Do you feel it?

[Ritter]

Hi all. Dropped in tonight. It's been a long while. Since September, or thereabouts. Not much going on around the IAC... similar to other forums I've frequented in the past. The villages have all gone quite. Everyone is holding their breath. Do you feel it? That subtle undercurrent?

In 2007, I had this to say (with a fair bit in between): viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1372&p=20414#p20414

What's happened since? The economy has imploded and continues to fester, spreading its bile to Europe and slowly grinding Asia to a slower pace. Why? Peak oil, baby. It's here. In fact, it's likely past and we are now on the plateau, awaiting the plunge downward... Oil hits $100+ (during a global recession even--don't bother me with talk of a recovery until we see a drop in the food stamp numbers) a barrel and we can't function.

What else? Oh, the Arctic is venting methane like a sumbitch. Looks like we've triggered the mother of all feedbacks. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 76278.html Jury is still out, of course, as methane isn't showing up at monitoring stations as yet but at least one scientific team is alarmed by observed increases. Maybe we'll have a better understanding in a few months when Semiletov's paper comes out summarizing (I hope) the most recent observations in the Arctic.

Elsewhere, the weather has gone batshit insane. Northern Bay Area here and still waiting for some precipitation. We're still in fire season. That's just not right (It is January, right?). The southwest is in dire drought conditions, sharing the designation with Mexico and Argentina. Alaska burns and then experiences record snows. Records. Yeah, we're breaking them. Unfortunately on the high side of the scale.

I don't know about you all, but I'm scared, tempered with anticipation and an acceptance of the challenge issued. The change is coming--coming fast. It permeates my being. I've found a comfort in the change I did not have in the past. Resignation maybe. It's compelled me to effect that which I can control and not dwell in that which I cannot. The thing that worries me the most is not grinding poverty or hunger. It is that we have left our children a world that will not support humanity. We cannot exist without our environment. Adaptive we may be (via culture), but we all need to eat. And we all need a place in which heat exhaustion does not make life impossible. I'm profoundly worried for my daughter. Or maybe Ritter is just drunk again.

All this to say: "Hi! What are you all up to?"

[Amskeptic]

Hi all. It's been a long while. Since September, or thereabouts.
Not much going on around the IAC...

Well, let's see, since September, I have:
*flown across the country
*had a picnic with our new city councilman
*visited double nickle and his amazing engine compartment wiring
*enjoyed dinner with Hambone & Fam
*enjoyed visiting chef satchmo in Claremont CA
*visited a Lanval in Pasadena and drank beer
*took my engine apart at Arctic Circle Adventurer Elwood's house
*took my engine apart in an industrial park in Lake Elsinore CA
*took my engine apart in Dallas TX
*drove to Brooklyn NY, drove back to Atlanta GA
*drove to Brooklyn NY again and abandoned all cars

Everyone is holding their breath.
Do you feel it?

There are personal unknowns as I face the fact that I am currently on a non-viable course. Personally, I am hyperventilating.

I'm scared, tempered with anticipation and an acceptance of the challenge issued. The change is coming--coming fast. It permeates my being.
I've found a comfort in the change I did not have in the past.
Resignation maybe.
It's compelled me to effect that which I can control and not dwell in that which I cannot. The thing that worries me the most is not grinding poverty or hunger. It is that we have left our children a world that will not support humanity. We cannot exist without our environment.

We are facing the greatest unknown of biospheric imbalance in modern history. In our favor, the biosphere is adaptable and tough. Not in our favor, we seem unwilling to practice our own adaptability. Of the trillions upon trillions of deaths of life forms since life began, you get only your one death, I get mine, your daughter gets hers, whether or not we are part of some huge die-off, we have only one.

I'm profoundly worried for my daughter.

