Peter van

Loon

Wastewater

Source Control Technical Officer
for the Chief Executive

Officer

color=#0000ff size=2>Gold Coast Water

From: wildedu [mailto:wildedu@]

Sent: Sunday, 13 April 2008 0:42
To: Coordinator

HUB
Subject: CoordinatorHUB Get Real



Canada, if escape is necessary"; like if everything got pretty bad in the U.S.

that it would be OK to "escape" to Canada. We had 20 feet of snow here this year

so bring lots of food and a good shovel. A lot of the people that are

up  here are talking about going to the U.S. because it is warmer and won't

cost them $5,000 to$10,000 a year to heat their homes.

record straight, most people,(probably about 2/3rd's) Americans or

Canadians or Mexicans or whatever will perish within the first 3 months

following a disaster of major proportions country wide, (this comes from

numerous studies by the armed forces as to the effect of major disasters on the

population). Katrina was a testament to this. Not only are the governments

unable to deal with a small catastrophe such as Katrina but they are

unwilling to allocate the funding to prepare for the eventuality

of disasters of even as small as 1 or 2 cities that are in dire

straits. It is simply too overwhelming for them.

then it is every person for themselves. That's the reality of it. Now you can

change that reality bit by bit through getting your own act together then

helping your community to get it's collective act together the help your

surrounding communities to get their acts together to recreate an extended

family of LIKE thinkers.

communities like them probably won't even realize that something is even

wrong with our society until the air starts to get cleaner.

wealth of information out there, if you are not prepared to look after yourself

and you think someone else is going to do it for you, you will die. It is hard

enough to look after yourself, if you are looking after too many others

your energy won't last long and you will die. Work together, share your chosen

skills, accept whatever help comes your way learn how to protect yourself and

your loved ones and you may make it through all the changes that are

imminent.

direction. I can see natural, economic and fear driven panic disasters all

coming down the pipe here where I live, in the country. I can't even imagine

what it will be like in the cities, where most people live.

that diesel fuel is 65 cents per gallon(15 cents/litre) more expensive than

gasoline. This doesn't make sense, unless you own the diesel and want to take

advantage of the situation and make money. How does your food get to your

neighborhood? The weather has started to change the way we do things and the

economy is on the edge of the toilet bowl. Hang on it will only get

bumpier.

say is look deeper into your own knowing, open your eyes and mind and take a

look at all that is going on, without hopeful prejudice, see the reality.

Don't weep, prepare.

Co-Op

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Thanks for that input!

I don't suppose all these Americans who think they're going to "escape" to Canada ever stop to think that they and their hungry mouths won't be welcome in Canada when the doo-doo hits the fan!  I think we're hardly welcome now--and with good reason.  It's my understanding Canada protects itself pretty well from anyone who's doesn't come bearing (quantifiable) gifts.  Good for them!

There are times for societies to welcome influx and there are times when societies are best served by pulling in their welcome mat.  Those that don't know the difference will feel the consequences of their lack of foresight.

My husband and I recently fled California for Eugene, Oregon.  Why?  Because we could!  I'll tell you up front:  in my opinion, they should have made it harder for us to get here!

I grew up in California and was of the opinion from my earliest political consciousness that we should just close the borders.  It had nothing to do with racism and everything to do with the state (even back in the late 70's) feeling the pressure of this huge influx of people.  Well, they didn't close the borders or do anything to discourage people from coming there (quite the opposite) and now the population has almost tripled since I was born (1961).  California, despite being the "bread basket of the world" for the past 40 years, is a food- and race riot waiting to happen.  Not to mention that Sacramento, my home town, will probably be remembered as SaKatrina in future years when the levies break down.

Oregon used to actively discourage people from moving here.  Now they don't... and probably half the people I know here are from somewhere else.  Since the sluggish economy here is the only thing that's kept down the numbers of people moving here in the past, I'll consider it a blessing when Peak Oil cuts off the escape route for all the people in California who aren't paying attention now and will wish they had come here when they had the chance (i.e., now).

Again, this is nothing personal; it's a matter of survival.  Only so many humans are going to survive the coming crash.  Many of those who are too stupid or ignorant/poor (the majority) to prepare now will go by the wayside--to put it euphemistically.  I feel true compassion for those who will never have the opportunity or the means to prepare, but there's really nothing I can do about it.  There's probably not even enough time left for us to prepare ourselves and infiltrate the minds of our immediate neighbors with our insidous survival plans (like, grow a garden, create community, trade, barter, cooperate--really radical stuff).

Prepare or die?  I agree heartily.  Not that that's the way it "should" be, but that's the way it will be--and the way it has been throughout human history, until very, very recently.

Harsh?  Realistic, I say.

The liberal mind and society have only been made possible by cheap oil.  It's only when energy is plentiful and cheap that we can take care of everyone.  We haven't, but we could have, over the last fifty years of propserity.  In the future, we won't have the luxury of carrying dead weight in our society.

Finally, I'd like to say that my realistic thoughts on these subjects do not mean I don't have deep compassion and grief for those who will comprise that dead weight--especially those in third world countries who have borne the brunt of our current prosperity's externalized costs (environmental and social) and will starve by the millions as the oil runs out and the deserts expand.  On a personal note, my oldest friend, whom I've known literally since she was born, is severely disabled and requires certain medications to stay alive.  Her needs far exceeded my financial and energetic capacity even when I had a well-payed job with health insurance.  Now I'm a poor, uninsured activist trying to turn my yard into a subsistence farm.  If my friend lives to see the crash, she'll be one fo the first fatalities and there's not a damn thing I can do about it.

Why am I writing all this, I wonder, knowing the s__tstorm of commentary and controversy it will unleash?

Maybe I'd like to know how others who share my realistic view balance their humanity with their survival needs.  How do we deal with the thought that we may survive but that others we know won't?  And that millions, maybe billions, that we don't know won't?

The people's of many so-called "primitive" societies must have had ways of dealing with this.  To ensure the survival of the tribe or clan, they left their elderly and severely disabled to die along the trail.  They practiced infanticide in times of famine.  They were humans and mothers, like us.  They loved, deeply, I'm sure.  They grieved.  But they did what had to be done--and those who were old enough to understand what was happening also knew what had to be done.  Some would voluntarily walk into the blizzard to eliminate their footprint on the tribe's resources.  How did they deal with the emotional and spiritual aspects of their choices?

---

From: wildedu@
To: coordinate@
Subject: CoordinatorHUB Get Real
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:42:08 -0700



 Patricia Greene wrote "It isn't even that cold and we're close to Canada, if escape is necessary"; like if everything got pretty bad in the U.S. that it would be OK to "escape" to Canada. We had 20 feet of snow here this year so bring lots of food and a good shovel. A lot of the people that are up  here are talking about going to the U.S. because it is warmer and won't cost them $5,000 to$10,000 a year to heat their homes.

Just a few thoughts:
 
If you want people to notice and read your posting, you might want to change the subject line before you hit "send" so that it reflects the topic you are writing about.
 
Quite often, the topic of a dialogue changes but the subject line doesn't.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who deletes or skims past messages whose subject lines have lost my interest.  I'm equally sure that there could be some information in those postings that I might have found interesting or useful, but I don't have time to read them all to find out.
 
There might even have been messages that were directed to me that I never saw because they had a subject line from a thread I'm no longer following.