I said, "When we truly dig into the information being spewed forth about terrorism, oil supplies, voting machines, corruption, and yes, science, we find that there are more vacant spaces between the supporting nodes than we ever imagined. The ITER fusion reactor, ethanol, modern schools, and government checks and balances all depend on a lack of critical thinking to maintain their cashflows >>>

This statement only made sense to me. Sorry about that. What I meant was that all of these things depend on cashflow to maintain their ILLUSION of being solutions to problems. The cashflow part comes from the consumption we generate without critical thought.

As long as we continue to buy, succumb to advertising, and work for the sake of competition and perpetual growth, we will not see the root of the problems of peak oil. Whether or not the oil supply becomes the focal point, the problems of secrecy, delusional consumption, and egoism will continue until it all falls down, which may take a long time and many Earths to finish.

Here in Europe we already pay around 8 dollars per gallon equivalent for petrol/gasoline (mainly due to relatively high fuel taxes). Although overall statistics show that our energy efficiency is better than America's, it's still unusual for people here not to own cars. Overcrowded roads and lack of parking areas are the main disincentives to car use, not fuel prices. This suggests to me that crude oil prices could quadruple from their present level without much changing consumers' behaviour in America - or here in Europe or anywhere else for that matter. But such high oil market prices would boost energy production, both of oil and of alternative forms of energy.

So I don't see the "peak oil" issue as a real threat to our wellbeing, it's basically a red herring compared with the fact that heavy consumption of fossil fuels is causing very alarming changes in the world's climate.

Kudos to Salon for publishing such a comprehensive and community-centric article about peak oil and those concerned about it. If you're in the Portland, Oregon metro area, stop in to Portland Peak Oil, check out info and upcoming events at www.portlandpeakoil.org. We have free events and discussions every Wednesday night and do lots of outreach and policy work at the City level. Yay Portland!

There have been a couple of letters to the effect that roving bandits will just take over your eco-homestaed anyway, so why bother; to which I'd say: Oh yeah? Try it.

I'm somewhat optimistic, so I haven't bought land in Montana or whatever (well, YET) but if it were MY community the bandits were trying for, the odds would be in my favor. It takes several times the manpower to invade or lay siege to a place than it takes to defend it, as well as plenty of resources. Just remember, I can keep a LOT more guns and ammo under the floor of my cabin than any Mad Max wannabes can carry, especially if Max is running low on fuel or on horseback.

"When the roving bands of armed bandits come along and see all the hard work these people have put into building this self-sufficient infrastructure, they'll say, "Thanks for all of your efforts. We'll be taking this now." -- Toddius Zho

When the vultures are done picking them clean, the bone meal will be a lovely addition to the garden. So there.

Just a counterthought to a particular aspect of the thread.

Back here in reality, I'm getting solar installed this spring (WooHoo!) and hoping that times ahead will be uncomfortable and challenging rather than disastrous.

Maltusian Luddites.

Say what? I thought the economy car was the best one could do, until the 'connection' between transportation and land-use was introduced and steps implemented to integrate walking, bicycling, mass transit into city fabric dominated by automobiles. At the micro-scale, a promising means developed to direct city growth where local travel could be met without always driving. At the macro-scale of an entire metropolitan region, many districts, townships, suburban community centers could apply the same growth principles and implement such local transport systems and connect with an overlay of regional transit.

The solution to fuel consumption and traffic woes is not the economy car. The solution is to build cities where the need for long-distance travel is reduced. The urban/suburban environment thus requires a multi-modal transport system, (walking, mass transit, bicycling, cars/trucks), built into its basic infrastructure. And toward this end, there is one vehicular technology that far excels - the Plug-in Hybrid.

In time, the Plug-in Hybrid becomes the car that need not be driven. The key is in its larger battery pack, which allows these cars to operate zero-emission "a limited number of miles at limited speed". Of course, the hybrid will not be stranded when the batteries run low, hybrids may utilize all fuels, but the motorist gains an incentive to drive shorter distances on battery power to patronize local economies, which then develop more services, institutions and destinations that are accessable without having to drive.

In addition to the all-important aspect of land-use and development, the Plug-in Hybrid and their high capacity batteries:

1)..are a perfect technological match with rooftop photovoltiac solar panels.

2)..will prove to be an invaluable energy supply in an emergency - Homepower.

3)..create a major leap toward public power.

4)..improve vehicle stability by lowering center-of-gravity, reducing potential for rollover, perfect for top-heavy SUVs.

5)..may utilize all practical alternate fuels and perfect their combustion and emission reduction through strict regulation of engine speed and load.

6)..may convert many current car and truck models to Plug-in Hybrid, unlike fuel cell prototypes whose vehicle, fuel and fuel distribution infrastructure difficulties are insurmountable.

The automobile can remain a valuable part of modern transport only if its use is scaled back and city/suburbs are re-imagined (rebuilt) to accommodate other means of travel. The nature of these re-imagined cities will include depaving road and parking lot for more valuable purposes. The Plug-in Hybrid will save the world. Why else would General Motors purposefully design their so-called hybrid models to be unable to evolve into Plug-in Hybrids, but that GM recongizes a conflict of interest? A car that doesn't need to be driven is a threat to their bottom line. Current Hybrids which can evolve into Plug-in Hybrid are the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape. Don't buy a GM Silverado or a Saturn VUE psuedo-hybrid.