gray_ghost | Aug. 2nd, 2005

[About the future, or death, of capitalism]

Isn't it a little freaky that peak oil might have already happened (or we're on the brink of it), and no one is seriously considering alternative forms of energy? I think about that everytime I see wheat harvesters in fields working until late in the night, consuming all of that dinosaur fuel which we will never be able to use again. Visions of lemmings flinging themselves off of a cliff comes to mind.

The thing my mind keeps coming back to is that without oil, there is no way modern agricultural practices can continue, and that means an awful LOT of people are going to die. Maybe the problem could have been worked out if we had started thinking about it 40 years ago and pumped massive R&D money into alternative forms of energy. But now I think we might be fucked. Of course lots of other things are going to happen without oil too (and I'm sure I haven't thought of most of them at this point), but that's the one thing my mind keeps circling back to because I don't think anyone is really prepared for it, or even knows how to prepare.