal medicine and good hygiene.

Between having only the bare minimum to eat and having no choice but to walk and pedal around, I am betting an arm and a leg that diabetes and heart diseases will be a thing of the past very quickly. There might be some short-term mayhem but over the long term, we'll all be better off. A lot of our diseases are lifestyle generated.

8. I am amazed how animal traction is not an option at any point. Same with sailing: why not tap into wind power to ship merchandise by sail boats instead of sitting around waiting for biofuel? Aren't museums full of them? Aren't there plenty of yachts in ports? Aren't people winning races in which they cross the Atlantic rowing alone with no support etc.? So? WTF?

9. Dumpster diving and garbage recycling: so much to retrieve it's crazy! We really are a disposable society.

10. The new car paradigm looks very much like the golfcartopia of Peachtree city, GA.

11. Yet, the best of it all is at min 17:01 in the third video. Too bad it only comes at the very last minute and nobody elaborates on the subject.

12. At no point do they show the tons of people who will die because they cannot keep up.