Joined: Dec 25, 2001 Posts: 33,694 Location: Liberty City
Posted: Thu 14/Sep/06 7:24am Post subject: About The Sustainable Future Forum
Some of you may be wondering what a forum labelled "Sustainable Future" is doing on a cycling website. The simple answer is that as the owner of this site I have no problem pursuing other facets of life that interest me and others on this site. But one could also point out that cycling is still the most efficient form of transport available, and surprisingly sustainable.
The purpose of this forum is to explore ways of moving towards a more sustainable way of life. The catalyst for this shift is the concept of "Oil Crash" - very simply the human race currently relies on cheap and plentiful oil for everything from manufacturing, food production, economic growth to (obviously) transport. The central problem with this is that we have an increasing population with an increasing demand of a finite resource.
While there will always be oil somewhere in this planet the general concensus is that the days of cheap and plentiful oil are numbered and the human race is going to have to significantly change the way it lives to deal with this. This change may happen slowly or rapidly, but by being prepared we can make our lives easier in the long run.
Websters Dictonary wrote:
Main Entry: sus·tain·able
Function: adjective
1 : capable of being sustained
2 a : of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged <sustainable techniques> <sustainable agriculture>
b : of or relating to a lifestyle involving the use of sustainable methods <sustainable society>
This is just a brief introduction so I'm not going to go into detail about why alternative energy alternatives or advancements in technology are going to "save" us and allow all of the 6.6 billion human beings on this planet continue to live in the lifestyles we've become accustomed to.
I understand that some of you might see what is being discussed in this forum as scaremongering or wacky enviromental claptrap. That's your perogative, but personally I try and keep an open mind about everything. If you're in the top floor of a 20 storey building and someone tells you that the ground floor is ablaze you're welcome to go back to watching TV, just please don't get in the way of the people who're working out ways of evacuating the building.
Joined: Dec 25, 2001 Posts: 33,694 Location: Liberty City
Posted: Thu 14/Sep/06 7:43am Post subject:
I originally locked this thread after I posted it, but have thought "discussion is a good thing" and unlocked it.
At some point I'll probably split all of the discussion off into it's own thread and leave the original post "clean".
Part of the problems with the concept of "Oil Crash" is that the more you read the more scary it becomes. We simply can not tell what is going to happen and the scenarios stretch from a gradual change of lifestyle to something more agricultural to massive worldwide population decline through famine, wars and disease.
The best single line of advice I've seen so far is:
"Hope for the best, Prepare for the worst, and Accept what comes"
To my interwebby-saturated mind the more information we can share about being prepared the better. For starters I wouldn't know tihs about growing my own food, but all things considered this seems like a very worthwhile skill to learn.
Joined: Sep 04, 2002 Posts: 20,910 Location: Riding the Entertainment Mastodon
Posted: Thu 14/Sep/06 8:02am Post subject:
Will I be able to turn this eco-pessimism off in the forum watcher like I can talkback? Because that would be a real bonus for me. It's sort of the liberal equivalent of talkback isn't it?
Joined: Dec 25, 2001 Posts: 33,694 Location: Liberty City
Posted: Thu 14/Sep/06 8:07am Post subject:
E Dogg Capizzle wrote:
Will I be able to turn this eco-pessimism off in the forum watcher like I can talkback? Because that would be a real bonus for me. It's sort of the liberal equivalent of talkback isn't it?
At some point in the near future you'll have total control over which forums appear in the Forum Watcher - but that's a completely different matter isn't it?
You're just grumpy because by the time you get around to getting your drivers license cars will be too expensive to drive
Joined: Dec 25, 2001 Posts: 33,694 Location: Liberty City
Posted: Thu 14/Sep/06 8:16am Post subject:
E Dogg Capizzle wrote:
I'm never getting a drivers license, only because I can use that fact to feel smug and superior when I argue with eco-liberals who do drive.
I heartily endorse that as a reason
Now if only those pessimistic whining liberals like George W Bush and kcid Cheney would stop talking about the world not being able to meet oil demand in the near future...
kcid said "By some estimates, there will be an average of two-percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead, along with, conservatively, a three-percent natural decline in production from existing reserves.That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional 50 million barrels a day."
Joined: Dec 25, 2001 Posts: 33,694 Location: Liberty City
Posted: Thu 14/Sep/06 8:24am Post subject:
If it makes you feel any better some projections show Canada control the majority of the worlds oil supply (through "non-conventional" sources) by 2050 - you're going to own the world!
I'm sure the U.S. will be totally fine with this...
All the talk of oil running out is garbage to drive the price up so the fat cats in the middle east can buy more diamond encrusted mercedes benz's.
We should also blame the chinese for driving demand up, but luckily they're mostly super poor so many will not be able to afford cars to run on their new roads and drive to their new mega malls.
And lets get real people, there are alternatives to oil for fuel, when it actually runs out we will have these as an option, supply and demand works in other ways too... in the meantime its too expensive for the oil barons to bother when they have a steady flow of available black gold, believe me when it starts to run out they will have aces up their sleeves
Does buying a more efficient car make me a better person?
I dont think so, Get a car with the worst fuel efficency. Oil is going to run out one day......Why not get your share?
w3rd, then we wont have to fret about oils sustainability and all the boffins will have to get there tihs together and make hydrogen/batteries/bio fuels etc work
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