Post in Food security for Canterbury

Jun 09 10:46 UTC

Tim Kerr wrote:
> Exponential (and it isn't) increases in oil has a lot to do with old
> technology and equipment meeting an unprecedented demand for oil from China,
> Indonesia and India.
> <snip>
> Oh, and believe me, the citizens of China, India and Indonesia would not
> remain as happy as we are if they had even a fraction of our oil price
> increases!
>
> So really... I just want to know if Armageddon is strictly a Canterbury
> issue....
Apparently people are just beginning to get the message that The Values
Party was discussing in the 1970's.
Of course they had the timing all wrong, but the general idea was right.

If you really want to find out how serious the present situation is Prof
Albert Bartlett has all the bad news.
A video here:
http://media.globalpublicmedia.com/RAM/2005/08/AlbertBartlett.ram

A transcript here:
http://globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/645

For the world as a whole, expect riots, city burning, famine and
disease, and population decline.

For Canterbury, many of us are already doing personally what we need to
do. Insulate the house, do more composting and gardening, and spend more
time on the bike. I expect that community gardening might be one way to
cope with rising unemployment in a constructive way.

My personal fear, is that riots and civil unrest in Indonesia might lead
to a military adventure "overseas". With the rising general chaos around
the world, with a very complex system, there is no way to predict what
will happen. However, being informed is a good part of self protection.

For instance the capital resources for oil exploration will be in heavy
demand. I expect many people think that throwing a few billion dollars
into holes in the ground would be a wise investment. If you understand
what Prof. Bartlett says, you'll understand that even if you succeed in
finding the oil, it makes "no difference" really. So in fact we would be
better off if we used that money to change our lifestyle to something
that can be sustained.

There is good news. Prior to 1900, people lived quite successfully
without all the oil we currently use. Of course they worked a lot harder
in a physical way. Probably that would be good for us.