How to explain peak oil to everybody (even Paris Hilton)
Target your peak oil message to your audience 24
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Posted 3:23 PM on 22 May 2008
by Sharon Astyk -
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anotherID Posted 8:12 am
22 May 2008
Pretty good except...
No props for the DFH's.
DFH's weren't right or effective.
You can live a low-carbon lifestyle that is rewarding without buying all of the DFH baggage.
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Eoin OC Posted 8:31 am
22 May 2008
Okay, I'll take the bait
What's a DFH?
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David Roberts Posted 8:42 am
22 May 2008
dirty f*cking hippie
grist.org
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anotherID Posted 8:47 am
22 May 2008
GFE
Google F'ing Exists from Dan Savage
http://www.google.com/search?q=dfh&ie=utf-8&oe=ut ...
Hit #4.
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Gar Lipow Posted 9:02 am
22 May 2008
Can we discuss peak oil without incorrect meme?
Can we discuss peak oil without the incorrect and annoying meme ""Without oil to..."?
We are discussing peak oil. Zero producible oil is three or more decades past when oil peaks. So while we have to get off oil, it is not the case that the day oil peaks we have zero for fertilizer or trucking or whatever. Since it may peak soon (or may have peaked already for that matter) we need to cut as soon as possible. But the "without oil" meme implies we have to drop to zero tomorrow - which would be nice, is not possible without horrible consequences. What we have to do soon is put in place a phaseout, something we need to do for global warming purposes in any case.
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Eoin OC Posted 9:03 am
22 May 2008
Sorry I asked
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Matt G Posted 9:56 am
22 May 2008
It's ok Homer.
Beer will always exist. Even if I have to harvest the barley myself.
The strange thing is, beer might be cheaper without oil. I wonder how much of beer's price is embodied in lugging glass bottles around the world. Raw materials for brewing my own is around $0.25 a bottle (even from extract - straight from barley would be much cheaper).
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infp Posted 10:57 am
22 May 2008
Peace, love and Mother Nature
Great article Sharon and yes, the hippies were right on just about everything.
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greg greene Posted 11:17 am
22 May 2008
Blame Canada
that was the funniest damn thing i've read all day sharon. brilliant! you might want to add canada to your invasion list though, the natives up here are getting restless.
greg greene writer | director The END of SUBURBIA ESCAPE From SUBURBIA EVOLUTION SUBURBIA (2010)
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Bart Anderson Posted 11:42 am
22 May 2008
Z
>> DFH's weren't right or effective.
Au contraire, the DFHs WERE right and WERE effective.
They are among you even now!
- Bart, undercover DFH
Bart
Energy Bulletin
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Jon Rynn Posted 11:57 am
22 May 2008
excuse me, but...
...my hair went down past my shoulders, I paid $60 per month for a "room" in a hippie house, and I went to grateful dead concerts while living in Berkeley. Some of us really were DFH's, some of us weren't...and I was right about everything I thought back then.
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Des Emery Posted 12:19 pm
22 May 2008
Peak Oil
Ah, it's always a good thing to display a sense of humour. Sharon covers the dunces of the world without malice, just a nice little giggle that says so much more than "Smarten up, you numbskull!"
Peak Oil, unfortunately, is probably already here, or looming over us on history's horizon. We can't go back with Grandpa Simpson and the Aging Hippie, Paris should look toward funding new energy sources in order to compete with Angelina, and Bush has to go in November whether he wants to or not (thank goodness). But our future is not going to be bright and shining so we might as well laugh as we go whistling past the graveyard.
Des Emery
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Tasermons Partner Posted 12:28 pm
22 May 2008
Be careful Homer...
The solution you offer: More beer good. Beer comes from oil. Must. Save. Beer.
Be careful with Homer Simpson, knowin' him, he'll see this and then want to support increased drillin' when Mayor Quimby tells him it'll produce more oil...and thus more beer! ;)
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hapa Posted 12:43 pm
22 May 2008
i like absurdly panicking about oil, now
it gives me that warm feeling i'm sending some speculator's kid to a solid gold college with diamond windows and dom perignon drinking fountains.
