"I do know that humans have a remarkable ability to find solutions to their worst problems." -De
James Baldwin wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
Unfortunately, through some coming together of fear, bad leadership, bad education, media abdication, consumerism/immaturity, and human inability to understand exponential functions (compound interest), almost nobody has really faced the inexorable and exponentially creeping nature of the problem. The sooner that happens, the more options remain for those who realize it. Also be grateful! You are privileged to be alive at this moment. It took 100 billion years to sequester and process all that sunlight. Via a confluence of luck, you have been here for the biggest party imaginable. Burning ~100 million years of oil in just over 100 years -- who could have imagined? I, for one, am trying to be more grateful for all that: especially the knowledge, imported foods, airplanes, internet and air conditioning!
I also think that the United States/Canada is way better off than the majority of the world, because of relatively low population vs. remaining exploitable energy sources.
A few other things should encourage us to keep our heads while the world spins. (1) Humans survived, and even slowly proliferated to almost 1 billion in 1800. So, even without modern fuels, at least 1/8 of the population can be sustained with firewood and basic food. With a return of more commonplace slavery and draft animals, we might even do a little better than in the past. (2) If the Covid vaccines and other techniques work okay, most of the 7/8 excess may well die natural deaths, without starvation, war, or worrying themselves beyond their comfort zone. If eating cultured insects really catches on, it might be a fairly comfortable life indeed. (3) We know -- or should know -- that the track humanity is currently on is inimical to basic freedom/independence, in many ways. It appears optimized for corporations, machines, and a few WEF members. So, given that dystopic likelihood, a rejiggering of the system via peak oil and simplification seems pretty convivial.
In the meantime, figuring out how to better use the energy and the time we have now can hardly hurt. There is a lot of waste and a lot of time left for better decisions. I'm hoping to make a few myself!
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One of the things which humbles me and reminds me how dependent I am is when I occasionally attempt to, or have to, live without any purchased source of energy for even a little while. Does it really matter if oil isn't available...or if it simply isn't available, in the store, at any price, for YOU? That was the world the settlers lived in and much of the world still has to live in.
Imagine you wake up. You can't drive to the store to buy food. One gallon of gas powers your car for 35 miles. But just try pushing your car for 100 feet without any gasoline. You can't pump the well for water without energy. You may heat the house with wood, if you have it. If you don't have it, you need to cut it, without fuel. So you resolve to boil the toilet water with a wood campfire and maybe cook some oatmeal. It gets dark eventually and you have no light. No radio. No TV or computer. I don't know about you, but I have a tough time going more than one day like this...by which time the refrigerated food starts to melt and spoil. We take energy being on tap and near free for granted. That has all happened in less than 100 years. We are rather like the creatures trapped in the matrix...kind of pathetic and confused.
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