[ Episode #6 // Peak Oil Blues ]

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[ Episode #6 // Peak Oil Blues ]

Posted by: Justin Tags: collapse, economy, energy, oil, psychology Posted date: November 11, 2010 | 4 Comments

The old Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times”, is a particularly apt encapsulation of the current moment we experience on the global stage of affairs, yet facing an uncertain future doesn’t mean it has to unfold as bleak.

The readily available net energy which drove rapid expansion of a particular form of dominance hierarchy known as corporate capitalism is fading, and with its collapse goes the standard of life it engendered. The realization that our embedded expectations of the future might rapidly diverge from reality is one that can be very difficult to integrate. By reaching the global maximum flow rate of oil we face significant psychological issues – as young adults facing this reality, the range of options for preparation can be staggering.

Kathy McMahon of Peak Oil Blues has been helping many deal with the psychological issues one faces when grasping the reality and severity of peak oil. In Extraenvironmentalist #6, we interview Kathy to talk about the psychological dimensions of peak oil and how those of us just starting our adult lives can prepare for life after the peak.

Many thanks to Kevin M. who provided an edit of several documentaries on peak oil – an edit which beautifully and elegantly introduces the issue. At the end of the episode we play a voicemail Kevin left us regarding his thoughts on the Extraenvironmentalist #3′s clash between podcast titans KMO and Doug Lain.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:59 — 53.2MB) | Embed

// Media Links
Media Collage | A 5 Minute Introduction to Peak Oil assembled by and courtesy of Kevin M.

// Music (in order of appearance)
Glasser – Mirrorage via The Music Ninja
Decemberists – Down by the Water via The Music Slut
Caribou – Sun (Midland Remix) via Redthreat
Humans – Avec Mes Mecs via IndieShuffle
Keith Reedy – Drinkin’ Billy’s Beer via WFMU Beware of the Blog

// Corrections and Blunders

- Please do call or email us with corrections if you find something we’ve said to be factually inaccurate -

guest

The Extraenvironmentalist is my new favorite podcast! The Korten lecture was great, though he sort of went off the rails on the ‘explaining money to a 14 year old’ bit. He should have kept it simpler, saying ‘money’ and ‘wealth’ are not one in the same- wealth is derived from the natural world and ‘created’ by making natural resources more useful. ‘Money’ is a symbolic/numeric claim on that wealth, and only has as much meaning as we collectively decide to give it.

Also, I do enjoy the music interspersed throughout the podcast, but sometimes it is annoying/distracting when you’ve got music going in the background underneath talking.
rrolfe

Bummer about the dog bite… Recently watched part of this 2004 documentary called “The End of Suburbia” (stopped because if I took a shot for every white man interviewed I’d have to have my stomach pumped) but for all its lack of diversity awareness it made valid points on our oil dependency. What was most interesting were these scientists stating their end-of-oil projections in between switching out transparencies of complex parabolic algorithms from the presentation projector. (I said this was 2004 right?) One scientist estimated oil would run out by 2007. It doesn’t mean he was totally wrong, but it does show how it’s forgivable of us to instinctively laugh at survivalists. Before criticizing how others react to what they are told, it is important to think about how the message was givien. A reaction to a scare-tactic message will always be one based in a natural but totally unproductive fear.
- Barry
  
  One: The men interviewed in The End of Suburbia are there because the oil industry happens to be dominated by men.
  Two: No one said we would run out of oil by 2007. Bakhtiar said in The End of Suburbia that he estimated that global production would peak between 2005 and 2007, and it is quite likely that it did in 2006.
Jenchoward

Great job taking an overwhelming dilemma and addressing it in a more reassuring way. I think if this topic were presented more often along with even just a few positive ideas about what a post-oil world might look like and steps a person can take to prepare, there would be less automatic resistance to open discussion. But, I have that “positive attitude” gene, so maybe that’s just me