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WWAGD?! Posted 3:55 pm
22 May 2008
Paris, We'll Always Have Oil
http://oilismastery.blogspot.com/
(1)
(2)
Texeme.Construct(function(x)=Participation(x))
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Ron Steenblik Posted 3:55 pm
22 May 2008
Beer a bad example
Not true. Beer has been brewed since the time of the Egyptians. I agree with Matt G: there will always be beer.
These are only my personal opinions.
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Pangolin Posted 5:05 pm
22 May 2008
Apply head to wall,
repeat until sanity returns or blessed oblivion.
How's this? We can just explain to people that despite the fact that oil is still being pumped in massive quantities that their portion will be more expensive to purchase as several billion new oil consumers were added to the market since they were born. Trying to outbid an Indian family in a Tata Nano so that you can fuel your GMC Deniali isn't going to be effective. Doubly so since Rajput has your former job with Microslop.
Then you could point out that more people competing for a limited and declining supply will always make oil, and products dependent upon oil, more expensive until demand is reduced or alternative sources of energy are brought online. Therefore selling the Deniali at fire-sale prices and purchasing some evacuated tube solar water heaters might be a good idea. The solar rig will produce hot water no matter what the gas company is charging. Being broke in a warm bath beats being broke, cold and dirty.
So in the personal case of the gal/guy in front of you the sooner they divest themselves of the oil burning habit the more ready cash they will have for whatever else is left in life to do. Anyway's riding a bike will do wonders for their bottom, and bottom line and the muscle work will firm up some muscles near the thighs they might fine useful someday. Because....
It's better to enjoy the opportunity than to curse the darkness.
Put the Carbon Back
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HW Posted 9:48 pm
22 May 2008
If they were effective, though...
If they were effective, though, then why is the US pretty much ruled by people that are almost completely antithetical to everything that they stand for, and more or less reverse every single ounce of hard-worked progress with the stroke of a pen?
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TreeHugga Posted 9:49 pm
22 May 2008
Paris Hilton?
I understand how you could explain it to Homer Simpson but Paris? Surely she has a minus IQ score so no matter how you put it she would just be thinking about shoes and nodding her head!
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amazingdrx Posted 12:26 am
23 May 2008
Right arm Jon
Power to the people. We were right and we still are. Hehey.
My ponytail isn't gray yet. But I'm very clean.
Peak oil, yes, it's mainly a fantasy, but it's a good fantasy. It's moving things around to GHG disaster cure. Without it no one would listen to any of our greenery.
Thank you OPEC, thank you detroit gas guzzler makers, thank you darth cheney, thank you exxonmob, thank you oil analysts, thank you hedge funds,thank you for screwing yourselves. And helping us win.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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pinkyracer Posted 3:52 am
23 May 2008
local brew
exactly why (coupled with local preferences) most beer is brewed somewhat locally. SABMiller talks about it on their website.
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karenc Posted 4:46 am
23 May 2008
No, thanks for asking, EOIN!
I was wasting precious minutes scrolling back through the (hilarious and useful)post to see what DFH was! Reminds me of when I was at a 2002 protest in Colorado Springs when the Cheneys were there for a reunion at my college (Laura is an alumnus): the pro-Bush/Cheney folks were yelling, "Go home and smoke some dope, ya aging hippie!" Much to my surprise and chagrin, I realized this was aimed at me- the only white-haired person on the Get-Out-Of-Vietnam... oh, wait...deja vu all over again... Side of the Street.
Thanks, Sharon- my father daily explains climate change and peak oil to his fellow "inmates" at his assisted living- he'll love this...
An ounce of practice is worth twenty thousand tons of big talk. -Vivekananda
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Sharon Astyk Posted 10:31 pm
28 May 2008
Sometimes the language is for effect...
LOL, believe it or not, I do know that we aren't running out of oil, and that beer can be made without it ;-).
Sharon
Sharon, with dirt under her fingernails.
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mcpeter Posted 2:26 am
06 Jun 2008
A classic
Is this the most convincingly positive peak oil piece ever?
A beautifully written gem.
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