Redefine the terms of her engagement with planet Earth, deepen her understanding, exercise her adaptability and her tolerance to discomfort and unknowns, she'll get it.
That means, in a sentence:
You must take her VW camping.
Colin

[Lanval]

Ritter,

I have more to say that I can't get to at this moment, so will add later, but;

While it's true we (people globally) have created some serious circumstances, at no time in history are we as prepared as we are now to deal with the problems we've created. For example: the recent reports of antibiotic resistant TB seem scary, but real reason we're running out of antibiotics isn't that we don't know what to do; it's that producing other drugs is much more profitable, so drug companies don't expend research on AB drugs. Will that change in the face of severe TB infections? Definitely.

No contrast that with the plagues of the medieval and early modern era; can you imagine what it was like to watch 30-50% of the population around you drop dead in a matter of weeks... the world has been on the verge of destruction since its inception.

I'll add too, that the answers to our problems aren't hard. Usually, when someone says "I don't know what to do about X." they usually mean, "I know exactly what to do about X, but it's not in my best interest, it's going to be hard, and it's going to cost me physically, financially, and/or some other form."

So the question is, what're we gonna do about it here (by here, I mean on this board. Let's start here...)?

Best,

Michael L

[Velokid1]

Wow- I love this thread already. Wish I had something to contribute. Wonderful thoughts shared already.

And I... am not drunk. Or stoned.

[BellePlaine]

I'm sure that I read that a ton (most?) of our antibiotics are used in mega animal farms/mills. I know nowadays that our family thinks a lot harder about what we are putting in our bodies. I'll admit that our motivation is not so much because we worry about the animals in over-crowded meat mills but that we have come to believe that "you are what you eat".

Sidenote; my new hobby is growing my own sprouts in Mason jars. And even the kids love them.

[Bleyseng]

I'm sure that I read that a ton (most?) of our antibiotics are used in mega animal farms/mills. I know nowadays that our family thinks a lot harder about what we are putting in our bodies. I'll admit that our motivation is not so much because we worry about the animals in over-crowded meat mills but that we have come to believe that "you are what you eat".

Sidenote; my new hobby is growing my own sprouts in Mason jars. And even the kids love them.

and hormones which is why girls develop so early these days. My pet grip is the damn PET bottles!
The weather in Suriname is wonky too with the rainy season longer, more flooding and the dry season being even Hotter!

[Sylvester]

I'm sure that I read that a ton (most?) of our antibiotics are used in mega animal farms/mills. I know nowadays that our family thinks a lot harder about what we are putting in our bodies. I'll admit that our motivation is not so much because we worry about the animals in over-crowded meat mills but that we have come to believe that "you are what you eat".

Sidenote; my new hobby is growing my own sprouts in Mason jars. And even the kids love them.

We don't buy meats and vegetables in the store anymore, we signed up for a food service that delivers to us. Plus they add no growth hormones, chemicals, preservatives, dyes or colorings to anything they sell. Hard to get that from a grocery chain around here.

[BellePlaine]

=D> =D>

[Ritter]

Cool thoughts, all. Thanks for the cheer and encouragement. All I know is the future is not what we've been told to expect. It will be a lot harder than us soft Americans have surmised based on the promises offered up by the shining screen with made-up faces. I'm kind of looking forward to it but it does scare the shit out of me. It's going to take more than antibiotics and organic food (although, I've made it a mission to never give my daughter anything less than organic dairy to see if we can't postpone the onset of mammaries.... ). Lately, I've taken to woodworking to occupy the mind. It seems one of those occupations that hails from before the days of internal combustion engines and all the chaos that followed. But, mind you, I still use POWER tools, so I'm more of a progressed traditionalist. Or something.

I am happy to finally have some rain in the forecast. All this wintertime dryness has gotten my climate change sensitive nerves all befuddled.

The change is a comin!

[Sylvester]

I still use POWER tools, so I'm more of a progressed traditionalist. Or something.

I am happy to finally have some rain in the forecast. All this wintertime dryness has gotten my climate change sensitive nerves all befuddled.

The change is a comin!

I used to do woodworking, I actually had a paying job doing it. Sure wish I could do that still. May collect the tools now, yet again, and do that in retirement. Wonder if they need a wood-smith in Fort Walton Beach, Florida?

We are getting rain too, boy we needed it. Ain't nothing like a drought in the South.