The end is nigh

Someone stands with a sign warning people about the end of the world. I'm sure you've seen such cartoons or pictures. I used to snicker at the idea. This site is for those of us who no longer feel this is far-fetched.

I'm going to assume that you share some of my concerns. If you don't . . . well, I won't waste time and energy trying to convince you.

(If you've an open mind you might care to investigate some of the links here, in which case you may be back.)

I take it as a given that:

• civilization as we know it is about to implode
• there exists a window of (at most) a few years to do something about it
  
• there could (and should) be more to life than consumer capitalism; the impending crisis may just spur some of us to think up a saner way
  
• humans have evolved to living in close-knit groups, and forming such a group may be the best thing to do
  

Preparation is the key. By that I mean doing all that we can before the shit-hits-the-fan. I cordially invite like-minded individuals to discuss how we might team up. We will speak of resources, skills, relocation (New Zealand is where I'm based), disengaging from the economic system (especially with respect to getting out of debt) empowering ourselves, informing ourselves, permaculture . . .

I envisage us getting to know one another on-line, and then in a year or two coming together as a group. By then, we will have hammered out the logistics. Maybe we will form more than one group, especially if we come from around the globe. I won't predict exactly what will result. But whatever it is, we should be in a better position than the average joe.

So that we can talk, I've set up a Google group at http://groups.google.com/group/tribeseeksmembers.

Drop in, why don't you?

My top ten books on the peak

The following is a list of the best books I've read in the fields of peak oil and related issues:

1. Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon world - Richard Heinberg (Probably the book you ought to read if you are limited to one)
2. The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies - Richard Heinberg (Richard is one of the most learned authors in this field. What is more, he writes extremely well. I highly recommend this book)
3. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - Jared Diamond (Puts resource depletion into an historical context - highly readable)
4. The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth - Tim Flannery (Australian of the year)
   
5. The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century - James Howard Kunstler (Talks and hits hard, but wittily. Great read. Doesn't mince words - labels the current situation as a clusterfuck. Is happy to have outlived at least one Beatle.)
   
6. Ishmael - DanielQuinn (The wider picture painted in a novel, and by a gorilla!)
7. Beyond Civilization - Daniel Quinn (The book I'd most like to keep at hand to insire me)
8. Culture Jam - Kalle Lasn (A scathing inditement of modern culture - cut it down at the roots!)
9. Crossing the Rubicon - Michael C Ruppert
10. Crude: The Story of Oil - Sonia Shah (Asian woman's point of view)
11. Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis - Jeremy Leggett (read the proof used to prepare the Japanese edition)

Let's calm down here

So I've become aware of the bigger picture. Six months ago I bump into the Peak Oil thing, and then I throw myself right into it - read articles, books, follow up links, view documentaries, attend meetings, enlighten myself about related depletion, economic, financial, humanistic and other issues. In short, I burn out.

I recognize my tendency to do that.

That hyper-energy invigorates me for a while, and it sweeps me through swathes of informational territory. It's a good technique for rapidly covering the canvas. And yet, it's unsustainable too. I can't carry on in that fashion.

I've got to live deliberately. I need to march to my own drum. It is imperative for me to see how I will respond and react to the bigger picture. What are my strengths and inclinations? Where should I invest my efforts? How do I choose to interpret what's going on (down), and with which lenses do I choose view the world?

I'll start with this: we're all going to die. In a sense, we're dead already. It's all in the programming. There may be decades or merely months - it doesn't matter! Really, it just doesn't matter. I know that death is nothing, so it should not concern me. It should make me free and unconcerned.

This being so, nothing that happens is of any import. You could say that the world ending is similarly no big deal. When you die, as far as you are concerned, the world does stop. And so its future also is nothing to get uptight about.

All I'm saying is that there isn't any need to get frenetic about shit hitting the fan. We can afford to relax about it all, and that will allow us to live in harmony with our inner nature. There is nothing that is demanded of us. No one expects anything of us (or shouldn't). We are free . . . to live freely. It's all a game.

And since it's a game, how we play it is the thing. We ought to be alert, yet relaxed. We should play in the position we're temperamentally suited for. It behooves us to concentrate on form, skill and fancy footwork. That's all that there is. That's all that there could be.

And so I tell myself: no more willy-nilly rushing from one thing to another. I choose to prepare for the future according to inclination, not nerves. Yeah, I think that this is more on track. The next steps will follow on from there.

Words of wisdom

• "Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon." here (From the first peak oil site I visited, and near the top of the list when you do a search. Over 700 mentions on Delicious.)

• "Preparation for peak oil can be relatively easy, since the preparation is 75% mental, 15% physical, and 10% fiscal." here by Chris Lisle, a former U.S. Army Ranger.

• "What is needed, of course, is a small town or a village: a relatively dense settlement, with about an acre of farmland for every 30 or so people." here by Dmtitry Orlov who witnessed the collapse of the USSR.

• "When faced with a collapsing economy, one should stop thinking of wealth in terms of money. Access to actual physical resources and assets, as well as intangibles such as connections and relationships, quickly becomes much more valuable than mere cash." here by Dmitry Orlov.

• "There are plenty of stable, if not prosperous, places on this planet, that are far less dependent on the international energy and financial markets than the U.S., and where the cataclysms that will shake the U.S. will barely register." here by Dmitry Orlov

• "The end of civilization is only three meals away" Anon.
  

To muse or not to muse

Too much of a good thing is a plethora, in my experience.

I've taken a gander at many sites, too many. It's time to cut back and to specialize. Which words of wisdom do I subscribe to?

Okay then, here are my criteria. The writer needs to be educated. He or she will need to write well (these first two are not necessarily related). The scope needs to be broad, and it needs to be positive - all doom and gloom makes Jack a dull boy). In some way it will need to relate to spirituality. A permaculture/civilization/culture change must be implied.

That leaves me with Daniel Quinn and Richard Heinberg, it seems. So be it. I'll move them up the ranks of top links.